My journey throughout these years as an intern at Kuyesera AI Lab (KAI) at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences has been a transformative experience for me. Through the support and resources provided by Dr. Amelia Taylor, I've not only enhanced my skills but also achieved significant milestones, including winning a prestigious competition and securing an opportunity to go to the USA for an attachment. Here's how this incredible journey unfolded. I will share more on how I joined the lab, my first projects, the projects I have worked on with the team, the skills I have learned, the usefulness of this experience and some of my personal highlights. I really hope my journey will inspire and inform those considering a similar path.

How did you join?

I discovered the opportunity through social media. One of the friends who works within MUBAS shared with me a post that they are looking for data annotators. I decided to apply not only because I needed money at that point but also because I really wanted to know what it is like when they say annotation, what do they do? and what can I learn from being an annotator? After submitting my application, I was called for an interview where I was selected to be one of the members in the team.

What was the first project you worked on?

The first my role was to identify and tag names of entities, such as names of towns, names of people, names of countries etc. as words from a given document and provide explanations, and meanings. This was a document full of Chichewa sentences.

This experience has been incredibly useful to me in several ways. Professionally, it has provided me with practical, hands-on experience in IT, allowing me to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios

What skill did you learn?

OK, so for the first time I did not understand why we are doing all those annotations and I had to ask how they are going to make the annotations useful. When I was told that Dr. Amelia Taylor and colleagues are on a journey of developing an automatic tool that will be able to understand different languages and that they are going to feed all this data for the tool to work. I began to get more interested in machine learning and getting its skills.

I have also improved both my written and verbal skills by working on this task and subsequent tasks. I developed problem solving abilities, and also learned how to be creative in whatever task given.

I am also grateful and thankful for being able to have a skill of collecting data, entering data, cleaning the data and making sure that the data is presentable.

Other skills I have learned are programming languages e.g. Python.

How useful has this experience been to you?

This experience has been incredibly useful to me in several ways. Professionally, it has provided me with practical, hands-on experience in IT, allowing me to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios. Academically, the organization’s support played a crucial role in my success at the RICE 360 and MUBAS competition where I applied the skills and insights I had developed. Winning this competition was a remarkable milestone, and it opened the door to an exciting opportunity: an academic attachment in the USA.

What are your highlights?

Some of the most memorable highlights of my journey with KAI Lab as an intern include:

Successfully completing other projects together with the team, such as the development of a catalog of news and journal articles, testing Large Language Model tools. Contributing to these projects was a significant achievement, showcasing my ability to do impactful work.

Winning Rice 360 annual competition: The skills and experiences I gained through the Kuyesera AI Lab were instrumental in securing this victory.

Securing an Attachment in the USA: This prestigious opportunity will allow me to do my attachments and professional development on an international level, thanks to the foundation built by my time at KAI LAB.

Conclusion

The journey with KAI LAB has been nothing short of transformative. The skills, knowledge, and support I received not only enhanced my academic performance but also led to incredible opportunities like winning a major competition and securing an academic attachment in the USA. I am immensely grateful for the experiences and guidance provided by Dr. Amelia Taylor and colleagues at the lab, and I look forward to leveraging these opportunities to further my academic and professional aspirations. If you're considering joining KAI LAB as an intern, I wholeheartedly encourage you to take the step—it could be the start of an equally rewarding journey for you.