I first heard about Data Science Africa (DSA) through a friend, Dr. Sekou Remy, who thought I’d find the community interesting. At the time, I was searching for spaces that aligned with my interests. Sekou, who was then at IBM, introduced me to DSA and mentioned they were planning an event in Abuja.

Since the first summer school in 2015, held in Nyeri, Kenya, Data Science Africa (DSA) has grown from a small gathering into a pan-African movement for capacity building in data science and artificial intelligence (AI). In a decade, DSA has reached participants in 34 African countries, convened 1,757 attendees across 13 events, and helped launch a community of data scientists building solutions for some of Africa’s biggest challenges — from health care to climate change, agriculture to education.

When I started out, I was just a software engineer trying to write cleaner code. Data, policy, AI weren’t part of my plan. But life has a way of changing direction and for me, that turn began with Data Science Africa (DSA).

I never imagined a 20-hour bus ride could change my life. In 2016, as a PhD student in Tanzania, I had no idea how data science could shape my future. My mentor, Morris Agaba, urged me to attend the Data Science Africa (DSA) summer school held at Makerere University in Uganda. “Just go,” he said to me. “Figure out the travel.” So, three of us, determined women, took a bus to Kampala, unsure of what awaited us.

As Data Science Africa (DSA) marks a decade of impact, its founders reflect on the moments, meanings, and milestones that shaped a movement. In this quick-fire Q&A, DSA’s pioneers share personal insights into what the community represents to them, from nurturing the next generation of African data scientists and building continent-wide networks to witnessing life-changing transformations sparked by a single event. Together, their stories trace DSA’s journey from a bold idea to a self-sustaining, pan-African community driving Africa’s data and technology future.

I first saw the call for the Data Science Africa (DSA) summer school back in 2017. At the time, I was just finishing my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, dabbling in front-end software development, and teaching myself Python and machine learning. I had no computer science background, no idea what the future held. But I knew I wanted to learn and to grow.

I work as a researcher at Bowen University in Nigeria, specializing in electrical and electronics engineering and AI. When I started my PhD in 2015, I was fascinated by how AI could be applied to improve agricultural productivity and over the years, my research has expanded into robotics and applied AI.

I always thought I would become an electrical engineer, but in 2001, the internet was just arriving in Zambia, and I got hooked on computers instead. That curiosity led me to a bachelor’s in Computer Science in 2007, a master’s in South Africa in 2011, and eventually a PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Today, I’m a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zambia and the founder of the Data Lab Research Group.

I still remember the day I realized my first startup dream wasn’t going to work out. I had poured my savings into building a mobile app to help people with type 1 diabetes predict their blood sugar levels. The idea was simple but ambitious: because insulin pumps were prohibitively expensive in many African countries, what if we could predict a patient’s blood sugar a few hours in advance and help them prevent dangerous highs and lows? I had no team, no funding, just a stubborn determination to succeed.

I grew up in western Uganda, in Bushenyi, and stumbled into computer science almost by chance. My cousin mentioned the course, my dad encouraged me to apply for it, and soon I was enrolled at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. I had no idea where it would take me.

In 2019, when I finished university, I wasn’t sure how to turn my passion for artificial intelligence (AI) into a career. In Ghana, people told me, “You can’t really do AI here, you have to go abroad.” I believed that, until I attended Data Science Africa (DSA) in Accra that same year.

I grew up in rural Kenya, surrounded by farmlands. It was a simple life, but it shaped the way I think about problems and solutions. I learned early on how important observation and curiosity are, noticing how crops grew and how animals behaved. Later, I went to high school quite far from home and then to Kenyatta University in Nairobi. That’s where my journey toward data science began.