African Data Science Conference 2026 (ADSC)

African Data Science Conference 2026 (ADSC 2026) runs 24–26 June 2026 at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, with an optional day of workshops on 23 June. Now an anchor on the continental research calendar, ADSC is built around a deliberately pointed theme — African Data Science, for Africa — and convenes researchers, industry practitioners, policymakers and postgraduate scholars from across Africa and beyond for rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific exchange.

On the programme

The scientific scope is broad but coherent. Tracks span the foundations of data science, applied statistics and machine learning; AI for data science (large language models, interpretable ML, responsible AI and production pipelines); geospatial, remote-sensing and environmental data science for African contexts; and applied data science in health, finance, climate and energy. A strong interdisciplinary strand covers AI ethics, AI safety, the economics of AI, quantum data science, and AI governance for sustainable development, alongside capacity building, curriculum design, open data and research infrastructure. Submissions run as full papers (double-blind peer-reviewed and published in the official proceedings), extended abstracts, posters aimed at honours and early-stage master's students, and an industry lightning-talk session for applied and near-production work. The optional 23 June workshops are notably current: healthcare AI, quantum machine learning, trustworthy data science with LLM agents, spatial data science, publishing in top-tier journals, and data science in industry.

Who runs it and why it carries weight

ADSC 2026 is hosted by Wits University and chaired by Dr Farai Mlambo (Wits), with Professor Inger Fabris-Rotelli (University of Pretoria) chairing the scientific committee and Dr Taariq Surtee (Wits) leading organisation. The committee reaches across Stellenbosch, the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Western Cape, Nelson Mandela University, North-West University, IBM Research Africa and the University of Alabama — a genuinely pan-African and international panel. Selected papers will be invited into a Springer volume in the ICSA Book Series in Statistics, Statistics/ML/AI in Action for Sustainable Development, expected in mid-2027, giving African authors a durable, internationally indexed publication route.

Where it fits in today's AI

Most of the world's frontier AI research is produced in a handful of wealthy countries, and the data, benchmarks and assumptions that follow rarely reflect African languages, health systems, climates or economies. ADSC is one of the most credible attempts to change that from the inside: it treats African data science not as an application of imported models but as a research programme with its own problems and priorities — low-resource language modelling, geospatial and climate analytics, responsible deployment in health and finance, and the governance frameworks that make any of it trustworthy. For students and researchers across the region it is a rare chance to engage frontier topics, from LLM evaluation to AI policy, without leaving the continent, and to publish that work where it will be read. For the wider field it is a reminder that a globally robust AI depends on exactly this kind of locally grounded, peer-reviewed scholarship. Registration runs through the Wits Enterprise system (early-bird and student rates available), and the conference is paid, with an optional gala dinner and workshops.