Artificial Intelligence for Afghan Students

ICTP’s flagship outreach programme, Physics Without Frontiers (PWF), provides university students throughout the global South with advanced scientific training. The programme started in 2012 as a physics master class roadshow and has since turned into an international network organising dozens of activities for thousands of students from some of the most disadvantaged regions every year, whether in person or online, often overcoming major challenges.

The workshop “Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Afghan Students” is one of the more than 30 activities that will have been organised by PWF across Asia, Africa, and South America in 2025. It was organised by ICTP’s PWF in partnership with the European Brain Research Institute Rita Levi Montalcini (EBRI). Held online over three days between 28 September and 1 October, the workshop could take place despite the two-day nationwide internet shutdown that affected Afghanistan on 29 and 30 September.

The lectures were held in Farsi, preferred by a good proportion of the about 270 people who registered to the event. Of them, one-third were women, and 80% were based in Afghanistan. Participants came from a variety of backgrounds – mainly physics, but also computer science, engineering and education, with different levels of experience. They included undergraduates, master’s and PhD students, all united by their desire to learn more about Machine Learning and AI.

Seeing how enthusiastic the students were to learn about physics, while at the same time frustrated by the lack of learning opportunities, I realised that there was a lot to do for science education in Afghanistan.
-- Zainab Nazari

The workshop consisted of lectures covering a broad spectrum of topics, from basic notions of programming in Python to basic knowledge on neural networks. “The schedule of the workshop was very dense. The courses started at 7:00 or 7:30 (CEST) in the morning and went on for eight hours, which was necessary to cover an ambitious programme in only three days,” explains the workshop’s main organiser, Zainab Nazari, a postdoctoral researcher at EBRI and an ICTP alumna.

The number of attendants dropped significantly on the second and third day of the workshop, following the connection shutdown in Afghanistan. “Luckily all the courses were recorded and shared online, alongside the lecture notes and slides of the last day,” Nazari explains, adding, “Although they could not attend most of the classes live, Afghan students will be able to watch the videos and go through the interactive notebooks to run the codes easily.”

Originally from Afghanistan, Nazari grew up in Iran after moving there with her family when she was a child. She moved to Trieste in 2013 to attend ICTP's Postgraduate Diploma Programme. She then obtained a PhD in high energy physics through a joint programme between ICTP and Bogazici University, Türkiye, followed by a master’s in High Performance Computing. She joined EBRI’s Bioinformatics Facility during her Master's degree in High Performance Computing at ICTP, to work on large-scale -omics and clinical datasets related to neurodegeneration, supported by a fellowship generously sponsored mostly by Angelini Pharma.

The PWF online programs are crucial in breaking the isolation of Afghan students, especially female students, as they provide valuable learning opportunities and connections with the international scientific community.
-- Baktash Amini

In 2019, Nazari took part for the first time in a high energy physics workshop organised by PWF in Kabul, Afghanistan, and immediately realised the impact of what she was doing. “The first thing that struck me was to see how difficult the situation was at the local university,” Nazari explains, adding, “Seeing how enthusiastic the students were to learn about physics, while at the same time frustrated by the lack of learning opportunities, I realised that there was a lot to do for science education in Afghanistan.”

Since then, the activities organised by PWF for Afghan students have had to take place exclusively online. “The PWF online programs are crucial in breaking the isolation of Afghan students, especially female students, as they provide valuable learning opportunities and connections with the international scientific community,” explains Baktash Amini, a PhD student at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and the main coordinator of all activities organised by PWF in Afghanistan. “Most importantly, I think these programs help keep the students’ hope alive and inspire them to continue pursuing their academic and professional dreams despite the challenges they face,” he adds.

These impressions are supported by the enthusiastic feedback given by the participants of the most recent workshop on Machine Learning and AI. “Great to see such a strong effort to empower students in Afghanistan with these essential digital skills,” wrote one of the students; “I learned new things about physics and machine learning, which I found very exciting,” wrote another. “It is heart-warming to see that this activity has had a real impact on these students’ lives, particularly girls, who have been excluded from higher education and are generally only allowed to go to school up to grade six,” says Nazari.

The workshop was made possible thanks to the support of EBRI, which provided Nazari with the working conditions she needed to ensure that the activity could go to plan. “This initiative is very laudable and important, and I hope that we can collaborate again with ICTP on similar activities in the future,” said Antonino Cattaneo, EBRI President. “ICTP’s PWF is a powerful initiative, which over the years has been able to reach out to students in very isolated places, including Afghanistan. We are grateful for EBRI’s support to the workshop on Machine Learning and AI and for their interest in PWF’s work,” commented ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar.

“Though their scientific fields were worlds apart, ICTP founder Abdus Salam and the founder of EBRI, Rita Levi Montalcini, shared the profound belief that science should not remain the privilege of a few, but must be made accessible to all, regardless of geography, gender, or circumstance,” added Nazari. “Both worked tirelessly to extend opportunities for knowledge to less developed countries and this workshop is in line with this spirit. I hope this collaboration can continue in the future,” she concluded.