Overview of IBM Research - Africa

Dr. Uyi StewartChief Scientist, IBM Research - Africa

IBM’s Smarter Planet: Reimagining how science and technology

can have impact

• Fighting infectious disease by spreading data

• Improving communication by talking to the Web

• Creating drinking water by filtering oceans

• Managing human impact on rivers by streaming information

• Reducing traffic jams by creating them

• Helping premature infants by sensing complications before they happen

• Reimagining the energy grid by synchronizing supply

• Reducing CO2 while boosting business efficiency

• Mapping beneath the seafloor to help reduce the risk of dry holes

IBM Research Globalization

IBM Research Labs

China

WatsonAlmaden

Austin

Tokyo

Zurich

India

Dublin

Australia

Brazil� Cognitive Services

� Natural Resources

� Disaster Management

� Healthcare & Life Sciences

� Natural Resources

� Smarter Devices

� Human Systems/Events

� Industry

Solutions

� Accessibility

� Internet of Things

� Smarter Cities

� Big Data & Analytics

� HW & SW Quality

� Cloud, Mobile

Haifa

� Smarter Cities

� Services

� Mobile

Communications

� Semiconductors

� Systems

� Software &

Services

� Big Data &

Analytics

� Semiconductors

� Processors

� Big Data &

Analytics

� Storage

� Nanotech

Healthcare

� Science

� Nanotech

Materials

Africa

Why Africa?

Why Now?

A continent of immense breadth and complexity, Afri ca presents aremarkable long term opportunity …..

In 2008 consumer spending in Africa was US$860B (more than India and Russia), and 2020 estimate is S$ 1.4T

52 cities in Africa (more than Europe) have over 1M people each. 400 M Africans live in cities (India has 340M)

600M mobile phone subscribers in Africa (India 670M in 2010), with 316M signed up since 2000

By 2015 Africa’s nominal GDP is expected to reach US$2.5T (close to Brazil US$2.8T and India US$ 2.4T)

Africa has 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, making it a huge potential food source

Africa has 50% of world’s gold; 90% of platinum, 98% of chromium,33% of uranium, and 65 % of diamonds

More than 75 companies each earn over USD 3B in revenues in Africa

In 2008, 85M African households were in the middle income group

Africa has over 500M people of working age. By 2040, this is expected to exceed 1.1B (more than China or India)

Total 2009 Africa FDI $515B (India $164B), grew 17.4% pa 2002-9, with over 50% to S Africa, Egypt and Morocco

The goal of IBM Research – Africa

Address Africa’s grand challenges through commercially viable innovations that impact

people’s lives

Strategy for capturing and delivering innovations created in Africa for Africa

Clusters/Grand ChallengesAgri-Business

EducationEnergy

Financial InclusionHealthcare

Public SafetyWater/Sanitation

Economics Price

Output

Productivity Yield

Loss

Genomics Characterization

Discovery

Collection

Movement Ownership

Transfer

Interventions Vaccinations

Seed Distribution

Fertilizer

Quarantines

Climate Retrospective

Regional

Forecast

Water Soil Analysis

Irrigation

Indigenous Crops

Crop-livestock

?

Big Data Growth

2010

Vo

lum

e i

n E

xab

yte

s

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2015

Percentage of uncertain data

Pe

rcen

t of u

nce

rtain

da

ta

100

80

60

40

20

0

Sensors & Devices

VoIP

Enterprise Data

Social Media

You are here

Towards Cognitive Systems

Train & LearnBuild Models,

Define Insight

HypothesizeUnderstand and Plan

Policy

Engine

Verification (e.g. Simulations)

Active Learning

OutcomesActuation and Validation

Natural

Interfaces

Society Nature Institutions Archives

2011-04-05

Algorithms and Applications

Static programming

Archives

Structured Data and Text

People Hypothesize,Determine “what it means”,Run other applications…

The Calculating Paradigm The Learning Paradigm

Input ���� Same Output Input + Learning ���� Different Output ���� Differentiation

What have we been up to in the past year?

Updates on selected projects

Project Summary/Scope

Human Capacity Development Elevate the level of ICT and related scientific skills in Kenya by working in collaboration with select universities and local entrepreneurs and innovators

Traffic Awareness New algorithms from low-resolution image recognition & traffic estimation for traffic control (estimating congestion level and traffic flow) and city planning.

Develop a mobile app that’ll enable citizens look up current traffic and/or road conditions in Nairobi (plus alternative route recommendation)

Water Management Analyze historical water demand and supply data to create forecasting models for future water demand and infrastructure requirements for the City of Nairobi, and Kenya.

Develop a conceptual and numeric model of Nairobi Aquifer System (NAS); and project groundwater abstractions over the next 30 years

Public Health Address pressing health needs related to Cervical Cancer using IBM’s innovative technology to develop solutions for diagnostics, treatment, and referals

Agribusiness Understand current supply chain for agribusiness and define new business model to capture and create value in a cloud-enabled mobile commerce platform

Create an intelligent, digital interactive biorepository of livestock- related data to enable deep analytics and modeling of the relationships between agricultural and economic variables in sub-Saharan Africa

Digital Mobile Advertising Leverage geo-specific data for advertising goods and services offered by small-medium businesses to commuters (matatus) on select roads in Nairobi

Education Leverage Raspberry Pi in public schools to open up the typical ‘black box’ of computers and teach a functional curriculum that empowers students to use computers and sensors as problem-solving tools to understand the world around them and spark meaningful innovation

Community Health

Workers•are often the only health care providers in rural areas•are dependent mostly on their experience and intuition

Community Health

Workers•are often the only health care providers in rural areas•are dependent mostly on their experience and intuition

Tribal Knowledge•is fundamental to understand societal behavior in Africa•is essential to the development of Africa

Tribal Knowledge•is fundamental to understand societal behavior in Africa•is essential to the development of Africa

Socio-Economic

Challenges•appear to be grand challenges in Africa•are hard to assess due to the latencies in data collection

Socio-Economic

Challenges•appear to be grand challenges in Africa•are hard to assess due to the latencies in data collection

Cognitive computing breakthroughs in new learning models and cognitive interfaces and the availability of rich data to enable transformative progress in the continent. Salient examples include:

The story of IBM Research - Africa is an ongoing story of…

Thank You!