Life’s Work

Mentor. Educator. Speaker. Leader.

Mentorship

Where industry expertise, holistic education, and technology converge. 

Context

Tech students should complement their education with learner-centred mentorship to fill the skills gap left by classroom learning.

Approach

  • Mentorship in: Personal & professional skills, current tech skills, human-centred innovation, scholarship skills and awareness, and community engagement.

  • 5 tiers of mentorship: 1-1 professional mentorship, ICT mentorship, peer mentorship, workshops, and committee oversight.

  • Gender-inclusive. 

Impact

Educator

Where teaching and learning meet innovation.

Classroom and Workshop teaching

 
Topics

Object-oriented programming. Graphical interface programming. Research for computer scientists. Innovation principles. Scholarship writing skills. 

Where

University of Cape Town, Riara University, Kenya Methodist University, Women Techmakers workshop, Workshop on postgraduate research among women, and workshops on Scholarship skills training.

Impact

Taught over 5,000 students, with high evaluation ratings by students and attendees. Introduced and used problem-based learning to teach computer programming and scholarship skills.

Coursera instruction

 
Topics

Object-oriented programming using Java. Graphical interface programming using JavaFX framework. Data Structures. SQL Server Programming. 

Where

Global. 

Impact

16 courses so far, over 4,000 learners, and a 5/5 instructor rating with course ratings between 4.3 and 4.7. The Coursera 2021 impact report showed Kenya to be among the top 10 countries with the highest learner growth.

Innovation

 
Context

Mobile phones provide an opportunity to use them as a tool to support the learning of computer programming. However, to effectively use mobile phones to learn programming, scaffolding (supporting) techniques have to be built on programming interfaces for mobile phones, to support novice learners and to overcome mobile phone limitations. 

Worked with

Over 100 students in South Africa and Kenya to test the effectiveness of scaffolding techniques after building the first prototype of the application. 

Next steps

Re-design of the entire application using human-centered design and coding using up-to-date frameworks. 

Impact

Obtained a copyright license for the innovation, published 5 peer-reviewed papers on design and evaluation, and received recognition by Quartz Africa for the innovative idea.

Speaker

Where Science meets communication.

Topics

The story and impact of mentorship. My journey into and beyond science. Innovation and research. Impact of research in Tech. Inspiring women in tech. Speaker training by Mozilla Tech Speakers. Pitching competitions.

Featured speaking experience: The story and impact of mentorship, and my journey into and beyond science.

TEDx

 
Where

Parklands, Nairobi, Kenya.

Topic

Holding up the ladder.

Idea

Four qualities of an effective mentorship program.

OWSD-Elsevier event

 
Where

Seattle, USA.

Topic

Award acceptance speech on my journey into computing.

Idea

Recognition of women scientists provides a platform to excellence and gender equity in innovation.

Ideas Night

 
Where

Nairobi Garage, Kenya.

Topic

Playing scrabble with my father.

Idea

My early years shaped me into the computer scientist I am today.

Leader

Where courage meets collaboration.

Founder and CEO, KamiLimu

  • Chair of Board of Directors.

  • Leading a team of 10 committee members to run the day-to-day implementation of the program.

  • Served 200 students from 22 universities and collaborated with over 110 industry professionals and 20 organizations.

Dean of School

  • Led the school of Science and Technology at Kenya Methodist Univesity, with over 1000 students, and more than 15 faculty members.

  • Contributed as a strategic member of the Campus Management Board, Graduate Studies Board, Dean's Committee, and the University Senate. 

Head of Department

  • Twice-selected to lead the Department of Computer Science, Kenya Methodist University.

  • Led a team of 10 faculty staff members, and over 800 students.