The first African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), founded in 2003 in Cape Town, offers a free, world-class master's diploma to talented students from across Africa. Underpinning AIMS's computing infrastructure is free software: Python, Octave, Maxima, R, and SAGE, all running on GNU/Linux. I will describe how free software became so embedded in AIMS's DNA as well as its ethical and practical benefits. With AIMS centers now being founded in Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, and Tanzania, these benefits are spreading widely across Africa.
Speakers: Sanjoy Mahajan