Penn State Pan-African Professional Alliance (PAN-APA) • 2026

Building with Intelligent Systems

A hands-on workshop exploring AI technologies through the lens of African-led innovation — from speech recognition to fine-tuning models for African languages.

00

Workshop Flow

Pre-assessment • Modules • Post-assessment • Certificate

1
Pre-Evaluation
Knowledge + Attitudes
Take Now
2
Learn & Practice
6 guided modules
Explore
3
Post-Evaluation
Measure your growth
Take Later
4
Certificate
Download & share
Register first
01

African-Led Innovation

Organizations behind each module

🇬🇭
Nyansapo Labs
GHANA / USA
🇳🇬
Ubenwa
NIGERIA
🌍
Masakhane
PAN-AFRICAN
🇪🇹
iCog Labs
ETHIOPIA
🇿🇦
Lelapa AI
SOUTH AFRICA
02

Workshop Modules

6 modules • guided lessons + hands-on pipeline builder

Audio Intelligence
Nyansapo Labs 🇬🇭 & Ubenwa 🇳🇬
Live Session

Transcribe speech with OpenAI Whisper, extract audio features with MFCCs, classify sounds with SVMs, and generate speech with Piper TTS.

Whisper MFCC SVM librosa Piper TTS
Vision Intelligence
iCog Labs
Post-Workshop

Classify images, detect objects with YOLO, segment regions with SAM, caption with BLIP, and generate images — the full computer vision stack.

BLIP YOLO SAM Classification VQA Gemini
Language & Cognitive Intelligence
Masakhane & Lelapa AI
Post-Workshop

Master LLM prompting, build conversational AI, summarize and analyze text, translate languages, generate code, and automate cognitive work — from research reports to everyday tasks.

LLMs Prompting Claude Translation Summarization Vibe Coding Automation
Agentic AI
iCog Labs
Post-Workshop

Build AI agents that perceive, plan, act, observe, and revise — from rule-based keyword matching to Claude-powered reasoning.

Agents Knowledge Base Claude AI Cognitive Loop
Fine-Tuning for Africa
Masakhane & Lelapa AI
Advanced

Learn to fine-tune pre-trained models for African languages, speech, and research contexts — the key skill that turns generic AI into tools that work for Africa.

Fine-Tuning Transfer Learning LoRA Whisper PEFT
Build Your Own
Your Research
Capstone

Reflect on your research context, assess your AI readiness, and build your own AI-powered analysis pipeline using workshop scaffolds.

Capstone Reflection Custom Pipeline Scaffolds
03

Pipeline Builder

Build AI systems without writing code

🧩
Drag. Drop. Build AI.

Chain together audio, vision, language, and data blocks to create powerful AI pipelines — no programming required. Just like Scratch, but for real AI.

Open Pipeline Builder Browse Templates