Dr Muthoni Masinde’s work has caught the attention of the BBC Radio Broadcast News Programme in which she was interviewed recently for her phenomenal work of using technology to predict drought to help farming to cope with such adverse condition.   Her research in drought prediction scenario has huge potential in helping farming community to take into account severe weather patterns such as drought within their environments and to anticipate how they may affect their farming and to formulate appropriate response strategy well in advance.

Dr Masinde is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology where in 2015, she has officially launched the African Unit for Research on Informatics for Droughts (AFRICRID) to educate various stakeholders; especially the farming community on how to apply Wireless Network for weather and quality monitoring in Southern Africa and to use sensors in carrying out both weather forecasting and quality monitoring. Her work is currently considered as innovative in solving current drought challenges facing farming community in the Southern African region and is laying a foundation for the best practices in the sector.  It is also envisaged that her work will be used for benchmarking purposes in support of the on-going debates among key relevant stakeholders in business, government, academia and farming. Listen to the interview on the BBC Radio Broadcast News Programme. 

Read the article published on motherboard.vice.com

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Admire Mhlaba (right) and fellow colleague testing sensors for the weather station.