SMART Africa recipient spotlight: Alice China

Studying information technology at CMU-Africa was a deeply personal journey for Alice China.

“Learning at CMU-Africa really opened my eyes to the duty we have to our continent as sons and daughters of Africa. I am grateful to be part of a force that I believe will bring revolution in Africa,” says China.

The coursework, extracurricular activities, and overall experience at CMU-Africa all helped to build Alice’s commitment to solving the challenges she sees around her. But she credits one particular opportunity as instrumental in shaping her worldview: the 2019 Transform Africa Summit. The event, which brings together technology leaders and partners in Africa, is designed to encourage the sharing of ideas and help to push the digital transformation in Africa. The event drew over 4,000 participants from government, industry, and academia. Alice had the opportunity to network with professionals from different fields who hailed from countries across the continent as well as and learn more about solutions that will push the agenda for digital transformation in Africa. 

As part of the Masters of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program, Alice also completed an internship at the World Bank in Washington, DC. She worked on a team that monitored World Bank applications running in all departments worldwide, including technical applications and financial applications. There, she proposed an automated process for monitoring new and existing applications, as well as created a roadmap for developers so that they could apply this process in the future.

Alice became involved in several other projects while at the World Bank, extending the traditional 3-month internship to a 7-month opportunity. She worked to monitor the health of World Bank applications running around the world, tracking and recording real-time data on hundreds of programs.

Now a software developer, Alice is building her career around the goal to implement data-driven solutions that will positively impact communities. She also has her sights set on mentoring the next generation of women in the field.

I hope to demonstrate that African problems are best solved by Africans, as long as they are skilled and equipped to do so.

Alice China, Alum, CMU-Africa

“I hope to promote the realization that the sweet spot between software engineering and data science is the ultimate solution for most of the problems that Africa is facing," says China. "I also hope to demonstrate that African problems are best solved by Africans, as long as they are skilled and equipped to do so; in. simple terms, I want to be part of the solution for Africa.”