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Second edition of Next Einstein Forum Africa Science Week begins in 35 countries
KIGALI, Rwanda, 10 September 2018 – The Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in partnership with Robert Bosch Stiftung, today announced the beginning of NEF Africa Science Week in 35 African countries throughout the months of September, October and December 2018. NEF Africa Science Week are led [...]
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Cities must lead the clean energy drive, says report
Did you know, that poor households in cities spend 14-22% of their income on energy? As urban growth intensifies energy use, cities must lead with efficient fuels and renewables. Cities can implement practical solutions to meet the need of the urban under-served through development models that slow carbon emissions & shift to cleaner cooking fuels [...]
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Cities must lead the clean energy drive, says report
May 17, 2019 | Blog
Did you know, that poor households in cities spend 14-22% of their income on energy? As urban growth intensifies energy use, cities must lead with efficient fuels and renewables. Cities can implement practical solutions to meet the need of the urban under-served through development models that slow carbon emissions & shift to cleaner cooking fuels [...]
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Scientists have created a silicon beating heart
May 7, 2019 | Blog
Researchers have created an artificial, silicone heart to help combat the shortage of donor hearts. The silicone heart has been developed by Nicholas Cohrs, a doctoral student in the group led by Wendelin Stark, Professor of Functional Materials Engineering at ETH Zurich. It looks like a real heart. And this is the goal of the first [...]
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Young African Robotics Designers Sparking at Pan African Robotic competition in Senegal (PARC 2018)
May 6, 2019 | Blog
Technology is taking part everywhere in this modern era of time, specially to face the challenges that require a sustainable development and help less fortune communities to have the privilege of standard living conditions. Africa by its high potential and promising future should be in the front line for implementing the technology that help local [...]
Black Holes, Africa and the Future of Astrophysics
| Blog
In a major scientific breakthrough, astronomers on 10 April 2019 unveiled the globally anticipated image, which reveals a halo of hot gas and plasma around the event horizon of a black hole. This discovery confirms, yet again, the predictions from Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and includes the contributions of scientists from Africa. The involvement [...]
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Africa Must Produce Technology
April 30, 2019 | Blog
Maths and science key to future, writes Neil Turok. Angelina Lutambi was born into a peasant family in Tanzania’s Dodoma region, where HIV and Aids has decimated much of the population. Her future could easily have been bleak – but Lutambi had a keen aptitude for maths. Today she is a senior research scientist at [...]
African Higher Education Summit in Dakar, Senegal
March 10, 2019 | Blog
Live Event: The African Higher Education Summit Dakar, Senegal Join global policy makers, entrepreneurs, academics and international development partners as they develop a common vision geared towards transforming Africa’s higher education system. Dr. Khumbah: “Technical mastery differentiates the developed world from the underdeveloped.” Dr. Green: “Africa has no time to waste. We need to look at initiatives [...]
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At Davos 2019, NEF Experts Examine How to Accelerate Innovation in Africa
March 1, 2019 | Blog, Multimedia
By building a home-grown scientific and technology capacity, added to a pan-African ecosystem of knowledge and innovation, Africa can get past most of the stumbling blocks hindering its development, said experts from the Next Einstein Forum at Davos 2019. The experts took part in ‘Conversations in coLaboratory’, a space for world leaders to engage in [...]
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I have no doubt the next great scientific minds will be from Africa
February 5, 2019 | Blog
Low levels of investment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education have the potential to gravely affect Africa’s growth, impeding the competitiveness of many of its nations on a global scale. It is time for a wake-up call. There are signs the continent is thriving economically. But is it sustainable without a workforce that will build [...]
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The Next Einstein Forum publishes first issue multidisciplinary journal Scientific African and accompanying Scientific African Magazine
December 20, 2018 | Blog, News
Kigali, Rwanda – 20 December 2018 The Next Einstein Forum (NEF) – Africa’s global forum for science in Africa – is pleased to announce the launch of the first issue of Scientific African, and its sister publication Scientific African Magazine. Published quarterly, Scientific African is a peer-reviewed, open access, inter- and multidisciplinary scientific journal that is dedicated to [...]
The Next Einstein Forum launches search for Africa’s top scientific talent for prestigious Fellows Class
November 13, 2018 | Blog
We’re thrilled to launch the search for the third Class of NEF Fellows, 2019 – 2021. Application to the NEF Fellows programme is open to Africans from around the world – including those who currently reside in the Diaspora – in all fields of science, including the social sciences and technology fields. Applicants must be [...]
IBM Files Patent for Blockchain-Based AR Helper System
November 7, 2018 | Blog
IBM has filed a patent for a blockchain-based system which will prevent players of augmented reality games entering physical spaces that are undesirable. Augmented reality is a technology which adds layers to physical reality. An example is Zombie GO, an AR game which places zombie in real life or perhaps the most famous example, Pokemon Go. AR can have [...]
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L’Afrique prend sa place dans l’avancée de l’intelligence artificielle
| Blog
La grande majorité des experts en IA se trouvent en Amérique du Nord, en Europe et en Asie. L’Afrique, en particulier, est à peine représentée. Ce manque de diversité peut non intentionnellement enraciner les biais algorithmiques et construire une discrimination pour les produits dérivés de l’IA. Ce n’est pas le seul défi : moins de [...]
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Africa’s future needs a better research culture and not just for scientists
November 5, 2018 | Blog
Of the many developmental challenges facing Africa, scientific research doesn’t often rise to the top of the discussion agenda, though thankfully that has been changing with high profile initiatives like the Next Einstein Forum. And yet research and development will be key to the kinds of improvements that African citizens need and expect. The priorities, or [...]
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Look to Africa to advance artificial intelligence
October 25, 2018 | Blog
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing society as profoundly as the steam engine and electricity have done. But unlike past technological revolutions, the AI revolution offers a unique chance to improve lives without opening up and exacerbating global inequalities. That will require widening of the locations where AI is done. The vast majority of experts are in [...]
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Gov’t pledges 1% GDP to support STEM education
October 9, 2018 | Blog
Government has pledged a minimum of one per cent of GDP towards the promotion of research and development expenditure of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the country. Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has said in many advanced countries, conservative estimates have it that the direct and indirect contribution of [...]
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Second edition of Next Einstein Forum Africa Science Week begins in 35 countries
September 10, 2018 | Blog, News
KIGALI, Rwanda, 10 September 2018 – The Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in partnership with Robert Bosch Stiftung, today announced the beginning of NEF Africa Science Week in 35 African countries throughout the months of September, October and December 2018. NEF Africa Science Week are led [...]
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Exploring the power of microbes in African populations
October 24, 2017 | Blog
In recent years the role of microbes in human health has enjoyed a huge surge of interest and popularity. Microbes are very small organisms (like bacteria, viruses and fungi) that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Meet NEF Fellow Doctor Mamadou kaba from Guinea, a specialist in medical microbiology. Kaba’s daily work include; Studying the role of [...]
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Intellectual Property for the Twenty-First-Century Economy
| Blog
In an opinion page published in project Syndicate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Arjun Jayadev, write that developing countries are increasingly pushing back against the intellectual property regime foisted on them by the advanced economies over the last 30 years. Economists have recognized for decades that the most important determinant of growth and thus [...]
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Making education meaningful and relevant in African countries
October 23, 2017 | Blog
In Africa, achieving a meaningful and relevant education means addressing a web of challenges in society in order to attain a trans-formative outcome. Only 43 per cent of young people have access to secondary education and only eight per cent can access tertiary education, according to UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report, 2016. Gloria Iribagiza, writes in the [...]
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Antelope perfume’ keeps flies away from cows
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Scientists; Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister from the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn and his colleagues from Kenya and the UK have developed an innovative way of preventing tsetse flies from cows called antelope perfume, a method that prevents sleeping sickness disease. The scientists took advantage of the fact that tsetse flies [...]
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Sudanese Undergraduates Develop a Robotic Rover
October 19, 2017 | Blog
The ability of facing the challenges and determination has been an empowerment firing flame for four undergraduate students from Omdurman Islamic University, College of engineering. We all time speak about lack of resources and uncomfortable environment to develop creative and advance project here in Africa, but those young fresh minded undergraduates (Mohammed Ishag, Yousif Elfatih [...]
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Too few women in science: why academies are part of the problem
October 13, 2017 | Blog
Women’s role in science has been hotly debated and discussed in recent decades. Policy-oriented and scholarly studies have explored a range of topics on the issue. From girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); to how women are represented and perform in STEM occupations and women’s access to technologies. Read more [...]
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Medical drones help fly the last mile in East Africa’s most remote corners
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Rwanda pioneering this approach, East Africa is leading the world in pursuing innovative solutions to the problem. By jumping platforms in a rapidly evolving technology, Rwanda and Tanzania have secured the services of California-based robotics company Zipline to provide the world’s first drone medical delivery services. They do so with breathtaking efficiency, saving many lives. Read [...]
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Scientists develop a 10-second HIV test linked to mobile phones
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David Ferguson, external Communications and PR Manager University of Surrey writes that researchers from a group of UK universities have developed a 10-second test for HIV, based on mobile phone technology. The University of Surrey, working with colleagues at University College London, the Africa Health research Institute (South Africa), OJ-Bio (Newcastle), QV (holdings (Netherlands) and the Japan [...]
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New tech turns any object into TV remote
October 12, 2017 | Blog
Researchers from Lancaster University in the UK show a novel technique that allows body movement, or movement of objects, to be used to interact with screens. The ‘Matchpoint’ technology, which only requires a simple webcam, works by displaying moving targets that orbit a small circular widget in the corner of the screen. The technology can turn [...]
We hail individual geniuses, but success in science comes through collaboration
October 9, 2017 | Blog
Nobel laureates give a human face to science, Wellcome Trust’s Jeremy Farrar gives his opinion piece in the guardian that, If we rely too heavily on the narrative that science is the history of great men and too seldom great women, we underestimate how much it is a result of team work and partnerships. Even in [...]
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Une chercheuse de l’IPT, Rym Kefi parmi les lauréats du Next Einstein Forum
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Le Next Einstein Forum (NEF) a récemment annoncé ses 16 lauréats de différents pays d’Afrique, parmi lesquels, Dr. Rym Kefi, chercheuse au laboratoire de génomique biomédicale et oncogénétique et responsable du service de typage génétique à l’Institut Pasteur de Tunis. Read more [...]
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MATH PROFESSOR NAMED NEXT EINSTEIN FORUM FELLOW
October 6, 2017 | Blog
Jonathan Mboyo Esole, named a Next Einstein Forum Fellow for 2017-2019, an award that recognizes Africa’s best young scientists and technologists. Born from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he was inspired by the famous physicist, Esole is an accomplished mathematician, and specialist in string Geometry. He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics [...]
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The Last Woman to Win a Physics Nobel
October 5, 2017 | Blog
It’s been more than 50 years since there was a female winner. Maria Goeppert Mayer, is the last woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 after she discovered that the nucleus of the atom has an onion like layered structure. Elizabeth Landau writes that since then many other women have been widely considered [...]
More female scientists fellows wanted by the Next Einstein Forum
October 3, 2017 | Blog
The Next Einstein Forum, is offering eligible scientists another opportunity to join its 2017-19 fellows, in a move intended to push up the number of women fellows to a minimum of 40%. This news follows a recent cohort of 16 scientists published, among which only six are females. While the formal process has closed, Nathalie Munyampenda, Associate Director [...]
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Amanda Weltman is one of theoretical physics’s brightest stars
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Beginning of this week in Sunday Times, NEF Fellow Prof. Amanda Weltman was highlighted as one of theoretical physics’s brightest stars. Amanda is among the best minds of Women in STEM, known for proposing the Chameleon field, a particle that could be responsible for causing the observed accelerated expansion of the universe while also causing interesting and unexpected local and [...]
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Why it’s time African researchers stopped working in silos
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A number of stumbling blocks like geographical and political barriers to intra-African collaboration must be urgently addressed because they prevent Africans and the rest of the world from working together. Free movement of researchers is necessary for networking and a foundation of collaboration. Unlike people, diseases and developmental challenges don’t know geographical barriers and their [...]
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NEF Community of Scientists Annual Meeting- Day3
