Prof. Damien Hanyurwimfura is a Professor and the Acting Director of the African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things (ACEIoT), College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda. He received his Bachelor degree of Engineering in Computer Engineering and Information Technology from University of Rwanda (Former KIST) in 2005. He obtained his Master degree of Engineering in Computer Science and Technology and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Technology from Hunan University, China in 2010 and 2015 respectively. He served as the Head of PhD studies and Research in the ACEIoT for 4 years He has published and co-authored more than 30 research papers in leading international journals and conferences. He has participated in many AI workshops as a speaker. He has secured 4 research grants at national and regional levels as Principal Investigator or Co-PI. His research interests covers most aspect of data mining, machine learning, Computer security, watermarking, Internet of Things, hate speech detection and recommender systems. More Details can be found on ACEIoT
Publication link:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gdclYFsAAAAJ&hl=en https://publons.com/researcher/1731457/damien-hanyurwimfura/ https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=36442253000

Ignace GATARE is currently the Principal of the College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda, and Associate Professor of Communications Engineering and Photonics. Prior to this position, he served (April 2012 – February 2017) as the Director General of the Rwanda National Commission of Science and Technology (NCST), a public institution operating as a think-tank and an advisory body to the Rwanda Government on issues pertaining to the development of science, technology, research and innovation. GATARE also served (2009 – 2012) in the Government of Rwanda as Minister in the President’s Office in Charge of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). He served as Chairperson of the Joint Advisory Board of Carnegie Mellon University – Africa (2019 – 2022), Chairperson of the Regulatory Board of Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA, 2018 – 2022), Vice-Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Inter-University Council for East-Africa - IUCEA (2017 – 2018), National Coordinator of AFRA, a platform for cooperation between Africa and the International Atomic Energy Agency (2015 – 2022). Gatare is currently member of various governing boards and committees, including: the executive board of the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Nairobi, KENYA; the Advisory Committee of the GEONET project, an initiative of the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK; the high-level steering committee on human resource development and nuclear knowledge management of AFRA. Dr. Gatare holds a Ph.D. degree in Engineering Sciences with specialization in Photonics from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

MUSABE Richaard is currently an Associate Professor at the College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda, Rwanda. He is a professional and dedicated person with a solid education background. He is an Associate professor in Computer Networks and Software Engineering. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering and Information Technology from Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Rwanda in 2006. In 2009, he obtained a master’s degree in Network Security from Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and received a Ph.D degree from the same university in 2013. Before his appointment as DVC-TIDR at RP, he was serving as the dean of the school of ICT at the University of Rwanda, college of science and Technology. He has contributed immensely to the education sector in different aspects, as a university professor and supervisor of both masters and PhD students, education policy reviews and development, curriculum reviews and development. He has published papers in different peer-reviewed journals and conferences. His research interests include Cellular communication, VoIP, Cross-layer scheduling schemes, Performance evaluation of computer systems and networks, Computer network simulation, Network Security, IoT, e-Health, and Big data. For More Information regarding his research work can be found in the links below:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UR46oaMAAAAJ&hl=en
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7451-4977
http://www.researcherid.com/rid/P-5165-2016

Kizito Nkurikiyeyezu is a researcher at the University of Rwanda’s Centre of Excellence in Biomedical Engineering and e-Health and a lecturer at the Africa Center of Excellence in Internet of Things.He is currently an associate professor at the College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda, Rwanda. He completed his Ph.D. (Engineering, Intelligence & information) in 2020 at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan with a thesis on affect-aware intelligent thermal comfort. He received a master’s degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma Christian University, OK, the USA in 2012 and 2011 respectively. His research interests lie in the area of Humanized Computing, Intelligent Environments, Affective Computing, Physiological Computing, and Healthcare informatics. In particular, his Ph.D. thesis proposed a novel thermal comfort provision system that estimates people’s thermal comfort level from the variation in their physiological signals (e.g., heart rate variability) due to their bodies’ response to the surrounding environment and uses appropriate constrained optimization algorithms to provide an efficient and personalized thermal comfort at the lowest energy. This approach not only provides higher quality thermal comfort but also significantly reduces the amount of energy required for thermal comfort provision. Nevertheless, because human affects (e.g., stress and thermal comfort) are expressed differently from one person to another, the proposed approach would only work if person-specific machine learning models were developed for each user of the system. Such limitations would be confining and costly for large-scale deployment. Consequently, I developed an efficient algorithm that mitigates these limitations and I laid the groundwork of an “affect-aware thermal comfort” system complementary to the existing thermal comfort provision methods. An affect-aware system would estimate in real-time the affects (e.g., thermal comfort, stress, and emotion) of its users and automatically adjust itself to satisfy the user’s implicit and explicit needs (in terms of, e.g., thermal comfort, ventilation, well-being, and productivity) sustainably (in terms of e.g., heating, ventilation and cooling efficiency, and lighting). He was an invited researcher at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan and an invited scholar at the Université Jean Monnet in France. He currently holds international research collaboration with researchers in Japan, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. For additional information see his website at http://qiriro.com/

Dr. Ir. UMUHOZA Karemera Noella Josiane is Acting University Director for the UR ( University of Rwanda) Centre of Postgraduates Studies, she is also an agricultural scientist holding a Lecturing and Research position at the Department of Crop Sciences in the UR, where she was Ag. Director of continuing education and secretary of the Department of Crop Science. She holds a Ph.D. in Agriculture in Horticulture ( Pomology) specialty (University of Beijing, China), a Master of Science in Horticulture/Pomology (Horticultural University of Bagalkot, India) and an Engineering Degree in Agriculture/Agro-economics specialization (Ecole Nationale d’Agriculture/ (National Institute of Agriculture), Thies, Senegal). Her education and career achievements include being selected in Africa for the AWARD of women in Agricultural Research and Development for the year 2015, earning the “Chinese Government Outstanding International Student Scholarship” AWARD in 2016 from the China Agricultural Council, and also getting a National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) AWARD by the Next Einstein Forum in 2019; writing and publishing a number of scientific articles as well as two books, one on calcium salt spray on mango fruits and another on Banana Production. Dr. Ir. UMUHOZA worked for two and a half years as an expert in banana macro-propagation for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA/CIALCA/CGIAR). Her work in the region involved providing trainings to farmers, their co-operatives and technicians from Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB) on banana diseases, banana good husbandry, banana germplasm establishment, banana mother gardens management, banana micropropagation for its good extension in Rwanda and the sub-region (Uganda, Burundi, and DR Congo), translation in Kinyarwanda of training materials; she is also training farmers on horticulture in general, etc. Dr. Ir. UMUHOZA was also the president of the Gender Club at the University of Rwanda (UR), College of Agriculture, Animal Science, and Veterinary Medicine. Currently, she is a permanent member of the Rwandan Association for Women in Science and Engineering (RAWISE); member of the business committee for the Association for Strengthening Agriculture Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), permanent member of the technical committee of Rwanda Standard Board (RSB) as well. She is also a focal point of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) at the University of Rwanda (UR).

Dr Aime Tsinda is a Senior Lecturer of urban planning, environment, and sustainability in the Department of Geography and Urban Planning, School of Architecture and Built Environment, College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda. Dr Tsinda conducts interdisciplinary research on sustainable water, sanitation, circular economy, climate change, disaster risk management and policy analysis. He has a PhD in Environment and sustainability from the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from Université de Montréal, Canada and BA in Geography with education from the University of Rwanda, College of Education (former Kigali Institute of Education).

Dr. Innocent Nkurikiyimfura is a lecturer of Materials Science and Engineering and Renewable Energy at the College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda. He has a PhD Renewable Energy obtained from the University of Rwanda and a Master of Engineering in Materials Science obtained from the South China University of Technology (SCUT). His research interests include Renewable energy, Materials for Renewable energy and the environment, nanomaterials, nanofluids, Heat transfer enhancement, Building Materials, Greenhouse Gas emissions and Climate Change. He occupied various teaching, research and leadership positions at the former Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the University of Rwanda. Dr. Innocent Nkurikiyimfura has authored and co-authored many research articles presented at international conferences and in international peer-reviewed journals. He has also contributed to various international reports to UNFCCC including the Third National communication, revised NDC, and the National greenhouse gases inventories and Rwanda’s First Biennial Report to UNFCCC. Dr. Innocent Nkurikiyimfura is a member of various international bodies including the African Materials Research Society (AMRS), the African Network of Solar Energy (ANSOLE), the UNEP-Building Materials Working Group, the UNEP-Life Cycle Initiative, the roster of the experts for the UNFCCC. He is also a board member of the Materials Science and Solar Energy Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (MSSEESA) representing Rwanda’s node under the ISP program. Dr. Innocent Nkurikiyimfura is a founding member of the Rwanda Young Academy of Science (RYAS) and a member of the Technical Committee on Fire Safety of the Rwanda Standard Board (RSB). Dr. Innocent Nkurikiyimfura serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for various international Journals including Solar Energy, International Journal of Thermal Sciences, Journal of Applied Physics (JAP), etc.

Lead Frontend Engineer | AI & IoT Senior Research/Engineer

Dr. Myriam Mujawamariya holds a PhD degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden & in Biological Science from UR. Her area of research is on improving mechanistic understanding of tropical forests responses to climate change. Currently, Dr. Myriam is exploring if global warming will lead to physiological heat tolerance exceedances in tropical trees as her post-doc research. She currently involved in 4 research projects in which she has collaborations both local and international. She has obtained an OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World (2022), Award in Climate Action and the Environment.

Dr Said Rutabayiro Ngoga,He is Division Head, Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA).He got his PhD at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH-Sweden) in 2014 within the main area of Telecommunication Systems. Special emphasis was on dynamic spectrum access as an enabling technology for increasing the efficiency of wireless communications by using cognitive radio networking. He is a Visiting Lecturer in the School of Engineering, College of Science and Technology and University of Rwanda and the Postgraduate Coordinator in the School of ICT. Dr Ngoga research interests are within the main areas of wireless networks, cognitive radio networks, and recent developmental applications of ICT such as e-government and IoT. Dr Ngoga has published several works in peer reviewed journals. Malaria still continues to impose a substantial burden on global public health. In Rwanda, there is a serious problem of the disease resurgence since 2012. The resurgence has been attributed to different factors including inappropriate use of insecticide-treated nets, spread of insecticide resistance in mosquito vectors, and drug-resistant Plasmodium among others. Therefore, coordinated endeavors have been stepped up in Rwanda in response to malaria resurgence. These include proper use of the insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), the plan to introduce the G2 and PBO nets to overcome pyrethroid resistance and establishment of a research centre to monitor the emergence and prevalence of Anopheles mosquitoes resistant to insecticides used for malaria control. Other efforts focused on strengthening surveillance systems. However, malaria resurgence is a complex phenomenon that requires a multi-disciplinary approach to contribute the disease effective treatment and management of the disease. The present study will integrate diagnostics of mixed species malaria infection and real time malaria surveillance. Dr Ngoga will focus of the following objectives: (i) to evaluate the existence of non-P. falciparum malaria and potential for mixed-species infections in Rwanda; (ii) to assess a diagnostic test suitable for accurately detect different Plasmodium species in clinical samples for ultimate use in low- resource settings; (iii) to analyze transcriptome (RNA-seq) of whole blood samples infected with mixed parasite species to gain insight into inter-species interactions of parasites, (iv) to develop a model that allow to represent malaria data in a format knowledgeable to policy makers, (v) to develop a query language based on the underlying data model (vi) to deploy a surveillance tool that implement the underlying query language allowing health professionals/policy makers to formulate a wide range of queries and retrieve feedbacks within a reasonable amount of time and minimum efforts.

Munezero Immaculee Joselyne is an Assistant lecturer in the department of Computer and Software Engineering, School of ICT, College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda. Mrs Joselyne is also a PhD student in Computer Science at University of Rwanda. She holds master’s degree in Information System and a BSc degree in Information Technology from former Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), currently University of Rwanda (UR). She published research papers in her fields of interest include, Software Engineering, Software Architecture, and design, microservice architecture, Software modernization, DevOps application. As a woman in science , she is a member of Rwanda Association of Women in Science and Engineering (RAWISE), and the member of OWSD National chapter in Rwanda. Being an academic staff from 2009, my aspirations are driven by a purpose to aim high and work towards specific goals by use of acquired skills and experience to promote Science and Technology in Rwanda and in the region.

MUKARWEGO Beline holds a Master’s degree in Economic Science from ULK (2021) and a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the National University of Rwanda (2008). With over 17 years of professional experience in project and grant management, she brings a strong background in both finance and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Since June 2017, Beline has specialized in M&E, overseeing major projects funded by the World Bank at the University of Rwanda’s Single Project Implementation Unit (SPIU). These include the African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things (ACEIoT), the African Center of Excellence for Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science (ACEITLMS), the African Center of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development (ACEESD), and the African Center of Excellence in Data Science. She was also involved in the M&E of IoT and AI Applied Research Results Commercialization Through Incubation project (2023–2025), funded by Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) under the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Prior to her transition to M&E, Beline worked in finance from February 2008 to May 2017. She has completed several professional trainings in M&E, project management, and grant financial management, further strengthening her expertise in managing complex, donor-funded initiatives.

You can find more information about Nadine RUJENI on the following links:
https://research.ur.ac.rw/node/2091
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadine-rujeni-4aa26248/?originalSubdomain=rw

Mr NGABO Desire received his BSc of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunication, 2011, from University of Rwanda (Former KIST) and Master degree of Engineering in Computer Science and Technology from Hunan University China,2014. He is the Head of Laboratories in the African Center of Excellence in the Internet of Things(ACEIoT) and an Assistant Lecturer in the Computer Science department at the University of Rwanda . Currently, He is a PhD Student at College of Computer Science and Electronics Engineering, Hunan University, China. His research interests are Internet of Things, Wireless Sensor Network and embedded Computing systems, Machine Learning and Blockchain

Twahirwa Evariste is an a faculty staff in the department of computer science at the University of Rwanda. He is currently pursuing Ph.D studies in wireless intelligent sensor networks (WISNeT) at the African Center of Excellence in Internet of things-University of Rwanda-College of Science & Technology. He holds a master of engineering in computer science and technology from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China in 2014. His main research interest include Wireless Intelligent Sensor Networks, Internet of Things, Vehicular Networks & Mobility modeling, Intelligent Transport Systems, Edge computing

Alex Ntare is Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda ICT Chamber he holds a Master of Science Degree in Investment and Quantitative Finance from the University of Westminster in United Kingdom, a Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Business Information Technology from National Computing Centre (NCC Education) in UK as well as a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Makerere University in Uganda. His work experience ranges from working as a computer engineer to financial services’ broker in London’s financial distric.He is a passionate enthusiast of technology and financial markets developments and their role to solving global challenges. His work at the Chamber involves bridging the gap between private and public sector players in the ICT industry as well as overseeing and establishing new innovation centers for technology startups among them KLAB, Fablab Rwanda and LEAPR Applied Research Labs 250Startups and startup fundraising event Face The Gorillas.

Muyombano Happy Axel is a database administrator under the project Transformative AI Research and Innovation Lab, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Coventry University and is a final year Master’s student at the University of Rwanda in Embedded Computing Systems. Axel is an innovator who has worked on several projects including machine vision based agriculture drone.

Communication and Marketing Specialist

KWIZERA Jean Claude is currently IT & Webmaster Officer at the African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things (ACEIoT). He got a bachelor’s degree in information technology from the University of Kigali and an advanced diploma in information technology from Tumba College of Technology in 2015.
He has experience with SQL,MongoDB, Java script, HTML 5, CSS 3, CGI,PHP, Python, machine learning, and Bootstrap. He can use all of the Adobe Suite software programs.He obtained certificates of CCNA and Data Analytic professinal got from AZUBI Africa.
He is Video Editor and Graphic Design using the Following software:Adobe Premiere CC, Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe in design CC, Adobe Lightroom Classic CC and Adobe illustrator CC.
He can manage the websites hosted both in windows server and Linux server.
He can develop the websites from scratch or using CMS .
Good amount of experience in development of web applications using PHP,JavaScript Library’s, Frameworks, CMS, API’s, Reporting tools and USSD Applications .