NITheCS Welcomes Dr Solomon Gizaw for Two AI-Focused Seminars

We are excited to welcome Dr Solomon Gizaw from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, who is currently based at the NITheCS offices at Stellenbosch University until 11 May 2026.

During his visit, Dr Gizaw will present two talks exploring important themes in artificial intelligence, policy, and language technologies in Africa.

His first talk, titled “Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Policy Development in African Countries: A Policy Process Perspective”, will take place on Thursday, 7 May 2026, from 16h00 to 17h00 SAST. This timely presentation will examine how selected African countries are developing AI policies, focusing on policy formulation, governance structures, stakeholder involvement, and key challenges such as limited infrastructure, skills shortages, ethical concerns, and regulatory gaps.

Dr Gizaw’s second seminar, “Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing in Amharic”, will be presented on Friday, 8 May 2026, from 14h00 to 15h00 SAST. In this talk, he will discuss research into gender bias in Amharic word embeddings and language-processing systems, highlighting how AI technologies can reinforce societal inequalities and cultural biases. The seminar will explore how professional and social roles are represented in language technologies and the broader implications for fairness and inclusion in AI systems.

Both events will take place in the NITheCS Seminar Room at Stellenbosch University and online.

Dr Gizaw completed his PhD at the Localisation Research Centre (LRC)/Lero at the University of Limerick in Ireland. He is a Research Fellow at Addis Ababa University and a research member of the African-European Cluster of Research Excellence (CoRE AI). He has played a leading role in open-source software and localisation initiatives across Africa, including serving as co-founder of the Ethiopian Free and Open Source Software Network (EFOSSNet).