Presentation on STEM by Prof. Samuel Mukasa

Prof. Samuel Mukasa visited CEDAT on 26th March 2019 at pm and delivered a presentation with the aim of attracting potential STEM graduate students to study in USA.  Prof. Mukasa works in Office of the Executive Vice President & Provost University of Minnesota, USA as a Senior Executive for Global STEM Initiatives, with a particular interest in focusing on Africa.

His intriguing presentation showed the need for more scientists knowledgeable in the fields of STEM in Africa because of the high fertility and population growth rates. These will cause an increase in the demand for food, healthcare, safe water, housing and security will only increase in Africa over the next 4 decades.

Prof. Mukasa delivers his presentation on STEM

Furthermore, he predicted that the 21st Century will be shaped by events and developments on the African continent for a number of reasons including the fact that it is least explored for minerals and oil, and has plenty of other raw materials, it has a tremendous agricultural potential yet over 60% of the world’s uncultivated land is in Africa and with climate change rapidly transforming the landscape and people’s livelihoods, the potential for growth in the STEM workforce and manufacturers / consumers of manufatured goods is quite vast.

Prof. Mukasa also spoke about the University of Minnesota, where he comes from and introduced the different graduate programs they have to offer. He provided the audience with the different study options / opportunities available for international students, including The traditional research assistantship (RA), teaching assistantship (TA) and fellowships (FS), Emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC’s), The PIRE (Partnerships for International Research and Education) and PEER (Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research) programs, Winter/Summer schools and webinars (AMRS, JUAMI, etc.) and Online mentoring.

He also described the entry requirements for students, outlining the GRE, TOEFL and TSE exams and the application process for prospective students. He encouraged students to apply to the University of Minnesota to pursue their graduate degree programs because the application process is quite straightforward and faculty members are readily available to provide support to students as they apply.

The Principal, Prof. Henry Alinaitwe thanked Prof. Mukasa for his presentation and for making time to come all the way to Africa, and select CEDAT as one of his stops to attract students for graduate study in the University of Minnesota. He encouraged staff and students at the talk to take advantage of this opportunity and apply for their Masters and PhD programms at the University of Minnesota.

Located in Twin Cities of Minneapolis & St. Paul, The University of Minnesota is a major public research institution with over 140 undergraduate majors and over 200 graduate programs. It has about 31,500 undergraduate students and 16,000 graduate students. The University has more than 477,000 alumini and 90 alumini networks worldwide.