About the Program
The IndabaX Uganda & Spring School 2026 will take place from 23–27 March 2026 in Kampala, Uganda. This is the first edition of a new annual initiative designed to strengthen AI education and research capacity across Africa. Each year, the Spring School will be hosted in a different African country, focusing on diverse AI research topics.
In this inaugural edition, participants will explore agent-based modeling and multi-agent systems, applying these methods to decision-making and policy design for urgent social and environmental challenges.
The Spring School builds on lessons from the Deep Learning Indaba workshop “Responsible AI: From Africa to the World”. Its guiding principles are:
- Leading from Africa: African students, teachers, and organizations take the lead, with international participants invited to learn in Africa.
- AI research that works for all: Applied projects contribute to AI’s state of the art while solving real-world problems at local, regional, and global levels.
- Prestigious capacity building: With Africa projected to represent 25% of the world’s population by 2050, the Spring School provides alternative pathways for AI education beyond traditional universities.
Program Overview
| Date | Session Type | Activities |
|---|---|---|
| 23/03/2026 | Parallel Sessions | - Tutorials and Practicals (Virtual) - Spring School (ABM) (In person) |
| 24/03/2026 | Parallel Sessions | - Tutorials and Practicals (Virtual) - Spring School (ABM) (In person) |
| 25/03/2026 | Parallel Sessions | - Tutorials and Practicals (Virtual) - Spring School (ABM) (In person) |
| 26/03/2026 | Parallel Sessions | - Hackathon (Virtual) - Spring School (ABM) (In person) |
| 27/03/2026 | Conference | - Keynotes - Invited Talks - Panel Discussions - Spotlight Talks - Poster Presentations - Research Presentations - Mentorship - Group Photo - Networking Sessions (In person) |
Speakers
Organizing Committee
- Bruno Ssekiwere, Team Lead at Deep Learning IndabaX Uganda.
- Frank Dignum, Full Professor at Umeå University, leading the research group in socially conscious AI, Distinguished Chair in AI focusing on Agent-Based social simulations for policymaking.
- Georgina Curto, Senior Researcher and Team Lead, United Nations University Institute in Macau.
Detailed program
Day 1: Tutorials, Practicals & Spring School
| Time | IndabaX UG | Spring School |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Tutorial: Introduction to Agent-Based Modelling — Teachers: Frank Dignum & Georgina Curto (confirmed) | |
| 09:30 – 10:30 | Python and Data Science Fundamentals — Teacher: Rose Bunmi Akinremi | |
| 10:30 – 11:15 | Coffee Break | |
| 11:20 – 12:00 | Introduction to Machine Learning and Paradigms — Teachers: Phyllis Nabangi, Isaac Mukonyezi | Tutorial: Agent-Based Modeling and Agentic AI for Decision Making — Teacher: Georgina Curto Rex |
| 12:00 – 12:45 | Mathematical Fundamentals for Machine Learning (Python) — Teacher: Jessica Randall | |
| 12:45 – 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00 – 14:45 | Building Neural Networks from First Principles (no frameworks) — Teacher: Nicole Oyetungi (confirmed) | Practical Session 1 — Teachers: Frank Dignum & Georgina Curto |
| 14:45 – 15:30 | Model Interpretability, Explainability, and Scaling Up — Teacher: Chinasa T. Okolo | |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee Break | |
| 16:00 – 16:45 | Building Practical, Responsible AI Ecosystems | Practical Session 1 — Teachers: Frank Dignum & Georgina Curto |
| 16:45 | CLOSE DAY 1 | |
Day 2: Tutorials, Practicals & Spring School (ABM)
| Time | Welcome | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:45 | Reinforcement Learning — Geraud Nangue Tasse | Tutorial: Social Agent Interaction Mechanisms — Frank Dignum |
| 09:45 – 10:30 | Computer Vision (CNNs, image classification, object detection) — Teacher: Tusubira Jeremy | |
| 10:30 – 11:15 | Coffee Break | |
| 11:15 – 12:45 | Hands-On with Diffusion Models | Tutorial: Agentic AI – The Real Story — Teachers: Frank Dignum & Virginia Dignum (confirmed) |
| 12:45 – 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00 – 14:45 | Natural Language Processing (RNNs, Transformers, text embeddings) — Teacher: Kimera Richard | Practical Session 2 |
| 14:45 – 15:30 | MLOps Pipelines: From Data Collection to Model Deployment — Teacher: Nsubuga Hassan | |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee Break | |
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Reflection + Continuity | Practical Session 2 |
| 16:30 – 17:00 | CLOSE DAY 2 | |
Day 3: Tutorials, Practicals & Spring School (ABM)
| Time | Welcome | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:45 | Multimodal AI — Pius Mugagga | Tutorial: Engineering Agent-Based Systems — Frank Dignum |
| 09:45 – 10:30 | Prompt Engineering: Talking to LLMs Effectively | |
| 10:30 – 11:15 | Coffee Break | |
| 11:15 – 12:45 | Quantum Machine Learning | Tutorial: Agent-Based Systems for Policy Making — Georgina Curto |
| 12:45 – 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00 – 14:45 | Building with LLMs: From Chatbots to Research Assistants | Practical Session 3 |
| 14:45 – 15:30 | Responsible AI — Ethics, Fairness, Bias, Sustainability | |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee Break | |
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Reflection + Continuity | Practical Session 3 |
| 16:30 – 17:00 | CLOSE DAY 3 | |
Day 4: Hackathon, Mentorship & Spring School (ABM)
| Time | Welcome | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:45 | Mentorship & Hackathon | Tutorial: Responsible Agents — Virginia Dignum |
| 09:45 – 10:30 | ||
| 10:30 – 11:15 | Coffee Break | |
| 11:15 – 12:45 | Mentorship & Hackathon | Tutorial: Agents in Practice — Sennay Ghebreab |
| 12:45 – 14:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00 – 14:45 | Mentorship & Hackathon | Practical Session 4 |
| 14:45 – 15:30 | ||
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee Break | |
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Mentorship & Hackathon | Practical Session 4 |
| 16:30 – 17:00 | CLOSE DAY 4 |
Day 5: Conference — From Foundations to Frontiers
| Time | Welcome | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 08:00 – 08:30 | Arrival and Registration | All |
| 08:30 – 08:45 | Welcome Note & Opening Remarks | General Chairs |
| 08:45 – 09:25 | Keynote Speaker | Building Autonomous, Trustworthy AI Systems |
| 09:25 – 10:00 | Invited Talk | Strengthening Africa’s AI Research Capacity |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Group Photo / Break | |
| 10:30 – 11:20 | Spotlight Talks | AI Clubs Pitch Presentations |
| 11:20 – 12:00 | Invited Talk | AI for Africa: From Classroom Learning to Real-World Impact |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Panel Discussion | AI for Local Impact: From Prototypes to Policy |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch & Networking | |
| 14:00 – 14:40 | Poster Session; Company & Student Exhibitions | |
| 14:40 – 15:10 | Mentorship Hour | Career Paths, Publishing, Funding |
| 15:10 – 16:10 | Panel Discussion | Quantum Machine Learning and the Next Frontier |
| 16:10 – 16:30 | IndabaX Uganda Journey | IndabaX Leads |
| 16:30 – 17:00 | Evening Tea & Departure |
For more information, visit Indaba𝕏 Uganda 2026 and IndabaX Uganda and Spring School
