Dr. Joseph Kizza has been named to the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (ADF) to provide “Teaching, Mentoring and Graduate Research Supervision to Strengthen the Digital Forensics Program” at the Uganda Technology and Management University (UTAMU).
Dr. Kizza, professor and head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, will leave for Uganda in June 2015, stay for seven weeks and return to the United States in August.
ADF is open to “African-born academics currently living in the United States and Canada and working in higher education.” The program was created to support educational projects at African higher education institutions.
In 2008, Dr. Kizza established the National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance at UTC. Dr. Neslihan Alp, interim dean and UC Foundation professor, College of Engineering and Computer Science, calls Dr. Kizza a pioneer in Information Security.
“Dr. Kizza’s leadership as the department head of Computer Science and Engineering and his vision in both Computer Science research and education helped the Computer Science and Engineering Department grow rapidly in the last five years,” Dr. Alp explained. “Dr. Kizza has many connections internationally and he is always willing to serve abroad to bring more visibility to computer science education by assisting students all over the world. Therefore, his selection for the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program is a great honor for our University and college. We are proud of Dr. Kizza’s achievements and appreciate his willingness to serve the world.”
Mentoring, supervising and guiding graduate students in Uganda are top priorities for Dr. Kizza. He will conduct a research workshop for graduate students and faculty, demonstrate and advocate for writing for publication, help with grant writing, and he will set up a lab for digital forensics and information security.
The fellowship program is his newest accomplishment after more than 20 years of continuous work with African institutions of higher learning. He has focused on graduate mentorship and supervision while participating in several continent-wide projects including: his work as a Fulbright Scholar in Uganda in 2004; Log-In Africa Network, a research based network involving 12 African countries (2006-2009); and the Africa Graduate and Research Institute (2009 – 2012). He established and serves as editor of the research journal The International Journal of Computing and ICT Research, now in its eighth year.
“All these projects and others, I hold dearly. They are directed towards developing and maintaining African scholarship in technology and innovation,” Dr. Kizza said.
ADF is “managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with Quinnipiac University, which chairs the Advisory Council, and is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.”
Dr. Kizza’s proposal and selection for the fellowship program is part of a long term commitment and involvement in African higher education, research and innovation—what he notes is “a personal crusade.”
“I cannot point at what makes me do it but I am driven and always energized, sometimes discouraged but always hopeful,” Dr. Kizza explained. “There are growing signs that these efforts, in small ways, are paying off, lifting thousands of youth and lighting up thousands of bulbs of hope across the continent.”