It is no secret that the Computer Science field has been male-dominated for years on end. Dr. Chao Mbogho, an educator and researcher in the field, is very familiar with this. As an undergraduate Computer Science student at Kenya Methodist University, Dr. Chao found herself as the only woman in her class. Scaling up the academic ladder, the situation barely changed. Despite being among the minority for most of her academic life, she is now the epitome of thought leadership, transformative education, and life-changing professional mentorship.
Joining Academia
Dr. Chao’s mentorship role started when she joined academia as a lecturer at Kenya Methodist University. She was dismayed to find few female students in the classes she taught. Additionally, she witnessed the transition gaps between education and the industrial world. As she pondered on how to bridge this gap, student requests on matters scholarships, community engagement and interview preparedness jetted in. In 2016, she responded, by curating a mentorship programme to cater to these needs and invited professionals from different fields to equip the students.
She had no intentions of making this mentorship programme a long-term engagement. But after six months of facilitation, the first cohort of students expressed overwhelmingly positive feedback on the programme, which fueled her to take in another group of students. By the end of the second cohort, the transformative effect of the programme confirmed the need to formalise the mentorship.
Establishing KamiLimu
Dr. Chao tailored the programme to complement classroom learning and bridge skill gaps. She streamlined the curriculum to offer: comprehensive job application preparedness, industry-relevant ICT skills and innovation – which requires mentees to solve real time problems with the skills they’ve learnt. She then branded this initiative KamiLimu, a name derived from two Swahili words kamili and elimu which combine to mean complete education.
KamiLimu’s Impact Story
At the end of the mentorship, mentees graduate from the programme with a comprehensive portfolio and having developed an end-to-end product and garnered industry-tailored skills. As of February 2023, KamiLimu has worked with over 230 mentees from more than 55 tertiary institutions, with the technical support of over 100 mentors. Additionally, mentees specialise in the fields of expertise they are interested in and excel in. This has seen the mentees being absorbed into prestigious big-tech global companies like Meta while others have implemented solution-based innovation skills to develop startups locally.
Dr. Chao’s Industry Experience
Besides academia, Dr. Chao’s technological leadership is enriched by first-hand industry experience. In 2021, Dr. Chao left academia. Thereupon, she joined Mozilla Foundation and Corporation in 2022 and has been their responsible computing project lead to date.
The project she’s leading – whose objective is to strengthen the computer science curricula – further scales her effective learning mission beyond KamiLimu. Her role is to facilitate Kenyan tertiary institutions’ adoption and implementation of curricula that teach computer science students how to innovate responsibly and build ethical technology through grants. About 10 tertiary institutions will benefit from this grant, and Dr. Chao will support them for the next two years.
Cross-Industry Transformation
Dr. Chao’s dedication to transforming innovation in the computer science and technology industry is unmatched. Like a double-edged file, she’s sharpening both ends of the sector: mentoring students at KamiLimu, and equipping faculty through Mozilla projects. Even as she envisions KamiLimu’s elevation to an independent and fully-fledged institution, she remains a formidable force in the drive towards resilience and capacity building in the industry, as well as responsible innovation. She’s one of #OurGoalGetters!