Internships

About Mak-CAD: Pioneering AI for Development

The Makerere Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (Mak-CAD) is at the forefront of AI research and innovation in Africa. Our mission is to harness the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence to address critical continental issues, improve human development indices, and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are committed to “Building Responsible AI Research and Innovations for Impact,” ensuring our work is ethical, fair, and beneficial to society. As an intern, you’ll be part of a dynamic team working on projects funded by prestigious partners like IDRC Canada and the UK’s FCDO.

Your Role as a Mak-CAD Intern (June – July 2025)

As an intern, you will join one of our core research tracks. You will be an active member of a project team, contributing to meaningful research and development.

Focus Areas & Potential Projects:

1. Software Development for AI:

• Design and develop software solutions for AI-driven applications in health, agriculture, or other key sectors.
• Contribute to building and maintaining AI-ready datasets for African contexts.
• Develop robust back-end systems and APIs for AI models.
• Engage in agile development practices and collaborative coding.

2. Computer Vision:

• Assist in designing, training, and evaluating computer vision models for applications like medical image analysis or precision agriculture.
• Work with image/video datasets, including augmentation, annotation, and pre-processing.
• Explore and implement state-of-the-art deep learning architectures for vision tasks.

3. Natural Language Processing (NLP):

• Contribute to projects focusing on under-resourced African languages (e.g., data collection, model building for machine translation or speech recognition 10).
• Work on NLP applications such as sentiment analysis, text summarization, or information extraction tailored for local contexts.
• Explore techniques for low-resource NLP and culturally relevant AI.

Who We Are Looking For (Eligibility & Skills):

We invite applications from motivated and passionate undergraduate students who meet the following criteria:

• Currently enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Data Science, or a closely related field at a recognized Ugandan university.
• Must maintain student status throughout the internship duration (June-July 2025).
• Basic programming experience (Python is highly preferred; Java or JavaScript also considered).
• Solid understanding of fundamental data structures and algorithms.
• A demonstrable passion for AI and its potential for positive impact in Africa.
• Eagerness to learn, adapt, and contribute proactively in a dynamic research environment.
• Familiarity with machine learning concepts is an added advantage.
• Prior experience with relevant projects (academic or personal) is desirable but not mandatory.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent teamwork and communication skills.

Internship Duration: 8 weeks (Full-time, approx. 40 hours/week) between early June and late July 2025. Specific dates will be confirmed upon selection.

Location: This is an in-person internship based at the Mak-CAD facilities, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

Application Deadline: Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at 11:59 PM EAT.