UDOM climate AI signals commercial potential
DODOMA: THE University of Dodoma (UDOM) has earned global recognition for developing an artificial intelligence-powered climate-monitoring system that could lower weather-monitoring costs by transforming existing mobile phone towers into early-warning infrastructure for floods.
Developed by Dr Florence Rashidi and Emmanuel Mkina, the project is titled ‘Climate Change Monitoring via ISACand AI-Enabled Cellular Networks’.
A Case Study in the country, combines Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) technology with artificial intelligence to transform existing cellular towers into environmental sensing platforms capable of collecting real-time atmospheric data.
According to developers, the innovation was named an “AI for Good Innovate for Impact Winner” at the AI for Good Global Summit 2026 in Geneva, Switzerland, placing the university among 59 winners selected from approximately 400 artificial intelligence solutions submitted by researchers, innovators and institutions worldwide.
“The competition evaluated entries on innovation, technical quality, societal impact, scalability and contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” Dr Rashid said. He said of the submissions received, 267 projects were included in the official Innovate for Impact 2026 collection, with only 59 receiving the winner’s certificate.
Dr Rashid noted that rather than relying on dedicated weather-monitoring equipment, the system uses existing telecommunications infrastructure, potentially reducing deployment costs while expanding geographic coverage.
Further, Mr Mkina said data collected through mobile networks are analysed using Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks (ST-GNN) to predict heavy rainfall and flooding before being submitted to the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) for verification.
ALSO READ: Govt pushes arbitration to spur investment
Once validated, alerts can be transmitted to citizens through mobile phones. He said the technology reflects growing global interest in using artificial intelligence to strengthen climate resilience while extracting greater value from existing digital infrastructure.
“Governments, telecommunications operators and disaster management agencies are increasingly exploring AI enabled early warning systems as climate related disasters become more frequent and economically damaging,” Mr Mkina said.
He said recognition highlights the country’s growing presence in the emerging climate technology sector, where demand for scalable and cost efficient solutions continues to increase.
“The project also demonstrates how university research can generate technologies with commercial and public sector applications, including disaster risk management, agriculture, insurance, logistics and infrastructure planning,” he said.
According to UDOM, the AI for Good Global Summit brought together innovators and institutions from 51 countries, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, India, Germany, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, underscoring the competitiveness of the event.
The recognition provides international validation of a Tanzanian developed innovation at a time when governments and private sector organisations are increasing investment in AIdriven climate resilience technologies to reduce the economic impact of extreme weather.
