Benjamin Rosman

Benjamin Rosman is a Professor in the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where he runs the Robotics, Autonomous Intelligence and Learning (RAIL) Laboratory, the largest AI research lab in Africa, and is the Director of the National E-Science Postgraduate Teaching and Training Platform (NEPTTP). In 2024, he became the founding Director of the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, focused on the fundamental science of intelligence in machines, humans, and animals. He is also the Chief Science Officer of Lelapa AI, building AI for Africans, by Africans.

He received his Ph.D. in Informatics in 2014, and previously obtained his M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence, both from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He also has a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Applied Mathematics, both from the University of the Witwatersrand. His research interests focus primarily on reinforcement learning and decision making in autonomous systems, specifically on how learning can be accelerated through abstracting and generalising knowledge gained from solving related problems.

He is a founder and organiser of the Deep Learning Indaba machine learning summer school, with a focus on strengthening African machine learning, which now has satellite events in 47 African countries. He was made a 2024 National Geographic Explorer, 2022 CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in Learning in Machines and Brains, was a 2017 recipient of a Google Faculty Research Award in machine learning, and a 2021 recipient of a Google Africa Research Award. In 2020, he was made a Senior Member of the IEEE.

He is an Advisory Committee member of the Reinforcement Learning Conference, a member of the AAAI Membership Committee, a member of the IEEE Cognitive and Developmental Systems Technical Committee, and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Association of AI Ethicists. He has over 120 publications in the area of machine learning, largely in top tiered international venues. He has supervised over 85 MSc and PhD students, and reviewed papers for 75 journals and conferences. He has given about 200 academic, corporate, and public talks around the world.