Imen Trabelsi

Tunisian AI pioneer advancing digital literacy in North Africa

Imen Trabelsi (b. 1982) is a Tunisian computer scientist and founder of Digicode Institute, which has trained 8,000+ youth in AI and machine learning since 2010. Her work bridges the digital divide in Arab countries through innovative programs like the AI for Social Good initiative, which develops solutions for healthcare and education challenges. Trabelsi's team created the EduCartTech platform used in 15 North African countries to provide free online courses in Arabic.

In 2016, she launched Code4Tunisia, a national competition that inspired 2,000+ student projects addressing local issues. Her Women in Tech fellowship program has increased female participation in Tunisia's tech sector from 12% to 28% since 2018. Trabelsi's research on Arabic NLP algorithms has been adopted by Microsoft's Azure platform for regional language support.

Her partnership with the African Union's Commission for Human Resources created the Pan-African Tech Academy, training 500+ educators annually. Trabelsi's TED Talk Building Tomorrow's Tech Leaders Today has over 1.2 million views. She advises the Tunisian government's digital economy strategy and sits on the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on AI.