Third Meeting of the DS-I Africa Consortium
3 November - 9 November 2023

Dr Rahel Bekele Teklegiorgis - Speaker

Advancing Public Health Research in Eastern Africa through Data Science Training (APHREA-DST) (Co-PI)

I am currently an associate professor at the School of Information Science, Addis Ababa University. I obtained my PhD in Computer Science in 2005 from the Department of Informatik, University of Hamburg, Germany where I worked on machine learning techniques to make predictive models on student behaviors. My M.Sc in 1992 is from the then School of Information Studies for Africa at AAU currently known as the School of Information Science. My undergraduate degree is in Statistics where upon completion, I joined Addis Ababa University as a graduate assistant. Since then I have been working in various academic positions. In addition to teaching, I also served in key management positions - Dean of School of Information Science (February 2010 to May 2012); Director of the ICT development Office (January to June 2011); Chair of the Department of Information Science (April 2006 to Feb. 2008 & July 1998 to Dec 2001). I played a major role in facilitating the establishment the M.Sc. in Health informatics, curriculum design and administration of the first joint program with the School of Public Health. She was also a member of the task force to establish the ITPhD program at AAU. Since 2010 I have been actively engaged in ICT for Development research projects particularly on design and development of technology platforms for rural women. I involve in research on ethnographic and participatory approaches to user- centered design to improve public health practices in remote rural settings.