Author Archives: Stem Trek

Kudakwashe Dandajena is the Technical and Operations Manager for the Zimbabwe Center for High Performance Computing (ZCHPC) and is responsible for all the technical and operational activities of the institution. He has worked as a lead technical expert from the start of the Project working alongside its director to develop specifications, liaise with vendors, install systems, and oversee day-to-day operations. He graduated with honors from Midlands State University in Zimbabwe with a bachelor of science degree in computer science (CS) and is currently pursuing a CS masters degree at National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe.

I’m passionate about HPC, and committed to developing the technical resources and workforce that can transform socioeconomic conditions in Zimbabwe and the …

Chungu Ngolwe is a systems engineer for Zambia’s research and education network, ZAMREN.

Before joining the ZAMREN team in 2012, he graduated with honors from Greenwich University in the United Kingdom with a baccalaureate degree in Computing. He holds professional certifications from the Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC-cybersecurity), Cisco and Microsoft, and has participated in multiple ZAMREN workshops. His work responsibilities include the setup and deployment of network services and solutions (including network monitoring, DNS, e-mail and web hosting) for ZAMREN member institutions.

As the project leader for the setup of Eduroam for the Zambian Federation, he facilitated workshops on campus network design, routing, switching and Eduroam. He recently assumed the role of HPC systems administrator, and supports the scientific applications that are run on ZAMREN’s parallel systems.

I …

Xolisa Jevu graduated with honors from the University of Fort Hare in South Africa with a baccalaureate degree in Computer Science (CS). He’s currently registered in the master’s program and works as a junior lecturer in the CS department where he teaches object-oriented programming with Visual Basic.

As a computing laboratory assistant, Xolisa helps researchers and students use campus technology, and assists with hardware replacement, software installations and network troubleshooting. With a growing GIS program at the university, Xolisa is interested in learning more about industry best practices for data storage, stewardship and cybersecurity.

Since most universities in the Eastern Cape Province are in rural regions they lack faculty or staff who are experienced with HPC.  Xolisa intends to bridge that knowledge …

Brian Maistry is a systems administrator at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa where he supports the Ranger system, among others. He is responsible for the hardware and software used by the university’s statistics, actuarial, finance and computer science programs, including their contributions to the Square Kilometer Array project. He is familiar with a variety of operating systems, including Centos, Ubuntu, and Windows Server 2008. Additionally, he installs (and provides user support for) math and statistical software, including Matlab, Mathematica and R.

I’m looking forward to the TACC workshop, and SC15 where I can learn about the wide variety of cloud-enabled, and other methods in use around the world to support data-intensive research.  The experience will allow me …

Thompho was born in a village called Tshikombani at Nzhelele, in the Limopopo Province of South Africa. He attended the Computer Training Institute (CTI) where he satisfied the requirements of beginning and advanced International Diploma in Computer Studies programs (IDCS). As an undergraduate scholar, he developed an academic keystone project to support technology in three village schools.

Since graduating with honors from the London Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom with a baccalaureate degree in computing and information systems, Thompho has held a variety of technical and tech service positions with increasing responsibility. He’s worked for the past two years as a network administrator for the University of Venda in Limpopo.

Thompho is enthusiastic about interfederated research and …

Seforo is a lecturer at the National University of Lesotho in the Department of Physics and Electronics where he teaches courses on analogue, digital, and large-scale circuit designs. His academic and research interests involve wireless communication networks, remote control and monitoring of electronic appliances, high performance computing, particle physics, and renewable energy. As the university’s computer lab administrator, he supervises students, and supports researchers who use the high performance computing resources.

As a volunteer, he advises the Solar Turbine Group (STG), an international project that is building Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems for rural communities and health facilities in Lesotho. This expertise has made him the university’s go-to academic and advisory resource for questions relating to the installation or development of solar photo-voltaic (PV) systems. He has helped to shape the university’s academic curriculum to include the theory behind PV systems, system sizing, inter-federated and national power grid integration, budgeting, project planning, and more.

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Regina Maphanga hopes to form an HPC outreach program for South Africa that could serve as a template for use in the greater SADC region.

Maphanga completed bachelor of science degrees in mathematics and physics in 1998, a bachelor of science with honors degree in physics at the University of the North, South Africa in 1999, and a PhD in physics at the University of Limpopo, South Africa in 2005.

I’m eager to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers for women, and to become an HPC ambassador!”

She has served as a junior lecturer at the University of Limpopo since 2007, and as a postdoctoral research fellow from 2005-2006.  As a senior research scientist and physics lecturer in the U-Limpopo Materials Modeling Center, …

George Anderson is a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Botswana. He completed his PhD at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa with a thesis titled “Operating System Scheduling Optimization” under the supervision of Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala and Prof. Fulufhelo Vincent Nelwamondo. He graduated with an MS in Computer Science from Colorado State University and a BSc in Computer Science (First Class Honors) from the University of Botswana. He is a member of the ACM, SIGAI, SIGOPS, SIGMETRICS, SIGHPC, IEEE, IEEE CS, IEEE CI, and the Computer Society of Botswana.

His research and teaching interests are in System Software and Artificial Intelligence. He has taught several courses at the University of Botswana, including Operating Systems, Introduction to …

Damas Makweba completed his Bachelor of Computer Engineering degree in 2011 at Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) in Tanzania. After graduation, he worked for various companies as a Network Engineer, System Administrator and Facilitator where he configured network systems and conducted local and international workshops.

Since June 2012, Damas has served as chief technical officer at the Tanzania Education and Research Network (TERNET) where he’s responsible for network engineering and technical administration.

He also works for DIT as an Instructor in the India-Tanzania Center of Excellency in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) where he manages the …

Nosiku Sikanyika is a systems administrator for ZAMREN, the Zambian Research and Education Network in southern Africa.

Among her Zamren duties are maintaining the high performance computing systems and configuring all network hardware. Additionally, she supports Windows and Linux servers, and manages authentication, Eduroam, and web hosting services.

In Austin, Nosiku hopes to sharpen her HPC skills, and increase her professional network.  She looks forward to meeting many more sys admins at the Special Interest Group for HPC in Resource Constrained Environments Birds-of-a-Feather session (SIGHPC-RCE).

Since we’re building a shared cyberinfrastructure in the sub-Saharan SADC region, I hope fewer of us will be “resource constrained” in the future. I’m excited about the research and education initiatives we will …