Empowering future tech leaders: IT Club explores innovation at IBM Research Africa
By Caroline Kausi
On March 21, 35 IT Club members, joined by the faculty of the School of Science and Technology, visited IBM Research Africa with the purpose of gaining first hand industry experience. The visit helped them connect classroom learning to real-world innovation through presentations by IBM researchers, career insights, and discussions on cutting-edge projects, facility tour and networking.
Dr. Skyler Speakman, an IBM veteran who has been engaged at the organization for over 10 years, introduced ‘AI in AI’, an IBM’s groundbreaking innovation that leverages machine learning to optimize resource management for African challenges especially in the humanitarian affairs.
Furthermore, students explored career insights of the IBM team, starting with the unusual path taken by Baldine Moturi who changed her career from economics to software engineering. She stated that she took programs like ALX and IBM SkillsBuild following an academic break, after which she interned at IBM and now contributes to projects like Foundation Models for Disaster Detection. Although his career path did not begin with changing courses, Isaac Waweru, an 11-year IBM veteran, shared quite an insightful story of his journey from intern to senior software engineer. He has engaged in impactful projects such as a cross-country credit limit system and a satellite-based water availability solution that replaced SMS-dependent sensors. His current focus is on using machine learning tools to streamline county council operations especially in water distribution within the county through.
As the day progressed, students had a Q&A session with the IBM team. The discussions ranged from translating academic projects into scalable solutions to collaboration and adaptability to internship opportunities. Researchers emphasized that LinkedIn is a key platform for internship alerts further advising the students to follow IBM professionals for real-time updates.
Additionally, the students toured IBM’s labs and offices, observed teams working on AI, explored IBM business and sustainability initiatives and later had a networking session with IBM mentors.
