Abstract:
This paper describes an initiative to introduce students in African universities to data science
in a workshop setting. We describe the experiences of the inaugural workshop on Data
Science in Africa held at the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Nyeri, Kenya and the
follow-up workshop held in Kampala, Uganda. The workshop consists of lecturers on data
science methodology and presentations by researchers on real life application of these
methodologies. The workshop was motivated by the realization that students were not
adequately prepared to deal with challenges resulting from the data explosion in their areas
of interest. The work presented here is an approach to fill this data science skills gap that
combines classroom learning, hands on laboratories and presentations by researchers in an
intensive one week program
