“I learned about Zindi at an online NVIDIA conference I attended during the pandemic. I joined the platform and started competing immediately. It gave me an opportunity to become involved in discussions and on the message boards, and the opportunity to compete on teams.” — Michiel George Ferreira (or MG) is a mathematician from South Africa. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and an MSc in Mathematics from the University of Pretoria. His love for mathematics and desire to stay relevant with the latest development in the labour market at the time led him…

2022 is the year UmojaHack Africa grew up. From a chaotic start in 2020 amidst a new global pandemic, UmojaHack Africa has grown and developed into the leading hackathon in the African data science space. With $10 000 in prizes for winners across 30 countries, and 1200 students from more than 300 universities participating over the weekend, Zindi…

UmojaHack Africa is Africa’s largest inter-university machine learning hackathon, taking place this year 19–20 March 2022 at universities all over the continent. Students of all levels are invited to take part in a weekend of learning and fun, connect with each other and with career opportunities in data science…

A collaboration between Zindi, Mtoto News, Basic Needs Basic Rights Kenya, and Qhala has created a chatbot powered by machine learning that serves as a mental health companion for young people in Kenya, specifically university students. This is the first time that machine learning and data science are being used…

“While working as a software engineer at Andela, I would occasionally hop in and participate in Zindi competitions — I think that was from 2018. I was only a user for a while. Then after I left Andela, I ventured into contracting because I was focusing on starting my business…

Data science communities are bootstrapping a new revolution in Africa. For Paul Kennedy, reflecting on two years of community-building at Zindi, it’s a joy and a privilege to be a small part of the movement. When I joined Zindi as Community Manager in December 2019, I had very little idea…

We’d like to introduce Balogun Hammed Opeyemi, winner of the Uber Nairobi Ambulance Perambulation Challenge. Read on to see how he came out on top and learn from his approach. Please introduce yourself to the Zindi community. I am Balogun Hammed Opeyemi (Balogun) from Lagos, Nigeria. I have a Bachelor’s…

Part 2: In the previous blog, we discussed why you should focus on your CV rather than a cover letter, here we discuss CVs. In our opinion, your CV is a direct reflection of you, your background, your personal, academic and commercial achievements and what you can bring to any…

In this first installment of a two-part blog series on getting a data science job, we discuss cover letters. Do you really have to write one? Are they still relevant? We will also introduce some alternatives to cover letters. Do you need a cover letter? There is a mixed opinion about cover letters and the value…