The Team
Dr. Victoria Mukami
Lecturer - university of embu
Highly accomplished Ph.D. holder in Information Technology and an accomplished university lecturer with a specialization in health informatics. Dedicated to leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to drive positive health outcomes.
Profile: https://cit.embuni.ac.ke/index.php/faculty/academic-staff/9-profile/67-dr-victoria-mukami
Contact: mukami.victoria@embuni.ac.ke
Muchungi, Kendi and Mukami, Victoria and Mongi, Hector and Fabian-Mbatia, Flora and Ombui, Edward and Kiguru, Mary and Tandika, Pambas and Moshi, Fabiola and Ombeni, Joram, Leveraging Intelligent Decision Support System to Promote Inclusive Remote Teaching and Learning in Institutions of Higher Education in East Africa: Prototype Development (February 7, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4350356 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4350356
Mukami V., Millham R., Puckree T., Fong S.J. (2021) Identifying the Most Feasible Technologies for mHealth Maternal Mortality Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 169. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4073-2_18
Millham, R. C., Agbehadji, I. E., Puckree, T., Mukami, V., & Li, T. (2020). Feasible E-Health Strategies to Reduce Maternal Mortality in Kenya. International Journal of Extreme Automation and Connectivity in Healthcare (IJEACH), 2(2), 26-36. doi:10.4018/IJEACH.2020070103)
Mukami, V, R Millham, T Puckree “mHealth: ICT framework for mitigating the determinants of maternal and neonatal mortality”, IEEE Xplore, Ghana, 2019
Mukami, R. Millham and T. Puckree, “Comparison of frameworks and models for analyzing determinants of maternal mortality and morbidity”,IST-Africa Week Conference, IEEE Xplore, 2016.
Mukami, “Use of mobile technologies as a maternal mortality reduction tool in Kenya”, 1st Annual ANU International Conference, 2014.
Principal Investigator: Innovative multidisciplinary ethically informed student projects through critical thinking and design thinking: A case of the University of Embu, 2023 | Mozilla.
Principal Investigator: Quasi Experimental Research: Dec 2022 – May 2024 | Location: Embu and Murang’a County | Intervention: BESHTE: A Chatbot to enhance HIV testing, status awareness, and status disclosure among adolescent boys and girls and young men and women in Kenya
Co-Investigator: Using Computational Modelling and Artificial Intelligence to Enhance HIV Testing, Status Awareness, and Status Disclosure among Adolescent Boys and Girls and, Young Men and Women in Kenya, Jan 2023 – Dec 2025 | Organization of Women in Science and Development
Principal Investigator: Multi-location randomized clinical trial: Nov 2016 – Aug 2017 | Location: Ongata Health Centre and Ngong Sub-district hospital | Intervention: Use of SMS to educate pregnant women to reduce maternal complications that lead to maternal mortality
Co-Investigator: Quasi-Experimental Research, May 2020 – May 2021 | KENET: Automated Artificial Language Learning Using Compiler Reverse Engineering
Co-Author: Partnership for Enhanced and Blended Learning (PEBL) under the Association of Commonwealth Universities (UK): Blended Learning Module Development | June 2020
Investigator: Leveraging Intelligent Decision Support System to Promote Inclusive and Significant Remote Teaching and Learning in the East African Higher Education during similar interruptions to the COVID 19 pandemic | Africa Rapid Grant Fund | September 2020
- Collaboration with secondary school guidance and counselling teachers in Embu and Murang’a to develop a knowledgebase around HIV/AIDS
- Collaboration with Murang’a Level 5 hospital in the development of solutions for adolescents and young adults
- Academic Collaboration with University of Dodoma, Tanzania to implement a decision support system
Stakeholder meeting in Embu and Murang’a prior to the start of the development of the BESHTE chatbot. Stakeholder meeting included teachers, health workers, students and counsellors.
Conference Presentation in Accra, Ghana on the mHealth: ICT framework for mitigating the determinants of maternal and neonatal mortality
As a multidisciplinary supervisor, I have been able to mentor students from varied fields who were implementing IT to solve problems in other disciplines. Disciplines have included environmental and criminology with diverse topics that integrate information technology.
- Influence of drought coping strategies on the social-ecological well-being of pastoral communities
- Contribution of automated systems in reduction of corruption levels in state corporations
- Use of mobile technology to enhance wildlife security
- Principal Investigator in 2 projects across health research.
- Principal Investigator in a project around ethical responsibility in project development
- Departmental research lead at a university setting
- Departmental exams coordinator
Memberships include:
- The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD)
- Kenya Health Informatics Association (KEHIA)
- Collaborations as a researcher with the community during various research projects.
- Information delivery through a cell phone during the greatest health worker strike in Kenya thereby reducing maternal mortality.
- Authorship of simplified notes that are open access at HUF
Dr. David Muchangi Mugo
Senior Lecturer - university of embu
Ph.D (Information Systems), MSc (Computer Science), MBA (Technology Management), BSc (Computer Science), CCNA Instructor, IBM Certified Artificial Intelligence Analyst, IBM Certified Big Data Engineer, IBM Certified Cloud Application Developer, ISO 27001:2013 auditor, ISO 9001: 2015 auditor, Knowledge Management Consultant
Chairman, Academic Leader and Senior Lecturer, Department of Computing & IT, University of Embu
Profile: https://cit.embuni.ac.ke/index.php/9-profile/7-mr-david-muchangi-mugo
Email: davemugo2005@gmail.com / david.mugo@embuni.ac.ke
- Jepkoech, Jennifer and Mugo David and Too, Edna Chebet (2022), Exploring Entropy Pruning Coupled with Capsule Neural Network (Capsnet) for Leaf Disease Classification. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4064803
- Jepkoech Jennifer, Kenduiywo Benson, Mugo David and Too Edna (2022). A backward regressed capsule neural network for plant leaf disease detection. Journal of Computer Science, 18 (9), 821-831
- Jepkoech Jennifer, Mugo David, Kenduiywo Benson and Too Edna (2021). The effect of adaptive learning rate on the accuracy of neural networks. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,
- OWSD (USD 49,997) – Using Computational Modelling and Artificial Intelligence to Enhance HIV Testing, Status Awareness, and Status Disclosure among Adolescent Boys and Girls and, Young Men and Women in Kenya, Amount
- Infectious Diseases Unit – Makerere University(USD 39,873). BESHTE: A Chatbot to Enhance HIV testing, Status Awareness, and Status Disclosure Among Adolescent Boys and Girls and Young Women and Men in Kenya
- Internation/Africa (Future Earth) (50,000 USD). Building Urban Community Networks for Sustainable Cities in Africa (UComNetSus)
- Collaboration with IBM EAST AFRICA on AI Technologies
- Collaboration with Zalego Academy on imparting skills to young people
- HASH Network for research maternal and sexual health
I am actively engaged in community empowerment efforts. I serves as a Chairman of St. John Chrysostom Muvandori Mixed Secondary School and Vice Chairman of St Alphonse Mixed Secondary School and St. Anne Girls Kiriari High School. I also hold various leadership positions in several BOMs of Secondary Schools and in the Catholic Church both at the Parish Level as well as at the Diocese Level. I have been a great motivational speaker in a number of secondary and primary schools in order to mold future leaders, professionals and academicians.
Together with Zalego Academy I have facilitated several IT students incubate their ideas which are at various levels in terms of market acceptance. Several projects incubated are already generating employment to several young Kenyans
I have successfully supervised one PhD student and five Masters students. I also currently supervising two PhD students who are at their various stages of their research projects and 4 other masters students.
In addition to being a leader in the community for various schools and in the church, I am the current Chairman, Department of Computing and Information Technology (CIT), University of Embu. Previously, I have been the coordinator, Website and Electronic Repository at the University of Embu where I propelled the University towards higher Universities’ Webometrics Ranking. I also chair several University Committees mandated to realize various objectives
I have been invited by the Ministry of Devolution to give talks on knowledge management. Further, I have participated as a guest speaker in various conferences held in Kenyatta University and Zetech University. Currently, I serve as an external examiner at Murang’a University of Technology, Kenya
My career goal is to become a distinguished Professor of Information Systems and to work whole heartedly to positively impact on the society for improvement of humanity and our environment. I am proud of the journey travelled so far towards realization of this target
Dr. Consolata Gakii
Lecturer - university of embu
A machine learning expert driven by the opportunity to make a significant impact in an increasingly data-driven world by applying skills and expertise to tackle complex problems, extract actionable insights from one health related data.
Profile: https://cit.embuni.ac.ke/index.php/faculty/academic-staff/2-uncategorised/32-consolata-gakii-mwirichia
Contact: gakii.consolata@embuni.ac.ke
Accelerating deep learning inference via layer truncation and transfer learning for fingerprint classification. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, e7619.
Identification of cancer related genes using feature selection and association rule mining. Informatics in Medicine Unlocked, 24, 100595
In silico-driven analysis of the Glossina morsitans morsitans antennae transcriptome in response to repellent or attractant compounds. PeerJ, 9, e11691
- Researcher: BESHTE: A Chatbot to Enhance HIV testing, Status Awareness, and Status Disclosure Among Adolescent Boys and Girls and Young Women and Men in Kenya (Funded by HASH)
- Researcher: Using Computational Modelling and Artificial Intelligence to Enhance HIV Testing, Status Awareness, and Status Disclosure among Adolescent Boys and Girls and, Young Men and Women in Kenya (Funded by OWSD)
- Researcher: Innovative multidisciplinary ethically informed student projects through critical thinking and design thinking: A case of the University of Embu (Funded by Mozilla).
Collaboration with Research Institute of the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (BioRI-KALRO) in using machine learning to analyze RNAseq data generated from the antennae of Glossina morsitans morsitans, a key vector for sleeping sickness in humans.
Am a member of team responsible for offering secondary school mentorship program during their academic visit to the university of Embu. Have been a part of team developing chatbot to assist the youth in matters HIV/AIDS and therefore participated in two stakeholders’ meetings held in Embu and Murang’a county as well as focus group discussions in two secondary schools
Am currently supervising post graduate undertaking research on big data analytics in bioinformatics and an undergraduate mentor in the department of computing and information technology.
- Researcher in three project on using artificial intelligence to address issues around HIV/AIDS in Kenyan universities and secondary schools and ethical issues in computer science.
- Departmental undergraduate project coordinator
- Awarded best student in foundations of accounting and overall best in Kenya by KASNEB.
- Member IEEE.
- Founder member JKUAT TechExpo.
My major achievements is earning a Ph.D. in Information Technology , which has significantly contributed to my professional growth and expertise in the area of machine learning and big data analytics.
Dr. Marilyn Ronoh
Lecturer - university of embu
Computational Modelling Expert. Presently involved in multidisciplinary and international research collaborations, particularly modelling the social drivers of HIV/AIDS disease, sexual and reproductive health research, data modelling, infectious diseases and climate changes and applications of artificial intelligence to HIV/AIDS disease dynamics in Kenya.
Profile: https://ms.embuni.ac.ke/index.php/faculty/academic-staff/9-profile/71-dr-marilyn-ronoh
Contact: ronoh.marilyn@embuni.ac.ke
- Levy, H. Correia, F. Chirove, M. Ronoh, A. Abebe, M. Kgosimore, O. Chimbola, H. Machingauta, S. Lenhart, J. White, Modeling the effect of HIV/AIDS stigma on HIV infection dynamics in Kenya, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology Journal, 83(5),2021,
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-021-00891-7 - Burton, S. Lenhart, C. Edholm, B. Levy, M.L. Washington, B.R. Greening, K.A.J. White, E. Lungu, O. Chimbola, M. Kgosimore, F. Chirove, M. Ronoh, M.H. Machingauta, A mathematical model of contact tracing during the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak, Mathematics MDPI, 9(608), 2021, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/math9060608.
- Ronoh, F. Chirove, S. Pedro, M. Seuneu et al, Modelling the spread of Schistosomiasis in Humans with Environmental Transmission. Applied Mathematical Modelling-Elsevier Journal, 95, pp. 159-175, 2021, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2021.01.046.
- Ronoh, F. Chirove, J. Kagunda, W. Ogana, Evidence-based modeling of combination control on Kenyan youth HIV/AIDS dynamics, PLoS One, 15(11): e0242491 November (2020),DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2021.01.0461371/journal.pone.0242491.
- Ronoh, F. Chirove, J. Wairimu, W. Ogana, Modeling Disproportional Effects of Educating Infected Kenyan on HIV/AIDS, Journal of Biological Systems, 28(2), (2020), pp. 1–39, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218339020400045 .
- Wairimu, F. Chirove, M. Ronoh, D. Malonza, Modeling insecticides resistance in Malaria transmitting mosquitoes in endemic regions of Kenya, Biosystems, 174, (2018), pp. 49-59, DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2018.09.002
2023-2026: Principal Investigator: UNESCO-OWSD Grant to support computational modelling and scale up the development of artificial intelligence tools to enhance HIV/AIDS testing, status awareness and status disclosure among the Kenyan youth
2022 -2024: Research Member: IDRC.CRDI – The Hub for Artificial Intelligence in Maternal and Sexual reproductive Health (HASH) grant for the development of a Chatbot named ‘Beshte’ to support HIV/AIDS control among the Kenyan youth.
2017 – 2020: OWSD PhD Fellowship to support 6 months/year research visits to University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
2018 -2019: Mawazo PhD Fellowship to support research and professional skills training.
Collaboration with an international multidisciplinary research team to host a computational modeling workshop in Embu, Kenya.
Collaboration with RTWH-Aachen Institute, Germany and Mawazo Institute to host a Summer School and in Kenya.
Collaboration with Kenyan Youth Stakeholders to develop a knowledge base for the implementation of an Artificial Intelligence Tool to drive HIV control.
I have actively taken part in mentoring young women in science as they navigate the challenges of pursuing research careers while balancing the demands of motherhood and work. Additionally, I have been involved in inspiring high school students to pursue careers in STEM disciplines, fostering their interest and enthusiasm. Furthermore, I have engaged with the public through various media outlets, such as The Conversation, where I have shared insights on careers in STEM fields. I have also contributed to raising awareness and understanding of the spread of COVID-19 by publishing an article in one of our country’s national newspapers.
Dr. Ronoh has led a team of postgraduate students in the development and implementation of mathematical models for, health-related issues such as COVID-19 and typhoid fever Additionally, they have developed models pertaining to agriculture, climate change and its effect on food security, non-communicable diseases like mental health, and education-related topics. Under the guidance of Dr. Ronoh, the postgraduate students have gained valuable experience in applying mathematical modeling techniques to real-world problems, making significant contributions to their respective fields of study.
I have gained valuable leadership experience through various roles in my academic and professional journey. As a Principal Investigator for one of my research group projects, I have effectively led a team towards achieving our research goals. In my department, I hold the position of research lead, where I spearhead various research initiatives. This role requires me to guide and collaborate with fellow researchers, fostering an environment of innovation and intellectual growth.
I have contributed as a board member for one of schools within my country, where I have actively participated in decision-making processes and provided guidance on educational matters. Furthermore, my involvement at my institution’s research and publicization committee has allowed me to oversee the publication of research outputs to the public. This responsibility, entrusted to the research staff, has given me the opportunity to ensure the dissemination of valuable knowledge to a wider audience.
One of the most remarkable milestones in my career is the attainment of two highly regarded research grants by my team during my initial year of employment at my institution. This achievement not only served as a confirmation of my abilities and knowledge but also presented me with an invaluable chance to make a substantial contribution to the field of study I am deeply passionate about.
Dr. Peter Kailemia
Lecturer - university of embu
Oncology Nursing Expert with research focused on female breast cancer (FBC). Possesses a wealth of knowledge on the social determinants of health concerning FBC. His current research focuses on exploring intersectional determinants and interventions to promote timeliness of symptomatic women’s presentation across the cancer care continuum.
Profile: https://communityhealth.embuni.ac.ke/index.php/faculty/9-profile/25-dr-peter-n-kailemia
Contact: ntoiti.peter@embuni.ac.ke
Mr Stanley Ndegwa
COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGIST - THERAPYSTAN
Counseling Psychologist with a deep passion in Mental Health Science
and has been working diligently in that field with immense success. He runs a Mental Wellness clinic in Murang’a. Passion stems from working with the youth at individuals and families levels to help them navigate the challenges of life. His Areas of interest include anxiety, depression, trauma, sleep problems, transitions and adjustments, identity development, parenting skills, and family communication.
Contact: therapystan1@gmail.com
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