Organizer: Prof. Mohamed Daoudi, Institut Mines-Télécom Nord Europe (IMT Nord Europe), France.
Co-Organizers: Prof. Ahmed Tamtaoui Institut National des Postes et Télécommunications (INPT), Morocco, Prof. Mohamed Khalil (MorroccoAI), Morocco, Jamal Benhamou (Soft Center), Morocco.
In September 2025, it was held the second edition of the Summer School on Multimodal Foundation Models and Generative AI, which, with the support of SIGMM attracted more than 60 students and young researchers to learn, discuss and first-hand experiment in topics related to Generative AI. The event’s success calls for further editions in upcoming years.
The 2nd edition of the Summer School dedicated to Generative AI and Multimodal Foundation Models was held from September 8 to 12, 2025, in Rabat, Morocco. Over five days, 60 students, researchers, and professionals—selected from more than 1,300 applications—took part in an intensive program combining theoretical courses, hands-on workshops, keynote lectures, evening mentorship sessions, and a hackathon. Following the first edition in 2024, led by INPT, IMT Nord Europe, and the Soft Centre, this new edition was organized in partnership with MoroccoAI, an initiative led by AI experts in Morocco and abroad to promote the growth of AI across the country. This Summer School welcomed students and early-career researchers from Morocco, Germany, France, Italy, Tunisia, and other African countries, further strengthening its international reach. More than 50% of the participants were women.
We chose to offer a summer school with low registration fees (thanks to the additional support of SIGMM), so that as many students and young researchers from diverse backgrounds as possible could attend.
Invited speakers
The AI Summer School presents a distinguished lineup of speakers who bridge the gap between academic research and industry innovation. Our carefully selected experts combine theoretical expertise with practical insights, offering participants a comprehensive understanding of AI’s current landscape and future directions.
- Pioneering the Future of AI in E-Commerce: Foundation Models and Generative AI at Amazon, Dr. Amin Mantrach, Applied Science Manager, Amazon, Luxembourg
- Geometric Deep Learning for Non-Rigid Shapes: From Theory to Practice, Dr. Emery Pierson, Researcher LIX, Ecole Polytechnique, France
- Towards Detailed Understanding of the Visual World in Generative AI Era, Dr. Fahad Shahbaz Khan, the MBZUAI, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Design Thinking for Human-Centred AI Development, Dr. Houda Chakiri, Al Akhawayn University, Morocco
- Leveraging AI for Sustainable Marine Ecosystems, Dr. Jihad Zahir, Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco
- 4D Human Generation: past, present and the future, Prof. Mohamed Daoudi, IMT Nord Europe, France
- Training LLMs: Optimize and Scale Your Training, Nouamane Tazi, ML Research Engineer, Hugging Face, France
- Generating Synthetic Face and Body Models, Prof. Stefano Berretti, Department of Information Engineering of University of Firenze, Italy
- From Generative to Agentic: The Next Era of Computing, Dr. Kaoutar El Maghraoui, Principal Research Scientist and Manager, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA
- From documents to structure: Hands-on exploration of agentic document extraction, Prof. Omar Souissi, INPT, Morocco
- Efficient Speech Generative Modeling with Little Tokenization, Dr. Tatiana Likhomanenko, Staff Research Scientist, Apple, USA
- From VAE to Diffusion: probabilistic learning with audio-visual data, Dr. Xavier Alameda-Pineda, Research Director, INRIA, France
Program
The program explored the theoretical and practical Multimodal Foundation Models and Generative AI, large-scale pre-trained models, multimodality (text, image, audio, etc.), and their applications across sectors. Evening sessions were dedicated to intensive mentorship, where participants worked on real-world projects under expert guidance.
On Wednesday, participants visited the Technopark in Casablanca as part of the Morocco Accelerator Program, where they had the opportunity to engage with innovative AI startups and learn about their projects. More information about the summer school on Multimodal Foundation Models and Generative AI is available on the webpage https://ai-summer-school.inpt.ac.ma/.
The final day showcased the teams’ talent with 15 project presentations from the hackathon, followed by the closing ceremony and award announcements:
- First Prize – MyIris: A real-time multimodal navigation system for visually impaired individuals, integrating voice control and video analysis for safe guidance.
- Second Prize – LALLACare: An innovative platform offering a low-cost alternative to mammography for early breast cancer screening, combining thermal imaging with Google’s MedGemma model for fast, accurate, and explainable assessments.
- Special Jury Prize – Moun9idoun (AiDex): A multimodal AI solution dedicated to emergency management and community safety.
Acknowledgments: The organizers extend their sincere thanks to the INPT staff (reception, cafeteria, and accommodation), in particular Madame Leila Karakchou, for their invaluable support in facilitating the successful organization of this Summer School, to all the dedicated volunteers from the MoroccoAI association, and to Fatih Hamza from the Soft Center for his work in developing the event website.