By Solomon Ogara, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST)
Following the completion of the matchmaking activities between the students and entrepreneurs and the development of the matchmaking platform the next phase involved the institutionalization of the matchmaking service at the national level through a policy workshop and institutional level at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) and at the Kenya Climate Innovation Center.
The lessons learnt from matchmaking events and working together were essential in the institutionalization efforts of the matchmaking service. During this institutionalization event, project participants shared the benefits of the matchmaking service that shows the need to draw from academic and practice-based knowledge systems in the co-production of knowledge with key stakeholders. The project team shared on the reflections and lessons learnt and the success stories. Participants were guided on how to use the Web-based matchmaking application, which is available to the public courtesy of the funding from the British Council.
The institutionalization event was combined with the university innovation event and ran for two days from February 5-6, 2024 at the JOOUST main campus in Bondo. The innovation event took place on February 5, 2024 while the institutionalization event took place the following day on February 6, 2024. More than 250 participants attended the two events. Participants in both events included students and entrepreneurs from the matched projects, representatives from a partner university (Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology), the university management, members of the Senate, Directors, and Chairs of departments and students governance (SAJOOUST). Additionally, more than 100 students from seven high schools in Siaya County attended the event. The primary goal of the innovation event was to cultivate a dynamic culture of creativity, collaboration, and forward thinking within our academic community. By bringing together students, faculty, and staff from diverse disciplines, we planned to stimulate interdisciplinary learning, promote hands-on problem solving, and inspire a mindset shift towards innovation.
The two day event was opened by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Finance and Planning (DVC-PAF), Prof. Aggrey Thuo, who represented the Vice Chancellor of the university. Prof. Thuo talked about the importance of innovation in university growth. Prof. Thuo reiterated that the two-day event was aligned with the mandate of the University, which is teaching, research and outreach. The first day of the event was marked with students and faculty displaying their innovations. Dr. Leonard Wakoli led the invited guest on an exhibition tour of high school and JOOUST exhibition stands. Among the exhibitions were the electricity project from human waste, the insect for food and feeds project, the silkworm project and the TransCIIT project among others. The judges spent a better part of the day visiting the stands to judge the best innovations among the high school category and the university category. The judging team included Dr. Ann Kingiri from African Center of Technology Studies and Mr. Ernest Chitechi from Kenya Climate Innovation Center. We want to thank TransCIIT project for sponsoring the awards to the top three innovations from the high school category.
The second day was dedicated to the TransCIIT institutionalization event. The Dean, School of Informatics and Innovative Systems and the PI of TransCIIT project, Prof. Ogara welcomed the guests. The director, Research, Extension and Outreach, Prof. Julius Manyala gave a keynote speech. Mr. Ernest Chitechi, from the Climate Innovation Center (KCIC), provided a background and the major achievements of TransCIIT phase 3 project. Dr. Rob Byrne, from the University of Sussex, joined the meeting virtually. He discussed the objectives and expected outcomes of the workshop. Dr. Ann Kingiri, from the African Centre for Technology Studies, (ACTS) discussed the integration of transformative innovation policy thinking in climate innovation ecosystem (CIE). Mr. Phanuel Mutuma, the matchmaking application developer led the audience in demonstrating how the Web based application works including logging in as a student or entrepreneur and identifying a job opportunity based on the needs of the entrepreneur needs or the skills of the students. This was in fulfillment of the second project objective – to develop a Website to facilitate matchmaking between students and entrepreneurs. The functionality of the match making application clearly demonstrates the thinking, creativity and expertise of the Web designers and the team who worked very closely to translate what was done in the physical into a workable web application. The application allows both entrepreneurs and students to create accounts and upload their profiles. It has provisions for students to summarize their expertise, which are made visible to the entrepreneurs. Likewise, entrepreneurs’ business needs are made visible to the students. Entrepreneurs can then search the database of students and select the best match based on the expertise/skills displayed. They have the option to select as many students as possible and later narrow down the list to the best possible match. Likewise, students have the choice to select entrepreneurs based on the business needs displayed. If satisfied with the match the application allows them to contact through email. If any party changes their mind, regarding the match the application allows them to drop the match and select another one. We believe that this application has the potential to enhance academia and industry relationship. The demo section was followed by a Q&A session where the audience were given an opportunity to give their input to help enhance the matchmaking application. Mr. Ernest led the moderated discussion on the application, use, adoption, and sustainability of the Web based matchmaking application. Two students from JOOUST and 2 entrepreneurs shared their matchmaking experience. Prof Solomon Ogara engaged the audience through a discussion on institutionalization of the matchmaking service. The institutionalization event adopted the “shared experience” to share the students’ success stories with their matched entrepreneurs. The 30 min window would not allow all the students to share their experiences working with their entrepreneurial partners. Therefore, two students (male and female) were selected to share their experiences, challenges and lessons learnt from the matched projects. Mr. Cleopa Tiema worked closely with Mr. Jones Oyugi, an entrepreneur working on developing of methanol for the automotive industry.
Despite the project ending in February 2024, some of the students have continued to work with the entrepreneurs on a volunteer basis while others have been absorbed as business associates. Our masters student, Mr. Cleopa Tiema is among the students who have been absorbed as business associates with the entrepreneurs they were matched with. This is something the project team never envisioned at the beginning of the project. Both the entrepreneurs and students have benefited through this partnership in that students had the opportunity to implement their ideas while entrepreneurs benefited from free technical expertise from the student. This aspect builds into one of the three core functions of the University – outreach. Community outreach is an important component in assuring improved economic outcomes for people in need. Universities can collaborate with non-governmental organizations from around the neighboring communities to provide students with opportunities to volunteer their time and expertise to help local business enterprises. Academia can address the business needs in class and allow students to brainstorm ideas or projects they can do to create an impact in the innovation ecosystem.
Listening to the comments of the participants and reflecting on the presenters in this event the positive impact of this project is certainly evident. The matchmaking application can be used for industrial attachment and teaching practice activities to link students to the schools and organizations based on the needs of the schools and organizations and the expertise of the students. The positive response from the audience was an evidence of the level of interest towards this application. Colleagues from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology expressed interest in using this application in one of their projects.
