Resource Registry: University of Witwatersrand

This research project explores the application of AI and machine learning technqiues in video games, focusing on procedural content generation and AI-driven advice. The research team (RAIL) aims to dynamically generate diverse game content and create intelligent virtual companions that offer personalised guidance and strategies to enhance player experiences. By integrating AI technologies, the research team strives to revolutionise video game desgin and contribte to the advancement of AI in the gaming industry.

Using Machine Learning and AI to predict financial distress of African start-ups. Project is run by the FinTech Hub at Wits.

In this line of work, the research team is interested in techniques that allow an agent to quickly leverage past knowledge to solve new tasks. In particular, the research team focuses on how agents can acquire behaviours that can be combined to generate interesting, novel abilities. One particular focus is applying Boolean operators to learned behaviours to generate probably optimal solutions to new tasks. These approaches are not only human-understandable but also result in a combinatorial explosion in an agent’s abilities, which is key to tackling the multitasking or lifelong learning setting.

The Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery Institute (The Wits MIND Institute) at Wits University is an African-based interdisciplinary AI research hub that pushes the frontiers of scientific understanding of machine, human and animal intelligence. 

The Wits MIND Institute focuses on fundamental AI research that promotes breakthrough scientific discoveries and aims to grow a much-needed critical mass of AI expertise on the continent. Through robust interdisciplinary collaborations, MIND partners with industry and others to develop cutting-edge technologies tailored to Africa’s unique challenges.

The Wits MIND Institute also addresses how AI interfaces with society from an ethical and policy perspective, shaping governance and ensuring that AI development is safe, inclusive, and beneficial to all.

Using Machine Learning and AI to predict the success of Mergers and Acquisitions. Project is run by the FinTech Hub at Wits.

The PRIME research lab focuses on machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques for Perception and Representation Learning to enable AI in future to learn from large unlabelled datasets which are cheaper to create.

The research group (RAIL) at Wits competes in the RoboCupSoccer 3D Simulation, in which a team of 11 simulated Nau robots compete in a game of football against other teams from around the world. The focus here is both on improving the low-level control of individual robots and incorporating high-level, multi-agent decision-making into the team’s strategy.

Publication repository of the Robotics, Autonomous Intelligence and Learning (RAIL) research lab at the university of Witwatersrand.

The Robotics, Autonomous Intelligence and Learning (RAIL) is one of the largest AI research labs in the southern hemisphere, ensuring African involvement in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics.

Here, the RAIL research team focuses on learning abstract representations, which the team believes is an important component if we are ever to apply reinforcement learning to the real world. In particular, the RAIL research team focuses on skill- and symbol discovery, as well as the interplay between the two. The RAIL research team have applied their approaches to challenging pixel-based tasks that require high-level planning and has shown that symbolic representations can be learned directly from low-level sensor data.