Eng. Dr. Dorothy Okello is Dean, School of Engineering, and Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), Makerere University. Within the department, she is a Researcher with netLabs!UG, a research centre whose model is to strive for a balanced critical mass of research, innovation and commercialisation in communications and networking.
Dr. Okello is a Fellow of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences (FUNAS). She is a member of the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE), where she is a Past President 2016-2018 (being the first female to serve as President). She is also duly registered with the Engineers Registration Board (ERB) of Uganda, and a member of IEEE.
Dr. Okello’s research interests include smart infrastructure, affordable and inclusive telecommunication solutions, and resilience innovation. She is a leader with diverse experience in teaching, researching, as well as conducting projects and contributing to policies including serving on diverse boards in education, telecommunications/ICT, banking and innovation. She has received national and international awards, including recipient of Uganda’s Distinguished Medal of the Crested Crane on Women’s Day 2023 presided over by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of Uganda.
First Name | Dorothy |
Surname | Okello |
Other Name | Kabagaju |
Academic Title | Associate Professor |
Department | Electrical and Computer Engineering |
Position | Dean, School of Engineering |
Telephone Number | 0772 957 550 |
dorothy.okello@mak.ac.ug | |
Office Number | 0414 530 686 |
Courses Taught | Computer Communication Networks; Television and Video Engineering; Telecommunications Policy |
Areas of Research Interest | Smart infrastructure; Affordable and inclusive telecommunication solutions; Resilience innovation |
Education Background | B.Sc. Eng. (Electrical - First Class Hons.), Makerere University; M.Sc. Electrical Engineering, University of Kansas, United States (Fulbright Scholar); Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, McGill University, Canada (Canadian Commonwealth Scholar) |
Other key skills training/Certification | Registered Engineer (Electrical Engineering) |
Research project history (recent 5 years) | Team Lead, netLabs!UG, "Rural Voices: Strengthening Women's Access to Enhanced Rural Broadband Connectivity in Uganda", 2023-2024, implemented in collaboration with Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) as project lead, and funded by Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and WACC/Centre for Communication Rights Scientific Director, "TUM Sustainable Energies, Entrepreneurship and Development (SEED) Centre at Makerere University", 2021 - present, funded by DAAD through the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Project Coordinator, "China Funds-in-Trust Phase III (CFIT III) project at Makerere University: Higher technical education in Africa for a technical and innovative workforce", 2021 – present. Funded by the UNESCO China Funds-in-Trust Project (CFIT III) and with a focus on the School of Engineering. Principal Investigator, "Enhancing Digital Technology in Rural Schools as a means of Mitigating COVID-19 effects", 2021, funded by IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC) Principal Investigator, "Integrating REsilience and SUstainability in the pLanning for infrasTructure projectS in Uganda (RESULTS)", 2020 - 2023, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering Principal Investigator, "Development of an Efficacious Patient Management System for Uganda using Machine Learning Techniques", 2020 - 2023, funded by Makerere University Research and Innovation Fund Team Lead, CEDAT, "Empowering engineers to better respond to humanitarian emergencies", 2020 - 2024, A collaboration with RedR UK, the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE) and CEDAT with funding from UK Royal Academy of Engineering and additional funding from the Dulverton Trust Principal Investigator, "Piloting A Rural Broadband Connectivity Model", 2020 - 2023, funded by Makerere University Research and Innovation Fund Co-Principal Investigator, "Integration of on-grid and off-grid decentralised renewable energy systems in Uganda", 2019 - 2020, funded by Makerere University Research and Innovation Fund Co-Investigator/Team Lead Uganda, "Household Solar Workforce Development Challenge", 2019, funded by USAID Scaling Off Grid Energy (SOGE) |
Conferences/workshops/papers presented (recent 5 years) | Spectrum Management for Mobile Telecommunications, February 24 - 25, 2024, Barcelona, Spain. Conducted by GSMA in collaboration with Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) Competition Policy in the Digital Age, October 14, 2023, Kigali, Rwanda. Conducted by GSMA in collaboration with Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) Climate and mobile ecosystem, October 15, 2023, Kigali, Rwanda. Conducted by GSMA in collaboration with Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) 51st PURC/World Bank International Training Program on Utility Regulation and Strategy, June 5 - 14, 2023, Gainesville, Florida, USA. Conducted by Public Utility Research Center, University of Florida |
Published journal articles (recent 5 years) | White, P., Okello, D., Casey, B., Najjuuko, C., & Lukanga, R. (2023). Co-designing with engineers for community engagement in rural Uganda – CORRIGENDUM. Design Science, 9, E15. doi:10.1017/dsj.2023.15 Mugala, S., Okello, D. K., and Serugunda J., (2020) Leveraging the Technology of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Developing Countries, SAIEE ARJ. vol. 111, no. 4, pp. 139-148. Ó Briain, D., Denieffe, D., Okello, D., Kavanagh, Y. (2020) Enabling models of Internet eXchange Points for developing contexts, Development Engineering, Volume 5, 2020, 100057, ISSN 2352-7285, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.deveng.2020.100057. Ó Briain, D., Denieffe, D., Okello, D., & Kavanagh, Y. (2020). The Internet in East Africa, a mixed methods study. East African Journal of Science, Technology and Innovation, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.37425/eajsti.v2i1.193 Kibalya, G., Serrat, J., Gorricho, JL., Okello, D., and Zhang, P. (2020) A deep reinforcement learning-based algorithm for reliability-aware multi-domain service deployment in smart ecosystems. Neural Computing and Applications. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-020-05372-x Kabi, F., Kayima, D., Kigozi, A., Mpingirika, E. Z., Kayiwa, R., and Okello, D. (2020) Effect of different organic substrates on reproductive biology, growth rate and offtake of the African night crawler earthworm (Eudrilus eugeniae). Organic Agriculture, Jan. 2020. ISSN 1879-4238, DOI 10.1007/s13165-020-00284-5 Okello, D., and Mugume, E. (2019) Energy Efficient Techniques for Next-Generation Wireless Networks, International Journal of Technoscience and Development (IJTD), Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 41 - 50, ISSN 2001-2837. |
Links to social media (e.g. LinkedIn) | http://ug.linkedin.com/in/dorothyokello |
Links to scholarly collaboration network (e.g. Scholar, ResearchGate, etc) | https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WhFUDUAAAAAJ&hl=en |
ORCID No. | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5901-996X |