Data science for health in africa workshop Deep learning Indaba 2023
Deep Learning Indaba, Accra, Ghana | 3-9 September 2023
Join us in celebrating machine learning (ML) research for health from researchers in Africa and connect with researchers working on problems related to health in Africa.
We provide a space for open dialogue about the state and potential of ML in Digital Health across Biomedical Informatics / Health Informatics, Bioinformatics, and Mobile Health. We are helping to identify issues for Africa in the Digital Health space that impact using machine learning as well as spotlighting success stories that provide significant insights.
The SisonkeBiotik community aims to be an incubator for developing capacities for machine learning and digital health in Africa through open and participatory community action.
There's going to be a workshop for a single day with in-person participants. The workshop is going to last for 5 hours and will be divided into three sections.
📣 Calling all graduate students, experts, researchers, and passionate individuals! 🎤✨ We are delighted to invite you to be a part of our upcoming workshops as a speaker! [https://bit.ly/SisonkeBiotikCall4WorkshopSpeakers]
🫶 Help us crowdfund 🫶
Please consider donating toward the workshop
[https://bit.ly/SisonkeBiotik-crowdfunding]
Schedule for Data Science for Health in Africa Workshop
Friday, 8 September 2023 11:00 - 18:30
session 1
ℹ️ 11:00 AM Workshop intro
🗝️ 11:10 AM Dr. Sekou L. Remy (1st Keynote)
🪧 11:55 AM Spotlight talks x2 (15mins each)
🍽️ 12:30 PM Lunch Break
SESSION 2
🗝️ 14:00 PM Prof. Elaine O. Nsoesie (2nd Keynote)
🪧 14:45 PM Panel discussion (30mins)
Theme: Responsible and practical deployment of ML models for health in Africa.
Dr. Chris Fourie (Moderator)
🗝️ 15:15 PM Dr. Shekoofeh Azizi (3rd Keynote)
🏖️ 16:00 PM Break (30mins)
SESSION 3
⚡ 16:30 PM DS-I Africa Africa Panel – Harnessing Data Science to Address Health Challenges in Africa
16:30 PM – Introduction to the Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa) – Dr. Michelle Skelton
16:45 PM – DS-I Africa’s Approach to Training – Dr. Laura Povlich
Research Presentations
16:55 PM – Statistical and Machine Learning Models for Cancer Genomics Data with Applications – Dr. Mohanad Mohammed
17:05 PM – Linear optimization modelling for sustainable diets among Ghanaian migrants – Gabriel Kallah-Degadu
17:15 PM – Addressing data challenges for multimorbidity- and climate change-related health research in Africa – Dr. Sekou L. Remy
17:25 PM - Moderated Discussion and Q&A with Audience – Francis E. Agamah
👥 17:50 PM DS4Health Ideathon Intro – Part of Unconference
🌇 18:00 PM Closing Remarks
👥 18:05 PM Unconference (40mins during free time)
Fine tuning LLMs for health – Dr. Mike Schaekermann & Dr. Shekoofeh Azizi
Advice on Grant Funding NIH – Dr. Laura Povlich
Practical Experiences with Accessing Compute for Science – Dr. Sekou L. Remy
Synthetic Data – Francis E. Agamah
Ideathon
End of Workshop
💻 Workshop social (n/a) – after hours, the same day as the workshop
ds4health ideathon intro
The Ideathon aims to bring together diverse people, ensuring a gender balanced composition with groups comprising individuals from different countries. This program will allow participants to present innovative ideas that leverage AI for improving health in Africa. The ideathon is extended to both participants and non-participants of DLI.
20 Minutes Workshop Program:
Introduction to the ideathon (summary and rules) 10mins
Word of advice from past winners (Vivian Olutola: Team HealthStack) 5mins
Teams team up and register online (form to be created) 5mins
Team formation would begin right after the introduction. Each team would comprise 3 - 5 individuals (gender balanced).
Duration: The ideathon would continue virtually over 7 weeks.
Week 1 & 2: Initiation and group formation, registration.
Week 3: Qualifying Phase - All participating teams will be required to submit a 2 - 5 mins video about their idea (Guidelines and Templates will be provided)
Week 4: Selection Phase - Teams with the most promising ideas qualify for the next round.
Week 5 & 6: Implementation Phase - Selected teams work on implementing their projects.
Week 7: Final presentation of project implementation and the awarding of prizes to the top 3 projects.
Guidance and Support: Dedicated mentors will be provided to offer assistance and guidance throughout the entire project implementation phase.
Rewards: The best 3 projects selected by the jury will be awarded.
Jury: Dr. Michelle Skelton
TBA
TBA
Stay updated: As new development comes to light, you will be updated right here.
Keynote speakers
DR. SEKOU L. REMY
Research/Expertise Area: Healthcare, Robotics, Simulation, Networked, Systems Training
Company Profile: IBM Research – Africa
Position: Staff Research Scientist
PROF. ELAINE O. NSOESIE
Research/Expertise Area: Health equity, machine learning, artificial intelligence, disease surveillance, global health
Company Profile: Boston University
Position: Associate Professor of Public Health
DR. SHEKOOFEH AZIZI
Research/Expertise Area: Medical Imaging, Large Language Models, Foundation Models, Computer Vision
Company Profile: Google DeepMind
Position: Senior Research Scientist
Panelists
PROF. FRANCISCA OLADIPO
Research/Expertise Area: Artificial Intelligence, FAIR Data Science, Controlled Vocabularies, No-Code Machine Learning, IT Project Design and Management, Product Development
Company Profile: Thomas Adewumi University
Position: Vice-Chancellor
DR. DEOGRATIAS MZURIKWAO
Research/Expertise Area: Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Explainable Artificial Intelligence
Position: AI Sector Lead
Company Profile: Villgro Africa
DR. TOBI OLATUNJI
Research/Expertise: Natural Language Processing, Automatic Speech Recognition
Company: Intron Health
Position: Founder
DR. MERCY NYAMEWAA ASIEDU
Research/Expertise Areas: Machine Learning for health equity, digital health, responsible AI
Company Profile: Google Research
Position: Research Scientist
DR. CHRIS FOURIE
Research/Expertise Area: Health Data Scientist, Medical Doctor, Research Engineer, Software Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, Independent Researcher
Moderator*
ds-i africa panel
DR. MICHELLE SKELTON
Research/Expertise Area: Genomics
Company Profile: University of Cape Town/DS-I Africa/H3Africa
Position: PI - DS-I Africa/H3Africa Coordinating Centre
Talk/Tutorial: DS-I Africa Consortium - An Overview
DR. MOHANAD MOHAMMED
Research/Expertise Area: Statistical analysis, data scientist, cancer disease modelling, gene expression data analysis
Company Profile: University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa
Position: WASHU Takwimu Postdoctoral Fellow
GABRIEL KALLAH-DEGADU
Research/Expertise Area: Data Science
Company Profile: University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa & University of Ghana
Position: Postdoctoral Fellow
DR. SEKOU L. REMY
Research/Expertise Area: Healthcare, Robotics, Simulation, Networked, Systems Training
Company Profile: IBM Research – Africa
Position: Staff Research Scientist
DR. LAURA POVLICH
Research/Expertise Area: Biosensors, synthetic chemistry, global health technology
Company Profile: Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health
Position: Program Director
FRANCIS E. AGAMAH
Research/Expertise Area: Bionformatics, computational biology, multi-omics, systems biology
Company Profile: DS-I Africa
Position: Project Coordinator
Unconference/Tutorials
An unconference is a participant-driven meeting where topics for discussion are chosen by participants. For semi-unconference, topics for discussion are chosen ahead of the event to provide more time for discussion. Suggest topics to discuss as part of registering for the workshop
DR. MIKE SCHAEKERMANN
Research/Expertise Area: Human-Computer Interaction, Health, AI
Company Profile: Google
Position: Research Scientist
DR. LAURA POVLICH
Research/Expertise Area: Biosensors, synthetic chemistry, global health technology
Company Profile: Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health
Position: Program Director
DR. SHEKOOFEH AZIZI
Research/Expertise Area: Medical Imaging, Large Language Models, Foundation Models, Computer Vision
Company Profile: Google DeepMind
Position: Senior Research Scientist
DR. SEKOU L. REMY
Research/Expertise Area: Healthcare, Robotics, Simulation, Networked, Systems Training
Company Profile: IBM Research – Africa
Position: Staff Research Scientist
FRANCIS E. AGAMAH
Research/Expertise Area: Bionformatics, computational biology, multi-omics, systems biology
Company Profile: DS-I Africa
Position: Project Coordinator
DAPHNE MACHANGARA
Research/Expertise Areas: Main interests in healthcare and background in operations research and statistics.
COMFORT ADESINA
Research/Expertise Areas: Biology, Bio-science, Data Science for Healthcare
Organizing Team
DR. CHRIS FOURIE
Research/Expertise Area: Health Data Scientist, Medical Doctor, Research Engineer, Software Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, Independent Researcher
DR. MERCY NYAMEWAA ASIEDU
Research/Expertise Areas: Machine Learning for health equity, digital health, responsible AI
Company Profile: Google Research
Position: Research Scientist
DR. SAKINAT FOLORUNSO
Research/Expertise Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Information Retrieval, Music Information Retrieval
Company Profile: Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria
Position: Senior Lecturer (Academic)
DITIRO WILSON RAMAPTE
Research/Expertise Area: AI for Social Impact
Company Profile: OmdenaAI
Position: ML engineer and Botswana Chapter Lead
HOUCEMEDDINE TURKI
Research/Expertise Areas: Biomedical Data Science, Semantic Technologies, Library and Information Sciences, Open Science
Company profile: Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit, University of Sfax, Tunisia
Position: Research Assistant, Medical Student
DAPHNE MACHANGARA
Research/Expertise Areas: Main interests in healthcare and background in operations research and statistics.
CHUKWUMA JONATHAN
Research/Expertise Area: Machine Learning Methods for Large Scale Parallel Applications
Company Profile: Nigerian Defence Academy Postgraduate School
Position: MEng student of Electronics and Communications Engineering
ABRAHAM OWODUNNI
Research/Expertise Area: Machine Learning and Deep Learning
FAITH HUNJA
Research/Expertise Areas: Machine Learning for Health, NLP
Company Profile: Geviton, Omdena, Datakind
Position: Embedded systems engineer, Junior ML engineer, Volunteer ML engineer
MICHELLE SKELTON
Research/Expertise Area: Genomics
Company Profile: University of Cape Town/DS-I Africa/H3Africa
Position: PI - DS-I Africa/H3Africa Coordinating Centre
Talk/Tutorial: DS-I Africa Consortium - An Overview
DR. AMIT MISTRY
Research/Expertise Area: Global Health
Company Profile: U.S. National Institutes of Health
Position: Senior Scientist
DR. LAURA POVLICH
Research/Expertise Area: Biosensors, synthetic chemistry, global health technology
Company Profile: Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health
Position: Program Director
CATHERINE NAMAYEGA
Research/Expertise Areas: Medical Image Analysis using Machine Learning
Company Profile: University of Cape Town
Position: PhD Student in Biomedical Engineering
MTESHANE PORTIA MBALI
Research/Expertise Areas: Research in Electronics and Machine learning
Company Profile: Omron Industrial Automation
Position: Training
SEAN THAWE
Research/Expertise: Python, Machine Learning, Linux, Data Science Enthusiast, Graphic Design, Environmental Management
COMFORT ADESINA
Research/Expertise Areas: Biology, Bio-science, Data Science for Healthcare
Bonaventure F. P. Dossou
Research/Expertise Areas: Machine Learning for Healthcare, Medical Imaging, NLP Low-resourced languages
Company Profile: McGill University, Lelapa AI
Position: PhD Student, Research Scientist
Sponsors
Top Sponsor
Contact sisonkebiotik@gmail.com to help provide support
Partners
