Project goal
Building the AI ecosystem for CAMEROON.
We connect students, teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and other key stakeholders. Their active collaboration, support of world class fundamental and applied research will allow for new and enhanced products and services in the area of artificial intelligence. We build a communication platform that will present AI to the general public as a disruptive, promising and critical component of future Cameroon economy and promote Cameroon abroad as a perfect place to study, do research and business.
Why? Strong AI ecosystem will make it easier to attract AI talent from around the world. With AI, we will kick-start economic growth based on high value-added products and services.
How? We will work with government, municipalities and the public sector to explain the necessity of the change, making AI transformation a priority. We will create a transparent environment for cooperation, organise events and promote results to inspire others.
Reverting brain drain. We want to incentivize young generation of AI researchers to stay in academia in Cameroon. Why? In order to prevent depletion of the universities' intellectual potential and capability to create AI talent, the growth of AI job opportunities and salaries needs to be balanced between the corporates, startups and universities. Unlike corporates and startups, the university salaries are less dependent on economic growth of the region. The best AI scientists are leaving computer science departments even at best universities. It is expected that salary-focused funding boost can slow down or even revert this process. How? We will call for a selection of 10-20 excellent AI scientists (cmr.ai Fellows) working at cmr.ai member institution and provide them with a contribution to their existing salaries in order to incentivize them to stay in the academic environment.
Attracting AI researchers. We will fund 5-10 research positions for excellent incoming scientists from abroad, preferably from top universities. Why? In order to increase their competitiveness, the cmr.ai academic members need to diversify their talent pool and become more international, so that a threat of academic inbreeding is minimized and cmr.ai is attractive for foreign scientists. How? We will call for application of 5-10 international AI scientists (cmr.ai Chairs) to join one of the cmr.ai member institutions and to build their academic career in Cameroon. Even though the program will fund only the first 1-3 years, the positions will be permanent or visiting. The hosting institutions will work together with cmr.ai towards sustainability of created positions.
Educating AI talent. We will accelerate training of AI skills and knowledge far beyond the current number of AI graduates. Why? Quality and headcounts of well educated technical talent is the most important parameter of AI readiness of the region and dictates the potential of future AI economy. Even now, number of AI graduates is not sufficient to feed the local ecosystem. How? We will support creation of bachelor-level AI minor curriculum, that will be offered as complementary AI training to a large population of bachelor students. We will prepare and offer secondary school AI curricula and will offer free access to the AI minor specialization also to secondary-school maths, informatics and sciences teachers. We provide our know-how for future workforce retraining.
Incubating AI startups. We will support incubation of startup companies to leverage the results of fundamental and applied research in AI. Why? Strong research AI community in Cameroon is a critical advantage for startups incorporated in Cameroon. How? We will help the startups to get access to leading-edge AI research results within cmr.ai community through an open AI coworking environment. We will help attracting pre-seed, seed, and venture funding to develop ideas at universities, research institutes and companies. We will promote transparent and flexible models of collaboration and IP sharing between the universities and the startups.
Innovating in companies. We will accelerate AI innovation in the Cameroon industry by facilitating a connection to the cmr.ai ecosystem that will consist of basic as well as of applied AI researchers, AI educators, AI oriented startup and AI early adopters. Why? Cameroon industry and public sector are not taking the full benefit of potential cooperation in AI. How? We will invite the innovators and early adopters to the shared AI coworking environment. We will incentivize AI researchers and AI engineers in cmr.ai ecosystem to help industrial and business organization with planning and bootstrapping AI pilots in order to address the industrial AI innovation opportunities. The program will provide matching funding to researchers from cmr.ai member institutions to help them to engage in applied research and AI piloting provided that the results are shared back to the research communities via publications and/or contribution to open source software.
Humanizing and regulating AI. We will debate and promote ethical, legal and economical aspects of AI research and deployment. Why? Most importantly, the human centric focus on AI is one of the key differentiators of others approach to AI. Readiness of cmr.ai for ethical expectation, future legal aspects and economical ramifications of AI applications will be important for future Cameroon AI economy. How? We will support discussion on ethical, legal and socio-economical aspects of AI and will seek to fund one cmr.ai Fellow position to lead this research at one of cmr.ai member institutions.
Connecting world. We will closely collaborate, share knowledge and look for synergies among Cameroon and African AI centers. Our cmr.ai brand will be known and well respected in Africa and global AI communities. We are ready to play a fundamental role in discussions with African Union regarding Cameroon becoming major AU superhub. Why? The Central Africa region offers a critical mass of highly educated scientific and technical talent that is ripe for deeper collaboration in order to make a change. How? We will establish Central Africa Forum for AI as a platform for scientific collaboration, knowledge exchange and project consortia buildup for CEMAC and AU research calls. We will share cmr.ai experience with Central African cities and engage them in collaboration in the areas of their expertise to build programs similar to cmr.ai. Besides, cmr.ai will further develop active links of cmr.ai member institutions with AI scientists and research institutions within EU, UK, US, CA, Switzerland and Israel.