Postdoctoral Researcher • Lecturer • AI Policy Advisor

Dr Edmund Terem Ugar is a researcher and policy analyst specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) policy, ethics, governance and regulation within the education and public health sectors in Africa. His work is situated at the intersection of technology, public policy and human development, with particular interests in education systems, AI literacy and responsible artificial intelligence across Africa.

He obtained his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Johannesburg. His doctoral research, Mitigating Discrimination and Exploitation in Medical Machine Learning Technologies: African Philosophical Tools to the Rescue, examined ethical approaches to addressing discrimination and exploitation in healthcare machine learning technologies.

Dr Ugar has experience in research, higher education, policy analysis and academic supervision. His work includes research collaborations, university teaching, postgraduate supervision and policy engagement in the fields of artificial intelligence, ethics and governance.

Research Interests

• Applied Ethics
• Artificial Intelligence Governance
• Artificial Intelligence Policy & Regulation
• Artificial Intelligence Ethics
• Big Data
• Generative Artificial Intelligence
• Large Language Models
• Robotics

Current Academic & Professional Roles

• Postdoctoral Researcher — School of Philosophy and Global Futures / AI Hub, North-West University
• Research Supervisor — Postgraduate Diploma in Artificial Intelligence, MANCOSA
• AI Ethics and Governance Fellow — Policy Innovation Centre, Abuja, Nigeria
• Africa AI Policy Fellow — Lawyers Hub & AI Policy Lab

Education

• PhD in Philosophy — University of Johannesburg (2025)
• MA in Philosophy (With Distinction) — University of Johannesburg (2022)
• BA Honours in Philosophy (With Distinction) — University of Johannesburg (2020)
• BA in Philosophy — St. Joseph's Theological Institute (2019)