Some Requests for Machine Learning Research from the East African Tech Scene

Based on 46 in-depth interviews with scientists, engineers, and CEOs, this document presents a list of concrete machine research problems, progress on which would directly benefit tech ventures in East Africa. The goal of this work is to give machine learning researchers a fuller picture of where and how their efforts as scientists can be useful. The goal is thus not to highlight research problems that are unique to East Africa -- indeed many of the problems listed below are of general interest in machine learning. The problems on the list are united solely by the fact that technology practitioners and organizations in East Africa reported a pressing need for their solution. The author is aware that listing machine learning problems without also providing data for them is not a recipe for getting those problems solved. If the reader is interested in any of the problems below, please get in touch.