PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alta de Waal

Alta de Waal is a statistics researcher whose AI work covers short-text topic models, explainable Bayesian networks, and applied AI in industry. She began work at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in 1999, earned an MSc in mathematical statistics at the University of the Free State in 2000, and completed a PhD in engineering science at North West University in 2010. Her papers move from variational Bayes for latent Dirichlet allocation in 2019 to a Gamma-Poisson model for short text in 2020 and a taxonomy for explainable Bayesian networks in 2021; she co-chaired SACAIR in 2022. At BMW, she was Delivery Manager for AI use cases in September 2024, and in 2025 she coauthored a paper on small language models for agentic systems while serving on SACAIR's steering committee. As of October 2026, she is a professor at the University of Pretoria, treasurer of SACAIR's Steering Committee, and coordinator of Statistics@CAIR-UP.

Now at
South African Conference for Artificial Intelligence Research and Statistics@CAIR-UP
Badges

Timeline

  1. 1999–2010

    CSIR and university degrees

    She starts work at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1999. She earns an MSc in mathematical statistics from the University of the Free State in 2000 and completes a PhD in engineering science at North West University in 2010.

  2. 2019

    Variational Bayes for LDA

    In 2019, she coauthors “Autoencoding variational Bayes for latent Dirichlet allocation” with Zach Wolpe.

  3. 2020

    A Gamma-Poisson topic model

    In 2020, she coauthors a Gamma-Poisson mixture topic model for short text with Jocelyn Mazarura and Pieter de Villiers. Its collapsed Gibbs sampler can select the number of topics in a corpus automatically.

  4. 2021

    A taxonomy for Bayesian networks

    By 2021, she is a senior lecturer in the University of Pretoria's Statistics Department. In 2021, she and Iena Petronella Derks introduce a taxonomy for explainability in Bayesian networks that extends explanations of models, reasoning and evidence to include decisions.

  5. 2022

    SACAIR organising co-chair

    In 2022, she serves as a General Organising Co-Chair of SACAIR's local organising committee.

  6. September 2024

    AI use cases at BMW

    In September 2024, she is BMW's Delivery Manager for AI use cases and presents a session on AI use cases towards business value at the CDOIQ South Africa Symposium.

  7. 2025

    Small language models at the edge

    In 2025, she coauthors “Small Language Models on the Edge for Real-World Agentic Systems in Industry” with Edward B. Duffy, David Fernandez and Mert D. Pesé. In 2025, she serves on SACAIR's steering committee as a professor at the University of Pretoria.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor, treasurer and coordinator

    As of October 2026, she is a professor at the University of Pretoria, treasurer of SACAIR's Steering Committee, and coordinator of Statistics@CAIR-UP, a group focused on mathematical and computational statistics.

Career

  1. Since 2021University of PretoriaSenior Lecturer
  2. NowSouth African Conference for Artificial Intelligence ResearchTreasurer, Steering Committee
  3. NowStatistics@CAIR-UPCoordinator
  4. From 2024Bayerische Motoren Werke AGDelivery Manager for AI use cases
  5. From 1999Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

Education

  1. 2010North-West UniversityPhD
  2. 2000University of the Free StateMSc

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Pretoria. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  4. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIWe estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Organising Team – Fusion2021 fusion2021.isif.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Organising Team – FUSION2020 fusion2020.isif.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. South African Forum for Artificial Intelligence Research 2019 – CEUR-WS.org/Vol-2540 ceur-ws.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. A Gamma-Poisson Mixture Topic Model for Short Text arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. A Taxonomy of Explainable Bayesian Networks arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Call for Papers – SACAIR2022 2022.sacair.org.za. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. 2024-AGENDA | CDOIQ African Symposium cdoiq-africa.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Publications | David Fernandez davidferna.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Call for Papers – SACAIR2025 2025.sacair.org.za. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Committees – SACAIR2026 2026.sacair.org.za. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. Research Groups | CAIR cair.org.za. Checked 21 October 2026.