Global Pulse advances and encourages innovation and knowledge sharing and is constantly looking to collaborate with young, talented individuals capable of unlocking the hidden value from big data to create results for sustainable development.
Pulse Lab Kampala is providing opportunities for young, talented people to use their skills while improving their knowledge by working in our Lab on innovative data projects and tools. We interviewed four of the bright minds working with us to find out what drives them and how they are benefitting from working at the Lab.
Meet William
William Kibira graduated from Makerere University with a degree in software engineering and is currently writing the automated speech recognition software for the Lab’s most recent prototype, the Radio Content Analysis tool. Before joining the Lab, William worked for a mobile money transaction company performing repetitive tasks, which he says he was learning little from.
“Here at the Lab I get to learn a lot through plenty of research and experimentation. And, of course, I really like being part of the team. I am learning by doing and having fun at the same time.”
Meet Maureen
Maureen Amutorine has a bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Makerere University and worked at a local start-up before joining the Lab. “There are many start-ups employing young graduates in the computing field, but I wanted to use my knowledge to contribute to development in Uganda,” says Maureen.
She joined the Lab as an assistant software developer. “When I joined Pulse Lab Kampala, I was fresh out of school and had little experience. This opportunity has been the springboard I was looking for in achieving my goal of working in a humanitarian environment together with a team of experienced data scientists.”
Meet Emmanuel
Emmanuel Mupuya received a government scholarship to study computing engineering at the Busiteme University in Tororo, eastern Uganda. Fresh out of school, he joined a company that trains graduates in creating opportunities for themselves, while serving as facilitators and training fellow students throughout Uganda. “I trained over 200 young and enthusiastic boys and girls in the districts of Kampala and Mukono,” says Emannuel.
He is now working as a junior data engineer at the Lab. “Working at Pulse Lab Kampala is a great opportunity for me to grow and expand my skills in big data systems and data visualizations.”
Meet Farooq
Farooq has a bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Makerere University. During his studies he was already working on software development with a local company. After graduating, Farooq went on to teach web & mobile application development to employees at an information and communications technology company. Farooq is always looking for ways to innovate and stay ahead of the trends, and working at the Lab allows him to do just that.
“What I do here, leading the transcription team for a radio project the Lab launched, is different to what I was doing before, this is really cutting edge, it’s great!”
Pulse Lab Kampala will continue to encourage talented Ugandans to tap into the field of big data for sustainable development and will provide a space where they can work, gain experience, share their ideas as well as be rewarded for their efforts and enthusiasm.
