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SUMMARY:IBM research in Africa : an overview of the projects helping to bu
 ild Africa's future and career opportunities for mathematicians - Dr. Kama
 l Bhattacharya\, Dr. Osamuyimen Stewart and Dr. Meena Pore
DTSTART:20151020T160000Z
DTEND:20151020T170000Z
UID:TALK61962@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:John Shimmon
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Abstract:  Africa is poised to become a leading sour
 ce of innovation in a variety of sectors\, with an expected growth rate of
  7% annually over the next 20 years. IBM recognizes the huge potential imp
 act of research and smarter systems in helping to build Africa’s future\
 , hence the lab is focused on technology applications in a range of indust
 ries at the core of Africa’s growth. Employing some of the best scientis
 ts from around the world and is partnering with universities around the wo
 rld to develop and hire top talent.   There are career opportunities for M
 asters\, PhDs and Post Docs.  Dr Kamal Bhattacharya (Director\, IBM Resear
 ch – Africa) and Dr Osamuyimen Stewart (Chief Scientist\, IBM Research 
 – Africa) will give an introduction to IBM Research – Africa\, and an 
 overview of teams and projects at the Nairobi and Johannesburg.  The resea
 rch areas include:\n\nActive Learning\, : Acquiring high-quality labelled 
 data in resource-constrained settings is difficult.  Active Learning can b
 e used to drastically reduce the cost of gaining insights from noisy backg
 round data.  For example\, which household should be targeted in a healthc
 are survey based on the roof top composition of the dwelling estimated fro
 m satellite imagery?\n\n \n\nTransfer Learning: Africa is an incredibly di
 verse continent and even the most successful innovation in one country may
  have very low performance in other regions.  Transfer learning provides s
 ystematic approaches that allow researchers to re-use informative data str
 eams for adaptation to a new task\, new demographic\, or both.  For exampl
 e\, based on a supervised classification model\, we predict that a particu
 lar cell phone user in Kenya will be able to repay a micro-loan - will thi
 s model work in Nigeria as well?\n\nObject recognition: Given the prolifer
 ation of affordable imaging technologies\, from drone aerial imaging to ph
 one cameras\, how can such technologies be used to lower the cost and impr
 ove the quality of evidence-based policy?  For example\, given the incredi
 ble rate of growth of Africa’s cities\, how can city planners use drone 
 imagery to better understand changes in population density and socioeconom
 ic status of communities\, and hence forecast the demand for various publi
 c services?\n\nDistributed Computing: Mobile phones are the already-presen
 t incarnation of IoT in Africa.  Harnessing this data requires new approac
 hes that can handle society-scale data.  IBM is globally investing in Apac
 he® Spark™ to create advances in large scale data processing. \n
LOCATION:MR4\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
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