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AIMS, through the Next Einstein Forum announce the NEF Africa Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Week – 7th to 18th October 2024
“Youth-led innovations driving sustainable development in Africa.” Kigali, Rwanda, September 11th, 2024 The Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), is pleased to announce the NEF Africa Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Week, set to take place from October 7 to 18, 2024. This groundbreaking event will be hosted [...]
AIMS, through the Next Einstein Forum announce the NEF Africa Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Week – 7th to 18th October 2024
“Youth-led innovations driving sustainable development in Africa.” Kigali, Rwanda, September 11th, 2024 The Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), is pleased to announce the NEF Africa Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Week, set to take place from October 7 to 18, 2024. This groundbreaking event will be hosted [...]
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Could A Computer Predict The Next Pandemic?
June 15, 2015 | Blog
Using a computer to predict an infectious disease outbreak before it starts may sound like a bit of Philip K. Dick sci-fi, but scientists are coming close. In a new study, researchers have used machine learning—teaching computers to recognize patterns in large data sets—to make accurate forecasts about which animals might harbor dangerous viruses, bacteria, [...]
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Rwanda: Delivering Gender Equality Requires Bold Steps – Kagame
| Blog
Achieving gender parity is a joint effort between men and women and requires bold steps, not an incremental approach, President Paul Kagame has said. The President was, yesterday, speaking on a panel titled, “What Would You Do to Make the World Better for Women and Girls? A Conversation and Call to Action,” at the ongoing [...]
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How IBM Is Fighting Ebola With Supercomputers
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Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg aren’t the only Silicon Valley heavyweights fighting Ebola: IBM is using its tech know-how to help curb the spread of the disease in West Africa. The company is teaming up with Sierra Leone’s Open Government Initiative, Cambridge University’s Africa’s Voices project, telco firm Airtel, and Kenya’s Echo Mobile for various efforts aimed [...]
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Solving Hunger in Ethiopia by Turning to Native Crops
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Dibaabish Jaboo kneads the pale, vegetative flesh of the enset plant, like her mother did, like her granddaughters do. When she’s finished, she bundles the plant’s thick, decomposing stalk into its 12-foot-long leaves along with spices and agents to help it ferment for a few weeks. Once it’s ready, she can store the bundle underground, or pound [...]
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The Innovators: The Biotech Firm Hoping To Breed An End To Dengue Fever
| Blog
When the taps ran dry in São Paulo neighbourhoods during a drought earlier this year, residents took to storing water in pots and tanks in their homes. The resultant surge in the mosquito population led to the tripling in dengue fever cases across Brazil. The 500,000 Brazilians who caught the disease – the effects of [...]
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The 31 Year-Old Entrepreneur Who Is Challenging PayPal In Kenya
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Danson Muchemi, 31, is the founder of JamboPay, Kenya’s leading Online Payment Gateway. JamboPay, which was founded in 2009, now has more than 1,500 institutional clients and processes more than $50 million in payments every year. The company has a presence in Kenya, Tanzania and Senegal and is expanding to 4 additional countries before the [...]
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Africa developing its first supercomputer outside South Africa
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“Outside of South Africa, there is little to no capacity for cloud computing on the continent,” wrote Erik Hersman on his blog, White African. “This means that few of the programmers in this region have the skill sets necessary to work and build out this infrastructure. We have a severely limited foundation on which to build future services in [...]
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Scientists In Kenya Find Oldest Known Tools On Earth.
| Blog
A team of scientists working in Kenya says it has unearthed the oldest tools ever discovered, dating back 3.3 million years ago. The stone flake tools are 700,000 years older than the earliest known stone tools, predating modern humans by 500,000 years and “suggesting that our ancestors were crafting tools several hundred thousand years before our genus Homo arrived [...]
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Why Do So Few Women Work in New York (And So Many in Minneapolis)? Labor Supply of Married Women across U.S. Cities
| Blog
Abstract: This paper documents a little-noticed feature of U.S. labor markets — very large variation in the labor supply of married women across cities. We focus on cross-city differences in commuting times as a potential explanation for this variation. We start with a model in which commuting times introduce non-convexities into the budget set. Empirical [...]
Reversing Africa’s Medical Brain Drain
June 2, 2015 | Blog
OXFORD – There is understandable consternation over Uganda’s plan to send almost 300 health workers to Trinidad and Tobago. The plan reportedly includes four of Uganda’s 11 registered psychiatrists, 20 of its 28 radiologists, and 15 of its 92 pediatricians. In return, the Caribbean country (which has a doctor-to-patient ratio 12 times higher than Uganda’s) [...]
So People Hate Maths? Here’s my plan to make it work for them: Marcus du Sautoy
| Blog
The Labour party has made a commitment to ensure that every young person studies mathematics up to the age of 18. Of course, the people it will affect don’t have the vote – although if it was up to Labour they would: to give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote is one of their [...]
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Scientists in Kenya Believe They’ve Just Found the Oldest Tools Ever Discovered
| Blog
A team of scientists working in Kenya says it has unearthed the oldest tools ever discovered, dating back 3.3 million years ago. The stone flake tools are 700,000 years older than the earliest known stone tools, predating modern humans by 500,000 years and “suggesting that our ancestors were crafting tools several hundred thousand years before our genus Homo arrived [...]
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One Doctor’s Quest to Save the World With Data
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IN RWANDA, PEOPLE have to deal with all kinds of threats to their health: malaria, HIV/AIDS, severe diarrhea. But in late 2012, Agnes Binagwaho, Rwanda’s Minister of Health, realized her country’s key health enemy was something far more innocuous. The thing causing the most harm to her people, the leading risk factor for premature death [...]
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Microsoft Aims To Stimulate Nigeria’s Job Market
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Microsoft has recently partnered with job search website and Jobberman to create an employability platform. Olayinka Oni, national technology officer for Microsoft Nigeria, told CNBC Africa that they have the opportunity to access 1.5 million users on the Jobberman portal. “We target a lot of digital literacy, we have something called the Microsoft Virtual Academy… [...]
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Ghana’s First Digital Library Hosted At The Back Of A Van
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Mobile network operator Tigo Ghana, in partnership with social enterprise Street Library Ghana, has established a mobile digital library to boost digital inclusion for children in rural Ghana. But the library is actually the interior of a van fitted with tables, chairs and laptops. It also holds a mobile extension that can be set up outside the [...]
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What if African Nations Operated As One Big Innovation Ecosystem?
June 1, 2015 | Blog
With the fourth edition of the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) around the corner, I am eagerly waiting to meet the creators of the latest innovations that were shortlisted for the Award. I find myself preoccupied with a subject that both excites me and exasperates me in equal measures… building African innovation ecosystems. As an [...]
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Next Einstein Forum announces new cohort of 25 Fellows, Africa’s top young scientists
August 5, 2019 | Feat Articles, Fellows, Highlight, News, News Articles
Kigali, Rwanda, 5 August 2019 – The Next Einstein Forum (NEF) today announced its third Class of NEF Fellows Class, 25 strong scientists, all under 42 years, whose research and innovations are contributing to solve Africa’s and the world’s most pressing challenges. “I am excited to announce the 3rd class of NEF Fellows for two [...]
CALL FOR A CURATOR FOR THE NEXT EINSTEIN FORUM ARTS AND SCIENCE FESTIVAL (ASF) FOR THE GLOBAL GATHERING 2020
June 18, 2019 | Africa, Highlight, News, Person, Science
The Arts and Science Festival seeks to increase scientific and artistic awareness among the participants of the Global Gatherings; to promote widespread access to new knowledge and scientific experiences; to support and improve formal and informal science education; to encourage young people to study arts, science and technology subjects further and to consider careers in [...]
NEF Digital Economy Poll: Over half of all respondents believe infrastructure is the greatest need
June 12, 2019 | Africa, Highlight, News
In the days following the publication of Moving from goodwill to action: A call for a Coordinated Vision for Africa’s digital economy by the Next Einstein Forum, we conducted a poll on Twitter, inviting our online audience to tell us what the greatest challenges facing digital economy in Africa are. We listed four solutions: better [...]
The push towards artificial intelligence in Africa
June 5, 2019 | Africa, Blog, Feat Articles, Highlight
“Despite the support, many of us still have trouble making it to conferences. I have had papers accepted at meetings but been unable to attend because Western countries such as Australia denied me a visa, even though I was already settled and working professionally in Europe. We need more efforts to overcome these barriers and [...]
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Will Africa Take Full Advantage of its Biodiversity?
May 23, 2019 | Africa, Highlight, News, Science
On the UN International Day for Biodiversity 2019, NEF caught up with Dr. Jessica Thorn, an AIMS Climate Change Science Fellow, on her viewpoint as a scientist especially the opportunities & challenges in the conservation of Africa’s and the world’s biodiversity today. This year’s theme is “Our Biodiversity, Our Food and Our Health. This day is [...]
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Cities must lead the clean energy drive, says report
May 17, 2019 | Blog, Highlight
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
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)
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 [...]
NEF Community of Scientists Review Digital Economy Strategy, Elects New Executive Committee
April 3, 2019 | Blog, Feat Articles, Fellows, Highlight
17 March 2019 -NAIROBI — The Next Einstein Forum (NEF) Community of Scientists (CoS) elected a new Executive Team for its 2019–2021 Session. New Chair Prof. Sanushka Naidoo, NEF Fellow from South Africa, replaces Dr. Yebebal Fantaye, NEF Fellow from Ethiopia, who led the group during the 2017–2019 Session. This Sunday afternoon, the Next Einstein [...]
Why Africa Should Embrace Artificial Intelligence
May 28, 2018 | Africa, Blog, Highlight, News, Technology
Machines might scare policymakers from Brussels to Washington, but artificial intelligence could yield a significant developmental dividend in the developing world. In African markets, the technology behind Alexa and Siri can be harnessed to diagnose illness or address traffic gridlock. With better predictive models tapping into the alternative data that does exist, AI is helping small [...]
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Young Nigerian scientist Tolullah Oni shines at World Economic Forum 2018
January 25, 2018 | Africa, Blog, Fellows, Healthcare, Highlight, News
NEF Fellow Dr Tolullah Oni at the global stage at this year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, where she will be speaking about her work on public health to the forum’s theme: “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”, longside speakers like India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S.’s Donald Trump. As [...]
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For tech to be funded, it must improve lives
January 9, 2018 | Africa, Blog, Highlight, News, Policy, Science
Technology can’t solve problems. Neither can data, for that matter. It can’t plug the holes of governance and political will but, without it, we cannot hope to address the myriad problems facing African countries. This idea permeated the Science Forum South Africa. Whether it was in the use of satellites to monitor the continent’s resources [...]
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There’s No Such Thing as Being Bad at Math: How Neuroscience Is Changing the Equation
It’s common to hear well educated adults declare themselves “not a math person,” sometimes proudly. Indeed, many people of all ages believe that mathematical ability is something you are either born with or not, rather than something to be mastered with focused effort. This belief is wrong. What’s more, it’s harmful to kids as they have their first [...]
UGANDA’S SCIENTIST NAMED AMONG THE NEXT EINSTEIN FORUM AMBASSADORS, CHAMPIONS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ACROSS AFRICA
December 21, 2017 | Ambassadors, Blog, Highlight, News
Uganda’s Joanitah N Nalubega named among the champions of Science & Tech across Africa. She’s an industrial chemist, with a deep passion for technology, currently working to deploy solutions for the health sector using technology. Also a founding partner of a fellowship of creatives called Kafunda Kreative which seeks to build the capacity of young creatives [...]
40 Africans Under 40 – Making It In Africa
December 18, 2017 | Africa, Blog, Fellows, Highlight, News, STEM
NEF Fellow Mouhamed Moustapha Fall, recognized by Africa.com under Top 40 Under 40 extraordinary men and women who are transforming the future of Africa. This list includes people who are making amazing contributions in their respective fields of expertise. Young Africans are smart people who’ve taken it upon themselves to use their various talents and fields of [...]
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STEM fields need to be more friendly to women
According to NSF’s Science and Engineering Indicators, the STEM fields are dominated by a male presence. For example, 11.1 percent of physicists and astronomers are women, 22.7 percent of chemical engineers are women, 35.2 percent of chemists are women and 7.9 percent of mechanical engineers are women. NSF also says that Women, Minorities, and Persons [...]
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AIMS, through the Next Einstein Forum announce the NEF Africa Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Week – 7th to 18th October 2024
September 11, 2024 | Africa, Blog, News, News Articles, Press Releases, The NEF Blog
“Youth-led innovations driving sustainable development in Africa.” Kigali, Rwanda, September 11th, 2024 The Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), is pleased to announce the NEF Africa Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Week, set to take place from October 7 to 18, 2024. This groundbreaking event will be hosted [...]
Wired-up Interview with Charles LM Kimpolo
April 11, 2022 | Africa, Blog, Fellows, Highlight, News, News Articles, STEM
Education problems and a lack of access to technology have been widely recognized on the continent as major stumbling blocks to economic competitiveness and social equality.” Charles Lebon Mberi Kimpolo, Director of the AIMS Industry Initiative, launched the Young African Technologists (YAT) project to change this situation. How? Watch his inspiring interview on WiredUp Africa [...]
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La Somalienne Mariam Noor conçoit un anneau capable de limiter les risques d’insuffisance cardiaque
April 10, 2022 | Africa, Feat Articles, Fellows, Highlight, News, News Articles, STEM
(Agence Ecofin) – Conçu pour le traitement de l’insuffisance aortique, une condition pouvant entraîner une insuffisance cardiaque, l’anneau de Mariam Noor a déjà été testé sur un porc et a présenté des résultats prometteurs salués par des cardiologues. lien Web:https://www.agenceecofin.com/entreprendre/2103-95906-la-somalienne-mariam-noor-concoit-un-anneau-capable-de-limiter-les-risques-d-insuffisance-cardiaque?fbclid=IwAR0vMCw5_WxxaNH7TQNDr3x6FNthUt8kwT1eAOmcKOuK4NNdLRKArT-ippM [...]
Tribune How can we achieve equity in higher education for Africa’s socio-economic transformation?
April 9, 2022 | Africa, Feat Articles, Fellows, Highlight, News, News Articles, STEM
While female enrolment in higher education has tripled globally between 1995 and 2018, the gender gap is still large in sub-Saharan Africa ‘s higher-ed institutions. Women are particularly underrepresented in the STEM fields due to several barriers that the region must necessarily remove to reach its full socio-economic development potential, argues the CEO of the African [...]
Les scientifiques du Next Einstein Forum se lancent dans la lutte contre le COVID-19
June 11, 2020 | Africa, Healthcare, News, News Articles, Newsroom, Science
PAR YOUSSEF TRAVALY, VICE-PRÉSIDENT DU NEXT EINSTEIN FORUM DANS FINANCIAL AFRIK Le Covid-19 éprouve les pays africains dans leur capacité de gestion pandémique, leur maîtrise des impacts socio-économiques, la robustesse de leurs systèmes de soins de santé et de leurs réponses politiques. Cependant, qu’en est-il des scientifiques africains ? Comment s’organisent-ils pour répondre de manière [...]
Learning from the best: Evaluating COVID-19 responses and what Africa can learn
June 9, 2020 | Africa, Feat Articles, Highlight, News, Policy, Science
A Next Einstein Forum opinion paper Since the first case of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), was detected in Wuhan, China, towards the end of 2019, and declared a global pandemic on 11 March by the World Health Organization, attention has now turned to how countries have responded. The magnitude of the resultant shock from COVID-19 [...]
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Intelligent farming: An AI opportunity in Africa (Youssef Travaly, Vice-President of NEF, in Ressources Magazine)
June 8, 2020 | Africa, Feat Articles, Innovation, News, News Articles, Newsroom, Technology
BY DR. YOUSSEF TRAVALY VICE-PRESIDENT – NEXT EINSTEIN FORUM AND KEVIN MUVUNYI RESEARCH OFFICER – NEXT EINSTEIN FORUM The Fourth Industrial Revolution will transform our lives in unprecedented ways. This revolution, which is characterised by the confluence of digital, physical, and biological systems, is slowly disrupting and redefining value chains across a multitude of industries, [...]
L’intelligence artificielle, une opportunité pour le secteur agricole africain (Youssef Travaly, Vice-président du NEF, dans Ressources Magazine)
| Feat Articles, Innovation, News, News Articles, Newsroom, Technology
PAR YOUSSEF TRAVALY, VICE-PRÉSIDENT DU NEXT EINSTEIN FORUM ET KEVIN MUVUNY, CHERCHEUR AU NEXT EINSTEIN FORUM La 4e révolution industrielle va fondamentalement changer nos vies. Caractérisée par la confluence des systèmes numériques, physiques et biologiques, elle perturbe et révolutionne progressivement les chaînes de valeur de multiples secteurs, notamment par le biais de l’intelligence artificielle (IA). Dans [...]
Can COVID Organics win the battle over SARS-CoV-2 infections?
May 13, 2020 | Africa, Blog, Feat Articles, Fellows, Healthcare, Highlight, News, News Articles, Science
by Dr Vidushi Neergheen* Ever since the President of the Republic of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, announced holding the cure against COVID 19 on 20 April 2020, there has been an upsurge of support for this herbal concoction named COVID organics from many African countries. The drug developed as a herbal tea by the Malagasy [...]
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Coronavirus (COVID-19)-induced re-imagination: 7 things we knew, but “could do nothing about”…until we could…and did
April 20, 2020 | Africa, Feat Articles, Fellows, Healthcare, Highlight, News, News Articles, Science
by Prof. Tolu Oni* One thing is clear: we can’t avert a next pandemic with the same logic and systems that got us to this point. In addition to emergency responses to reduce transmission needed to end the pandemic, I have previously written about the need for emergency foresight in the midst of crises. This [...]
Supplies to vulnerable communities and protection of health workers, as Africa battles COVID-19
April 3, 2020 | Africa, Feat Articles, Fellows, Highlight, News
by Sara Suliman and Fatoumatta Darboe* COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) has become a household name for the disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV2), which has rapidly become a global epidemic crisis. SARS-CoV2 infections have been slow to enter Africa, potentially as a result of early travel restrictions imposed by multiple African countries. [...]
R&D en Afrique : une approche panafricaine s’impose pour remédier à la faiblesse des financements (Youssef Travaly, NEF)
March 13, 2020 | Africa, Highlight, News, Science, Uncategorized
Dépêche N°622703 Par Anne ROY Lundi 09 mars 2020, 18:04:00 Toute reproduction ou transmission de cette dépêche est strictement interdite, sauf accord formel d’AEF Lancé en 2013 à l’initiative de l’African institute for mathematical sciences et la fondation Robert Bosch Stiftung, le Next Einstein Forum est une plate-forme qui entend connecter science, société et politique [...]
Le Next Esintein Forum dévoile les 25 meilleurs innovateurs qui entreront en compétition lors Rassemblement international à Nairobi
February 24, 2020 | Africa, Feat Articles, Highlight, Innovation, News, Press Releases, STEM
KIGALI, Rwanda, le 25 février 2020 – Le NEF dévoile aujourd’hui sa liste des 25 finalistes pour son concours de l’Invention à l’Innovation (Ci2i) dans 5 catégories qui aura lieu durant le Salon de l’innovation les 10 et 11 mars 2020 prochain. Sélectionnés parmi plus de 260 candidatures, cette troisième cohorte de finalistes du Ci2i [...]
Next Einstein Forum unveils top 25 innovators to compete at global gathering in Nairobi
| Africa, Highlight, Innovation, News, Press Releases, Science, STEM, Technology
KIGALI, Rwanda, 25 February 2020 – Today, the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) announces the 25 finalists for its Challenge of Invention to Innovation (Ci2i) competition in five categories to be held on 10-11 March 2020 in the NEF Innovation Salon. “The third cohort of Ci2i finalists, selected from 260 applications, are ambitious African innovators developing [...]
Seven reasons to attend Next Einstein Forum Global Gatherings
January 27, 2020 | Africa, Highlight, News, News Articles, Newsroom
The Next Einstein Forum (NEF) Global Gatherings is a space like no other! We focus on creating a collaborative environment for young innovators and great scientific minds to come together with the singular goal of propelling Africa as a global scientific hub. The Global Gathering is the largest science and innovation gathering on the continent. [...]
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Les nouveaux ambassadeurs du Next Einstein Forum vont faire évoluer la façon dont la science et la technologie sont perçues en Afrique
December 2, 2019 | Africa, Ambassadors, Blog, News, Press Releases, STEM
KIGALI, Rwanda, le 2 décembre 2019,-/African Media Agency (AMA)/- Aujourd’hui, le Next Einstein Forum (NEF) – Forum du Prochain Einstein – annonce sa nouvelle promotion d’ambassadeurs, la troisième cohorte de jeunes figures brillantes des sciences et des technologies de toute l’Afrique. Les ambassadeurs, un par pays africain, dirigeront les activités d’engagement du public afin d’encourager l’enseignement, [...]
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