Project iSWEST

We can't keep calm! Project iSWEST Nsesa Foundation’s 7th annual innovation and career development boot camp kicks off virtually today.

Over the next 3 weeks, the participants will embark on a journey of immense transformation! They will be coached and taught Programming and Innovation by experienced scientists, engineers, and innovators recognized by MIT Technology Review and Nature.

They will build technological solutions to real-world problems around the “ ” and present them to experts at the heart of innovation in Ghana.

Victor Kumbol is a Ghanaian early-stage neuroscientist and social entrepreneur. Victor obtained an MPhil in Pharmacology in 2016 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and is pursuing a PhD in Medical Neurosciences at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where his research is focused on uncovering unconventional effects of miRNAs on neuronal physiology.

Beyond neuroscience, Victor is passionate about leveraging technology to impact society. Victor started DIY Labware, a project to train scientists in Ghana to develop their own lab equipment using open science tools. Through DIY Labware, Victor aims to tackle one of the challenges to science in Africa - access to lab equipment.

Victor is also a co-founder of Nsesa Foundation, an education non-profit that runs innovation boot camps in Ghana and online coding courses across Africa.

George Boateng is a Computer Scientist, Engineer, Educator, Social Entrepreneur, and a pioneer of smartphone-based online coding education in Africa.

He is a PhD Candidate at ETH Zurich, Switzerland (focusing on AI/Applied Machine Learning) where he is developing a smartwatch-based machine learning method for multimodal emotion recognition among romantic couples managing chronic diseases. He has 25+ peer-reviewed publications in international conferences and journals.

George is also the President and Cofounder of Nsesa Foundation, an education nonprofit spurring an “Innovation Revolution” in Africa - a movement in which young Africans are building innovative solutions to problems in their communities using STEM via the programs: Project iSWEST, STEM WOW, and SuaCode.

His SuaCode work from 2017 to 2020, has had 3K applicants from 69 countries, accepted 1K students, with a 62% completion rate and alums getting internships, jobs and studying computer science and engineering in top schools e.g., Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, MIT, etc. It has led him to create Kwame, a bilingual AI Teaching Assistant to revolutionize remote education across Africa.

George has been recognized globally with accolades such as a Pioneer as one of the 2021 MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, 2021 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation Shortlist by the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering and 2019 Education Innovation prize by the African Union.

George has a B.A. in Computer Science and an M.S. in Computer Engineering, and a Business Training Certificate, all from Dartmouth College, U.S. At Dartmouth, he was a Sophomore Science Scholar, Neukom Scholar, E.E. Just STEM Scholar and an E.E. Just Graduate Fellow. He received the following awards at graduation: Neukom Prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Research in Computational Science, Ernest Everett Just Award in Mathematics and the Sciences and the Thayer School of Engineering Dean’s Service Award.