Tutorial & Skill Sessions

The Deep Learning Indaba (DLI) is the annual gathering of Africa’s Machine Learning and AI community, dedicated to strengthening and celebrating African AI. In 2026, the Deep Learning Indaba will be held in Nigeria in August (exact dates to be announced later). The event will include keynotes, tutorials, workshops, panels, and other interactive sessions. The theme for this year’s Indaba is: Sovereign Intelligence: Africa’s Path in a Frontier AI World.

We are excited to announce our first-ever open call for Tutorials and Skill Sessions and invite you to submit your proposals, especially for topics that support the theme.

• Tutorials are 2 hour entirely in-person sessions intended to introduce a specific topic to the audience in a lecture-style format. Please see the past Intro to Transformers or Intro to Machine Learning tutorials for inspiration. We encourage topics around (but not limited to) Graph Neural Networks, Climate Modelling, Agentic AI etc. Maximum of 3 speakers per Tutorial. 
• Skill Sessions are 1 hour entirely in-person sessions aimed at providing participants with broad, reusable competencies that are essential for long-term professional success. Sessions should be hands-on demonstrations (“how-to”) and include resources for participants to reproduce the skills later.  For example, you could propose a session on how to ship production-level code or how to read and write research papers. Maximum of 1 speaker per Skill Session. 

 Both sessions are expected to be accessible to undergraduate participants working in different areas of Machine Learning, i.e., a good part of the session should be spent on covering necessary background material. We encourage submitters to think about how their session could be helpful in the community after the meeting, for example, providing links to code, slides, and exercises. There is no cap on the number of proposals submitted per person – feel free to fill out this form multiple times.

• Deadline for proposals: 8th March, 2026 AOE
• Acceptance decisions: 29th March, 2026 

Funding Notice: We are able to provide a shared accommodation to tutorial organisers, if requested. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee travel costs. We encourage you to apply to DLI as a participant to request funding. 

If you cannot make it to the Indaba in person, we still want to hear from you! There will be opportunities to deliver practical sessions online post-Indaba 🙂 

What is the difference between the two?

• Tutorials & Skill Sessions: Foundational, lecture-style sessions designed to introduce the audience to a specific topic or skill.
• Workshops: Focused forums for discussing emerging research, sharing novel ideas, and showcasing ongoing work.

Can I submit the same proposal to both calls?
No. Please evaluate which format best fits your content and submit to that specific call only.

Submission Requirements:

• Type (Tutorial/Skill Session/ Post Indaba Online Practical) 
• Title of your session
• Abstract (max 250 words)
• Description and outline: What material will your session cover and in what depth? Please provide a detailed outline.
• How is this session in support of this year’s theme: Sovereign Intelligence: Africa’s Path in a Frontier AI World: We are seeking proposals that empower the African community to build, control, and deploy AI systems that foster technological sovereignty, such as local model fine-tuning, the use of open-source AI stacks, or more. We especially encourage submissions that demonstrate how these technical capabilities strengthen African AI agency. While we are eager to see innovative use cases tailored to African context, any topics that teach fundamental skills and core technologies are also encouraged, as building a strong foundation is essential for long-term ownership and self-determination in the age of frontier AI.
• Pre-requisite skills required from participants
• Show your competency by linking your given talks, tutorials, git repos, if any.
• Presenter Information: Presenters (max 3 for Tutorials, max 1 for Skill Sessions): Who are the presenters? Please provide first name, last name, institution, email addresses and short bios for each presenter. Bios should cover the presenters’ expertise related to the topic of the tutorial. Please also include the nationality and gender of speakers. This is to provide a platform for African voices. We try our best to  ensure a balanced representation of all demographics at the Indaba.

Selection Criteria:

• Topic Alignment: Proposals are selected to ensure a diverse program that spans a broad range of subjects and skill sets.
• Quality: Submissions are evaluated based on clarity, depth of content, and overall educational value.

Submission: 

Please Submit your proposal through this form: https://forms.gle/vLaMfooupUowyyqC9

Questions

For other questions, please contact us at tutorials@deeplearningindaba.com

Tutorial Team:

Annie Qurat Ul Ain & Joscha Cueppers