{"id":1021599,"date":"2024-05-15T11:48:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-lab&p=1021599"},"modified":"2026-10-26T01:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T08:40:25","slug":"microsoft-research-lab-africa-nairobi","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-lab","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/lab\/microsoft-research-lab-africa-nairobi\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Research Africa, Nairobi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microsoft Research Africa, Nairobi<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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Building globally equitable AI models and tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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At Microsoft Research Africa, Nairobi, we are driven by a mission to understand, build, and deploy innovative cloud and AI technologies for Africa and the world. Our work is grounded in a multidisciplinary approach that combines our diverse skill set and practices with community-based, human-centred methods to design AI to make work more seamless and enable people to grow their skills and knowledge. As AI unlocks new possibilities for billions, we are focused on ensuring that the models and tools we build are globally equitable, inclusive, and meaningful for the communities they serve. In doing so, we both advance AI and ensure it can work for everyone, everywhere.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Our Focus Areas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Advancing Robust Multimodal Foundation Models for Africa<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Building and evaluating culturally-aware AI models for global deployment<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Developing methods for human-centred and LLM-based benchmarking and evaluation<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Driving community-led development of AI systems across the African ecosystem<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    At Microsoft Research Africa, we partner with universities and research institutions across Africa and globally to co-create AI systems that are grounded in local contexts and shaped through shared knowledge, research, and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Current Initiatives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n

    Past Initiatives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    In 2022, MSR Africa awarded Microsoft PhD fellowships to three students at African universities, marking the programme\u2019s first cohort on the continent: Dorcas Gicuku (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Olalekan Joseph Akintande (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, and Sofia Bourhim (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>. In 2023, a further three fellows were selected from across Africa, including Tezira Wanyana (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Naoya Muramatsu (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, and Hasnae Zerouaoui (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>. Throughout their fellowships, Microsoft worked closely with each researcher on areas of shared interest, supporting collaborative, impactful research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Join Dr Liz Ankrah as she presents:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    ATLAS: Navigating Culture as Infrastructure for Designing and Evaluating AI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    AI is increasingly shaping how people work, learn, communicate, and make decisions, yet systems that work well in one context may not translate effectively to another. In this talk, Liz will introduce ATLAS<\/strong>, a practical playbook informed by ethnographic and participatory research across agriculture, small business, health, and workplace settings. Drawing on examples of how communities interact with and evaluate AI, she will discuss how teams can identify cultural assumptions throughout the AI lifecycle and use community knowledge to inform design, development, deployment, and evaluation, while preserving the context from which these insights emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Speaker Bio:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dr. Liz Ankrah is a Research Scientist at Microsoft Research whose work examines how culture, language, knowledge practices, and social relationships shape the design and evaluation of AI systems. She uses ethnographic, participatory design, and mixed methods, to study AI and emerging technologies across agricultural, small business, health, and organizational settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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