Social Research 2 Social Change: Breaking barriers in science communication and collaboration in African countries using Artificial Intelligence

DESCRIPTION

Formulating appropriate policy and practical responses to motivate social and behaviour change requires context-specific knowledge. However, Southern knowledge is relatively invisible and difficult to access given the dominance of Northern research in search results. Social Research 2 Social Change seeks to provide a platform for communicating Southern Science.

#SR2SC2021 will bring together academics, researchers, and programme managers across Africa and diverse disciplines, including social sciences, computers sciences, public health and others, to analyse the current research landscape and generate a holistic framework for the potential relevance of artificial intelligence to Southern Science. The workshop will be a mix of activities, including presentations, ideathons and virtual networking sessions, which will foster opportunities for collaboration as well as interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary partnerships.

Participants will first be introduced to artificial intelligence with practical examples in health and social sciences and other fields, given the anticipated diversity of participants. There will also be time for Q&A sessions and virtual networking. At the centre of #SR2SC2021 is an Ideathon – a brainstorming activity where participants will engage in groups to define a clear strategy for breaking barriers in science communication and collaboration in Southern Science using Artificial Intelligence. Participants stand a chance to win prizes for the most promising strategy for breaking barriers in science communication and collaboration in Southern Science based on the number of votes received.

Ultimately, #SR2SC2021 aims to contribute to the development of an international community of Africans to close the north-south research visibility gaps and have a real impact on increasing the visibility of African researchers. The workshop is sponsored by INASP in response to Call for partners: Empowering Southern researchers and evidence professionals through an AI-enabled social learning platform.

ORGANIZATION

Participation is open to academics, researchers, and programme managers from and within Africa. The workshop will be held online. There will be a limited number of financial assistance for participants who may not be able to virtually attend the workshop due to financial constraints. Participants who require support for covering data costs should please indicate on their application and justify the same.

Important Dates

Call for applications: 15 September 2021

Application due: 15 October 2021 extended until 22 October 2021

Notification of acceptance: 30 October 2021

#SR2SC Workshop: 10-11 November 2021 | 12:00-15:00 GMT

Agenda

SPEAKERS

Siki Kigongo

Siki is the Communications Manager at the African Population and Health Research Center where she leads the Visibility Unit. In this role, she oversees the brand positioning of the Center and builds its African research leadership agenda through targeted and strategic communications across multiple platforms for key audiences. She is also tasked with linking research evidence to the public through media engagement, which has led to extensive media coverage through published stories on both new and traditional media channels.

As a seasoned communications professional, she brings her expertise in the areas of brand management, communications strategy development, social media, editorial writing and media outreach. During her career, she has had experience working within the Government at the Uganda Media Center (Office of the President) and New Vision Newspaper; and within the development, sector having worked in organizations such as BRAC, the Norwegian Refugee Council and UNAIDS.

Vissého Adjiwanou

Vissého Adjiwanou is a Professor of Demography and quantitative and computational methods in the Department of Sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and adjunct professor at the Department of Demography (Université de Montréal). He received an M.A in Statistics from the National School of Statistics and Applied Economics (ENSEA-Cote d’Ivoire), an M.A in Economics of Development at the Centre for Studies and Research on International Development (CERDI- France) and a PhD in Demography from the Université de Montréal (Canada).

His research focuses on population issues in sub-Saharan Africa and Canada, including fertility, family dynamics, gender inequality, reproductive health, and integration of immigrants from SSA in Canada. In CSS, he is interested in text analysis and network analysis. He has been the organizer of the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science in Montréal since 2020 (https://sicss.io/2021/montreal/) and previously in Cape Town (2018, 2019).

Francisca Oladipo

Francisca Oladipo is a Professor of Computer Science and Director, Quality Assurance Federal University Lokoja (FUL) in Nigeria. She also doubles as the institution’s Chair of Computer Science. She obtained her PhD in Computer Science in 2010 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the TOTAL/MIT ETT Project. Prof. Oladipo serves as the Chief Technical Advisor (Kogi) on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and, Facilitator, Africa Centre of Excellence in Technology and Learning (ACETEL), National Open University of Nigeria. She was a member of the University Governing Council and the first female elected to the Council. She has also served as the pioneer Director of Research, Innovations, and international relations at Kampala International University (KIU), Uganda.

Prof. Francisca has won many grants and co-authored several award-winning proposals for donor-founded projects, including the Philip’s Foundation Grants, Google Rapid COVID-19 Grant, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs Orange Knowledge Program, Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship, Dutch Development Bank Grant for capacity Strengthening in Africa, etc. She is also a two-time recipient of the PyCon USA Grant, the ACM FAT Fellowship in 2019 and 2020, and the 2019 Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship of the ICML.

Faith-Michael Uzoka

Faith-Michael Uzoka is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computing at Mount Royal University (MRU), Calgary, Canada. He has over 30 years of university teaching and research experience in four countries. Michael is an accomplished researcher with over 100 academic publications that have made international impacts in various aspects of human endeavour, especially in medical decision support systems. He has worked with research collaborators to develop award-winning innovations (e.g., smart pill dispenser). He served as a Canadian Commonwealth Scholar, Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow (MUST, Uganda and UniUyo), and Research Development Officer (MRU). He actively engages undergraduate and graduate students in his research, both as research collaborators and research assistants. He is passionate about equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and places a high premium on the value of EDI in research and scholarship. He serves on the President Advisory Committee on EDI at MRU and is the Chair of the FST EDI Committee. Apart from academics, Michael is a successful entrepreneur in the fields of education and information technology. He is President/CEO of Cambrooks College, Calgary and Novena Educational Consult, Calgary, and Novena Systems and Technologies, Calgary.

PARTICIPANTS

Dr Sakinat Folorunso (Nigeria), Dr Tosin Akintunde (Nigeria), Dr Amos Olugbenga Oyedokun (Nigeria), Dr Frank Kyei-Arthur (Ghana), Dr Peter Mba (Gambia), Dr Ifeoma Felicia Chukwuma (Nigeria), Dr Ronald Musizvingoza (Malaysia), Mr Paulino Ariho (Uganda), Mr Sunday Abatan (Nigeria), Ms Onyinyechi Ossai (Nigeria), Ms Eberechukwu Eze (Nigeria), Ms Mary Kalerwa (Kenya), Mr Tuntufye MWANYONGO (Malawi), Ms Miriam Wandia (Kenya), Ms Nelly Ruth Nkhoma (Zambia), Mr Lucky Daniel (South Africa), Ms Elizabeth Nyirenda (Zambia)