Loyani is an Assistant Lecturer of Machine Learning in the School of Computational and Communication Science and Engineering (CoCSE) at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST). Prior to joining the NM-AIST, He was an Assistant Lecturer of Computer Science in the Department of Natural Sciences and Information Technology at Mwenge Catholic University. He received his Master’s and Bachelor degrees at the NM-AIST and Mzumbe University respectively.

He has a keen research interest in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, particularly in the field of Computer Vision. Loyani is highly motivated and passionate about research on building Computer Vision methods that enable tackling real-world challenges. His most recent research involved developing a deep learning model for early detection, segmentation and quantification of Tuta absoluta, a pest which is a major threat to tomato productivity globally. The model was deployed in a smartphone to enable farmers take appropriate measures to control this invasive pest, subsequently improving tomato productivity and reduce the burden on limited extension officers in the country, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable agricultural sector. This work has been presented at several renowned AI/ML conferences and workshops such as Black in AI/ NeurIPS 2019 & 2023, ICLR 2020, DSA 2020 & 2023, MD4SG 2020 and Deep Learning Indaba 2023, and awarded an honorable mention at the Weakly Supervised Computer Vision 2023 workshop.

• Machine Learning Applications and Technologies
• Data Mining
• Database and Database Management Systems
• System Development Methodology
• Information Systems Modelling, Design and Analysis

• Black in Artificial Intelligence (BAI)
• Data Science Africa (DSA)
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

• African Development Bank (AfDB) Scholarship 
• Honorable Mention Award at the Weakly Supervised Computer Vision Workshop (WSCV) co-located with the Deep Learning Indaba Conference in Accra, Ghana

Ongoing

• Systems & ICT Expert for the EU Capacity Building project on Remote Laboratories for Engineering (RL4Eng)

Phased Out

• Research/Teaching Assistant for Automated Poultry Disease Diagnostics (APDD) Project
• Research Assistant for Tanzania Lacuna Fund (TLF) Project

• Personal Webpage
• Orcid ID
• Google Scholar
• ResearchGate

Research groups
• Artificial Intelligence and Complexity Sciences