Artificial Intelligence : ASMAC Students Win UNESCO Prize

A group of four students of the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC) in Yaounde has won the 2022-2023 competition “Al Challenge” co-organised by the UNESCO Chair of the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne and the French Development Agency. The team dubbed AIRCA (Artificial Intelligence Revolution in Cameroon and Africa), working on the theme: “L’IA Chez Vous” ("AI at home) produced a seven-minute web documentary entitled; “Artificial Intelligence: Cameroon Connects". The group of three girls and a boy was declared winner by the jury on March 14, 2023 in Bordeaux, France. They are expected to travel to Bordeaux to receive the award during a colloquium to discuss the fate of Artificial Intelligence on the globe from the 15th to the 17th of May 2023.
The second edition of the Artificial Intelligence competition brought together 13 teams from 10 African countries. The criteria was for competitors to present, through an audiovisual production of a news report or web documentary, on “intelligent solutions” designed, produced, promoted or used in their country or community in domains such as health, education or agriculture. Contacted by one of their lecturers, Dr Fleur Nadine Mvondo, one of the laureates, Boris Landry Kouekam and his team began working with the aim to show that Cameroon is connected to Artificial Intelligence, with a case study in the agricultural domain. Mr Kouekam said they travelled to Nomayos, Soa and Mbalmayo in the Centre Region as well as to the Littoral Region to meet young Cameroonians who had long invested in Artificial Intelligence especially through the computer systems. One of the youths presented equipment which help farmers to evaluate in less than 30 seconds, the level of fertility of their land, which crops to be planted. Another presented a solution which permits a farmer to detect pepper or cassava suffering from a specific disease. Another project was a so...