MCAAI Partnership with the Google PhD Fellowship Program
A collaboration bridging African grassroots academic talent with big-tech industrial expertise, supporting outstanding MCAAI-nominated PhD students through funding, mentorship, and global research recognition.
The Maseno Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence (MCAAI) has established an active synergy with the Google PhD Fellowship Program, a prestigious global initiative supporting outstanding doctoral students shaping the future of computer science and artificial intelligence. The collaboration serves as a direct bridge between African grassroots academic talent and big-tech industrial expertise, empowering localized research to reach global standards. Under the fellowship, MCAAI researchers focus on Natural Language Processing (NLP) for underserved and low-resource African languages, developing continuous frameworks for automatic speech recognition (ASR) and machine translation tailored to localized language sets. Fellows also represent the collaboration globally, presenting research at platforms such as the MCAIM-Africa Applied Mathematics Foundations of AI Summer School (AMFAI). The partnership extends into digital inclusion and social impact projects, including AI for Kenyan Sign Language (AI4KSL), a global award-winning innovation that converts sign language into speech to promote educational inclusion for deaf learners, alongside data-driven initiatives like AfriVoices-KE and SureFood targeting community food systems, agricultural advisory apps, and public voice datasets. The ecosystem also fuels talent incubation through hackathons and upskilling events such as the Western Region Research and Innovation Consortium (WRRIC) and IndabaX Kenya. Core MCAAI community members, including Cynthia Amol and Ezekiel Maina, have been officially recognized as global Google PhD Fellows.
Objectives
Low-Resource NLP Research
Fellows focus on Natural Language Processing, automatic speech recognition, and machine translation frameworks tailored to underserved African languages.
Digital Inclusion Projects
Research supports social impact tools such as AI4KSL (sign language to speech), AfriVoices-KE, and SureFood for community food systems.
Talent Incubation
The collaboration fuels hackathons and upskilling events like WRRIC and IndabaX Kenya, building youth-led solutions across the region.
MCAAI as Nominating Institution and Research Base
MCAAI identifies and nominates outstanding full-time PhD students based on academic metrics and leadership potential, since direct applications to the fellowship are not permitted. The Centre provides the local research environment, language expertise, and community project infrastructure that allow fellows to apply their work directly to real-world African contexts, including sign language technology, low-resource language datasets, and agricultural advisory systems.
$50,000
Maximum Fellowship Funding
Fellowship funding is disbursed directly through the university to cover stipends, technology equipment, research execution, and international travel for nominated MCAAI PhD fellows.
Get Involved
Learn More About the Fellowship Nomination Process
Explore submission guidelines for the university nomination cycle, or dive deeper into the technical work behind projects like AI4KSL and AfriVoices-KE.