News

By Special Correspondent, CMU

Dr. Isack Bulugu from the College of Information and Communication Technologies (CoICT) and Dr. Paschal Mdukula from the College of Humanities (CoHU) have been selected as fellows for the University Administration Support Program (UASP) Fellowship, it has been informed.

According to the information received, the fellowship is developed and implemented by IREX and supported by the Carnegie Corporation in New York. It assists mid-to-senior-level university leaders (managers, administrators, and faculty) from across Africa to develop their capacity to manage research and knowledge transfer.

“The 70-hour online course will run from 1^st July 2024 to mid-February of 2025. The programme requires active engagement of participants to complete asynchronous coursework, attend biweekly meetings with other fellows, attend technical webinars, and join several online meetings with their U.S. university partners to prepare for their visit to the United States”, stated the information.

In this three-phase fellowship, fellows are equipped to develop their capacity to manage research and knowledge transfer through a three-stage programme that includes 70-hour online research management course with a similar fellowship focus area and a three-week virtual fellowship experience with a U.S. partner university alongside colleagues from across Africa in the first two phases.

“Passing this stage will qualify them for the third phase, which is a pre-work for the fellow to be eligible for a culminating in-person visit to observe research management at a U.S. university”, the information explained.

A five-week visit to the United States

The programme also includes a five-week, funded in-person fellowship, visit to the United States, including a 4-week visit to observe research management activities at a U.S. university book-ended by two in-person training workshops with the full cohort; peer-to-peer learning and networking with colleagues from the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and institutions.

It also includes “financial support with membership in a research management professional association and/or credentialing as a Research Management Professional by the IPRC; and access to apply for competitive small grants to implement research management improvements at fellows’ institutions”.

“Through all phases of the programme, UASP supports participants to develop insights and reform plans on approaches, activities, policies, procedures, and organizational arrangements to advance their universities into leading research institutions that have real impact in their communities”, the information further explained.

The two UDSM dons, Dr. Bulugu, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering (ETE) at CoICT, and a PhD graduate of the University of Science and Technology of China, in Hefei; and Dr. Paschal Mdukula, a Lecturer in the Centre for Communication Studies at CoHU and a PhD graduate of the University of Dar es Salaam, said they were excited and thankful to receive this prestigious scholarship.

“This fellowship is instrumental to me as it will help me gain invaluable insights and approaches on the best ways to conduct research works through modern ways in line with the fast-paced technological developments in the world”, said Dr. Bulugu.

Dr. Bulugu’s research interests are in the areas of computer vision, human-computer interaction, digital image processing, pattern recognition, and hand gesture/sign language recognition; while Dr. Mdukula’s research interests are political communication, business communication, health communication, corporate and strategic communication, sociolinguistics, and English language teaching.