IHETC Research Institute
Research & Innovation
The IHETC research institute: applied laboratories, partnership projects, hackathons and support for startups emerging from our cohorts.
Research & Innovation
Our research areas
Three areas where applied research has a measurable effect on the sub-region's economy and institutions.
Applied artificial intelligence
Models trained on the continent's languages and data, and systems that hold up on an intermittent mobile connection.
- Automatic processing of African languages
- Learning under compute and bandwidth constraints
- Model evaluation and bias measurement
Digital sovereignty
The architectures that keep Guinean public data on national soil, and the skills that make it usable there.
- Sovereign hosting and service continuity
- Protection of personal data
- Open source software and control of deployed code
Digital economy and inclusion
Mobile payments, financial inclusion and small business digitalisation, studied through the sub-region's real usage.
- Mobile money and local payment channels
- Financial inclusion of informal workers
- Digitalisation of very small businesses
Research & Innovation
How we work
Applied laboratories
Mixed faculty-student teams tackle a real problem submitted by an organisation, with a dated deliverable and a public presentation.
Commissioned projects
An organisation entrusts a topic, the institute assembles the team and runs the schedule. The client keeps ownership of what is produced.
Hackathons
Forty-eight hours open to students from all 5 schools, on a topic of public interest announced in the academic calendar.
Student venture incubation
Ventures born in class are supported through legal structuring, the first commercial offer and the search for funding.
Research & Innovation
Publications
The institute's work is published here as it appears. To propose a research collaboration or host a student project, get in touch.