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.
I met people whose work seemed almost magical at the time. Professor Neil Lawrence taught us machine learning with Python. Dr. Ernest Mwebaze showed how AI could detect diseases in cassava. Moustapha Cisse, then at Facebook, shared his journey in machine learning. It wasn’t just about technical skills; it was a vision of what was possible.
I returned to Tanzania and co-organized DSA 2017 at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, eventually becoming a board member and part of the DSA Secretariat managing grants, events, and programs to train African data scientists. And the impact of the work is humbling. Students I’ve mentored have gone on to achieve remarkable heights, for example, including a PhD position at University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), building machine learning models for epidemiology, and another securing Google Research internship in Ghana.
My own career path also shifted in ways I hadn’t anticipated. As a trained electrical engineer, I never imagined running my startup, DevData Analytics, mentoring young ones, and helping shape the continent’s next generation of data scientists. DSA gave me the courage to step into this world, to believe in my contributions, and to create opportunities where few existed.
Small actions like saying yes to a bus ride, attending a workshop, and mentoring students can ripple outward in ways you can’t predict. DSA isn’t just an organization; it’s a movement empowering Africans to solve African problems, bridging gaps universities are still trying to fill, and building a community that fuels innovation.
My advice to anyone entering this field, especially women is: start. Don’t wait for perfect conditions. Take bold steps, seek out opportunities, and give back. The journey is long, but the milestones, both yours and those you help create, make it worth every mile.