DeepMind is partnering with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) to launch a new “AI for Science” pan-African Masters programme.

The programme will give talented students from across the region a chance to pursue advanced studies at AIMS South Africa, and connect with DeepMind’s researchers and engineers for mentoring and support.

Both organisations hope that this programme will help accelerate scientific discovery with AI across the region and contribute to a more diverse global AI ecosystem.

DeepMind will donate up to $4.5M to cover full scholarships, equipment and computational resources for 40 students per academic year, with an aim of reaching up to 160 students by the end of the initial four-year period. DeepMind employees will also provide career and dissertation mentoring to students.

The curriculum, which will initially run from August 2023 to July 2027, will look at how we can use AI to better understand the world around us and accelerate progress on some of today’s most fundamental and fascinating scientific challenges.

It will be developed by AIMS and DeepMind, with input from four world-leading local scientific groups:

• Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) and its South African partner, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope;
• Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), a leading epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response institute;
• South African Centre forEpidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA), a Department of Science and Innovation – National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence  with a mission to improve health in Africa through epidemiological modelling and analysis. 

Ulrich Paquet, Research Scientist at DeepMind, has been appointed as Executive Director at AIMS South Africa and will lead the programme until 2027. He will continue to hold a dual affiliation with DeepMind.

“We are thrilled to partner with AIMS to give talented students from across Africa a chance to follow their passion,” said Obum Ekeke OBE, Head of Education Partnerships at DeepMind. “Africa has the youngest population in the world and as such holds incredible potential to contribute to the field of AI – yet, the region is significantly underrepresented in AI research today. Fixing this not only is the right thing to do – it is critical if AI is going to be a technology that benefits everyone. We hope this programme not only serves to build a more diverse and inclusive global AI ecosystem, but also enables new breakthroughs in science that will benefit the African region directly.”

“We launched AIMS two decades ago, with many friends across Africa. Our goal was to enable Africa’s brightest students to enter science at the highest level. The success of our 2500 alumni, from 45 African countries, demonstrates that Africa will be a major source of scientific and technical talent in the future. As well as tackling societal challenges like climate change, AIMS graduates are powering leading edge scientific projects in Africa such as the Square Kilometre Array and the African Light Source. AIMS is thrilled to be working with DeepMind to bring young Africans into AI,“ said Neil Turok, Founder of AIMS and a world-leading theoretical physicist.

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“A lot of groundbreaking science is happening in Africa today, particularly in the fields of epidemiology and cosmology. AI is a tool that’s empowering scientists, accelerating new areas of research in these fields and unlocking solutions to humanity’s biggest challenges. We hope that through our partnership, we can inspire local students to get involved in this pioneering work and contribute to the scientific discoveries that are yet to come. I am humbled by the opportunity to support this new generation of AI scientists and engineers, and look forward to seeing first-hand the impact they will have in this space,” said Ulrich Paquet, Research Scientist at DeepMind and lead of the programme.

DeepMind’s mission is to solve intelligence to advance science and benefit humanity. AI will impact all of society and needs to be shaped by a diversity of perspectives, which is why DeepMind introduced its global scholarships and community outreach programmes to broaden participation in the field.

The new partnership with AIMS builds on the company’s existing commitments in Africa, including DeepMind Scholarships at the University of the Witwatersrand and Makerere and Stellenbosch Universities, and the Deep Learning Indaba, an annual meeting of the African machine learning community designed to strengthen African machine learning and co-founded by DeepMind employees in 2017.

This is because every second counts in medical emergencies. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, after just five minutes without oxygen, brain cells start to die, and every minute thereafter 10% more die, with complete brain death occurring within 14 minutes.

Stroke victims lose the use of two million brain cells every two minutes, and arterial bleeds can result in death in mere minutes.

Warren Myers, CEO of AURA, South Africa’s on-demand security and medical response platform, says that the current response landscape is falling far short of delivering a vital service that all South Africans deserve.

The Gauteng Department of Health reports that the current average response time for an ambulance in Gauteng ranges from 30 to 60 minutes, well short of the international standard of seven minutes for life-threatening calls.

To make matters worse, there are a few numbers a person can call in a medical emergency in South Africa, complicating the process for the person who is already under pressure to help someone and help them fast.

You can call 10111 or 10177, 112 from any cell phone, and some private health insurance providers have their own medical emergency numbers.

Modern tech can save us

Myers says that current technology has huge potential to improve emergency response times for all and streamline the process of getting help. “With the introduction of smart technology into the emergency response sector, the outdated practice of phoning an ambulance, explaining the nature of the emergency as well as your exact location, and then waiting for the agent to dispatch a vehicle, can be simplified to a single touch of a panic button.

The AURA platform does all the hard work for you – pinpointing your location and, using a connected device installed in the response vehicles, ensuring that the closest vetted private ambulance is dispatched to you, saving precious time. Think of it like Uber for ambulances,” explains Myers.

However, good medical outcomes don’t just depend on how fast a patient is attended to, but also on the quality of care received once reached. Doctors refer to the period of time immediately after a traumatic injury as ‘the golden hour’, when prompt medical and surgical treatment is most likely to prevent death. “A person’s chances of survival are greatest if they receive high quality care within a short period of time after a severe injury,” shares Bernadette Breton from Alliance International Medical Services (AIMS).

But what if you don’t have medical aid? The good news is that if you are signed up with an AURA network partner, the cost of a private ambulance is covered by the fee you pay through the partner.

Those without medical aid can be taken to a state hospital for further care but can at least rest assured that they had prompt care, from trained personnel, using state-of-the-art equipment in those crucial moments after a traumatic incident.

How to access an on-demand emergency response application

“We believe that instant emergency response driven by smart technology like that of applications, and the large network of emergency response providers it connects to can help to eradicate the current inefficiencies in the emergency response system and positively improve the lives of countless patients,” says Myers. So, in your panicked state, instead of googling the nearest ambulance service, searching your phone for a number or trying to find that emergency pamphlet you stuck on your fridge, you could have a simple panic button on your phone to do all that work for you.