Dedan Kimathi University of Technology 2nd Quarter Newsletter

[Dedan Kimathi University of Technology]

Dedan Kimathi University of Technology Newsletter Better Life Through Technology 2nd Quarter Newsletter (April - June 2017) In this issue: 1. Inauguration of the 2nd DeKUT council 2. DeKUT’s 6th Graduation Ceremony 3. Intake- Admission of 1st Year’s 4. Cabinet Secretary ICT, Mr. Joe Mucheru visits DeKUT 5. DeKUT signs a M. Sc Mechanical Engineering double degree contract with TUAS, Wildau- Germany 6. DeKUT student and alumnus represent Sub –Saharan Africa in San Francisco 7. DeKUT’s Nairobi Campus Granted Full Accreditation 8. The 2nd Annual Endowment Fund Golf Tournament 9. Public Lecture by Prof. Nick Wanjohi Inauguration of the 2nd DeKUT council On 3rd April 2017, DeKUT ushered in the 2nd council led by Dr. Jane Nyakang’o, the council chairperson. She takes over from Prof. Dulacha Barako Galgallo (now the council chairman Meru University). The new council is determined to work with the University and the Ministry of Education in living DeKUT’s vision. For more about the council members visit https://www.dkut.ac.ke/index.php/about-dekut/administration/council-members                 Dr. Jane Nyakang’o Chairperson Prof. P. N. Kioni Vice Chancellor Mr. Kennedy Adongo Member Dr. Janet Macharia Member Mr. Raphael Anampiu Member Eng. John Kisenga Member Prof. Ruthie C. Rono Member Mr. Joseph Kiarie Representative PS, National Treasury Mr. James Kiburi Representative PS, Ministry of Education DeKUT’s 6th Graduation Ceremony Time has passed since the award of charter in December 2012 and DeKUT has continued to grow in all aspects. This year, the Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Education, Dr. Fred Matiang'I, expressed his pride in the institution. "This University is the best among the young University's. The choice of the government to develop a Science and Technology Park in this Institution was informed by the realization of the potential and strength of this University. I am glad to state this as a fact that this University is one of the few Universities where a balance of programmes offered has been achieved. I also congratulate the management of this University for the move to admit the government sponsored students in May, we as the ministry are in no business of wasting time and we will work to strengthen the manner in which admissions are done.", he said in his speech. The Cabinet Secretary congratulated the graduands, parents and guardians for the achievement. He also, on behalf of the President, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, and the Government of Kenya welcomed to Kenya H.E Thabo Mbeki who was being conferred a Doctorate of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, during the occasion. Accompanying him was the Cabinet Secretary ministry of Information Communication Technology, Hon. Joe Mucheru Intake- Admission of 1st Year’s DeKUT is growing in terms of infrastructure, programmes, size and most importantly, reputation. This year, unlike other years, DeKUT admitted the KUCCPS students in May. Despite the reduced number of students who qualified for admission to university, DeKUT still managed to have her classes full and referred several other intervarsity transfer applicants to join during the next intake in 2018. Surprisingly, these students chose to rather wait other than miss out on the opportunity. We admitted 1, 376 students through KUCCPS, 183 Self Sponsored students and 112 through intervarsity transfer making a total of 1, 671 1st year bachelor’s students. This move was inspired by the University’s keenness on time which gives the students a time advantage.  Cabinet Secretary ICT, Mr. Joe Mucheru visits DeKUT Ajira Digital is an online platform aimed at leveraging on online opportunities to create jobs for kenyans. On Tuesday 23rd May, 2017, the Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Hon. Joe Mucheru, visited Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) where he demystified Better Life Through Technology (happens to be the University's motto). The purpose of the visit was to hold Ajira Digital Forum at the University. He stated that he has a special interest in the University as DeKUT has created a 2nd to none Environment to change the world through technology. "Dedan Kimathi University is doing great.The ministry recognises it as a centre of excellence in matters technology", he added. During this forum, the Cabinet Secretary challenged the students to use the opportunity Ajira Digital has created to exploit the concept of work saying that "Working online is real work". He added that it's time to reflect on the Future of Work and move with changing times. The students who engaged the Cabinet Secretary in a very interactive session appreciated this initiative and challenged him to look into infrastructure and cost of internet. Hon. Joe Mucheru has been making several visits to the University towards an establishment of a smart city in Nyeri with the heart at DeKUT where plans are underway to build a Science and Technology Park.   DeKUT signs a M. Sc Mechanical Engineering double degree contract with TUAS, Wildau- Germany The collaboration of DeKUT with Technical University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) – Wildau in Germany went a notch higher on 16th May, 2017 with the development and launching of a Double Degree program in M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering. A delegation of DeKUT, led by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Prof. Gerald Muthakia visited Germany to negotiate and sign the Double Degree program contract. The contract involves exchange of students from DeKUT to Germany and vice versa for a Semester in both universities to facilitate knowledge & Technology transfer between Kenya and Germany and leverage on unique training and research resources in the respective Universities for improvement of training and research output at Post Graduate level. The Masters program, jointly offered in DeKUT and TUAS, Wildau will consist of 4 semesters (2 academic years), of which part of the study will be done in Germany. Likewise, students from TUAS will come to study in DeKUT for course work or research work. The program will go a long way in enhancing the quality of the Post-graduate programs and provide international exposure, knowledge transfer and research enhancement of DeKUT students. This is a good build-up of the existing collaboration with TUAS-Wildau for staff and students exchange existing from the year 2013, where over 20 students and staff have visited Germany for research and training. The first pioneer exchange students from DeKUT reported in TUAS- Germany in March, 2017 and will be finishing their summer Semester in July 2017. The first TUAS students in the program will be reporting to DeKUT in mid July 2017 to end of September. The training and research are jointly coordinated by both DeKUT and Germany Professors. The Project is funded by "Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst" (DAAD).     DeKUT student and alumnus represent Sub –Saharan Africa in San Francisco DeKUT continues to push her agenda in technology and working towards living her vision. This is an agenda that has been adopted by all the stakeholders and the students are at the forefront in utilizing the opportunity to exploit the resources availed to them. This has been evident from the feedback from the industry about our graduates and the kind of projects the students are engaged in during their period of study at the University. Ngesa Marvin, a 5th year Telecommunication and Information Engineering student, is among the team that represented Sub Saharan Africa at the Google I/O 2017 in San Francisco, USA. Google I/O brings together developers from around the globe for an immersive experience focused on exploring the next generation of tech. At Dedan Kimathi University, Ngesa found a supportive environment for his ideas and his energy. “You can go to any school and learn just the academics but at DeKUT, there is a strong technology community that gives lots of chances for students to lead, learn and collaborate.’’ says Ngesa Ngesa Marvin who is the Internet of Things (IoT) Champion for Google Developer Groups, GDGs in Sub Saharan Africa was selected to be in this team as recognition of his involvement in advocating for the internet of Things in the region. He has a great passion in building communities around technology so that people can learn and help each other to become better makers of great products. You may find his activities in this publication: https://medium.com/iot-5g-extreme-ideas-lab With Ngesa was Kenneth Kinyanjui, a DeKUT alumnus and former Lead GDG Kimathi University. Kenneth is currently a Google developer Expert in Cloud and the GDG Lead Nairobi. . DeKUT’s Nairobi Campus Granted Full Accreditation Following a successful evaluation by the Commission of University Education (CUE) on 22nd March 2017, DeKUT's Nairobi Campus, located in Pension Towers, Loita street, was on 31st May, 2017 granted Full Accreditation by the commission. The Campus joins the list of the few Accredited Campuses in the Capital City. This is a great milestone and achievement of the University, which set the Campus on a good platform for stable development. The CUE inspection aimed at assessing the extent to which the Campus met the minimum standards stipulated in the Universities Act No. 42 (2012), the Universities regulations (2014), as well as the Universities Standards and Guidelines (2014). The Commission noted that “The Nairobi Campus establishment is viable and the available academic resources met the minimum standards stipulated by the commission. The Commission therefore grants full accreditation for the Campus”. The 2nd Annual Endowment Fund Golf Tournament Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) runs an Endowment Fund whose aim is to create a pool of monetary resource towards supporting needy students. This is a way of ensuring that every student’s dream at DeKUT is not cut short by financial constrain. It is a way of making it possible for all students to have the privilege of studying and graduating in our highly competitive programmes and actualizing their dreams. More about the fund: http://endowment.fund.dkut.ac.ke/ One of the activities towards the fund is an annual golf tournament in collaboration with Nyeri Golf Club. The reason for the tournament is not however solely about raising money towards the fund but linking up with the community; something DeKUT is so keen on from her very foundation. The 2nd Annual Endowment Fund Golf Tournament was held on 24th June, 2017 at the Nyeri Golf Club; the 1st of its kind was held on 20th February, 2016. The main sponsors and contributors were DeKUT Alumni Association, Postal Corporation of Kenya, Family Bank, CIC, Kenya Power and Stanbic Bank. Several pledges were made and the University looks forward to working with the community and all the stakeholders towards the fund. 53 golfers took part in the tournament and the results were as follows: The candy men prize went to James Mureithi (handicap 5, 35 points) while the candy women prize went to Ruth Wanja (handicap 24, 45 points). Eng. Jacinta Wairimu took home the longest drive women prize while the longest drive men prize was scooped by Wachira Keen. The senior winner was Githito S.W.N with 33 points, guest winner N. Munyua with 39 points, sponsor winner Dan Kagwe (Post Master General, Postal Corporation of Kenya) with 30 points. Dr. Susan Ngure (handicap 22) took home the staff prize with 41 points. Samuel Kiragu (handicap 11, 39 points) was the men 1st runners up. The gross winner was Amos (handicap 4). Rachel Karuri (handicap 36) emerged as the lady winner with 34 points while Gabriel Miungi (handicap 10) emerged the men winner with 39 points. The overall winner was Arthur Kamaru (handicap 17) with 44 points. This saw his handicap revised to 14. Public Lecture On 29th June, 2017 DeKUT hosted Prof. Nick Gatheru Wanjohi for a public lecture on “Challenges of Industrialization and Development in Kenya, Opportunities and Prospects”. The purpose of the lecture was to promote the alignment of DeKUT’s activities in order to enhance the University as a teaching and research University and position it to contribute more to National Development through the upcoming Science and Technology Park. Giving a background and history of how African Industrialization was killed by the colonizers, he challenged the professors and Universities at large to take industrialization seriously; “Use every method to acquire technology from wherever it is and create an industrialization environment.” Other highlights: 2nd cohort Siemens Certification level 1 training (officials from KENGEN) and 1st cohort 2nd level training in progress Gown lectures- as part of 1st year’s orientation DeKUT Career Fair- 10th and 11th May Training and Workshops- Drugs and Substance Abuse, Job Evaluation, ERP Management, Surveillance using modern technology, E- Waste Management, Disability Mainstreaming, Safety and Security Sensitization Dedan Kimathi University Of Technology 657-10100, Nyeri Kenya www.dkut.ac.ke