New AI Innovation Hub in Tunisia Drives Technological Advancement Across Africa

A new AI innovation hub for developers across Tunisia launched today in Novation City, a technology park that’s designed to cultivate a vibrant, innovation ecosystem in mechatronics — an industry encompassing IT, mechanics and electronics — and to foster synergy between education, research and industry in the North African country.

Built in collaboration with the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI), the hub offers the training, technologies and business networks needed to help drive AI adoption across the continent.

The hub’s launch is part of NVIDIA’s efforts to train 100,000 developers across Africa through the DLI over the next three years — a goal that’s about a quarter complete today.

Located in Sousse — a coastal city in central Tunisia that’s surrounded by universities, startups and other organizations with a strong focus on STEM and AI — the hub includes complimentary access to NVIDIA DLI courses on topics such as generative AI, accelerated computing and data science.

Through its AI, industry 4.0 and smart transport centers of excellence, Novation City provides cutting-edge resources and access to NVIDIA DGX infrastructure for AI startups and researchers. Novation City also hosts organized activities to drive ecosystem growth, such as hackathons and specialized training sessions. It’s all brought together in this new environment conducive to AI learning, experimentation and deployment.

“Novation City has launched several key AI initiatives to strengthen the ecosystem, with NVIDIA’s support being instrumental in empowering AI startups and advancing AI skills,” said Anas Rochdi, chief innovation officer at Novation City. “This year, we deployed Tunisia’s first NVIDIA DGX system and launched major academic initiatives in collaboration with the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute, aiming to train more than 1,000 developers in one year.”

Novation City also runs several startup accelerator programs, and more than 10 participating companies are members of NVIDIA Inception, a free program that nurtures cutting-edge startups.

Tunisia Drives Innovation in STEM and AI Education

Tunisia’s education system has traditionally emphasized STEM, especially mathematics and the sciences, according to Wei Xiao, who leads NVIDIA’s developer relations team for startups, enterprises and universities in the Middle East and Africa.

“Tunisia has a rich history of valuing knowledge and scholarship, dating back to ancient Carthage and the Islamic Golden Age,” Xiao said. “And the nation’s curriculum is rigorous, creating a solid foundation for advanced studies in STEM fields.”

This has made the country — well-situated to serve as a gateway between Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA) — a thriving ecosystem for innovation, entrepreneurship and research. Novation City and NVIDIA aim to bolster the ecosystem even further through the new AI innovation hub.

Fostering collaboration between academia, industry and government, the initiative is funded by French and German development agencies, the Tunisian government, the World Bank and the European Union, as well as several enterprises.

And the hub comes at a time when Tunisia has adopted a national strategy for AI and digitalization — which includes promoting AI education and research — as part of a broader vision to position the nation as a digital leader in Africa. For example, the University of Tunis this month launched the nation’s first public institute specializing in AI.

Partners Foster Sovereign AI in Tunisia and Beyond

A key part of sovereign AI is a nation’s ability to produce artificial intelligence using its own workforce — along with its own infrastructure, data and business networks. Free DLI training offered through Tunisia’s AI innovation hub is poised to enable just that, helping upskill the next generation of African AI experts.

Plus, Novation City already offers a wide range of facilities designed to support technological and scientific advancement.

In February, Novation City deployed an NVIDIA DGX system, among the first in Africa, that has empowered about 30 startups across the continent in climate AI, transportation, manufacturing, agtech and other industries to develop accelerated computing-based solutions.

In addition, ESPRIT University — a specialized university in Tunisia with more than 10,000 engineering students — boasts nine NVIDIA DLI ambassadors who are delivering training to students and contributing to the broader tech ecosystem across the country. This makes ESPRIT University one of the most active DLI organizations across EMEA.

Since 2018, ESPRIT has been tapping into DLI to advance AI education. The university has also acquired an NVIDIA DGX system to support research and product development.

NVIDIA has planned similar AI education initiatives in Kenya and Nigeria to further upskill and enhance African technology ecosystems.

Learn more about the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute.