I work as a researcher at Bowen University in Nigeria, specializing in electrical and electronics engineering and AI. When I started my PhD in 2015, I was fascinated by how AI could be applied to improve agricultural productivity and over the years, my research has expanded into robotics and applied AI.

I always thought I would become an electrical engineer, but in 2001, the internet was just arriving in Zambia, and I got hooked on computers instead. That curiosity led me to a bachelor’s in Computer Science in 2007, a master’s in South Africa in 2011, and eventually a PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Today, I’m a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zambia and the founder of the Data Lab Research Group.

I still remember the day I realized my first startup dream wasn’t going to work out. I had poured my savings into building a mobile app to help people with type 1 diabetes predict their blood sugar levels. The idea was simple but ambitious: because insulin pumps were prohibitively expensive in many African countries, what if we could predict a patient’s blood sugar a few hours in advance and help them prevent dangerous highs and lows? I had no team, no funding, just a stubborn determination to succeed.

I grew up in western Uganda, in Bushenyi, and stumbled into computer science almost by chance. My cousin mentioned the course, my dad encouraged me to apply for it, and soon I was enrolled at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. I had no idea where it would take me.

In 2019, when I finished university, I wasn’t sure how to turn my passion for artificial intelligence (AI) into a career. In Ghana, people told me, “You can’t really do AI here, you have to go abroad.” I believed that, until I attended Data Science Africa (DSA) in Accra that same year.

I grew up in rural Kenya, surrounded by farmlands. It was a simple life, but it shaped the way I think about problems and solutions. I learned early on how important observation and curiosity are, noticing how crops grew and how animals behaved. Later, I went to high school quite far from home and then to Kenyatta University in Nairobi. That’s where my journey toward data science began.