Artificial Intelligence and Humanity: Harnessing Technology to Address Global Challenges
Why this theme, and why now
Artificial intelligence has moved from laboratory curiosity to everyday infrastructure. It drafts our documents, screens our patients, routes our logistics and increasingly mediates how citizens access public services. That reach makes AI a question of humanity long before it is a question of engineering.
ASUP'26 asks a deliberately practical question: how can polytechnic scholarship — the branch of academia closest to applied practice — direct these tools toward the challenges that matter most? Food systems under climate stress, overstretched health services, insecure digital infrastructure, unequal access to quality education and the pressure on institutions to modernise without losing accountability.
The theme insists on both halves of the phrase. Technology without a human frame produces efficient harm; humanity without technical fluency produces well-meaning irrelevance. The conference programme is structured to hold the two together across eight disciplinary tracks.
Four pillars of the theme
Intelligence with intent
AI systems must be designed around human needs, not merely technical possibility.
Ethics and trust
Fairness, transparency and accountability are prerequisites, not afterthoughts.
Global challenges
Climate, health, food security, education and governance are the proving grounds.
African context
Solutions must reflect African data, languages, economies and institutions.
Expected impact
The conference will produce a peer-reviewed proceedings volume, a policy communiqué addressed to education and technology regulators, and a network of cross-institutional research teams. Delegates leave with practical AI competencies they can apply immediately in teaching, research and institutional practice.
Browse the eight sub-themesObjectives and future direction
- Interrogate the role of artificial intelligence in solving pressing global and national challenges.
- Provide a rigorous peer-reviewed platform for polytechnic scholars and industry researchers.
- Strengthen collaboration between academia, government, and the technology industry.
- Promote responsible, ethical and human-centred adoption of emerging technologies.
- Build capacity of academic staff in AI-enabled teaching, research and innovation.
- Publish high-quality proceedings that inform policy and practice across Africa.