I'm a Computer Science PhD researcher at the University of Cape Town. I explore the integration of symbolic (e.g. ontologies) and sub-symbolic (e.g. deep learning) AI in an architecture for sensor-based personal health monitoring. My research is conducted within the Artificial Intelligence Research Unit (AIRU), which hosts South Africa's Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (CAIR) network. I'm supervised by Prof. Deshen Moodley, and I am a L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women In Science Young Talents Awardee, Hasso Plattner Institute Fellow, Mawazo Fellow, and recipient of the Generation Google Scholarship.

Prior to this, I graduated with Distinction from the University of Manchester, where I earned an MSc in Advanced Computer Science with a specialization in AI. I did my dissertation in deep learning and human-robot interaction at the Cognitive Robotics Lab, supervised by Prof. Angelo Cangelosi. I was a Chevening Scholar, funded by the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

I was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. I spent the first few years of my career working as a software engineer, and also had a brief stint in technology consulting. I enjoy speaking, presenting, and writing about technology, as well as mentorship and outreach in the field. I am currently mentoring Computer Science undergraduate students as part of the KamiLimu mentorship program. I have been a contributing technical writer at Scotch.io and RealPython.com, where I have written programming tutorials on Python and its web frameworks. I have also been active with Django Girls, and have volunteered as a coach for workshops in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Manchester.

On a weekend, you can probably find me hiking one of Cape Town's beautiful trails (Platteklip Gorge, Chapman's Peak, and Little Lion's Head are firm favourites!), trying to get to a sub-30 minute parkrun, or road tripping across the Western Cape and beyond... but I am equally happy curled up on the couch with a good audiobook or podcast.

You can reach me by email at [my_first_name] . [my_last_name] @ gmail . com.