| | Science and Engineering of LLMs Workshop |
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| | | | The Science and Engineering of Large Language Models (LLMs) workshop held at AIMS South Africa from 31 March to 11 April was an unforgettable learning experience — and we're still buzzing from the energy, insight, and collaboration it inspired. |
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| | Over two intensive weeks, participants from across South African universities explored the inner workings of LLMs through world-class lectures delivered by research scientists and engineers from Google DeepMind, and practical tutorials led by expert teaching assistants from Mila and the University of Oxford. |
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| | The curriculum was both rigorous and inspiring, covering everything from attention mechanisms and transformer architectures to scaling laws, training dynamics, GPU efficiency, instruction tuning, and DiLoCo. In addition to the technical deep-dives, the workshop created valuable space for mentorship, discussion, and community-building. |
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| | We’re deeply grateful to everyone who made the workshop possible — especially our brilliant lecturers and
TAs, the engaged and enthusiastic participants, Google DeepMind and the Department of Science, Technology & Innovation (DSTI), whose support brought this vision to life. |
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| | Building Capacity for Mastercard Foundation Scholars |
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| | | | | Following the successful kick-off of the 2025 Africa Scientifique: Leadership, Knowledge, and Skills for Science Communication annual three-phase programme’s Introductory Workshop (Phase 1) in February, AIMS South Africa, in partnership with African Gong,
continued its journey with Phase 2 of this transformative Afrocentric capacity-building initiative. |
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| | | | Phase 1 laid a strong foundation in which the participants explored the strategic, global, historical, and contemporary dimensions of science communication. Phase 2 built on that. It featured an intensive and interactive three-day workshop dedicated to capacity building for the Mastercard Foundation Scholars at AIMS South Africa under the aegis of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at AIMS Phase II. |
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| | | | The workshop was held from 14 to 16 April 2025 at AIMS South Africa. It provided Mastercard Foundation Scholars with a deeper, hands-on and minds-on engagement in science communication and public engagement practices. It aimed to empower them to leverage these skills for leadership, career growth, and making an impact across academia, industry, and beyond, enhancing their employability. |
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| | | | | | | | On 15 April, Matthew Van den Berg (AIMS South Africa) who is completing his Research Master's thesis presented the research project he has conducted over the past two years within the Deep Learning for Ecology group. The talk was titled: ‘Pose estimation for the African penguin.’ |
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| | | | | | | | Students on the Mathematical Master's stream completed the following courses in April: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (Grae Worster & Jerome Neufeld, University of Cambridge); Analytical Techniques in Mathematical Biology (Lyndsay Kerr, University of Strathclyde); and Quantum Information (Joan Simon Soler, University of Edinburgh). |
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| | | | | | The AI for Science stream participated in two workshops:
• 24-28 March: Modern Statistics and Machine Learning for Population Health in Africa, taught by a team from Imperial College London and the University of Bristol.
• 31 March-11 April: The Science and Engineering of Large Language Models, taught by a team of research scientists and research engineers from Google DeepMind, led by Amr Khalifa, and six tutors from Mila, Oxford and UCL. |
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| | | | | | | AIMSSEC recently had the privilege of hosting Dr Marrielle Myers, a distinguished professor of Mathematics Education at Kennesaw State University, whose visit brought inspiration, joy, and a renewed love of learning to learners and educators alike. |
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| | Dr Myers spent time with the young learners at Levana Primary School in Lavender Hill—a vibrant township school led with vision and dedication by Mrs. Shamiega Charity. The visit was filled with warmth and wonder as Dr. Myers, also an accomplished author of children’s books about mathematics, read aloud to a captivated Grade 1 class. Her storytelling sparked curiosity and excitement, showing learners that mathematics can be imaginative, joyful, and accessible. |
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| In addition to sharing her own positive experiences with mathematics as a child, Dr Myers generously donated a set of her books to the school. The stories resonated deeply with the children, reflecting Levana’s own passions—its colourful garden, fascination with bugs and earthworms, and enthusiasm for yoga. It was a celebration not just of maths education, but of creativity, connection, and the unique spirit of the school community. |
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| | We extend our heartfelt thanks to Dr Myers for her generosity and inspiration, and to Mrs Charity for her unwavering commitment to nurturing young minds. Moments like these remind us of the lasting impact that passionate educators and storytellers can have. |
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| | | | | On 1 April AIMS South Africa welcomed two new staff members, Mr Anthony Bell who joins us as the Finance & Technology |
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| Manager and Ms Jo-Anne Louw, who rejoins the team as a Finance Officer. |
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| | | Teaching tip for lecturers! |
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| | | | | Imposing constraints can also drive mathematical thinking. We ask first for an example with one constraint, then repeat this with more constraints added one by one. Each successive constraint can cause students to think more precisely about the properties of the examples they are generating. |
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