By Beni Bamusi

Thyolo, May 18, Mana: Professionals and students have been urged to embrace the use of crossing cutting edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems which has revolutionized the workplace and academia to ensure productivity and efficiency.

The call was made on Friday at Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Thyolo during AI Awareness Day, which was being commemorated under the theme; ‘Embracing AI for Unlocking Professional Potential.

The AI Awareness Day was organized by the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Science Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics subjects.

Addressing the audience, Malawi Institute of Technology, Executive Dean, Michael Zimba said AI has changed the academia and workplace landscape for the better.

“Students are now able to perfect their Thesis and improve on what they might miss. In a work place, AI is being used in the health care to monitor patients how they are responding to treatment,

“This entails that if we do not embrace AI system we will be left behind,” he told them.

Zimba urged students to explore AI to unlock their various potential while being mindful of all the ethical considerations as failure to do so might cause harm to individuals and even chaos in a society.

During the AI Awareness Day, Precious Kakwete and her colleagues doing internship at Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) showcased their Automated Employee Attendance System, the Chat Board as well as the Automatic Number Plate Recognition System which they have developed.

She said the Automated Employee Attendance System would replace manual log in system and will help HR personnel to track and check the time an employee reports for work using fingerprint.

"The Chat Board will be used for data visualization and quick summary of data from debases whereas the Automatic Number Plate Recognition System uses machine learning and AI to track cars entering and leaving MRA premises.

"The system scans vehicle number plate and is able to display number plate and information of the vehicle as well as the owner of the vehicle. Through the logbook it displays number of number of vehicles on the premises," she said.

One of the Alumnus and Lecturer at the Institution, Peter Mwambananji showcased a Soil Crop Suitability System used in agriculture.

“The innovation takes features of soil and compare with different features of the soil in the database and depict which crop is suitable for the soil.

"The enthusiasm came in after I failed on soya beans farming due to unsuitability of soil for soya beans farming hence developing the system to make it smooth for those who would want to venture into agribusiness but do not know how to choose crops basing on the type of soil they have,” he said.

Some final year students pursuing Biomedical Engineering Programme led by William Chonzi displayed their deep learning machine for measles diagnosis.

He said the tool was time efficient compared to PCR which takes four hours to diagnose a patient which he said is not viable during an outbreak.

Chonzi said Biomedical Engineering bridges the gap between medicine and engineering.

AI Centre at MUST was introduced in 2023.