I had a great summer this year; from being with family to seeing friends I hadn’t seen in a while. One of the highlights of my summer was working as a research intern at KAI Lab at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS). I had seen LinkedIn posts of the wonderful work the Lab is doing with AI to solve problems in the Malawian context. As a firm believer that AI bias can only be solved by building AI solutions in the local context, KAI Lab is one of the places doing that. An example of a project that really caught my eye was their SMS Fraud Detection using Machine Learning tool. With SMS Fraud prevalent in Malawi, this was solving a real problem. I wanted to be part of the AI work that is happening in Malawi and what better place to do than KAI Lab.

My research revolves around using big data for development in the context of the developing world and KAI Lab provided an environment for that. My first meeting with the team at KAI Lab did not feel like a first meeting at all, everyone was relatable and within minutes we were all throwing jokes and laughing while bouncing ideas off each other. Everyone was open to bringing in and critiquing ideas in our brainstorming meetings. The organizational culture of the internship environment was characterized by a strong emphasis on family and friendship, contributing to a relaxing working environment. One gesture of family and friendship that left an impression on me was when one of the team members brought me lunch on my second day. This relaxed environment also made it possible to try and learn new things without being afraid of making mistakes. For example, in one of the projects, none of us had experience with QGIS but we decided to take on the challenge and learn. I think this is important for team growth especially in Tech where things are always changing.

I also learned a lot from Dr. Taylor and one of the things I learned was being organized when doing research. Normally, I am a spontaneous person who “throws himself” into something without having a proper detailed plan. Working under Dr Taylor, I learned planning and thorough documentation. This is the “boring” part of the work but I learnt that it saves you a lot of time as research progresses. By ensuring that steps are documented before implementation, the team is provided with greater clarity and direction, streamlining the workflow and fostering a more cohesive and effective team dynamic. I also learned to work in a team setting doing research.My goal is to do a Phd and this experience is valuable considering that I do not have a lot of research experience. As a lead of one of the projects, which involved creating a dataset for the effects of cyclone Freddy in Malawi to be used for object detection and building damage classification, it was a learning experience leading a team in research and figuring things together considering the data scarcity problem in developing countries. We made a lot of mistakes as a team but I learned that “a team that makes mistakes together, stays together” as we would laugh at ourselves and collectively correct our mistakes as a team.

Working at KAI Lab deepened my research skills, plugged me into a family of researchers, and gave a research mentor in the process. I am excited about the work happening at the Lab and I look forward to working with the lab again. And thanks to Dr. Taylor for this initiative which is relevant as AI becomes prevalent.