Dr. Mussa Iddi Mgwatu is the Director of Research and Publication and a Senior Lecturer of Mechanical Engineering at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering Technology. His areas of specialisation include manufacturing systems, process optimisation, industrial automation, computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and applied system reliability. He is also the Principal Investigator of the UDSM/Sida Research Management Subprogramme. Dr. Mgwatu earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam, a Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Ottawa, Canada, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam. He also attended a professional training on CAD/CAM at Recklinghausen College in Germany.

Dr. Mgwatu started his career as a Mechanical Engineer at TANESCO before joining the University of Dar es Salaam for academic position. He was the Swedish Institute Guest Researcher at Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden and the Fulbright Visiting Researcher at Lehigh University, USA. He has held different executive positions including Director of Quality Assurance Bureau, University of Dar es Salaam; Managing Director, RAHCO; and Chief Executive, TEMESA. Dr. Mgwatu has been involved in supervision of national engineering projects such as construction of ferries and baseline design of standard gauge railway. He has written scholarly articles both in national and international journals.