JKUAT Alumni Mapping Project

Humor me for a second and imagine this … it’s a warm sunny afternoon, the wind blowing gently as you have your cup of rich African tea … but this wind carries more than a breeze it carries snippets of information from the table across you. Technically you’re not eavesdropping (it’s more of being in the right place at the wrong time). But what strikes you most about the heated conversation from the table across you is the degree of relatability you have with these strangers . They’re talking about their career paths and choices.
So you do the only sensible thing anyone in your situation would do ..sip your tea as you listen to the tea. One person shares how their career took an unexpected turn when they connected with a mentor who guided them towards new opportunities. Another excitedly talks about how a chance encounter with a former colleague led to a life-changing job offer. As you listen intently, it becomes clear—personal connections have played a pivotal role in shaping their career paths.

Now on a personal note, I can say I struggled in my first semester on campus. This was highly attributed to the fact that I didn’t have prior experience with computers -Any prior experience I had was when playing Need for Speed (NFS) and Grand Theft Auto (GTA) which we can all agree won’t be of much help in an exam room- and to be precise, programming in C was a nightmare (this is an understatement). The life-changing moment was when I connected with a sophomore from our department, and he walked me through control statements: branching, loops, sequences, arrays, pointers, structs, enums—I mean, the whole package—and I went on to pass my finals.

These anecdotes are just a glimpse into the power of personal connections and the impact they can have on one’s professional journey. In a world where technology and automation are rapidly advancing, it’s easy to overlook the significance of personal connections. But the truth remains: the quality of our professional lives, the opportunities we encounter, and the doors that open for us are often a direct result of the relationships we nurture and cultivate.

It is for the above reason that I am more than elated to announce that we are working on a project that will make it easy to network and connect with like-minded minds in the IT world. We are working in close collaboration with the JKUAT Computing Department and JHUB under the able leadership of Dr. Lawrence Nderu, the department chairman.

The Role JHUB Africa and The JKUAT Computing Department.

JHUB and the JKUAT computing department have been of help in the following regard:

Feedback: JHUB Africa has been instrumental in guiding us through the development process. When we had our first presentations, we thought the progress we had made was great, only to be informed that we had put the cart before the horse and had missed doing vital things such as having a landing page. As much as we were pretty bumped, I have to say that their guidance proved to be invaluable.

Industry Experts: The department has brought numerous industry experts to talk to us. We’ve had sessions on Intellectual Property, Personal Branding, Software as a Servive(SaaS), Problem Solving among many others. These sessions have been very informative and will greatly help bridge the gap between school and industry.

Legal engagement: We recently had training on legal matters and implications of intellectual property, ownership of ideas and other aspects of responsible creativity. The training also created awareness on the use of personal data, data protection and consenting to data use particularly about the various projects in progress. The training concluded with us signing documents that will ensure that our.

Project’s Features

1. User Registration and Profile Management: Users be it an alumni, a current student or a job company shall be able to create an account and update their profiles as they so wish
2. Content Posts: Users shall be able to create posts which include but are not limited to: articles, videos and pictures. In addition to this they will be able to like, comment and bookmark various posts.
3. News and Announcements: Would you like to stay informed about what’s happening in the department? Then you will be more than elated to know that we shall have a page for news and announcements on our website.
4. Job postings: Are you afraid that you may find it hard to get a job after campus? Are you uncertain on where you could start looking for a job?Then be rest assured that our solution will be of great benefit to you.
5. Events: Users will be able to see the various events that have been scheduled by the department and can get to mark their calendars accordingly.
6. Hidden Gem: I will leave a teaser for you. We have grown up being told that the sky is not the limit and we have decided to shoot for the stars. (Look at it as a riddle that’ll help you know the name of our hidden gem’s feature… I mean who doesn’t love challenge right? 😂)

The Brains Behind The Project

1. Dr Lawrence Nderu — Primary Investigator and Project Lead.
2. Joseph Ngure — Team Lead. Fun fact: He loves chess and owns a pet cat.
3. Maina Maurice — Full Stack Developer. Fun fact: He has a childlike excitement that isn’t easy to find in most humans and the project’s debugger.
4. Florence Wangechi — Frontend Developer. Fun fact: If you ever need something, she probably has it in her bag.
5. Hilda Mwangi — Frontend Developer. Fun Fact: There's this cute humming sound she produces when she thinks no one is watching and a proud Mbappe Fan.
6. Theuri Bonface — Backend Developer. Fun Fact: He is an enigma. ”Mtafute nyuma ya tent tu”.