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Dr. Amit Mistry from NIH Visit to UoN

3/27/2024

Dr. Amit Mistry a Senior Scientist at the Center for Global Health Studies, Fogarty International Center, U.S National Institutes of Health (NIH) visited the Advancing Public Health Research in Eastern Africa through Data Science Training (APHREA-DST) Project, at the University of Nairobi on 5th March 2024. APHREA-DST project is supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund and is part of the “Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa” program (DS-I Africa).

Dr. Amit Mistry, (NIH), Prof. Kiros Berhane, Columbia University, Prof. Patrick Weke, PI, APHREA-DST, University of Nairobi, APHREA-DST Team, and MSc Public Health Data Science Students Representatives.

Dr. Mistry first paid a courtesy call to the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Prof. John Onyari, accompanied by the Chairman of the Department of Computing and Informatics, represented by Prof. Elisha Abade and the PI of APHREA-DST Nairobi, Prof. Patrick Weke. Later, he held a consultative meeting with the APHREA-DST team where they briefed him on the project milestones and activities. The first and second cohort of Faculty Scholars also shared the experiences and benefits gained through the SHARP courses, the faculty mentorship by CU Faculty mentors, as well as their visit to Columbia University.

Dr. Mistry culminated his visit by giving a talk to the MS Public Health Data Science students, the APHREA-DST team who were joined by Prof. Kiros Berhane, the lead PI of APHREA-DST, on the National Institute of Health and stated that its mission is to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. He indicated that they have an annual budget of $48 billion for biomedical and health research and research conducted and supported across 27 Institutes and Centers being one of the largest research funders in the US.

After the presentation, there was an interactive Q&A session with the students and Dr. Mistry encouraged students to do research work that was impactful to society and publish good papers.

M.Sc. in PHDS at University of Nairobi

3/27/2024

The MPHDS provides students with a solid foundation in Data Science and computing skills in data analytics. This is achieved by integrating statistics, mathematics, and computing, as well as machine learning and Artificial intelligence. The program offers upgrading opportunities for those who wish to equip themselves with Data Science and data analytic skills. It also helps to meet the growing demands for a big data workforce in all industries by transforming graduates in quantitative science into Data Science and analytics practitioners. Its applications are in many fields, including business, engineering, natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and healthcare.

At the University of Nairobi, the MPHDS was launched in October 2022 and applications were open to its first cohort of students. This attracted a total of 32 applicants who were vetted by the selection committee and the number narrowed down to 15. This group started its academic journey in February of 2023 and is currently in its second year of the program. In August of 2023, applications were again open for the second cohort of students. The cycle of applications attracted a total of 60 applicants and after the vetting process, the number was reduced to 28. The 28 students started classes in October of 2023.

The success of the students will be achieved not only by their hard work but also by the consistency in the exchange of ideas among the faculty taking them through the various courses. To this effect, the faculty led by the APHREA-DST UoN chapter PI, Prof. Patrick Weke, have and continue meeting regularly to share experiences on teaching and student interactions in the various courses.

Faculty Scholar Visit

3/27/2024

One of the APHREA-DST’s training programs is the Faculty Development program which aims at building faculty capacity in Public Health and Data Science. In year 2 of the APHREA-DST project, the second cohort of Faculty Scholars, two from AAU and two from UoN were selected, that is, Merger, Awgichew, Kipchirchir, and Carolyne. These 4 not only had an opportunity to be peer mentored by the first cohort of Faculty Scholars, but also participated in training, mentoring, and knowledge exchange from experienced faculty at Columbia University. Awgichew and Carolyne are under the mentorship of Dr. Linda Valeri, in the Department of Biostatistics while Merger and Kipchirchir are under the mentorship of Prof. Samory Kpotufe, from the Department of Statistics.

The culmination of the second cohort Faculty mentorship was a visit to Columbia University from October 9 to 13, 2023. Just as with the first cohort, the second cohort was also joined by their institutional mentors, the APHREA-DST PIs for AAU and UoN, Dr. Rahel Bekele, and Prof. Patrick Weke. The visit to Columbia started with a joint welcome Caribbean dinner at The Radio Hotel, where the Faculty Scholars and institutional mentors enjoyed the new culture in food, music, and dance, thanks to the wonderful organization by APHREA-DST PI, Prof. Kiros Berhane, and interim project manager, Mrs. Niurka Suero-Tejeda.

In the days that followed, the scholars were involved in a series of discussions and mentorship sessions with their Columbia University mentors, Dr. Valeri and Prof. Kpotufe. These physical meetings were a welcome change from the online meetings that were being held while the scholars were in their home institutions. The scholars not only got an opportunity to expand their horizons in terms of research but also gained from the wealth of knowledge in student mentorship in Data Science at Columbia.

Further, the team led by Prof. Kiros Berhane, met with the Dean, of Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH), Dean Linda Fried, to discuss the experiences in Public Health research at Columbia and Eastern Africa.

In addition, the Faculty Scholars took a trip to Columbia School of Nursing (SON) where they were involved in a half-day session of presentation and discussions with the faculty led by Prof. Suzanne Bakken. These discussions were very informative and an eye-opening opportunity to the wealth of applications of data science in the nursing field

A visit to Columbia University would not be complete without a trip to the Morningside Campus, thus, the faculty scholars and mentors took a day trip tour to the campus under the able guidance of Mrs. Niurka Suero-Tejeda. While at Morningside, the team together with Prof. Kiros Berhane, met with Prof. Vijay Modi at the Department of Engineering, to explore the data collected using their renewal energy technologies and discuss possibilities of collaboration. The day then closed with joint farewell dinner at Tartina Italian Restaurant.

On the final day of the visit, Prof. Kiros Berhane together with Prof. Pam Factor-Litvak organized a roundtable at MSPH where the T32 trainees at the Department of Epidemiology and the visiting Faculty Scholars shared their research which sparked a very interesting and fruitful discussion.

APHREA-DST News

Dr. Amit Mistry from NIH Visit to UoN

M.Sc. in PHDS at University of Nairobi

Faculty Scholar Visit

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