The African Studies Center (ASC) recently finalized a partnership with the Michigan Institute for Data & AI in Society (MIDAS) to fund seven postdoctoral researchers from Africa who apply AI methodology to address significant research questions in science and engineering. For a two-year fellowship period, the program aims to enable the substantive use of AI for breakthroughs in science and engineering and cultivate global science leaders. Specifically, the program seeks to catalyze creative and transformative applications of AI, enable a broader U-M research community to adopt AI, provide outstanding training to program fellows, and collaborate with other Schmidt Sciences’ sites to maximize the impact of the program.
This partnership extends ASC’s University of Michigan African Presidential Scholars (UMAPS) program by earmarking funding for African researchers working towards significant advances in the application of AI in science domains.
The UMAPS program, established in 2009 by then-U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, stands at the core of U-M’s engagement with Africa. Through this program, ASC has hosted 162 faculty from universities in more than ten African countries for research residencies on the U-M campus.
ASC Director Omolade Adunbi says of the partnership: “ASC is delighted to be collaborating with MIDAS in strengthening Michigan's relationship with Africa and African universities. AI and data science research are making giant strides in Africa, and this postdoctoral fellowship furthers our commitment to collaborating with African scientists who are working at the intersection of AI and data science.”
To read more about the program, visit the MIDAS page here: https://midas.umich.edu/training/postdocs/african-faculty-fellows/
