- Nvidia and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) collaborate on the United AI Alliance to offer data science technologies and training to governments and developer communities in 10 nations.
- The initiative will boost the national statistics offices of the participating countries by offering AI technology, data scientist training programs, and ecosystem assistance.
- The company is expanding its support of AI and data science throughout Africa through Nvidia’s Inception startup program and the Emerging Chapters initiative.
To enable more informed policymaking and speed up resource allocation, Nvidia is working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to provide governments and developer communities in ten countries with data science training and technology.
The purpose of the United AI Alliance
Through the provision of AI technology, data scientist training programs, and ecosystem support, the effort will strengthen the national statistical offices of the participating nations—organizations that manage data from population censuses, economic policy, healthcare, and other areas.
The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (the Global Partnership), which fosters data collaborations for the public good, Nvidia, and the UNECA are the driving forces behind the program, known as the United AI Alliance. The Alliance’s initial finance and international distribution partner is Future Tech, a provider of IT solutions with headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and a participant in the Nvidia Partner Network.
Oliver Chinganya, Director of the African Centre for Statistics at UNECA, stated, “Population data is critical information for policy decisions, whether for urban planning, climate action or monitoring the spread of COVID-19. Without a strong digital infrastructure, many of these nations struggled to collect and report data during the pandemic.”
Better public health data can aid nations in monitoring COVID infection rates in real-time, identifying hotspots, and concentrating their response efforts. Beyond the pandemic, improved data infrastructure will enable local specialists to link population numbers to information on agriculture, climatic trends, and economic indicators.
Creating the foundation for long-term improvements
Starting with Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, Future Tech is paying for the purchase, managing distribution, and deployment of Nvidia-Certified Systems and data science workstations powered by RTX and Quadro RTX GPUs. Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, and Togo will come next.
Future Tech founder and CEO Bob Venero went on to say, “Public-sector institutions play a critical role in providing the data used for policymaking at all levels. But often they face huge gaps in infrastructure and expertise required to tap the benefits of the data revolution.”
Nvidia is working with regional universities, research centers, and data science communities to create a pipeline of developers who can glean insights from census data and other data sources. This will help the countries’ data science skills.
Nvidia’s GTC 2022 shows how data science is crucial for future technologies
Keith Strier, VP of AI Nations at Nvidia, said, “This is the first time many of these countries will be digitizing their census efforts, which represents a potential goldmine of data. By connecting these efforts with the local developer ecosystem, we can help more organizations harness this for the benefit of society.”
According to the requirements of each nation’s national statistical agency, Nvidia is developing a curriculum of free Deep Learning Institute courses, starting with the essentials like accelerated computing with CUDA Python and accelerated data science workflows. Additionally, it gives each country access to workshops and teaching resources for data science.
Through the Nvidia Inception startup program and the Nvidia Emerging Chapters initiative, which supports developer communities in emerging markets with training and technical resources, the business is extending its support of AI and data science throughout Africa.
Supporting environmental and social progress through data
The epidemic has expedited the shift to digitization globally. The United AI Alliance assists this shift by collaborating with grassroots organizations at the forefront of AI advancement in Africa. The alliance aims to empower data practitioners worldwide to provide practical responses to regional problems.
Data science conquers the customer journey and sales funnel
The local tech communities on the continent, which include organizations like the Data Science Africa nonprofit or the Kenya-based AI Center of Excellence, are home to many of the continent’s engineers. To support new data analysis projects, United AI Alliance is partnering with several of these developers with governments.
Claire Melamed, CEO of the Global Partnership, said, “Many countries are still excluded from using big data, AI, and digital technologies to improve the quality of information for making decisions. Together we can change that and collaborate to support data-driven progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Although Africa is the project’s primary emphasis, the partners intend to use the same approach throughout Southeast Asia and Latin America as well.
