The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is facilitating internship opportunities for students from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) through the joint USAID-NASA SERVIR programme in West Africa.
According to ICRISAT, a consortium of organisations for SERVIR West Africa travelled to M’bour, Senegal to visit students enrolled at AIMS during a recent planning workshop held there.
Dr Charles Kimpolo, Director of the AIMS Industry Initiative, showcased the innovation potential of the graduates and opportunities with the emergent regional Earth Observation sector, leading to a discussion on networking opportunities.
AIMS students also participated in the meeting and presented their experiences and vision for the future of Africa in the areas of mathematical sciences for development.
Students Christian Nnaemeka Nawaeme and Nancy Fosua Boakye from the AIMS-Senegal Cooperative Programme and the African Masters in Machine Intelligence (AMMI), respectively, shared their study experience and their career aspirations in the fields of agro-entrepreneurship and computational sciences.
“Our mission is to lead the transformation of Africa through innovative scientific training, technological progress and cutting-edge research,” Dr Thierno Gueye, the chief operating officer, AIMS Senegal, said.
The visit concluded with the presentation of an appreciation award to ICRISAT. The award was presented to Dr Ramadjita Tabo, Regional Director, ICRISAT-West and Central Africa by Prof. Mouhamed Moustapha Fall.
In May 2022, AIMS and ICRISAT announced a partnership to improve resilience against the impacts of climate change by jointly implementing capacity development programmes in education and training, youth employment and entrepreneurship, research and innovation, and public engagement and policy advocacy.
“This partnership builds on a successful history of collaboration that started in 2015 and accelerated after 2017 with AIMS launching its Mathematical Sciences for Climate Resilience (MS4CR) internship program with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC),” ICRISAT added in a statement.
It said close to 50 AIMS graduate interns have been hosted since its inception with ICRISAT and its partners contributing significantly to the MS4CR internship program goal of providing 100 internships for AIMS students or alumni, and the establishment of 20 strategic partnerships in the field of climate change.
Caption: ICRISAT-Mali’s K. Toure prepares a multispectral fixed-wing drone for landscape-scale monitoring of smallholder crops response to fertilisation;
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