2022 News

2022

2021 2023

Dec 09

CMU-Africa celebrates community day

Tartan Community Day is an annual celebration at Carnegie Mellon University for students, faculty, and staff to take a break from the daily norm to engage in meaningful ways

Dec 07

The value of becoming a leader

In Ofentse Phuti’s first year at CMU-Africa, she has embraced the lessons of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars’ leadership development, career preparation, and community service.

Nov 30

Joint MSE/EPP Ph.D. degrees enable energy access research Opens in new window

It was Katrina Ramirez-Meyers’ experience serving as a high school teacher in a small West African town without electricity that sparked her interest in batteries and energy storage.

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Nov 21

The importance of giving back

In 2017, Bobson Rugambwa (MSIT '18) and his fellow Student Guild members launched Giving CMU Day at CMU-Africa in hopes of fostering the spirit of giving back to the university community.

Nov 01

Securing Africa’s cyberspace

In their first year, CyLab-Africa and the newly announced Upanzi Network have made deliberate strides toward improving cybersecurity in Africa.

Oct 18

Luhanga receives 2022 Next Einstein Forum Award

Edith Luhanga, assistant research professor at CMU-Africa, was recently named a 2022 Next Einstein Forum award recipient.

Oct 04

Making an impact

Timothy Kaboya (MSIT ’16) is a software engineer at Microsoft in Nairobi, Kenya who is ready to make an impact on the continent.

Sep 27

A new initiative to drive financial inclusion in Africa Opens in new window

Funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will bring together academia, government, and the private sector to make digital financial services more accessible.

Sep 22

Data Science Club competes in hack-a-thon

The CMU-Africa Data Science Club competed in this year’s Umoja Hack and took home several awards.

Sep 15

New model provides smishing protection in Swahili

Research about smishing (SMS phishing) from CMU-Africa and the Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology was recently published in IEEE Access.

Sep 08

Transformational growth at CMU-Africa Opens in new window

A historic partnership with the Mastercard Foundation will expand the engineering and technology, research, and entrepreneurship programs at CMU-Africa, helping to strengthen Africa’s technology, innovation, and research ecosystem.

Sep 02

Dean’s Early Career Fellows announced Opens in new window

Five College of Engineering faculty members have been awarded the Dean’s Early Career Fellowship in recognition of their exemplary contributions to their respective fields.

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Aug 25

Letting values lead the way to meaningful work

Since early childhood, Mastercard Foundation Scholar Furaha Benedict (MSIT ’23) knew that making positive change in the world would be part of her life’s work.

Aug 17

Afretec awards its first research planning grants

The African Engineering and Technology Network awarded six planning grants to research collaborations that will lead to socio-economic impact and focus on driving inclusive digital growth on the African continent.

Aug 11

Preparing students for a master’s degree

In its second year running, CMU-Africa’s undergraduate bridge program graduated 33 students.

Jul 28

Entrepreneurship and community

Israel Oladejo, a Mastercard Foundation Scholar, earned a master’s degree in information technology and applied machine learning this spring and has already founded a startup.

Jul 21

Inaugural conference talks digital public goods in Africa Opens in new window

Conrad Tucker and Assane Gueye organized the first-ever West Africa Conference on Digital Public Goods and Cybersecurity, held in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Jul 14

Working toward creating the best

At CMU-Africa, Khalil Liouane (MSIT '23) is a student of many firsts. He is the first student from Tunisia, and he is the first CMU-Africa student to register for courses at Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College.

Jul 06

Career ready

The master’s practicum, a required component of the MSIT degree program, is a valuable opportunity for students to work directly with companies on complex industry problems.

Jun 29

Promoting African youth advocacy for clean energy

CMU-Africa visiting faculty Rebekah Shirley recently organized the Youth Advocacy Clinic for Clean Energy in collaboration with Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.

Jun 23

Bravo African Tartans!

On May 27, CMU-Africa held its ninth graduation ceremony and celebrated the classes of 2022, 2021, and 2020.

Jun 15

From Kigali to Colorado

With different backgrounds, cultures, and languages, Eric Serge Uwimana and Brian Lamtoo never would have guessed that they would find themselves following the same career path.

May 26

Building cybersecurity talent

This March, CyLab-Africa held the first-ever picoCTF-Africa cybersecurity competition in order to excite young Africans to pursue a career in the field of cybersecurity.

May 16

Mastercard scholar works to transform Africa Opens in new window

CMU-Africa student Fonyuy Boris Lami applied his information technology studies, research endeavors, and internship opportunities to fulfilling the Mastercard Foundation’s mission to engineer the future of Africa.

May 13

Reframing rejection as redirection

When Beatrice Birir began the MSIT program at CMU-Africa, she was ready for the academic challenges that lay ahead. What she didn’t expect was the personal growth she would find when her career path didn’t go in the direction that she had originally planned.

Apr 25

A more sustainable tomorrow

Building upon two decades of efforts by the 2030 agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals, the 2022 INTERSECT@CMU Conference brought together speakers and panelists to discuss urgent issues facing our planet.

Apr 19

Teacher Mwatima, Learner Mwatima

As a member of the CMU-Africa community, Ramadhan Juma Mwatima has many different titles: alumnus, IT engineer, full stack developer, entrepreneur, and staff member. But in the rural Tanzanian town where Mwatima grew up, he is known by only one name: teacher.

Apr 14

The STEM Women Lead Speaker Series

CMU-Africa, the World Bank Group, and the African Development Bank launched the STEM Women Lead Speaker Series which aims to inspire girls to take up STEM subjects.

Apr 12

A culture built upon diversity

In 2016, five students were enrolled in the Mastercard Foundation Scholars program. Today, CMU-Africa reached its early goal of 125 students who represent 22 nationalities.

Apr 05

A conversation on Sustainable Development Goals

As part of SDG Action and Awareness Week, CMU-Africa hosted the UN Resident Coordinator, Dr. Foye Ndiaye, for a dialogue session on SDGs.

Mar 30

Encouraging girls and women in STEM

The Women in Tech club, in partnership with CyLab-Africa’s picoCTF-Africa competition, recently held a technical session on basic programming and cryptography.

Mar 25

Collaboration with Lusophone Africa

His Excellency Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló, President of the Republic of Guinea Bissau, visited CMU-Africa as part of his three-day official visit to Rwanda.

Mar 16

Embracing opportunities

When Ayobami Esther Olanrewaju's search for a graduate school led her to the Mastercard Foundation Scholars program, she got one of the best surprises of her life—Carnegie Mellon University was also located in Rwanda.

Mar 09

World’s largest online hacking competition begins next week

For the first time ever, Africa will have its own leaderboard in the picoCTF competition.

Mar 04

Driven by curiosity Opens in new window

From an early age, CMU-Africa alumna Marie Ange Tesire wanted to seek out the new and discover the unexpected. That sense of curiosity has continued into her profession: machine learning engineer at Rwanda Space Agency.

Feb 24

Using big data to manage COVID-19 in Rwanda

Patrick McSharry is collaborating with the Government of Rwanda to analyze the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Rwanda and make predictions about how the disease may impact the country in the future.

Feb 14

Celebrating CMU-Africa entrepreneurs

Second Life Storage, a CMU-Africa alumni startup, won second place at the 2021 Hanga PitchFest. The win came with a $20,000 prize.

Feb 04

Rawn participates in University of Rwanda’s Innovation Week

CMU-Africa’s Barry Rawn recently participated in a showcase of energy innovations in Rwanda hosted by the University of Rwanda.

Jan 28

Connecting Rwanda

CMU-Africa recently participated in Connect Rwanda, a smartphone distribution initiative co-championed by MTN Rwanda in partnership with the Ministry of ICT and Innovation

Jan 20

Creating a more resilient internet

CMU-Africa students co-created the Internet Resilience Index, which is used to rate a country’s internet resilience level based on four measurement pillars: infrastructure, performance, security, and market readiness.

Jan 13

CMU-Africa hosts delegation visits

Carnegie Mellon University Africa recently welcomed two delegations to Kigali Innovation City: the African Distinguished Diplomatic Delegation and the Angola Chamber of Commerce.

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Gates Notes

Bill Gates visits the Upanzi Network

Bill Gates recently visited CMU-Africa’s Upanzi Digital Experience Center during a trip to Rwanda. Of the Upanzi Network, Gates said “this is exactly the kind of African-owned, African-built infrastructure that will improve lives across the continent.”

KT Press

Olusola collaborates with a variety of academics at PAIO hackathon

MS EAI student Samuel Olusola was quoted in KT Press on his experience in the Pan-African Informatics Olympiad (PAIO) 2026 Generative AI Hackathon. “What stood out was the diversity of the teams,” he said. “You hear different perspectives, brainstorm together and build something better than you could alone.”

New online learning platform for the Student Success Team

A team of CMU-Africa student workers have developed a new online learning platform for the Student Success Team, including the cataloguing and curation of resources.

allAfrica

Ibyishaka uses satellite imagery to curb unsafe mining practices

Eric Ibyishaka (MS ECE ’25) is working on satellite technology to identify and reform unsafe and potentially lethal mining practices through an internship at STAR.VISION Aerospace Ltd.

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