Introduction: Computational Intelligence and Mathematical Modelling for Industry and Commerce

Abstract

g/0000-0003-2603-2273 Abstract - Between July 29 and July 31, 2025, GreatZimbabwe University’s School of Natural Sciences hosted its second International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Mathematics Modelling for Industry and Commerce, themed ‘Unlocking the Potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Knowledge Work.’ The conference venue was the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Honourable Dr Fredrick Shava, was the guest of Honour. The theme of the conference reflected the imperative to recalibrate the intellectual framework to respond to technological disruptions in the educational space. Great Zimbabwe University, as a Zimbabwean institution, is alert to the urgency of contextualizing the disruption within the national development agenda. The government of Zimbabwe, through flagship policies such as Heritage Based Education 5.0 and National Development Strategy 1, repositioned universities as engines of industrial transformation and national development. What this means is that institutions of higher learning go beyond teaching and learning, embrace innovation and industrialization. It is in this breath that the 2025 conference was relevant and apt. The fields of Computational Intelligence and Mathematical Modelling are emergent foundational academic disciplines to the implementation of Education 5.0.