Summer School 2027

AARC Summer School

on Robotics & Automation in Africa

An initiative to promote robotics education and research in South Africa and across the continent - filling a critical gap for early-stage robotics researchers.

About

About the Initiative

The field of robotics is steadily growing in South Africa, which is home to some of the largest robotics and machine learning labs in Africa. Despite this, there are currently no active summer schools aimed at early-stage robotics researchers. The AARC Summer School is poised to fill this important gap - bringing together graduate students, researchers, and practitioners for an intensive programme of keynotes, tutorials, and hands-on sessions.

The school will take place in August/September 2027. We aim to co-locate with the Deep Learning Indaba, with whom the organising committee has an existing relationship and which is expected to take place in South Africa next year. By co-locating with the largest ongoing machine learning and AI conference in Africa, we hope to expand the reach of our school to include participants from across the continent - promoting robotics education and building a research community on a much larger scale.

At a Glance

When: August/September 2027 (exact dates TBC)
Where: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (TBC)
Duration: 3 days
Target Audience: Graduate students with a background in ML/AI

Areas of Interest

What to expect

The summer school will cover foundational and cutting-edge areas in robotics and automation. Exact topics and session details will be confirmed as the programme is finalized.

ROS2 and Robotics Foundations

Essential tools and frameworks for modern robotics development

Robot Control and Autonomy

Techniques for enabling autonomous robot decision-making and control

Perception and Sensor Integration

Processing sensor data for robot understanding of the environment

Cognitive Robotics

Cognitive architectures and reasoning for intelligent robotic systems

Behaviour Design and Decision-Making

Cognitive and intelligent robotics, planning, and reasoning

Sim-to-Real Transfer

Bridging simulation and real-world robot deployment

HRI and Natural Language Interaction

Human-robot interaction and language-based communication

Real-World Robotics Applications

Practical deployments across industries, agriculture, and service sectors

Programme & Schedule

Three-day agenda

The programme features keynote lectures, hands-on sessions, panel discussions, and networking opportunities. Daily sessions run from 08:30 to 17:00. This schedule is tentative and subject to change.

Time	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
08:30 – 09:00	Registration	Registration	Registration
09:00 – 09:30	Registration	Keynote	Keynote
09:30 – 10:00	Welcome Session	Keynote	Keynote
10:00 – 10:30	Coffee Break
10:30 – 11:00	Keynote	Hands-on Session: Robot Perception	Poster Session
11:00 – 11:30	Keynote
11:30 – 12:00	Hands-on Session: Introduction to ROS
12:00 – 12:30		Keynote	Keynote
12:30 – 13:00		Keynote	Keynote
13:00 – 13:30	Lunch Break
13:30 – 14:00	Lunch Break
14:00 – 14:30	Keynote	Keynote	Keynote
14:30 – 15:00	Keynote	Keynote	Keynote
15:00 – 15:30	Hands-on Session: Robot Learning Challenge Robotics lab visit: Visit to the Wits University RAIL Lab	Panel Discussion	Hands-on Session: RoboCup
15:30 – 16:00
16:00 – 16:30
16:30 – 17:00			Closing Session

Speakers

The speaker list will be added soon. If you are interested in speaking or leading a session, please reach out via our Discord or email.

Organising Committee

The team making it happen

The summer school is being organized by dedicated researchers and community builders committed to advancing robotics education and research across Africa.