School of Graduate Studies

The Incubation and Innovation Center (I²C) exists as a Center under the School of Graduate Studies, Research, and Extension (SGSRE).

I²C provides entrepreneurship training, advisement, mentoring, linkages, and work space for student and alumni-run ventures. Selected business ideas are incubated for a 12-month period to develop the idea and to better position it for a successful launch. I²C endeavors to educate students and become an integral part of the East African entrepreneurship ecosystem by providing students with real-life experiences, mentoring, advising, connection to resources, and funding with the ultimate goal of creating self-sustaining, funding-ready ventures.
I²C also enhances the academic quality of programs through broadly applied capabilities for students. More specifically, I²C intermingles with course deliverables in the entrepreneurship concentration of the Chandaria School of Business' MBA program.

AppFactory

The I²C AppFactory offers Africa's technology graduates the hands-on experience they need to succeed as software craftsmen - able to design, develop, implement, and manage successful software solutions for a Cloud First, Mobile First world.
The I²C AppFactory is designed to be:

• An engine for the development of skilled talents that respond to ICT industry needs;
• A Research & Development Lab for developing innovative ICT projects;
• A Digital Transformation Program for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other key sectors;
• An engine to contribute to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem;

Taking a business approach to agriculture

Overview:

The Global Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (GAME – Center) is a Research, Training and Consulting center at the United States International University-Africa’s housed at the School of Graduate Studies, Research, and Extension, The center leverages on the university faculty diversity, highly skilled staff in Projects Management, specialized agriculture consultants and trained Senior and Graduate student research assistants to deliver a wide range of services targeted at the Agriculture sector in Eastern Africa, the Center partners with Specialized technical consulting firms to guarantee the quality of service and end-user satisfaction.

The area of specialty include Agricultural Markets Research, Value Chain development Studies (analytics and Advisory), Impact Evaluation, Extension Services Advisory, and Capacity building through a Human-Centered Design Agribusiness Training that applies business entrepreneurship rigor to agribusiness, the main aim is to enhance the innovation and analytical skills of change agents in the agribusiness value chain to improve effectiveness, increase productivity and efficiency of National Food Systems.

Research

GAME Center conducts Policy relevant research that provides valuable insights to stakeholders, the type of studies includes, Market Surveys, Impact Evaluations, Value Chain Studies, Food Production, and Consumption behavior studies, Nutrition diversification, and possible pro-poor policy interventions for food security in developing countries, By working with different scholars and experts in their fields, the center can design both qualitative and quantitative studies, conduct large surveys, analyze and present findings that speak to decision-makers at all levels.

Areas of specialty include.

Agriculture Markets Studies.

The Institute seeks to provide strategic and functional leadership development opportunities, research on higher education, policy dialogues for key stakeholders in higher education, and training on competency based education. The SGSR&E developed a concept for the Institute for funding by Africa Development Bank (AfDB). The Institute is expected to provide an important higher education forum for the East African region and continent at large. It was formally launched on January 30, 2019. The launch was attended by participants from 60 organizations including universities, regulatory bodies, research agencies, embassies, and multilateral and philanthropic organizations.

Vision

The vision of the institute is to advance research, leadership and policy direction in African Higher Education landscape

Administration and Governance

The institute is a program area within the School of Graduate Studies, Research and Extension which falls under the Academic and Student Affairs. The overall direction and oversight of the Institute is executed by an external advisory board composed of individuals with great prowess in Higher Education matters. These include Prof. Paul Zeleza, Dr. Kevit Desai and Prof. Michieka Ratemo

Outputs

The School of Graduate Studies, Research & Extension Student’s Research Club

Concept Note

Background

Research is critical in providing data and informed conclusions that lead to better decision making at the global, regional and local levels. As the oldest secular private University in the region, USIU-Africa is home to top researchers who tirelessly seek solutions to problems affecting the African continent. Our researchers work with communities to identify the problems they face, analyze those problems and discuss possible solutions to the problems with the affected communities. This approach ensures that research undertaken at USIU-Africa is for the benefit of the community, done with the community and is implemented by the community. We believe in providing articulate solutions to the community’s problems by placing the communities at the center of every research project. The students (graduate, undergraduate, PhD) are therefore guaranteed of working with accomplished scholars who continuously challenge them to develop solutions to the problems facing the communities within which they belong.

The School of Graduate Studies, Research and Extension (SGSR&E) is looking forward to enhance and entrench the research agenda by providing excellent support services. This will be done through expanding and strengthening long-term research partnerships as well as capacity building such as conducting research trainings which will be taking place every semester. The training will involve SPSS training and grant writing training. This will encourage students to be part of the multi-disciplinary approach that our research teams undertake and enable them to understand research and become more ethical researchers in their respective fields.

The School of Graduate Studies, Research and Extension (SGSR&E) noticed that there are a lot of inquiries by the students about the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) training and grant writing training. The desire for the trainings has been fueled by winners of internal grants who wish to work with a few students who have at least basic knowledge on Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and data collection. The students who have shown interest but do not have any basic research skill are left out.

The School also noticed that there are also students who are interested in research and want to be involved in the training. The School of Graduate Studies, Research and Extension (SGSR&E) has identified this as a gap and would wish to train the students through a “Students’ Research Club.” The research club will be student’s driven club formed by the students and will help in bringing together both the graduate and undergraduate students interested in research.

Objectives

The main objective of the graduate school is to involve students in the research and therefore the specific of objectives of the Student’s Research Club are:

1. To bring together graduate and undergraduate students interested in research.

2. To create an environment that students can freely share their research ideas.

3. To create awareness on the importance of research among students.

The club is not just for those already involved in research but also for students open to becoming who wish to make a first step towards research.

Membership

Members will learn how to bridge any gaps— perceived or real—between students and USIU-Africa’s renowned research professors, who wish to serve as mentors to undergraduates/graduates. This will be a student led initiative and they will champion the process while the School of Graduate Studies Research and Extension and the Student Affairs Department will oversee administration

Membership eligibility?

1. Students interested in expanding their research skills

2. Active volunteer students who have been involved in the School of Graduate Studies, Research and Extension activities/roles such as Research Assistants, assist in organizing activities etcetera

Activities

The School of Graduate Studies, Research and Extension (SGSR&E) has therefore come up with a program called the Foundation of Research in which beginners in research will be trained basic Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) skills and grant writing skills every semester after which a 3 day training workshop will be organized to train them on advanced analysis and Grant writing skills. By the end of the training activity the students will be expected to; have gained interest in research, capable of developing a research proposal and have confidence to apply for grants and finally be qualified research assistants.

Citizen Science provides an opportunity of supplementing scientific research that is obtained through traditional research methods by involving regular people in the society to generate quality data. Consequently, citizen generated data (CGD) is now considered a powerful addition to information collected by governments and international agencies for the monitoring and evaluation of social environmental situations and for policy makers in decision making. A case in point is the use of the data to monitor and hence fulfil the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The reality of the importance of CGD was brought home through the active participation of the United States International University-Africa (USIU-A) members in the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) Conference in December 2017 held at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Headquarters, Gigiri Nairobi. Following the University’s active participation at the UNEA and with the support of senior management, the University expressed interest in hosting Africa’s Citizen Science on campus. An announcement that USIU-Africa had been nominated to host the first African presence of Citizen Science was made at the UNEA closing plenary and subsequently the University hosted other global Citizen Science organizations at an event to launch Citizen Science Africa.

Given the absence of any continental citizen science organization in Africa and following the announcement at the closing UNEA Plenary, USIU-A hosted a high level segment of UN Global Citizen Science delegation on Monday 4^th December 2017 with a purpose of experience sharing and helping Africa to set up its own Citizen Science initiative. Among the delegates were members of already existing associations of Europe (European Citizen Science Association), North America (Citizen Science Association), Australia (Australian Citizen Science Association) and Asia (Citizen Science Asia).

Thereafter, an interim committee consisting of interested stakeholders was selected to spearhead the formation of Citizen Science Africa (CitSAf) with USIU-A being awarded the honor of being the lead institution in the setting up of the association.

Selected Committee members included:

1. Maina Muniafu – USIU-Africa (Co-Chair)
2. Jimmy Macharia – USIU-Africa (Co-Chair)
3. Edith Amuhaya – USIU-Africa (Secretary)
4. Xavier Francis – University of Nottingham, UK
5. Dick Omondi – Smart Development Foundation
6. Jusper Ronoh – ILRI
7. Faith Mutavi – ILRI
8. Charles Mwangi – GLOBE Program Kenya
9. Brian Waswala (ex UNEP)

Subsequently and in preparations for USIU-A participation at the March 2019 UNEA4, the Vice-Chancellor requested Prof. Njeri Wamae, Dean/SPHS to spearhead the University’s participation steps towards registration of CitSAf and development of this proposal. Following this, USIU-A delegates (Edith Amuhaya, Maina Muniafu, Jimmy Macharia and Njeri Wamae) fully participated at the 2019 UNEA4 in March (Figs.2-3). Among others, the USIU-A Delegation contributed to the drafting of the Citizen Global Partnership Declaration (Attachment 1 and link below) that was delivered and the Belmont Forum Sessions. On the sidelines, the USIU-A Delegates hosted a high level governance meeting of the Global Citizen Science Partnership (GCSP) comprising of the global citizen science associations as well as some of the Selected Committee members above on the USIU-A campus on 11 March 2019. The opening ceremony was officiated by DVCASA, Prof. Ruthie Rono (Attachment 2). At the conclusion of the governance deliberations, Prof. Njeri Wamae and Dr. Edith Amuhaya were elected into the GCSP technical committees.

On request and invitation by USIU-A CitSAf, Martin Brocklehurst the GCSP Coordinator graciously offered the team a session on association registration familiarization on March 15^th 2019. The USIU-A representatives included School of Graduate Studies Research and Extension, Advancement, Legal and the USIU-A CitSAf team), Fig 4. Martin took the team through various options for registration drawing on examples from other established citizen science associations and in particular the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA). In regard to ECSA, Martin observed that Imperial College London lost the hosting opportunity to the Natural History Museum, Berlin, Germany due to tardiness in decision making in spite of showing early interest and spearheading the registration of ECSA and hence cautioned the team (USIU-A) to avoid such a pit fall and losing this strategic opportunity of being the African continent host for the association.

PURPOSE OF CitSAf:

To increase the involvement and responsibility of residents in African countries towards the conservation and improvement of their environment (including socio-cultural aspects), with enabled resource access, through monitoring procedures and influencing of policies in a bottom up approach.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES:

• To identify and promote responsible, adaptive and sustainable solutions in environment, energy, health and business sectors for and by citizenry
• To be a repository of citizen science projects briefs, case studies and activities in Africa
• To seek funding and resources as well as provide support, advise, training and funding for high performance computing and citizen science initiatives
• To provide leverage, membership and a platform for organizations and individuals to articulate, promote and lobby for citizen science and HPC activities in Africa
• To leverage and mobilise resources for the betterment of the demographic dividend of African populace for employment creation
• To bridge the gap between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical) subjects, High Performance Computing (HPC) and citizen science for identification, development and promotion of innovations, traditional indigenous knowledge insights and sustainable solutions that solve/alleviate Africa’s problems
• To promote solution based cross-border and regional promotion and utilisation of citizen science and HPC in Africa
• To take such steps by personal or written appeals, private meetings, public meetings or representations to Parliament, government entities and other bodies as may be deemed expedient to promote and advocate for any of the objects of the Organization
• To raise, secure and utilise funds for the attainment of any or all objectives of the Organization, and to do such other things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of these objectives

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

• To continually recruit members on the continent of Africa and beyond including the Diaspora on an individual and corporate basis
• To organise community structures that enhance scientific, economic, environmental and sociocultural discourses around existing challenges and potential solutions iii. To create open data processes both in collection and accessing.
• To develop (with communities) technological devices with the ability to capture data and others to provide simple solutions
• To develop affiliations/partnerships that enable greater access to institutional, technological and financial resources for improving community environments
• To assist in graduate studies for African/Diaspora students pursuing projects related to community environment and built environment, green energy, health, blue economy and business sectors
• To take such steps by personal or written appeals, private meetings, public meetings or representations to Parliament, government entities, public environment regulators and other bodies as may be deemed expedient to promote any of the objectives of the Association
• To raise, secure and utilise funds for the realization of objectives of the Association, and to do such other things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of these objectives

ENVISIONED PARTNERS:

• Individuals carrying out measurements that provide data for social, economic and environmental factors in society. These may be members of other global citizen science associations
• NGO’s, CSO’s and Faith-based organizations that are directly involved in citizen science activities in Africa
• Individuals holding traditional and indigenous knowledge (TIK) in Africa
• Institutions (both public and private) that have data collection projects in Africa including Demographic Surveillance Surveys (DSS), Metrological etc
• National based citizen science associations across the African continent

CitSAf MODUS OPERANDI:

• Participate in organizing community structures that enhance scientific, economic, environmental and sociocultural discourses around existing challenges
• Create open data processes both in collection and accessing (existing data from governments and national agencies too expensive)
• Develop (with communities) technological devices with the ability to capture data and provide adaptable and sustainable solutions

INITIAL PLANNED ACTIVITIES:

• Set up a functioning secretariat with a staff of four (4) fulltime staff (Director, Program Assistant, Finance Officer and Community Service Expert) working with an Advisory Board of 5 - 7 members
• Host a stake-holders workshop to get regional partners on board and also concurrence on proposed aim, objectives, activities, structure and budgets. This will involve the generating of a list of stakeholders as well as the identification of current running projects in Africa. We already have up to 50% of this
• Setting up a website to raise the profile of CitSAf Association
• Organize community structures that enhance scientific, economic, environmental and sociocultural discourses around existing challenges on the Continent
• Create open data processes both in collection and accessing (existing data from governments and national agencies too expensive)
• Develop technological devices with the ability to capture data and others to provide adaptable and sustainable solutions
• Developing affiliations, fundraising and both incubating as well as assisting in the execution of nascent citizen science projects
• Develop an incubation hub for community-friendly instruments for data collection utilizing innovative and promising technologically gifted individuals on the continent
• Support graduate studies for African/Diaspora students pursuing projects related to community and built environment, green energy, health, blue economy and business sectors

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

• Environmental sustainability across the whole continent of Africa
• Natural resource sufficiency for communities on the continent
• Increased resilience to climate change impacts on the continent
• Improved standards of living and increased income generation from stable environments
• Improved health leading to improved realization of economic potential

Figure 1. Schema on Envisioned Balanced Target for Natural Resources Sufficiency for African Communities

Attachment 1 (a) Citizen Global Partnership Declaration at 2019 UNEA4 Closing Ceremony

Attachment 1 (b)

Click Here to download

The link to the official recording of the UN Major Groups presentation to the Plenary Session at 2019 UNEA4.

http://web.unep.org/environmentassembly/node/42443

Attachment 2:

WELCOME REMARKS BY PROF. RUTHIE RONO AT THE CITIZEN SCIENCE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP GOVERNANCE MEETING AT USIU-AFRICA ON MONDAY, MAR 11^TH 2019

“On behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, University Management, Faculty, Staff and Students, I am extremely humbled, to welcome you all members of the Citizen Science Global Partnership to USIU-Africa.

It is indeed a great honor for you, the Citizen Science Global Partnership, to have selected USIU-Africa as the CSGP venue for the second year consecutively. We are glad to host you all.

CITIZEN SCIENCE ACTIVITIES AT USIU-AFRICA

Although the Vice Chancellor Prof. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza has requested Prof. Njeri Wamae, the Dean, School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences to spearhead Citizen Science-Africa, the activities are open to faculty and students from all the schools and all other Citizen Science partners in Africa.

Currently the achievements and initiatives at USIU-A include:

• The university received a donation of a mini High Performance Computing computer that will be very instrumental in harnessing and processing data received from citizen science activities from communities.
• For example, the Department of Computing in the School of Science and Technology, colleagues of Jimmy Macharia, namely Sylvester Namuye, and Leah have been collecting data from devices installed in communities farms in the project dabbed “Citizen Observatory”
• In the same Department of Computing in the School of Science and Technology, Jimmy’s project involving citizen science people in contributing to reduction of road carnage is at the stage of:
  • Looking for partners to collaborate in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics to detect speed bumps and sharp corners (blind spots) on our roads using already collected 245 000 data points collected from 25 car trackers on public transport vehicles on our roads to train the computer.
  • Looking for partners to collaborate in using GPS locations and images of speed bumps and sharp corners on our roads sent by citizens from their mobile phones.
  • Looking for partners to use AI and the collected data to use text-to-speech to warn drivers of impending speed bumps and sharp corners when about 100 meters away.
• There are several other projects that are being carried out by students and faculty in various communities that collect data. However for the sake of time allow me to proceed on to the next and final remark – Citizen Science Africa

CITIZEN SCIENCE AFRICA

You are aware that in our last meeting at this same venue, the university offered to host and spearhead the registration of Citizen Science Africa. The university is committed to this undertaking.

To this end:

• USIU-Africa has hosted 6 Stakeholders meetings of Citizen Science – AFRICA towards their formation.
• USIU-Africa has volunteered 3 faculty to Citizen Science – AFRICA interim officials of the Steering Committee:
  • Prof Maina Muniafu- Interim Chair
  • Prof Jimmy Macharia- Interim Co Chair
  • Prof Edith Amuhaya- Interim Secretary
• USIU-Africa is a registered member of Citizen Science America to enable early start of faculty and students to globally engage on citizen science initiatives and promote awareness of Citizen Science in Campus, communities and policy makers.

CITIZEN SCIENCE AFRICA OUTLOOK

• Strengthening and supporting the Steering Team
• Working with our Legal Department to fast track the registration
• Collaborating with stakeholders to increase citizen activities locally and other African countries.
• Leveraging our (Hosting of Citizen Science Africa) proximity to UNEP Kenya offices to increase engagement”.