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Google in Africa

Announcing the Google Africa PhD Fellowship Program

Apr 27, 2018

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Obum Ekeke
Head of Computer Science Education Programs, UK & Africa, Google Africa Research Programs

Google created the PhD Fellowship program in 2009 to recognize and support outstanding graduate students doing exceptional research in Computer Science and related disciplines. Now in its ninth year, our fellowship program has supported hundreds of future faculty, industry researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs.

To support the work of researchers in Africa, we announced the Google Africa PhD Fellowship program on 10 November 2017 to support early-stage PhD students enrolled in any African university in computer science and related fields. The program, and others are inline with our commitment to build strong relationships with the academic community in Africa.
We are committed to advancing cutting edge computer science research and building strong relationships with the academic community in Africa. The Google Africal PhD Fellowship Program, which provides funding to early-stage PhD students enrolled in any African university in computer science and related fields, was announced on 10 November 2017 to support these aims.

Today, we are excited to announce the first 4 recipients of the Google Africa PhD Fellowships:

  • Imane khaouja, Université Internationale de Rabat, Morocco (Domain: Natural Language Processing)
  • Joseph Benedict Nyansiro, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Domain: Software Systems)
  • Rizanne Elbakly, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Egypt (Domain: Geo/Maps)
  • Steven James, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (Domain: Machine Learning)

These fellows are pursuing some of the most promising research in Africa. We hope to strengthen their research potential not just through financial assistance but also through mentorship with researchers at Google. The mentorship program will give our fellows exposure to the research problems we are working on at Google and guide them on the latest developments in each research area. By supporting these four African Fellows we recognise their significant academic achievements and hope that they will go on to be leaders in their respective fields.

We have also expanded the Google Travel Grants program to Africa. The Travel Grants program awards grants throughout the year to students publishing research at top-tier Computer Science conferences. To qualify for this grant, interested students will need to be enrolled into a university based in Africa, and must have a paper accepted for presentation in a top-tier computer sciences conference. We invite you to visit the program page for more details.

We look forward to building strong links between industry and academia to help push important research forward on the continent.

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