AIMS and IVADO Renew Partnership to Advance STEM in Africa

Montréal, April 13th, 2022 – The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO), with the financial support of Canada First Research Excellence Fund, recently renewed a two-year, CAD $200,000 partnership to host supervised research internships for AIMS masters students at its world class Montreal-based research universities.

This innovative partnership will award 16 scholarships to AIMS master’s students, who will carry out supervised research activities at Université de Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal and HEC Montréal.

This new cohort of 16 AIMS students will spend four months in Montreal starting in July 2022. This collaborative initiative builds upon the successes of the first AIMS-IVADO fellowship program launched in 2019.

Resilience in a time of pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of in-person academic training and international academic mobility, the fellowship program was put on hold. Nonetheless, the senior management at AIMS and IVADO continued discussions throughout the lockdown in anticipation of resuming research activities once safe to do so. The resolve to advance Africa’s most promising data science researchers illustrates the institutional resilience to continue joint efforts despite the disruption of academic activities.

News from 2019 AIMS-IVADO fellows

The inaugural cohort from 2019 has since moved on and are currently making their mark in the field of data science as well as pursuing doctoral studies. Additional information on the outcomes of the first round of AIMS-IVADO fellowships can be found in this article.

“We are very pleased to maintain our precious collaboration with AIMS to promote African talents in AI and thereby contribute to make the field more diverse and inclusive”, declared Dr Yoshua Bengio, Scientific Director at IVADO and Full Professor at Université de Montréal.

“Africa needs to consolidate ongoing efforts to improve its contribution to global research and development. I believe it has become a priority to build capacity and create a critical mass of data scientists and AI engineers equipped with the required skills to tackle key development challenges. The partnership with IVADO is a great opportunity for AIMS to diversify and increase its work-integrated learning programs that benefit more AIMS graduates. AIMS is pleased to join forces with global institutions like IVADO to build capacity of the next generation of data science and AI researchers”, added Dr Charles Lebon Mberi Kimpolo, Director of the AIMS Industry Initiative & Head of the Next Einstein Forum.

The AIMS-IVADO fellowship program will provide students with the opportunity to unlock creativity, customize innovation to the dynamics and realities of African society, as well as foster life-long networks. AIMS and IVADO look forward to welcoming the new cohort and we wish them much success during their research internships!

ABOUT AIMS

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a Pan-African network of Centers of Excellence for post-graduate training, research and public engagement in mathematical sciences. Founded in 2003 in South Africa and later replicated in Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, and Rwanda under the framework of the Next Einstein Initiative, AIMS is supplying the STEM pipeline by training African students for a Master’s in Mathematical Sciences, including a co-operative option with a direct link to industry. Students admitted at AIMS benefit from full scholarships and close interaction with tutors and professors from around the world. The faculty is made up of volunteer professors from the best universities in the world, including Nobel Prize and Fields Medal laureates. For more information, visit: www.nexteinstein.org.

ABOUT IVADO

IVADO is the fruit of an initiative of HEC Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal and Université de Montréal. With the support of its ecosystem linking the academic, industrial and institutional sectors, IVADO develops leading-edge expertise in the various fields of digital intelligence (including data science, artificial intelligence and operations research) and helps transform novel scientific discoveries into concrete applications, economic opportunities and benefits for society. For more information, visit: www.ivado.ca

CONTACTS

IVADO
Camille Barrier
Communications Advisor – Scientific Programs
camille.barrier@ivado.ca

AIMS Canada
Dr. Peter Szyszlo
Senior Program Coordinator
pszyszlo@nexteinstein.org