Celebrating Excellence at Data Science for Social Impact: Fiskani Banda Wins the Alele-Williams Masters Award

We are pleased to announce that Fiskani Banda, a graduate from the Data Science for Social Impact research group at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, has won the Deep Learning Indaba 2024 Alele-Williams Masters Award. This award recognizes outstanding research and writing by masters candidates at African universities in the field of computational and statistical sciences.

Fiskani’s exceptional work aligns with Grace Alele-Williams’ legacy as a pioneer in education and a champion of academic excellence. Her research focused on addressing a critical challenge faced by small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa: the lack of adequate resources. By leveraging the power of large language models, Fiskani developed an innovative approach to create a relevant dataset for South African farmers. Her work demonstrates the potential of AI to drive positive social impact and improve the livelihoods of communities in need.

Fiskani Banda’s Achievements:

• Innovative Research: Fiskani’s Masters in Big Data Science thesis explored the use of large language models to automate data annotation for South African farmers.
• Impactful Application: Her research has the potential to provide valuable insights and support to small-scale farmers, contributing to agricultural development and food security.
• Academic Excellence: Fiskani’s dedication to her studies and her impressive academic record make her a worthy recipient of the Alele-Williams Masters Award.

We are incredibly proud of Fiskani’s accomplishments and her commitment to using data science for social good. Her work serves as an inspiration to aspiring researchers and highlights the importance of leveraging technology to address pressing global challenges.

Congratulations, Fiskani Banda!

Read the full DLI 2024 Announcement.