The 4th DSI-Africa Conference was held in Mauritius, from November 16-22, 2024. This event brought together all projects funded by NIH working on public health data science. The consortium consisted of academics and researchers from all over Africa. During the seven-days, participants gave over 30 presentations and participated in a two-day technical session. In addition to over 200 participants attending in person, there were project members attending the conference online. With a diverse range of presentations, the conference highlighted the transformative potential of data science and its profound impact on public health data analytics practices. Discussions emphasized how data science tools and methodologies are revolutionizing traditional statistical methods, making hidden patterns from data more visible. Furthermore, the integration of cutting-edge technologies, such as data science, is enhancing the quality of data analytics practices, fostering greater engagement, and improving public health interventions. 

From Addis Ababa University (AAU), two members attended: 1) Dr. Rahel Bekele, PI of the APHREA-DST project and 2) MSc student, Amanuel Belay, who was a recipient of the Early Career Research award. From the University of Nairobi (UoN), two members attended: 1) Dr. Patrick Weke, PI of the PI of the APHREA-DST project and 2) MSc student, Valine Okeyo, who was another recipient of the Early Career Research award.

On the first two days of the conference on Nov. 16-17, 2024, the Datathon on Breast Cancer including the training on using the Terra platform took place. The participants were the early career researchers and project PIs. The Breast Cancer Datathon provided participants with an exciting opportunity to apply data science techniques to a critical public health issue. Focused on improving breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, the datathon aimed to leverage data-driven solutions to enhance healthcare outcomes in this area. The event was designed not only to foster innovative solutions but also to provide hands-on training in using cutting-edge data science platforms. The first part of the datathon included a comprehensive training session on the Terra platform, a powerful cloud-based platform for data analysis and collaboration in life sciences. The training introduced participants to the platform’s key features, including data storage, integration with various computational tools, and workflows for processing genomic and clinical data.  Following the training, teams were tasked with using Terra to analyze a dataset related to breast cancer, which included genetic, clinical, and imaging data. The goal was to develop predictive models that could improve early diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment decisions. Teams worked collaboratively to clean, preprocess, and analyze the data, using machine learning algorithms to identify patterns and correlations that could aid in understanding breast cancer risk factors, identifying biomarkers, and enhancing patient outcomes. At the end of the competition, teams presented their findings, showcasing their models and insights.  

On the third day on Nov. 18, 2024, the four DSI-Africa standing working groups (Data Governance, Data Management, Training and Education Working, and Partnership and Outreach) met among their respective groups.  

The Conference was officially opened on Nov. 19, 2024. Over the three days (Nov. 19-21), presentations were made in themes organized as follows:

• Theme 1: From Data to Impact - Showcase of research findings and advancements in clinical medicine, public health, and health systems 
• Theme 2: Innovative Tools and Solutions: Addressing Challenges in DS-I Africa – sharing & repurposing tools & resources 
• ​Theme 3: Bridging Research and Practice: Translating Findings into Policy and Action for Improved Healthcare Outcomes in Africa.
• Theme 4: Collaboration for Change: Promoting Knowledge Sharing and Training to Increase Health Impact.

​​The early career researchers, who came from various countries, presented their work through posters and flash talks, which were distributed across the four days of the conference. 

​On the final day of the conference (November 22, 2024), separate project Principal Investigator (PI) meetings were held to facilitate in-depth discussions and collaboration among leaders of various research projects.  

In order to facilitate the development of the Research Groups (RGs) Addis Ababa Unversity APHREA-DST Team organized various research groups workshops where academics, stakeholders and students participated:

• Data Science for Reproductive Health/Maternal and child health workshop was held on Jan 9 & 10, 1024

• Data Science for Communicable and non-communicable disease workshop was held on Jan 11 & 12, 2024
• Data Science for Environment, WASH, Food Security and Health workshop held on Jan 13 & 14, 2024.

This was followed by an official launch of the research groups on April 12, 2024.

Following the official launch, each RG organized its own independent workshop with respective members of the RGs and interested students. The purpose of the workshop for each RGs were to identify thematic areas, identify data sources and work on possible topics of interest for the first batch of students.

• Data Science for Reproductive Health/Maternal and child health working group meeting – 18 April 2024
• Data Science for Communicable and non-communicable disease working group meeting – 22 April 2024
• Data Science for Environment, WASH, Food Security and Health working group – 26 April 2024
• Data warehouse and architecture working group meeting – 30 April 2024. Another round of workshops for each RG was held in May:

Another Data Science for Reproductive Health/Maternal and child health workshop was also held on 10 May 2024. The theme of the workshop was “ Harnessing Data for Improving Maternal and Child Health Outcomes: Case Studies and Practical Applications’ was attended by graduate students and stakeholders from the FMoH, EPHI, and Central Statistical Services.
Presentation topics included ongoing collaborative reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) projects at the School of Public Health, nationally representative survey measuring key indicators, themes and research questions in RMNCH in Ethiopia, and challenges with multiple sources of data and need for centralized system
• Data Science for Communicable and non-communicable disease working group met on 23 May 2024.

Presentation topics included public health data sources and research areas in Ethiopia Statistical Service, enhancing decision making through data science, and harnessing advanced data analytics for public health.

• Data Science for Environment, WASH, Food Security and Health working group held – 24 May 2024.
The purpose was to bring together academics and end users to discuss how to collaborate and use existing data for mutual benefits. Workshop participants included RG members, graduate students, FMoH, EPHI, and Ethiopian Statistical Service.

• Data warehouse and architecture workshop also took place on 9 May 2024.
Presentations by RG members and stakeholders included introductions to this RG, status update on data warehouse at the FMoH, challenges of data sharing in health, and sharing of experiences and best practices in development a data warehouse for health data.

Dr. Amit Mistry a Senior Scientist at the Center for Global Health Studies, Fogarty International Center, U.S National Institutes of Health (NIH) visited the Advancing Public Health Research in Eastern Africa through Data Science Training (APHREA-DST) Project, at the University of Nairobi on 5th March 2024. APHREA-DST project is supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund and is part of the “Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa” program (DS-I Africa).

After the presentation, there was an interactive Q&A session with the students and Dr. Mistry encouraged students to do research work that was impactful to society and publish good papers.

The success of the students will be achieved not only by their hard work but also by the consistency in the exchange of ideas among the faculty taking them through the various courses. To this effect, the faculty led by the APHREA-DST UoN chapter PI, Prof. Patrick Weke, have and continue meeting regularly to share experiences on teaching and student interactions in the various courses. 

​One of the APHREA-DST’s training programs is the Faculty Development program which aims at building faculty capacity in Public Health and Data Science. In year 2 of the APHREA-DST project, the second cohort of Faculty Scholars, two from AAU and two from UoN were selected, that is, Merger, Awgichew, Kipchirchir, and Carolyne. These 4 not only had an opportunity to be peer mentored by the first cohort of Faculty Scholars, but also participated in training, mentoring, and knowledge exchange from experienced faculty at Columbia University. Awgichew and Carolyne are under the mentorship of Dr. Linda Valeri, in the Department of Biostatistics while Merger and Kipchirchir are under the mentorship of Prof. Samory Kpotufe, from the Department of Statistics.

In the days that followed, the scholars were involved in a series of discussions and mentorship sessions with their Columbia University mentors, Dr. Valeri and Prof. Kpotufe. These physical meetings were a welcome change from the online meetings that were being held while the scholars were in their home institutions. The scholars not only got an opportunity to expand their horizons in terms of research but also gained from the wealth of knowledge in student mentorship in Data Science at Columbia. 

A visit to Columbia University would not be complete without a trip to the Morningside Campus, thus, the faculty scholars and mentors took a day trip tour to the campus under the able guidance of Mrs. Niurka Suero-Tejeda. While at Morningside, the team together with Prof. Kiros Berhane, met with Prof. Vijay Modi at the Department of Engineering, to explore the data collected using their renewal energy technologies and discuss possibilities of collaboration. The day then closed with joint farewell dinner at Tartina Italian Restaurant.

​On the final day of the visit, Prof. Kiros Berhane together with Prof. Pam Factor-Litvak organized a roundtable at MSPH where the T32 trainees at the Department of Epidemiology and the visiting Faculty Scholars shared their research which sparked a very interesting and fruitful discussion.

AAU conducted a welcoming and orientation session for the 1st cohort of MSc in Public Health Data Science students. The session started with welcoming speech by Dr. Rahel Bekele who have gone through the project objectives, achievements and milestones completed so far. She has also explained the courses and activities in the program.
Dr. Wondwossen Mulugeta, project team member and currently the Vice President for Institutional Developmnent also gave his expert advice on what is expected of students as well has how best they can make use of the program
Prof. Belay Simane added the importance of collaboration and engagement with partner institutions for data sharing and internship. He provided guidance on how they should engage in their academic and research activities. 

​Addis Ababa University is proud to announce the launch of its M.Sc program in Public Health Data Science (PHDS) with the first cohort of 30 regular program students selected from more than 300 applicants.  Because of the large number of applicants, it has also opened an extension program with another cohort of 30 students.
The major purpose of the program is to equip graduates with the knowledge and skills to employ cutting-edge data science tools and advance effective solutions to pressing public health issues.  As such the graduates are expected to apply machine learning tools and techniques to reveal features of large, complex health-related datasets.
The program is hosted by the School of Information Science an is run in collaboration with the School of Public Health, Department of Statistics, and College of Development Studies at AAU. We are also privileged to partner with Columbia University (USA) and the University of Nairobi (Kenya) in this M.Sc program.   As you are well aware this program will be opened as part of our project entitled “Advancing Public Health Research in Eastern Africa (APHREA-DST)”, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH).
The first cohort of students have come from a diverse set of backgrounds. The statistics is presented below.