Computing & IS

1st IASSIST Africa Conference Examines Role of Quality Data for SDGs Attainment

Published

5 years ago

February 2, 2021

Mark Wamai

The DVCAA-Dr. Umar Kakumba (5th R), Ms. Winnie Nekesa-IASSIST Regional Secretary – Africa (5th L) and Prof. Constant Okello-Obura-Dean EASLIS and Chair National Organising COmmittee (4th R) with participants at the 1st IASSIST Conference, CoCIS, Makerere University on 13th January 2020.

The International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST) is an international organization of professionals working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences. IASSIST has a membership of over 300 from Academia, Government, Non-profit sector, and the Private sector. This includes Information specialists, Data librarians, Reference librarians, Technology professional and Data archivists.

IASSIST in collaboration with the East Africa School of Library and Information Science (EASLIS) and Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Eastern and Southern Africa (APLESA) hosted the 1st IASSIST Africa Regional Conference in Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda from the 11^th – 13^th January 2021.

In this conference, data literacy was aligned to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since application and utilization of quality data significantly contributes to the attainment of the SDGs.

The Conference kicked off with remarks from the Chair National organizing committee Prof Constant Okello-Obura, (Dean, East African School of Library and Information Science EASLIS). In his comments, he was delighted to welcome all the participants to Uganda to participate in this pre-eminent edition of IASSIST African Regional Conference. He hoped this opportunity would stimulate the participants data literacy knowledge and scientific intellect. He emphasized on the importance of the theme for the conference which was geared towards addressing the SDG’s through digital literacy. With the war against COVID-19 still raging he encouraged participants to take care of themselves to follow all the Standard Operating Procedures of fighting the virus as stipulated by WHO so that everyone goes back healthy and sound.

Up Next

Call For Applications: Machine Learning for Earth Observation ToT Bootcamp

Don't Miss

CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses January 2021 Intake

Computing & IS

Bridging Mental Health Service Gap in Africa using AI

Published

1 month ago

June 5, 2026

Mak Editor

Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Mental Health Service Improvement in Africa. Makerere University Centre for Artificial Intelligence (Mak-AI), Kampala Uganda, East Africa.

How can AI help bridge the mental health service gap in Africa?

Through this project, teams from Uganda and Tanzania implemented AI-powered call center solutions at national mental health hospitals, leveraging Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze conversations in local languages and generate insights that support better service delivery.

Some of the key achievements include:

Developing ASR models for Ugandan-accented English and Luganda mental health recordings
Assessing the quality of mental health conversations
Detecting mental health topics from speech recordings
Generating escalations and decision-support insights for healthcare practitioners

The project also reinforced important lessons: local-language AI improves accessibility, user-centered design builds trust, and privacy and ethics must remain at the center of AI-driven healthcare innovation.

As Africa continues to embrace digital health solutions, initiatives like these demonstrate the potential of AI to strengthen mental healthcare systems and improve access to quality care for underserved communities.

View related projects

Computing & IS

CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses Jul-Sept 2026

Published

2 months ago

May 29, 2026

Mak Editor

A male student studies on his laptop in the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS), Block B, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.

Makerere University College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS) is the main ICT Training, Research and Consultancy Centre in Makerere University. The College has six Academic departments comprising of the Department of Computer Science, Department of Networks, Department of Information Technology, Department of Information Systems, Department of Library and Information Sciences, and the Department of Records and Archives management.

In addition to the mainstream degree programmes, CoCIS has a specialized Center for Innovations and Professional Skills Development (CIPSD) which delivers state-of-art training in ICT e.g. the Cisco Networking Academy for Cisco related courses, the Microsoft IT Academy Program for Microsoft related courses, International Computer Driving License course, Oracle Certified Training center for Oracle, Linux and Unix Training center. CIPSD also offers Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Ethical Hacking as online courses. The College is an authorized Testing center, operating under PearsonVUE and Kryterion. Listed in the table (see downloads below) are the courses currently offered at the Center with their next start dates, duration, and cost.

All courses are at affordable fees catering for Students, Vacists, Professionals and
Anyone who wants to start a career in ICT or polish his/her ICT skills.

Register here: https://forms.gle/eTVwcAfBGXaVLL9b7

Contact Information

E-mail: psd.cis@mak.ac.ug
Tel: +256 752 779964 | +256 701 806656 | +256 752 373023
URL: https://cocis.mak.ac.ug/cipsd/

Makerere-CoCIS-CIPSD-Advert-Jul-Aug-Sept-2026-Intake-Dates Download

Computing & IS

CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses for Vacists, Students and Professionals

Published

2 months ago

May 19, 2026

Mak Editor

Block B of the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS), Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.

Click link below for start dates and to register:

https://forms.gle/eTVwcAfBGXaVLL9b7

All courses are at affordable fees catering for Students, Vacists, Professionals and
Anyone who wants to start a career in ICT or polish his/her ICT skills.