• Data scientist and entrepreneur Sokhar Samb founded WeInnove to promote tech learning.
• The Dakar-based lab trains youth in coding, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
• Initiative also supports digital inclusion through computer recycling programs.

Sokhar Samb (pictured), a Senegalese data scientist, researcher, and entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of WeInnove, an innovation lab dedicated to education and technology.

Established in Dakar in 2024, WeInnove aims to introduce children and young people to programming, robotics, and artificial intelligence while addressing Africa’s specific needs and future challenges. The lab offers interactive programs that encourage curiosity through workshops, coding challenges, scientific exploration, and engineering projects, helping participants develop technical, analytical, and teamwork skills.

WeInnove also provides tailored corporate training in artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity, and programming. In addition, the lab runs a nationwide initiative to recycle and refurbish computers, managed by students, to reduce electronic waste and promote digital inclusion in Senegalese schools.

Alongside her entrepreneurial role, Sokhar Samb teaches and conducts research in artificial intelligence at the Dakar American University of Science and Technology (DAUST). In 2018, she founded Women Promoting Science to the Younger Generation (WPSYG), an association that encourages youth—especially girls—to explore science and mathematics and pursue careers in STEM fields.

A graduate of Université Gaston Berger with a master’s degree in probability and statistics, she also holds a master’s in big data and cybersecurity from AIMS Senegal (African Institute for Mathematical Sciences).

Samb began her professional career in 2019 as a data collection and analysis manager at Global Research and Advocacy Group (GRAG), an organization specializing in operational research and strategic communication. In 2020, she joined Obertys, a consulting firm in banking and technology, as head of data science and machine learning, and later worked as a data scientist at Theolex, a French legal tech start-up, from 2021 to 2022.