Recent UW CSE Ph.D. alum Yaw Anokwa is profiled in Viewpoint, a publication of the UW Alumni Association. The article showcases several people and programs that are in the forefront of extending education beyond the classroom.
“Yaw Anokwa had just wrapped up his master’s degree in computer science in June 2007 when he felt like something was missing. ‘I got to a stage in my life where I wasn’t working on meaningful problems,’ he says.
“Anokwa found that meaning in Rwanda, where he spent six months in late 2007 as a volunteer with Partners in Health, a global-health advocacy organization …
“The Ghana native and self-described ‘wandering do-gooder’ soon discovered an opportunity to make an even bigger difference …
“Anokwa returned in 2008 to the University of Washington where he pursued a doctorate degree in computer science and helped launch a project called the Open Data Kit … a free set of tech tools to help organizations generate and manage data collection through smartphones and tablets.”
Read the article here. Learn about Open Data Kit here. Learn about the ODK-related startup Nafundi, co-founded by Yaw and fellow UW CSE Ph.D. alum Carl Hartung, here.