ACEIoT won grant to establish a Multidisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Lab

The African Centre of Excellence in Internet of Things (ACEIoT) has won a grant worth 540,000 USD from the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to establish the Transformative Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation Lab (TAIRI Lab) from January 2025.

The TAIRI Lab is being established at the College of Science and Technology, African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things (ACEIoT), in collaboration with experts in AI, agriculture, health, urban planning and the environment from various colleges and public institutions across Rwanda and beyond. The TAIRI Lab is part of the Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) program, which seeks to foster safe, inclusive, and responsible AI ecosystems that empower individuals and accelerate progress on international development challenges.

The implementation of the project involves different stakeholders in Rwanda such as Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU), Rwanda Information System Authority (RISA), Kigali City, Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), ICT Chamber, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) and abroad such as RAIL Lab in Ghana and other AI labs in the AI4D network in Africa and beyond. The lab’s main objective is to explore the multidisciplinary transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in addressing key sustainable development challenges in Rwanda.

The lab's goal is to build the capacity of Aartificial Intelligent’s experts and practitioners to develop and implement responsible AI solutions tailored to local needs, including AI-powered healthcare tools, climate-resilient agricultural planning models, and air pollution forecasting systems. This will be achieved by Improving the understanding of responsible and inclusive AI practices for multidisciplinary innovation in Rwanda, enhancing capacity building, strengthening inter-laboratory collaboration and shaping AI policy and practice. The project will fund five master and five PhD students to conduct research on key AI-related topics.

Mr. Antony Herrmann, Team Leader, Technology and Innovation Unit , Research and Evidence Directorate Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office together with Mr Thomas Monks from British Embassy in Kigali visited the ACEIoT on 2nd April and interacted with the Project team and students. Herrmann, Team Leader, Technology and Innovation Unit , Research and Evidence Directorate Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Prof. Damien Hanyurwimfura, the Project Investigator Introduced the project objectives and outlined expected outcomes. He stated that the lab will be fully equipped with AI tools to enable researchers to achieve their objectives in order to contribute to the country's development and address key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in health, food security, climate action, and sustainable urbanization. During this session, selected fund recipients discussed with funder representatives the best strategies for ensuring the project's success Five Msc and five PhD students under TAIRI Lab project Funders, supervisors and students in a group photo

← Back to News