Capacity Building in Computer Science as a Driver of Innovation

Program Areas –

Capacity Building in Computer Science as a Driver of Innovation Project Team

Project Team

Gregg Pascal Zachary – Arizona State University – [email protected]

Gregg is a professor of practice with the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes. His work on science and technology in sub-Saharan Africa concentrates on information, knowledge production and the emergence of innovation enclaves in African cities. Zachary teaches a course at ASU on technology, development and sub-Saharan Africa. He has made many visits to the region on behalf of the Gates foundation, the International Food Policy Research Institute, Journalists for Human Rights, Amnesty International and the International Computer Science Institute. Zachary’s studies on science, technology and Africa fit into a wider set of concerns about the importance of science and technology to the individual, the state and civil society. He is the author of Showstopper, the making of a computer program at Microsoft, and Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century, about the first presidential science adviser and his role in organizing the Manhattan Project and other military-research projects during and after World War II.

Matthew Harsh – Concordia University – [email protected]

Matt is an Assistant Professor of Global Engineering Studies at the Centre for Engineering in Society in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science.  An engineer and science and technology studies scholar, much of his research is about how new and emerging technologies can improve livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa.  Matt has been working in Kenya since 2004 when he conducted research for his PhD on the role of civil society in developing and resisting new agricultural biotechnologies.  Committed to understanding African science and technology from local perspectives, he returns for an extended stay in the region every year.  He has participated in NSF sponsored projects on information and communication technology and scientific collaboration in Kenya, Ghana and India; pro-poor nanotechnology applications in South Africa; and the affects of political unrest on research and higher education in Kenya.  His research has also been supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and via a Marshall Scholarship.  Matt is Senior Producer of Brother Time, a documentary about political unrest after the 2007 Kenyan election.  His publications can be found in the Journal of International Development, Science & Public Policy, Development and Change, and Engineering Studies.

Jameson Wetmore – Arizona State University – [email protected]

Jamey is an Associate Professor with the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes and the School of Human Evolution & Social Change.  His work combines the fields of science and technology studies, ethics, and public policy to better understand both the interconnected relationships between technology and society and the forces that change those relationships over time. His research spans a broad array of topics and time periods, but most of it comes back to a recurring question: How do people design and create technological systems, and, in turn, how do these technological systems help to define, reinforce, and propagate specific values? He is co-author of Technology and Society: Building our Sociotechnical Future. As associate director of the Center for Nanotechnology in Society he recently conducted a research project on a South African program to develop nanotechnology to benefit developing areas.

Review publications and the description of the Capacity Building in Computer Science as a Driver of Innovation Project.