Open for Collaborations

Dr. Innocent Nyalala

AI Researcher & Assistant Professor of Data Science and AI

School of Science and Engineering, IIT Madras Zanzibar

Associate Research Fellow, Wadhwani School of Data Science & AI, IIT Madras Chennai

Head, SAAIL Lab · IIT Madras Zanzibar

1,170+ Citations 15 H-Index 33+ Publications

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Research Focus

AI for Sustainable Agriculture & Healthcare

Updates

Latest News & Updates

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Active Research

Key Research Projects

Pioneering AI-driven solutions to critical challenges in agriculture, healthcare, and linguistic inclusion across Africa and the Global South.

Computer Vision

AI for Smart Agriculture

Robust vision models for early detection of Cassava Mosaic & Brown Streak Disease to secure food systems across East Africa.

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Medical AI

Healthcare AI & Diagnostics

Deep learning for medical image analysis — placental diagnostics and AI-assisted malaria elimination in tropical regions.

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KI

AI

UB

NLP · Linguistics

Swahili NLP & Language AI

State-of-the-art language models and corpora for Swahili and Bantu languages — democratising AI for 200M+ speakers.

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Research Group

The SAAIL Lab

Sustainable AI for Agriculture & Intelligent Livelihoods

Based at IIT Madras Zanzibar, SAAIL Lab pioneers ethical, contextually-aware AI solutions for East Africa and the Global South — bridging high-end computational research with ground-level impact in agriculture, healthcare, and linguistic inclusion.

Head & Principal Investigator

Dr. Innocent Nyalala

Open Positions

MTech · Research Assistant

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Latest Lab Output

SAAIL Lab publications & presentations

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Teaching & Mentorship

Committed to empowering the next generation of data scientists and AI engineers through hands-on, ethics-centred, and impact-driven pedagogy.

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Teaching Experience

IIT Madras Zanzibar Oct 2024 – Present

Egerton University Apr 2022 – Dec 2024

Maseno University Feb 2022 – Aug 2022

Zetech University Jan 2017 – Aug 2017

The East African University Sep 2016 – Aug 2017

Kabarak University Sep 2016 – Dec 2016

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Selected Publications

Rectifying the extremely weakened signals for cassava leaf disease detection

Zhang J., Nyalala I., et al. · Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

A salient feature establishment tactic for cassava disease recognition

Zhang J., Nyalala I., et al. · Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture

MAIANet: Signal modulation in cassava leaf disease classification

Zhang J., Nyalala I., et al. · Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

BAFNet: Deep contour-aware features for colorectal polyps segmentation

Zhou D., Nyalala I., et al. · Expert Systems with Applications

A review on computer vision systems in monitoring of poultry: A welfare perspective

Okinda C., Nyalala I., et al. · Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture

IF 8.5 242 citations

A machine vision system for early detection and prediction of sick birds: A broiler chicken model

Okinda C., Nyalala I., et al. · Biosystems Engineering

IF 6.5 194 citations

Tomato volume and mass estimation using computer vision and machine learning: Cherry tomato model

Nyalala I., et al. · Journal of Food Engineering

IF 5.4 178 citations

View All 33+ Publications Google Scholar

Get in Touch

Contact Dr. Nyalala

Open for research collaborations, speaking invitations, and academic partnerships.

Institutional Email

innocent@iitmz.ac.in

SAAIL Lab Email

saail_lab@iitmz.ac.in

Personal Email

innocentnyalala@gmail.com

Phone (Tanzania)

+255 753 864 855

Phone (Kenya)

+254 791 349 216

Office

IIT Madras Zanzibar Campus
P.O. Box 2496, Zanzibar, Tanzania

Office Hours

Wednesday02:00 PM – 04:00 PM

For other times, please email to arrange an appointment.