Awards

Celebrating Excellence in African Machine Learning

THAMSANQA KAMBULE DOCTORAL DISSERTATION AWARD

Recognizing excellence in research and writing by doctoral candidates at African universities, in any area of computational and statistical sciences.

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  • Application deadline: 10 May 2026 
  • Shortlist selection: June 2026
  • The award will be presented at the annual Deep Learning Indaba in August 2026.

Honoring Visionary Change-Makers

The Kambule Doctoral Award recognises and encourages excellence in research and writing by doctoral candidates at African universities, in any area of computational and statistical sciences.

The Kambule Doctoral Award celebrates African research excellence: its recipients are those that uphold Thamsanqa Kambule’s legacy as a defender of learning, a seeker of knowledge, and activist for equality.

The award will be presented at the annual Deep Learning Indaba in August 2026. We welcome applications from students themselves, or nominations from their supervisors and mentors.

Eligibility Criteria

Who Can Apply?

  • The nominee must have been registered as a student and received their degree from an African university.
  • Nominations are welcomed from any African country with Theses completed after 1 January 2022 are eligible for nomination.
  • A dissertation may be nominated by the author, an academic who is in a position to comment on the candidate and merits of the work (e.g., PhD supervisor, thesis examiner, academic mentor, collaborators), a department chair or head of department.
  • PhD theses in the broad area of computational and statistical sciences will be eligible. This includes, but is not restricted to: machine learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence, statistics, probability, data science, information theory, econometrics, optimisation, statistical physics, biostatistics and bioinformatics, natural language processing, computer vision, and computational neuroscience.
  • The Awards Committee interprets the phrase “PhD thesis” to mean a dissertation in final form, i.e. approved by the student’s examinations board, e.g., viva examinations completed, public defence completed, corrected version submitted, or degree awarded.
  • The thesis can be in any language. For theses written in other languages, the Awards Committee may require English translations based on the availability of reviewers. Supporting letters and reports can be in any language, but we ask that English translations are applied for those written in other languages.

Selection Criteria

Evaluating the Impact of Nominations

Dissertations will be reviewed for technical depth and significance of the research contribution, potential impact on theory and practice, quality of presentation, the ability to support and uphold the legacy of Thamsanqa Kambule, and its role in strengthening African machine learning.

awards@deeplearningindaba.com

For further questions, email us at this address.