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Innovation Research Network for AI for Education – EduAI Hub

BeninInnovationNigeria

ABSTRACT

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world and security and economic challenges continue to limit school enrollments. Even when children are in class, they face challenges. Many cannot learn effectively because subjects are taught in French or English rather than in their mother tongue. Teachers are often overworked with administrative tasks that can inhibit effective teaching. Artificial intelligence (AI) has vast potential to address these and other challenges in education systems to improve access to education and the quality of learning across the continent.  

This project will establish a research network for responsible AI for education innovation to advance AI innovations that strengthen teaching, learning and school administrative functions in sub-Saharan Africa. The network will bring together researchers, developers and designers to develop relevant, responsible and scalable AI models and solutions to improve sustainable and inclusive education in Africa. By promoting AI developed on the continent, the project seeks to drive inclusive and sustainable education in Africa.

This project is part of the four-year AI for Development in Africa (AI4D Africa) partnership between the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and IDRC to support policy, innovations and expanded leadership that will spur responsible AI development in Africa. The mission of the program is to improve the quality of life for all in Africa and beyond by partnering with Africa’s science and policy communities to leverage AI through high-quality research, responsible innovation and strengthening talent.   

LOCATION

Nigeria, University of Lagos

FUNDING

CA$ 1,248,100

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

  • Oladipupo Sennaike

SUBPROJECTS

Project 1 — AI assisted resource administering and allocation in Ethiopian Universities to improve Inclusion
Country: 
Ethiopia
Institution: 
Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Principle Investigator:
Prof Surafel Tilahun
Project Summary: 
The purpose of this project is to create an adaptive and customisable tool that will be used to create a conducive learning environment for disabled students in institutions of higher education.
Project 2 — AI4KSL: Bridging Language Barrier using Artificial Intelligence for Kenyan Sign Language among Deaf Learners.
Country: 
Kenya
Institution: 
Maseno University, Kenya
Principle Investigator:
Dr. Lilian Wanzare
Project Summary: 
This project seeks to develop an assistive Artificial Intelligence technology for Kenyan Sign Language (AI4KSL) that translates spoken English to Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) for deaf people with visual representation using virtual signing characters.
Project 3 — Leveraging Machine Translation and Text-to-Speech Technologies for Disseminating Educational content in Native Nigerian languages.
Country: 
Nigeria
Organization: 
YorubaName, Nigeria
Principle Investigator:
Mr. Kolawole Olatubosun
Project Summary: 
The aim of this project is to curate parallel corpora for the three main Nigerian languages (Hausa, Igbo, and Yorùbá) that cover the two core disciplines or domains which are: agricultural science and civic education; with each discipline having 8,000, and in total 16,000 parallel sentences per language.
Project 4 — Development of Responsible AI application for Personalized learning of Primary School Mathematics in major Nigerian languages.
Country: 
Nigeria
Institution: 
Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria
Principle Investigator:
Mr Shamsuddeen Muhammad
Project Summary: 
The aim of this research is to develop a responsible, ethical and locally developed artificial intelligence (AI)-drivensolution to influence and facilitate the processes of teaching and learning non-linguistic subjects in Nigerian primary schools, with mathematics as the case study.
Project 5 — Design and Implementation of Amharic Text-to-Speech System for Visual Impaired and Blind Students.
Country: 
Ethiopia
Institution: 
Debre Markos University, Institute of Technology, Ethiopia
Principle Investigator:
Mr. Walelign Tewabe Sewunetie
Project Summary: 
The objective of this research project is to develop an Amharic TTS system, which is mainly used to address the issue of equity and inclusion of visually impaired and blind students in Ethiopia.
Project 6 — Development of AI-Driven Text2Sign-Sign2Text System for Enabling Inclusive Education of Pupils with Hearing Impairment.
Country: 
Nigeria
Institution: 
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, Nigeria
Principle Investigator:
Dr. Franklin Oladiipo ASAHIAH
Project Summary: 
The goal of this project is to develop a sign-to-text and text-to-sign software system that will enable seamless interactions among the students-hearing and hearing impaired- and their teachers.
Project 7 — Designing and assessing an Artificial Intelligence-enabled e-tutorial platform for gender-inclusive learning in rural South Africa.
Country: 
South Africa
Institution: 
African Institute for Inclusive Growth, South Africa
Principle Investigator:
Prof Nicholas Ngepah
Project Summary: 
The purpose of this project is to leverage on the e-learning concept being developed by the AIIG’s technology partner – Social Coding, to formalise and test its efficacy in improving educational access and performance for rural girls and learners in general in South Africa.

PROJECT ORGANIZATIONS