About Me

I'm a final year BSc. Biomedical Engineering student at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.

During my undergraduate, I have been fortunate to work as a research assistant under the guidance of Professor Ciira Maina at Centre for Data Science & Artificial Intelligence in Kenya, and with Dr. Andrew Katumba and Dr. Jan Mikelson at Marconi Research and Innovations Lab in Uganda, both experiences resulting to peer-reviewed publications. Additionally, worked as a data intern at Talent Bridge Africa with Stella Nzisa, senior market researcher, and , Veronica George, business consultant, supporting clients with data-driven decision making insights.

I have also been fortunate to win scholarships to participate in person in international data science summer schools in countries like Greece, Ghana, Norway, Paris, Rwanda, as well as present a paper in Uganda and South Africa.

As a result, I have gained interest in contributing to the development of machine learning solutions. Therefore, I'm building skills in mathematics, programming, and scientific communication, and interested in pursuing a postgraduate degree in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to contribute solutions to my community and beyond.

Experiences

Visiting Undergraduate Research Assistant

Marconi Research and Innovations Lab, Uganda | January 2023 - March 2023

Developed a Swahili speech recognition model as preliminary steps towards building a more reliable, robust and autonomous patient-doctor documentation tool with the mentorship of Dr. Andrew.

Additionally, prepared and participated in a breast cancer hackathon challenge at the University of Texas Southwestern with the mentorship of Dr. Jan and published a position paper on our implementation.

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Centre for Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DSAIL) | February 2022 - April 2022

Designed hardware and software for monitoring of knee rehabilitating patients using an Arduino microcontroller and python programming language with the mentorship of Professor Ciira.

This work was presented at IST-Africa 2023 Proceedings in South Africa. Additionally, won a Mini-Grant award to further development and test the device in a clinic.

Documentation Focal Point

Uvumbuzi Tech Challenge | June 2021 - August 2021

Collaborated in a team of six, including Kakuma and Kaloyebei residents, in a 12 weeks research and development of frugal technology for low cost and sustainable cooking in Kakuma and Kaloyebei, the largest refugee camps in Kenya.

Logged the cook's team research, designs, and prepared progress reports. Used collaboration tools such as Google Workspace for all the documentation and communication.

After the challenge, I wrote a reflection of my learning and shared the results of our work on a medium blog and on LinkedIn.

Data Intern

Talent Bridge Africa | June 2020 - December 2020

Worked fully remote for seven months investigating and preparing reports on healthcare trends, with support of senior market researcher, Stella Nzisa, and business consultant, Veronica George, to support clients make informed healthcare investment decisions during the pandemic.

Updated the Talent Bridge Africa's healthcare database with thousands of data points from the research findings. Collaborated using online video conferencing tools and Google Workspace to successful completion of projects. Supported two other projects, on education, with data preparation and organization.

Gained a huge appreciation for the usefulness of data in supporting decision making. Recommendation letter.

Biomedical Engineer Attaché

Kiambu Level 5 Hospital | May 2019 - August 2019

Spent my only school break interning at biomedical engineering department of the hospital. Involved in installation of over 5 new pieces of medical equipment. Conducted over 50 rounds of medical equipment check, including visiting over nine departments at the Hospital. Took an active role in the planned preventive maintenance (PPM) of the magnetic resonance imaging(MRI).

Built troubleshooting and problem analysis skills in over the hundreds of maintenance activities done during my internship. Recommendation letter.

Achievements

1. AI Schools
Deep Learning Indaba 2023

Accra, Ghana | September 2023

Won a partial scholarship to participate in the deep learning indaba 2023. Documented my learning and activities on GitHub, including presenting at TrustAI workshop, facilitating practical sessions, and presenting a poster.
Probabilistic AI School 2023

Trondheim, Norway | June 2023

Won a scholarship to participate in the fourth Nordic Probabilistic AI School (ProbAI) which brought an intermediate to advanced level school with a focus on probabilistic machine learning. I'm documenting my learning and implementation on probabilistic modeling, variational inference, probabilistic programming, & deep generative models on GitHub. I also shared the experience on LinkedIn.
Data Science Africa 2023

Kigali, Rwanda | May 2023

Awarded a partial scholarship to participate in the DSA summer school and workshop 2023. Documented some code snippets from the technical session on GitHub and shared the experience on LinkedIn.
Human Cell Atlas (HCA)

Paris, France | November 2022

Won a travel award to attend the HCA Developmental and Pediatric Cell Atlas Meeting which brought together communities of scientists, computational biologists, clinicians, and ethicists interested in forging new collaborations to support the ultimate goal of improving health, cell & tissue engineering strategies and clinical therapy. LinkedIn post.
Data Science Africa 2022

Arusha, Tanzania | July 2022

Won a travel award to attend and present the orthopedic monitoring project, NeeFlex, in the 10th Data Science Africa school and workshop. I then shared the experience on LinkedIn.
19th International Summer School BIO-X 2022

Chania, Crete, Greece | May 2022

Among the 32 students globally (10% acceptance rate) who won the fellowship on Data Science in Engineering, Medicine and Biology. Monica Isgut and I commemorated the 7 days experience by giving the closing speech on behalf of the fellows. Certificate of Completion.
2. Conferences
IST-Africa 2023 Conference

Tshwane, South Africa | May 2023

Awarded a Kenya Education Network Trust (KENET) grant to participate in and present an accepted paper on our orthopedic monitoring project at the 2023 IST-Africa conference with my co-author Victor Kulankash.
IEEE International Students Conference

Kampala, Uganda | October 2022

Invited as a student panelist together with three others to talk about innovation, research and the importance of IEEE student membership. LinkedIn post.
Association of Medical Engineers of Kenya (AMEK)

Kakamega, Kenya | December 2021

Won a travel award to participate in the AMEK's 2021 conference together with six others to represent the biomedical engineering students in Kenya. Certificate of Participation.
Polish Telemedicine and ehealth Society

Warsaw, Poland (Hybrid) | September 2021

Collaborated with my mentor, Prof. Doniec and Anghelo (mentee) in presenting our research on Telemedicine in Kenya, Peru and Poland. Certificate of Participation.
3. Hack Contests
Breast Cancer Hackathon Challenge 2023

Dallas, Texas | March 2023

Among the 45 hackers who won a scholarship to take part in the breast cancer hackathon challenge held at UT Southwestern Medical Center campus working to develop a tool that captures the combined biological effects of mutations within a particular breast cancer. LinkedIn post.

AWS Impact+ Hackathon

Nairobi, Kenya | October 2022

Prototyped an e-waste management system in 48 hours in a team of five, pitched and won the second runs up position of the over 15 teams.

The George B. Moody PhysioNet Challenge 2022

Online | September 2022

Actively participated in the PhysioNet Competition in collaboration with my mentor, Bjørn-Jostein and four others. Successfully submitted two neural network models, trained for phonocardiogram classification, and then presented this work at the Computing in Cardiology (CinC) conference.

FeatureCloud Hackathon

Hamburg, Germany (Hybrid) | June 2022

Among the 25 participants of the first international FeatureCloud Hackathon on using federated Artificial Intelligence on microbiome data to identify colorectal cancer. GitHub Documentation.

IEEE Xtreme

Online | October 2021

Competed in the IEEE Xtreme 15.0 coding competition which hosted 12,900 teams for 24 hours. Certificate of Participation.

4. Courses
Hands-on Data Analysis for Metabolic Profiling

Imperial College London (online) | November 2022

Awarded a Medical Research Council(MRC) bursary covering the full fee to attend the week-long comprehensive, hands-on training in processing and analysing metabolomics data from LC-MS and NMR technologies. Certificate of Completion.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship

International Online Training | March 16th – July 13th 2022

Actively participated in the 14 lectures presented by leading professors and researchers of seven European universities from six countries on business basics, entrepreneurship, innovation, management and finance. Certificate of Completion.
Digital Fabrication

Maker Space, University of Nairobi | December 2020

Took part in a month-long semi-virtual training on digital fabrication tools: 3D printing, CNC milling and Laser cutter. Completed the course by creating a 3D printed key holder. Certificate of Completion.
Value Centered Leadership

DePaul University (online) | April 2020

Won a scholarship to study value centered leadership principles course. Some of the topics included; diversity and multi-cultural issues, managing conflicting values, creating leadership action plan etc. Certificate of Completion.
5. Awards
KamiLimu Mentorship Program

Cohort 6 Mentee | August 2021 - May 2022

Among the 36 students selected for the 8 months award winning mentorship program. Mentored on professional & personal development, scholarship writing and public speaking. Certificate of Completion.
Outstanding Community Engagement

KamiLimu Mentorship Program | August 2021- May 2022

Emerged as the cohort 6 mentee with the most community engagement in the local and global tech ecocystem during the 8 months mentorship program. Certificate of Excellence.
Outstanding Attendance Rate

KamiLimu Mentorship Program | August 2021- May 2022

Emerged as the cohort 6 mentee who consistently showed up and actively participated in both the mentorship's program and beyond earning the highest attendance rate. Certificate of Excellence.
6. Featured
Medium Feature

KamiLimu Mentorship Program | March 2022

Among the cohort 6 mentees whose experience at KamiLimu was featured on the organization's medium page.

Newsletter June 2021

IEEE CASS | October 2021

Among the students who participated in launching the IEEE Circuit and Systems Society (CASS) Kenyatta University Student Branch Chapter being the first in Africa.

Directorate of Career Department and Mentoring Programs (CDMP)

Kenyatta University | January 2020 & 2022

Among the 14 students in 2022 and 16 in 2020 (postponed in 2021 ) who served in the committee organizing the largest one-week long annual event at the university that brings together high school and university students to meet and interact with both academicians and dozens of industry experts to discuss about career growth and development.

Projects

  • Pitched Projects
  • Practice Playground

Data science projects; including data wrangling, hands-on data analysis for metabolic profiling and other applications in Healthcare. Also, deep & machine learning implementation mostly using python.

Hardware and software implementation of a knee wearable device using Python and Arduino with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), showcased in Crete, Greece. (10th on list) and in Nyeri, Kenya.

Protype of an IoT software and hardware for automatic washroom door opening for physically challenged, pitched at KamiLimu. Documentation.

Pitching a medical app for fighting misinformation during the national RedBull Basement competitions 2021 in Kenya. One minute pitch video.

Hardware programming workshops, attachement projects, and class project on controlling a propeller, using Arduino.

Data structures & Algorithms implementations mostly using C++ and Python. And some unix bash scripting.

Skills

I hone my skills by focusing on techniques and methodologies first then tools second.

Programming Languages:
Python, C++, C, and MATLAB.
Analytics & Data Viz:
Excel, Tableau, Dash, Matplotlib, and Seaborn.
Machine Learning:
PyTorch, Pyro, Scikit Learn, Tensorflow, and Keras.
Data Science:
Pandas, Scipy and Numpy.
Collaboration Tools:
Git, Overleaf, Online video conferencing and Google Drive.
Embedded Systems:
Arduino, PCB design software (KiCAD & Fritzing), and Circuit design.
Digital Fabrication:
3D printer, CNC miller, and Laser cutter.
Unix-based Operating System:
Linux kernel - Ubuntu.

Community Engagement

Trulli
KamiLimu

A non-profit organization whose mission is to upskill tertiary-level tech students.

Trulli
IEEE

The world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

Trulli
EMBS

The world's largest international society of biomedical engineers that serves as a central gathering point for the intersection between engineering, medicine and biology.

Trulli
Peer Counseling

A community of Kenyatta University students that offers free wellness services to peers in campus.

Trulli
AIESEC

A global platform that provides young people with leadership development, cross-cultural internships, and global volunteer exchange experiences.

Trulli
Toastmasters Gavel Club

An international nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of promoting communication, public speaking and leadership.

Chair 2023, IEEE Student Branch at Kenyatta University.

Cohort 7 Peer mentor at KamiLimu & Peer couselor at Kenyatta University.

Sr. Administrator 2023, EMBS Students Activity Committee (SAC) & EMBS Student Mentorship Program Ambassador 2022 & 2023.

Founding President 2022, Toastmaster Gavel at Kenyatta Univesity.

Incoming Global Volunteer Sales Manager at AIESEC, 2022.

Testimonials

What people I have worked with say about me.

Research

Broadly speaking, my research interests are in building explainable machine learning algorithms that have an impact in healthcare. Currently, I am working on developing pose estimation model for orthopedic applications such as recovery monitoring. I am also learning foundational mathematics concepts for machine learning and practising implementing them in PyTorch and Tensorflow. To grasp the concepts, I am reading, I spend some time writing about the lessons I learn on my Medium page. Here is my Google Scholar profile.

Select Articles

[1] S. Bjørn-Jostein, A. M. Gitau, J. Markus Kreutzer , R. Johan, B. Lars Ailo, S. Henrik, Phonocardiogram Classification Using 1-Dimensional Inception Time Convolutional Neural Networks, Comput. In Card., 10.13140/RG.2.2.22956.13440, 2022, pp. 1-4.
Paper with code IEEE: CinC proceeding Poster ReseachGate Blog

[2] A.M. Gitau, C. Maina. (2022, April). NeeFlex: A wearable device for measuring knee flexion angles in rehabilitating patients.
Technical Report Blog Poster

Find Me

When I am not seated with my laptop on a desk building my science craftmanship, you can find me;

1. With friends, walking on the mountains, singing CL songs, or exploring different culture & places.
2. Reading a book, listening to an audiobook, or watching a documentary, on finance, health, entrepreneurship, wellbeing, founder's memoir, or any piece I find enlightening and fun! .
3. Playing checkers, chess, poker, or solving sudokus.

I love exploring new opportunities of learning and having fun. I'd love to hear your suggestions.

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