I’m a first year MAS student in Lifelong Kindergarten and my background is in Mechanical Engineering. I’m Kenyan and I grew up, lived, studied in Kenya up until 2 months ago when I moved to Boston to attend MIT.

My introduction to the tech and social change space was in my first year as an undergraduate student at the University of Nairobi, when a friend introduced me to a local makerspace situated within the institution. The makerspace was a Fab Lab, which I later came to know was birthed at MIT. As a member of the Fab Lab, I was exposed to young and talented students who worked hard to design and develop low-tech solutions to challenges faced in their local communities despite financial and resource constraints. During this time, I gained skills in human-centered design and digital fabrication and also developed low-cost, technological solutions in energy, education and healthcare for communities in Kenya.

These experiences inspired me to create the Mekatilili Program, which is an educational initiative that facilitates interactive workshops focused on Human-Centered Design and basic engineering concepts to improve technical expertise, nurture innovation and to promote social cohesion among the youth in Africa. In each session of the program, participants are prompted to utilize user-centered design to tackle challenges in their communities. They have been able to generate ideas like: a device to solve environmental issues caused by sewage and waste, an app to improve trash collection and management, improve road safety, solar powered systems and much more. We have reached over 250 young people (mostly young girls and women), whose average age ranges from 14 – 25 years.

I have been fortunate to travel to different countries in Africa and I have witnessed first-hand the effects of economic and technological deprivation in Africa, e.g. inadequate healthcare services, poor infrastructure and improper distribution channels for critical information and resources.  Therefore, my hope is to spearhead activities and programs that stimulate the growth of Research and Development (R&D) in Africa, through appropriate technological innovation to create social impact.