Avinash Meetoo

Let us build a Smart Mauritius together

Future

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Mauritius: the past, now and the future

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On 7 December 2022, I did a presentation on “Robotique et IA à Maurice: Historique, État des lieux et Challenges” during a workshop on “Robotique Cooperative et Intelligence Artificielle” at the “Université des Mascareignes”.

I started by explaining how the sugar industry has been very forward-looking by introducing mechanised harvesting in the 1990s and how automation is pervasive today. This is something which is rarely known to the public. Then, I embarked on an exposé of Vision 2030 of the Government and the Three-Year Strategic Plan of 2017-2020 (which is still ongoing). In particular, I gave the list of the six growth sectors for Mauritius and the required enablers (including, of course, innovation).

Then, I spoke about the need to come up with Smart Citizens in order to build a Smart Mauritius. Having Smart Citizens is absolutely fundamental in order to tackle the complex issues we have today as well as elect Smart Politicians.

Because I had an audience of teachers and students, I spent some time on ways to enhance our education system in order to create more Smart Citizens. Techniques such as personalised learning could be used. Why do we all need to learn the same things and in the same way? This can make learning more enjoyable and, hence, be an important means to leave no one behind.

Furthermore, learning is not only about the young people. In our era, we all need to engage in lifelong learning. We need to find interesting and effective ways to upskill and reskill our existing working population.

I then gave an outline of the Artificial Intelligence strategy in Government from the World AI Show in 2018, to the formulation of the strategy a few months later, the decision to setup a Mauritius Artificial Intelligence Council and, subsequently, the decision to have one agency for all emerging technologies (one of which being AI).

Of course, being at the the “Université des Mascareignes”, I spoke lengthily about the excellent decision to introduce their Masters in AI and the impact this can have.

But I also shared my general feeling that things move too slowly in Mauritius. From 2018 to 2022, four years have elapsed and we should have done much more.

Focusing on important and big challenges to achieve Net Zero

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Today, I participated in a Road to Net Zero conference organized by the School of Sustainable Development and Tourism of the University of Technology, Mauritius and the University of Birmingham, UK. Themes covered during the day were climate change, renewable energy, ESG disclosure and the SDG framework.

The official opening was done by the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation.

The keynote speaker was Associate Professor Roshan Boojihawon from the University of Birmingham in the UK. Rudy Oh-Seng, Environment Officer at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, intervened next.

My own presentation was about ways to achieve our 2030 development targets. I spoke about the existing Vision 2030 of the Republic of Mauritius, the UNDP Strategy for 2022 to 2025 and the absolute need to focus on having a skilled workforce to tackle the important and big problems facing us.

Last but not least was Mreedula Mungra, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mauritius Renewable Energy Agency (MARENA), who masterfully explained the steps to follow to achieve the vision of having 60% renewable energy within the next eight years.

In the audience were representatives of the private sector involved in sustainability, academics and students from Mauritius and abroad. The level of interaction between the audience and the speakers was excellent. Many were young professionals and young students and they are instrumental in the country acheiving its many targets.

Tomorrow, the sessions will be more technical and more focussed on ESG disclosure.

My keynote speech at the UoM Research Week 2022

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The opening of the University of Mauritius 2022 Research Week was on 7 November and I made a keynote speech on that day. The other keynote speakers were Aruna Radhakeesoon, Sudhamo Lal, Viv Padayatchy and Paramasivum Vyapoory.

The theme of my keynote speech was “SDGs and Innovation for the Educational Technologies sector in Mauritius”. I had been invited by the Centre for Innovative and Lifelong Learning (CILL) of UoM.

I started with the Mauritian context. We want the country to be green (e.g. moving to 60% of renewable energy from the 27% we are today), (fully) inclusive and rich (high-income) in eight years and this requires everyone to chip in.

Problems are immensely complex now and academics are the kind of people with the proper mental aptitudes to comprehend them and provide solutions to them.

But they need to form multidisciplinary teams as any complex problem tend to be multi-faceted. Furthermore, the typical academic (I was one!) tend to do research by creating small toy solutions. These are not scalable in general and are not useful when solutions need to be found for the whole country.

Academics have this wonderful opportunity to think bigger and really contribute to the development of the country.

One of the things that academics can do is to help make sense of the Sustainable Development Goals Framework of the United Nations. These are not only 17 terms but also detailed explanations of each of the 17 SDGs, events being organised, a lot of publications containing best practices and current news.

Academics are the ones who can take this enormous amount of information and condense it in such a way for policy makers to be able to make good decisions. Academics (with their bright students) can be an essential layer in the advisory system of Government (but also for the private sector and civil society).

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has adopted a new Strategic Plan for 2022-2025 which relies on 3 major directions of change: building resilience (following COVID-19), making sure not to leave anyone behind (I did mention that we are killing our Einsteins every year by neglecting poor neighbourhoods…) and this requires structural transformation (especially in education and in governance).

UNDP has also identified 3 major enablers to help in providing solutions: digitalisation, innovation and development financing. Development financing is very important given that Mauritius is considered to be a (relatively) rich country and that we will need to stop relying on outside money for development (as they can stop coming anytime).

The population is ageing and our workforce is not yet ready for the jobs of the future. We need more and better people(ware). We need to train our young (and not young) people properly. We need to bring back the diaspora and incite foreigners to come. One key element is to have better knowledge transfer mechanisms. Everyone learning should be able to learn from experts in the field and not only in class.

We need people who are good in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). But these hard skills are not enough. To solve complex problems, we need people who are also good in soft skills such as creative thinking, communication, being artistic, etc.

The question is how to do create a critical mass of such people: good in hard skills and soft skills. Good at listening. Good at understanding. Good at sharing. And being artistic enough to know what is really important.

This is where Educational Technologies can help.

Schools were invented when factory workers were needed. Today we need knowledge workers and it makes sense to have personalised learning. I dream of a system where the 1.3 millions of Mauritians and Rodriguans can learn different things at different paces.

Another aspect is lifelong learning. The world is changing fast and people need to constantly adapt. Upskilling and reskilling are part and parcel of our lives today and this is not yet reflected in our education system.

YouTube is competing with academics and the latter need to fight for attention. Learning at the university needs to become more enjoyable for the learner.

And, finally, we need to make sure not to leave anyone behind. The University of Mauritius need to understand that it is a key institution of the country with a formidable mandate: identify and amplify the very best among the population. The university needs to move “outside” its Réduit campus.

And I ended by saying that the contribution of academics counts (a lot). Together, we can build a new version of Mauritius, a better one.

[A few days later, I would read an article on Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who believed we should define ourselves less by our work, and more by our leisure activities. As from now, if people ask, I’ll them them I do music and photography…]