Grokking in neural networks and the role of regularisation
Day 2 - 15h00 - 16h30
University of Kwazulu-Natal
Transfer Learning-Based Method with Extreme Gradient Boost Classifier for Surface Defect Classification of Hot-Rolled Steel Strips
Day 2 - 10h30 - 12h00
Zindi
Competitive Machine Learning to Improving your CV
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
NLP Solutions for Practical Industry Use Cases
Day 4 - 13h00 - 14h00
DETSlideNet: Dual-Encoder SwinTransformer for Scalable Landslides Detection and Monitoring
University of the Western Cape (UWC)
Artificial Learning: From Federated Learning to Diversity Learning
Day 2 - 15h00 - 16h30
AI Safety
AI Progress: Promise or Peril
Wits Planetary Health Research
Beyond Weather Warnings: Machine Learning Reveals the Hidden Biology of Climate Health Vulnerability
Day 4 - 14h30 - 15h30
MWR CyberSec
Overlooked and Undersecured: Prompt Injection Attacks on LLM Applications
Day 2 - 10h30 - 12h00
University of Johannesburg
From Supply Chains to Smart Solutions: Empowering Non-Technical Students with Blockchain Innovation
Day 2 - 10h30 - 12h00
Takealot
Machine learning at Takealot
Day 3 - 09h00 - 10h00
Stellenbosch University
Symbolic Methods in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Day 3 - 10h30 - 12h00
University of Pretoria
Data Culture Rising: Literacy for the Next Generation
Day 4 - 10h30 - 12h00
IBM Research - Africa
Evolution of NLP Methods, and their Fit-for-purpose
Day 2 - 15h00 - 16h30
AI School Policy: An Urgent Need
Day 4 - 14h30 - 15h30
Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), Stellenbosch University
Beyond the Poster: Practical Presentation Skills for Researchers
Day 1 - 09h00 - 11h00
Stellenbosch University / SharkSafe Barrier Pty / SharkWise Pty / SCAR Trust
Workshop: Building Science Communication Capacity in Africa
Centre for High Performance Computing
Introduction to NICIS: Your Compute (CHPC), Data (DIRISA) and Network (SANReN) Infrastructure Services Partner
Day 4 - 13h00 - 14h00
Sand Technologies
Building a Digital Twin for Telco: Optimizing Customer Satisfaction with Causal ML - Simulating interventions, predicting customer impact, and guiding network decisions at scale
Day 4 - 14h30 - 15h30
University of Cape Town
Improving Text Generation for Low-Resource South African Languages
Day 2 - 15h00 - 16h30
Institute of Mine Seismology
Hackathon / Augmentation and Training Strategies for Improved Phase Arrival Picking in Microseismic Monitoring
Day 2 - 15h00 - 16h30
Division of Health Systems and Public Health, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University
Ground Truth: Blending Clinical Evidence and Unstructured Deep Learning for a Culturally Responsive AI Health Innovation
Day 4 - 14h30 - 15h30
Building out a sustainable and production ready AI software solution
Day 3 - 10h30 - 12h00
InstaDeep
Machine Learning Interatomic Potentials (MLIP)
Day 3 - 10h30 - 12h00
IBM
Skills Build Resources
Day 3 - 13h30 - 14h30
DeepGate
Why AI is Power-Hungry - Lessons from the Brain and How We Can Fix It
Day 3 - 10h30 - 12h00
Stellenbosch University
Workshop: Building Science Communication Capacity in Africa
Day 1 - 09h00 - 11h00
AI Safety
Employment after AGI: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Stellenbosch University
Workshop: Building Science Communication Capacity in Africa
Day 1 - 09h00 - 11h00
IBM Research Africa
The state of AI
Day 3 - 10h30 - 12h00
IBM Research Africa
Quantum Machine Learning 4 Africa
Independent Researcher.
A friendly Introduction to the Mathematical Basics for Machine Learning.
Day 1 - 09h00 - 11h00
Beyond the Poster: Practical Presentation Skills for Researchers
Day 1 - 09h00 - 11h00
Standard Bank
Building AI Agentic Workflows from Scratch: A Hands-On Tutorial on RAG, Text2SQL, & Tools
Opti-Num Solutions
Intelligent Systems Engineering: Bridging AI and Simulation
University of Pretoria
Ethics in the Age of AI: Balancing Privacy, Accuracy, and Access
Day 2 - 13h30 - 14h30
Title: Ethics in the Age of AI: Balancing Privacy, Accuracy, and Access Speaker: Prof. Marlene Holmner, Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria
As Artificial Intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in everyday lifeâshaping decisions, driving innovation, and redefining information systemsâit also brings forth complex ethical dilemmas. This keynote explores the critical ethical dimensions of AI with a specific focus on privacy, accuracy, intellectual property, access, and security in the context of generative AI tools and large language models.
Drawing from real-world examples, pending global lawsuits, and emerging African AI policy frameworks, Prof. Holmner unpacks the dangers of data misuse, algorithmic bias, and information inequality. She highlights how AI systems, while powerful, can replicate societal prejudices, leak sensitive data, and exacerbate digital divides.
Through the lens of ubuntu and African values of fairness and transparency, this talk calls for a responsible, context-sensitive approach to AI development and usage. Attendees will walk away with a deeper understanding of ethical risks, practical recommendations for researchers, and the urgent need for policies that protect both individual rights and collective societal good in the AI era.
National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS), Stellenbosch University
Quantum Foundations: From Qubits to Intelligent Algorithms
Day 4 - 09h00 - 10h00
Stellenbosch University
Fundamentals of ML
Day 2 - 10h30 - 12h00
Tshwane University of Technology
Edge AI for Agriculture: Towards a Cognitive Farming
Day 2 - 09h00 - 10h00
InstaDeep
A friendly introduction to the Mathematical Basics for Machine Learning.
Day 1 - 09h00 - 11h00
University of Kwazulu Natal
Evaluation of Wind Speed Regime Variability and Model Fit Performance Using Multi-Component Weibull Mixture Functions for Energy Potential Estimation
Day 2 - 15h00 - 16h30
University of Johannesburg / Xero
ForecastRL: Neural Time Series Forecasting Integration with Risk-Aware Deep Reinforcement Learning for Financial Trading
Day 3 - 10h30 - 12h00
Stellenbosch University
Multimodal base distributions in conditional flow matching generative models
Day 2 - 10h30 - 12h00
Takealot
Recommender Systems at Takealot.com
Day 3 - 10h30 - 12h00
Pocket Polyglot Mzansi: Machine Translation for Local Languages on the Edge
Day 2 - 15h00 - 16h30
Von Seidels
The Patent Landscape for Inventions relating to Artificial Intelligence
Day 2 - 10h30 - 12h00
NOSIBLE
Indexing the whole web
Day 1 - 13h00 - 14h00
UX designer exploring the implications of AI for human well-being
Forecasting South African consumer price index using statistical learning models
Day 2 - 15h00 - 16h30
University of Pretoria/ AI Safety South Africa
Real-Life AI Incidents as a Testing Tool for AI Safety Policies in South Africa
Stellenbosch University
Workshop: Building Science Communication Capacity in Africa
Day 1 - 09h00 - 11h00
Research ICT Africa
Unconsented: The Gendered Cost of Generative AI in the Digital Age
Day 2 - 10h30 - 12h00