Mentor with a nose for innovations

Cosmas Mwikirize, the associate principal investigator at the iLabs@MAK Project, Makerere University, was only an ordinary student the other day. However, his intrigue and passion for technological innovations have seen the master’s graduate roll many innovations up his sleeve.

First, was the automated forklift developed by Gayaza High School students in 2010 that won the first ever robotics challenge, and here, he played a key role as a mentor; has never looked back since.

Also, under his mentorship, the same students worked on a burglar detector for security in homes and its success was closely followed by the widely publicized EOD robot that was made by senior five and six students of St Mary’s College Kisubi. All these innovations were courtesy of the iLabs@MAK Project of which Mwikirize was one of the pioneer founders.

“As a mentor, I am tasked with overseeing students’ work to ensure that it conforms to the design of the programme,” he says. 

Mwikirize during the interview

Students under his mentorship are tasked with creating models, implementing them and programming them into meaningful applications in health, security, agriculture, automations, among others.

Alvin Kabwema, a first year student of Electrical Engineering at Makerere University, is full of praises for Mwikirize who has mentored him since high school.

“As you see I do not even call him ‘sir’ because he is a friend and he continued mentoring me in my vacations and introduced me to iLabs so that I can continue with robotics,” Kabwema says.

Under Mwikirize’s mentorship, he has worked on a chemical dispenser to carry dangerous chemicals, the EOD robot and a scooter.

STARTING OUT

When Mwikirize joined Makerere University to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering in 2005, he was in for a rude shock − more theory than practical lessons. In fact, the laboratories were hardly used.

“This was a real turn off for me and shockingly, at one time, the university administration had to suspend the release of our results because we had not done a lab component as there was no equipment,” he recollects.

However, things changed when he got to third year − a drive to root technological innovations started at the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT). This was the genesis of the iLabs@MAK Project, an initiative to help students’ access labs online in order to solve the issue of inadequate lab equipment.

“Being one of the best students in my class, I was handpicked by Prof Sandy Stevens Tickodri-Togboa to join the iLabs and can proudly say that I contributed to solving a crisis of labs at the faculty,” he says.

With iLabs, an unlimited number of users can now connect to a single lab as long as they have access to the internet. The iLabs@MAK Project started in 2005, under the broader iLab-Africa Project, supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, as a collaboration between Makerere University, University of Dar-es-salaam, and Obafemi Awolowo University (Nigeria). The three were

supported by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

With the success of the first iLab, many more applications have been developed.

After the success of iLabs, Mwikirize thirsted to inspire students into innovations.

“I was mentored and have been able to create something that is helping others and now I am out to mentor students to mentor others. When I mentor someone, I expect him or her to be an avid researcher at the end.”

Together with others in the iLabs@MAK Project, they started an initiative dubbed ‘promotion of science and technology innovation in secondary schools’ in 2010. This initiative focuses on identifying and involving young talent in robotics. He says the challenge was to change the status quo of students to make them more practical than theoretical.

His foresight has indeed paid off. Today, the initiative has grown from two to 18 secondary schools across Uganda.

These include Ntare School, Mary Hill, Makerere College, King’s College Budo, Lira Town School and Lango College which have all formed science and innovation clubs being supervised by a patron.

 Machine prototypes have been, and are still being developed, the latest being an automated disinfectant chamber that is being developed by first year students of Electrical Engineering at Makerere University. Its function is to ensure the disinfection of one’s whole body against infectious diseases like Ebola and Marburg.

“Not long ago when Marburg broke out, I saw people walking out of the isolation unit areas and step in a basin of water to disinfect the feet,” he explains,

“However, there might be pathogens all over one’s body and this is where the idea of this machine comes from − to be able to disinfect the whole body.”

The machine can also be used to disinfect animals. 

Mwikirize (R) looks on while one of his mentees explains how an automated disinfector works

“I appeal to government and different industries to look at these innovations and fund them so that they can be made into usable applications,” he says.

THE ACADEMIC AND TEACHER

Before his graduation in 2010, Mwikirize won a $12,500(Shs 31m) grant from the Carnegie Cooperation of New York under the iLabs Africa project to continue the work of developing iLabs.

This grant gave him an edge over his classmates as he was immediately admitted at Makerere University on a master’s programme. He graduate in 2011 and now holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering.

He juggled his studies with giving lessons in Introductory Electronics and Applied Computing to Computer Engineering students. He has been teaching since he graduated in 2009.

He says he is now looking at doing a PhD in the USA.