Send African AI Talent To Indaba

UPDATE (July 24th):

Our dear donors,

We are very grateful to you for your incredible support. The students have prepared a Thank-You video to personally thank you. Please check it out :-)



We would also like to tell you that we are deeply sorry that we have missed the inclusion of the student Mohamed Abdelrahman Fadul Mohamed Salih. Salih, whose letter of admission to Indaba is attached, had missed the announcement of the fundraiser preparation for two reasons: his absence from social media and his being from a more junior graduating class, limiting his interactions with the other upperclassmen students.

Unfortunately, this has just come to the attention of the other students and myself. The goal as well the estimated cost sheet have both been changed as such. We strongly believe that Salih deserves not to be left out of this seminal opportunity. He is featured on the Thank-You video, so keep an eye out for him.

Again, we are really sorry for this oversight. And we hope you continue to support our cause for a better future for Sudan and Deep Learning.


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The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is witnessing a rapid and universal growth for its tremendous potential to transform humans lives. However, the representation of African researchers and engineers is severely lacking. To fill some of this gap, the Deep Learning Indaba workshop invites promising students, engineers, and scholars from across the continent to be mentored by renowned scientists and professionals. The workshop aims to help attendees build and apply state-of-the-art deep learning methods; to forge new connections and partnerships; and to democratize knowledge sharing.

As with other African countries, Sudan suffers from the scarce presence of AI experts who could provide large-scale solutions to problems in agriculture, health, and economy. And when opportunities like Deep Learning Indaba are offered to promising scholars, financial barriers stand in the way. Out of 1500 applicants, Abubker, Ahmed, Amr, Eltayeb, Mohammed, Waleed, Yaser, Soona, Abdullah, Gafaar, and Omar were selected to attend the 2nd proceedings of the workshop in South Africa. Without mentors in the college campus, these 11 Software Engineering undergraduates are working on projects covering breast cancer detection, conversational agents using local languages, smart reactive controllers for traffic lights, and automatic detection of traffic accidents in surveillance videos.  


The fruits of the first event have been evident. Abdullah and Waleed, who are alumni of the first annual meeting of the workshop, held a widely attended independent IndabaX event in Khartoum, Sudan. The event (photo attached) brought local as well as international practitioners to increase the involvement of students and professionals in deep learning. This, in fact, has encouraged more deep learning-oriented projects to take place at the student's home institution of the University of Khartoum.  And the mentors from the first Indaba event were instrumental in the development of these projects given the absence of local experts.


For such leadership initiatives and broader regional impact for AI to launch and succeed, it is imperative that promising talent find the support they need. Unfortunately, their months-long efforts of securing financial support in Sudan to attend the workshop have not been successful due to the economic crisis facing the country. Hence, we have decided to start this fundraiser in the hope of having another chance of attending this pivotal event.


For transparency, the estimated expenses, as well as the acceptance letters, are shown here.

Letters of Acceptance 
Estimated Cost ($550 flight, $230 accommodation, $150 transportation and food)

Deep Learning Indaba Workshop Details:

Location:  Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Timeline: 9 - 14 September 2018
Website:  deeplearningindaba.com