Ph. seddik
Bring together the main players in research and technological innovation to build the foundations of the artificial intelligence ecosystem in Morocco and Africa. This is the challenge given by TechInnov Day, which is in its second edition this year. Great novelty of this edition, the widening of the circle of coordination between the actors who also multiply over time. The bearers of this initiative are the Ecole Centrale Casablanca, the School of Industrial Management (EMINES) of the UM6P and the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris. Objective: to create a platform for exchanges between actors from the academic, research and business worlds to strengthen the AI ecosystem.
After the success of the first edition organized by Central Casablancathe School is associated with the School of Industrial Management (EMINES) of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and thePolytechnic School of Paris to organize the second edition of the “TechInnov Day”. Held under the sign of artificial intelligence for Africa, the event, which takes place over two days in Benguerir, brings together the various players in the ecosystem to discuss current issues and the future of artificial intelligence. . The ambition is to constitute the cornerstone of an ecosystem that will make it possible to achieve sovereignty in terms of artificial intelligence for Morocco and Africa.
“With a digital penetration of more than 43%, Africa is a fertile field for the implementation of artificial intelligence solutions capable of accelerating growth while taking into consideration the socio-cultural specificities of the continent”, underlined at the start of this meeting Hisham El Habti, President of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P). Whether in health, agriculture or education, the intersectionality of AI and its applications is opening up new possibilities for the development of the continent.
Same story with Nicolas Cheimanoff, director of the School of Industrial Management (EMINES) at UM6P. “AI is of particular interest to us at UM6P, in Morocco and in Africa because as much as we can say that in certain research disciplines such as physics, we need heavy materials to do the tests, both in the In the field of digital and AI, Africa has its place to develop innovative solutions. All it takes is a cloud, a bit of digital means and brains. There are a lot of brains in this country and in Africa the heads are very well made, so it is natural to advance in the fields of artificial intelligence,” he said.
For its part, Mohammed El-Rhabi, director of the Applied Mathematics, Computer & Data Sciences unit at Ecole Centrale Casablanca, indicated that this second edition naturally opened up to other partners from the world of research with the objective of having personalities from internationally renowned for shedding light on the innovative solutions offered by artificial intelligence. Among these experts, Yann LeCun, chief scientist for artificial intelligence at Meta, reputed father of Deep Learning, winner of the Turing Prize in 2019 (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for computer science, Ed).
During these two days, discussions will focus on the future of artificial intelligence and the perspectives of machine learning, with the participation of researchers, entrepreneurs and startuppers in order to examine the different possibilities offered by this technology and the challenges in connection with research, the academic world and economic intelligence.