Research Track 2026

AI/ML Research Challenge Guidelines

Theme:

Advancing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Sustainable Development in Africa

SAT. 16TH MAY'26

FUNAAB Ceremonial Building

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To recognize and reward outstanding student-led or early-career research in AI/ML that demonstrates strong potential to solve pressing African challenges, particularly (but not limited to) agriculture, healthcare, education, climate, financial inclusion, and local language processing.

₦1M

Total Prize Money

4 Members

Max Team Size

6 Weeks

Research Sprint

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Participant Eligibility

Lead author must be a registered undergraduate or postgraduate student in any African tertiary institution.

Previously published work is NOT allowed (except arXivpreprints clearly marked as such)

Co-authors may include supervisors, other students, or early-career researchers

Research must have been conducted primarily in 2024–2026.

Maximum 4 authors per paper

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Priority Research Tracks

Submissions are strongly encouraged in the following areas (others will still be considered):

AI for Agriculture & Food Security (crop yield prediction, disease detection, etc.)Local Language NLP & African Language ModelsEthical AI, Fairness & Bias Mitigation in African ContextsClimate Change Modelling & AdaptationAI for Healthcare in Resource-Constrained SettingsComputer Vision for Environmental MonitoringReinforcement Learning for Resource OptimizationAI-Powered Education Tools for Rural/African ClassroomsFederated Learning & Privacy-Preserving MLEdge AI / TinyML for Low-Resource Devices

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Dates & Timeline

16 Feb 2026

Registration opens

Feb 25 - March 03, 2026

Research class

Feb 28 - April 5, 2026

Call for papers

April 20, 2026

Decisions released

25 April, 2026

Conference

5 May, 2026

Camera ready version

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Prizes & Rewards

1st🥇

₦500, 000

2nd🥈

₦300, 000

3rd🥉

₦200, 000

4th-8th: Mentorship, and publication support.

Special Awards: Best Responsible AI, Best Open Dataset, Most Deployable Research.

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Submission Requirements

Every team must submit via the official research portal:

Research paper (PDF, 6–10 pages)Format: NeurIPS/ICLR/African AI conference template (LaTeX preferred)Must include: Abstract, Introduction, Related Work, Methodology, Experiments/Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References2-minute video explainer (YouTube unlisted link)Source code + dataset details (GitHub public repo)Signed declaration of originality and student statusShort bios of all authors (max 100 words each)

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Judging Criteria

Research rigor and methodologyNovelty and contributionDataset quality and documentationReproducibility and evaluationResponsible AI and ethicsPotential impact and deployment readiness

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Our Judges

Judges lineup coming soon.

We will announce the full lineup soon.

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Rules & Code of Conduct

All code and writing must be originalUse of pre-trained models is allowed if properly cited and fine-tuning is demonstratedPlagiarism = immediate disqualificationJudges’ decisions are final

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Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about the AI/ML Research track

A research-focused sprint where teams build applied ML systems and research artifacts for real-world African challenges.

Students, researchers, engineers, and designers. Teams can have up to four members, and solo builders are welcome.

A public GitHub repo, a 6-8 page report, model and dataset cards, and a 5-minute demo video.

The sprint is remote, while the demo day and showcase take place in Abeokuta on 25 April 2026.

We look at research rigor, novelty, documentation, responsible AI, and deployment readiness.