Home - IEEE Kenya SYP Congress

Students & Young Professionals

IEEE KENYA SYP CONGRESS

10th and 11th November 2022, The Panari Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

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About Us

"Innovation for Growth and Sustainability to Drive Technological Change"

This conference hopes to have a significant impact by bringing together representatives from various industries to share and exchange ideas. Results of academic research in all fields of engineering, science, and technology will be disseminated within and outside of universities, research institutes, TVETs, and industry for the benefit of society at large. By relating what participants learn into real-world operations from the perspective of industry, this will assist students bridge the gap between academia and industry.

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Why Attend Our Event ?

Engage with Employers

Work Experience Opportunities

Workshops and Talks

In person Networking

Gala Dinner

Keynotes
&
Plenary Sessions

Trainings
&
Workshops

Career Fair
&
Special Events

Entrepreneurship
&
Startup Events

EVENT SPEAKERS

Our Event Speakers

Prof. Yousef Ibrahim

Vice President, IEEE Industrial Electronics Society | Professor of Engineering at Federation University Australia

Prof. Yousef Ibrahim

Vice President, IEEE Industrial Electronics Society | Professor of Engineering at Federation University Australia

Yousef Ibrahim (B.Eng., MTech, PhD, FIEAust) is a Professor of Engineering (adjunct) at Federation University Australia. He is also the IEEE-IES Vice-President for Memberships. Yousef also served on the Ministerial Advisory Council, Minister for Innovation, Government of Victoria, Australia. He was appointed by Australian Research Council (ARC) as a “Reviewer of International Standing” for ARC competitive grants and recently as a performance reviewer of ARC-funded research centres. He is currently appointed as an Honorary Ambassador of Melbourne. He was a visiting professor at Bristol University, UK, Poitiers University, France and Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Yousef is the founder of the Mechatronics degree program which is currently offered at Monash University. He was also the Mechatronics sub-program Leader for AusAID program to the Royal Thai Government to establish Mechatronics programs in six Thai Universities. More recently he established another Mechatronics degree at Federation University Australia. Yousef has been General Chair of a few successful IEEE International conferences. He is a Guest Editor of TIE, TII and IEM. His main research interests are in Mechatronics, Robotics and Reliability Engineering.

Prof. Marek Jasiński

Chair of IEEE IES SYP Activities Committee | Head of Industrial Electronics Division at Warsaw University of Technology

Prof. Marek Jasiński

Chair of IEEE IES SYP Activities Committee | Head of Industrial Electronics Division at Warsaw University of Technology

MSc, and PhD degrees from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Warsaw University of Technology (WUT 2000; 2005 respectively). Habilitation (D.Sc. in 2018). Professor position at WUT since 2019. He was with the Aalborg University, VESTAS Power Program as a consultant (2009). He had an internship at RWTH-Aachen University - E.ON Energy Research Centre Power Generation and Storage Systems (2013/2014). In 2020, he visited A&M Texas University at Qatar, Smart Grid Centre as a Temporary Associate Research Scientist. Since 2021 he is the Head of the Industrial Electronics Division at WUT. His research is focused on the control of renewables, Energy processing using Power Electronics Intelligent Converters under distorted voltage and higher grid impedance as well as optimizing the topology, control, and reliability. Chair of the IEEE IES Student and Young Professional Activity Committee. Chair of the IES - PELS Joint Chapter IEEE PS (2008 – 2012). IES and PS AdCom Member (since 2008). He is an Associate Editor in IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine (since 2016), IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Industrial Electronics (since 2019), and IEEE IES Industrial Electronics Technology News (since 2020). He supervised more than 27 students and most of them work in the field of industrial and power electronics.

Dr. Heinrich Laue

Electronic Engineer at NamWater | IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society YP Ambassador

Dr. Heinrich Laue

Electronic Engineer at NamWater | IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society YP Ambassador

Heinrich Edgar Arnold Laue received the Bachelor of Engineering (Electronic) and Bachelor of Engineering Honours (Electronic) degrees, both with distinction, from the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2015 and 2016, respectively. He received the Ph.D. (Engineering) degree from the same university in 2020 at the age of 28. His primary research interest being compressive antenna arrays, he has publications in journals and magazines of the IEEE Signal Processing, Antennas and Propagation, and Microwave Theory and Technology societies. He has also acted as peer reviewer for several IEEE journal submissions. In 2019, he returned to his home country of Namibia and joined Namibia Water Corporation Ltd as a communications engineer, where he is mainly responsible for the design, installation, and maintenance of telemetry systems, as well as the design of related SCADA systems. After barely two years in industry, he successfully registered as a Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of Namibia as well as the Engineering Council of South Africa, the latter being a signatory to the Washington Accord. In addition to serving as IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Young Professional Ambassador for the year 2022, Dr Laue currently serves as Students and Young Professionals coordinator for the IEEE South Africa AP/MTT/EMC Joint Chapter.

Eng. Eliud Limo

Zonal Rep-Africa | IEEE PES R8 & Chief Engineer – KPLC

Eng. Eliud Limo

Zonal Rep-Africa | IEEE PES R8 & Chief Engineer – KPLC

Geraldine Sande

BDM Access to Energy - Anglophone Africa| Schneider Electric.

Geraldine Sande

BDM Access to Energy - Anglophone Africa| Schneider Electric.

I am a Business Development leader offering 12 years of experience in leading sales and commercial operations and enhancing revenue across Sub-saharan Africa (East Africa, English West Africa & Portuguese South Africa). I bring expertise in business development, B2B & B2C sales, people management, automation, and controls, building management systems, smart energy, Internet of Things, technical Support, after-sales support, and continuous improvement, along with excellent interpersonal communication relationship-building, team leadership abilities and an AOEC Executive Coach Practitioner. Additionally, I am results-driven and proactive, with a demonstrated record of meeting and exceeding sales and revenue objectives. Specialties: Strategic Direction | Customer Service Relationship | Account development | Continuous professional improvement | Business-to-customer expertise | Lead Generation | Demand Generation | Product knowledge | Staff Training | Revenue Generation | Strategic Planning | Network development | Customer Relations | Lead prospecting | Written Communication | CRM | Energy Business Development Manager | Troubleshoot | Machinery | Finance

David Njugi

Regional Representative, East Africa for GOGLA

David Njugi

Regional Representative, East Africa for GOGLA

David serves as the Regional Representative, East Africa. He represents and coordinates GOGLA’s programs and members in the East Africa Region. Prior to joining GOGLA, David was the Chief Executive Officer for Clean Cooking Association of Kenya (CCAK) providing overall strategic leadership of the organization and secretary to the Executive Board. He has also previously worked within the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) as well as the Kenya Climate Innovation Centre (KCIC). He is currently pursuing an MBA at the University of South Wales and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He is also a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) with the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), USA and a trained Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Kenya.

Mr. Jezreel Mwaviswa

Systems Administrator at Kenya Education Network (KENET)

Mr. Jezreel Mwaviswa

Systems Administrator at Kenya Education Network (KENET)

Systems Administrator at Kenya Education Network (KENET) with over 7 years of experience in setup, administration and maintenance of secure Linux systems. He responds to cyber emergencies being a member of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) at KENET and he is also part of the committee tasked in formulation of the organizations Data Protection Policies. He believes information security is not only the mandate of Cyber security experts, application developers and systems administrators but everyone who is involved in its study, application and use. He holds a Bsc. Degree in Computer Science under the school of Science Engineering and Health from Daystar University. He holds the below certifications. Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) AWS Certified Solutions Architect. AWS Certified Security – Speciality.

Maureen Njue-Musau

Academic ICT Solutions Lead at Kenya Education Network (KENET)

Maureen Njue-Musau

Academic ICT Solutions Lead at Kenya Education Network (KENET)

Maureen is the current Academic ICT Solutions Lead at Kenya Education Network (KENET). She leads the development of education technology projects and capacity building initiatives by KENET. Maureen has 13+ years of extensive experience in tech handling various ICT projects in cloud computing (SaaS, PaaS and IaaS), LAN and WLAN. Maureen has worked on hundreds of projects with customers, including 80+ educational, research and government institutions, to meet their technical, business, and strategic goals. Maureen has an undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Science in Electronic and Computer Engineering from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and MBA from University of South Wales.

Mr. Dancun Oguta

Student Laptop Purchase (SLPP) Coordinator at KENET

Mr. Dancun Oguta

Student Laptop Purchase (SLPP) Coordinator at KENET

Mr. Dancun Oguta is a Statistician. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree specializing in Statistics from Kenyatta University and a Master of Science Degree in Social Statistics from the University of Nairobi. He is currently the Student Laptop Purchase (SLPP) Coordinator at KENET. He primarily works as a data collection expert, and as a data analyst on KENET’s research and survey activities

Prof. Athina Petropulu

President IEEE Signals Processing Society | Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University

Prof. Athina Petropulu

President IEEE Signals Processing Society | Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University

AAAS Fellow IEEE Fellow President, IEEE Signal Processing Society (2022-2023) IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award (F. Liu) (2021) Barry Carlton Best Paper Award, IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (2021) IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award (B. Li) (2020) Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Aerospace & Electronics Systems Society (2019-2020) Member-at-Large, IEEE Signal Processing Board of Governors (2018-2019) Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (2017-2018) General Co-Chair, IEEE Int. Workshops on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications (SPAWC), 2018. IEEE Signal Processing Society Meritorious Service Award (2012) Great Master, UESTC China (2012) Editor-In-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (2009-2011) IEEE Signal Processing Society VP Conferences (2006-2009) IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award (2005) Member-at-Large, IEEE Signal Processing Board of Governors (2004-2005) General Chair, IEEE Int. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2005 Presidential Faculty Fellow Award (The White House / NSF), 1995

Esther Muchiri

ICT4D Consultant | Chair IEEE Kenya Section

Esther Muchiri

ICT4D Consultant | Chair IEEE Kenya Section

Professionally, Esther has over 14 years’ experience as an ICT for Development (ICT4D) Consultant providing consulting services to national, regional and international organisations. She coordinates the Africa Food Safety Initiative (AFSI), a program working with the East Africa Community (EAC) to enhance intra-regional trade. AFSI is funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the University of Missouri. Prior to joining the private sector, Esther worked with USAID for 18 years as Regional ICT Specialist. She is the current 2022-2024 Chairperson of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) - Kenya Section, former Vice-Chair (2020-2021), former Secretary for IEEE (2017-2019) and former Chairperson (2018-2020) of IEEE-Women In Engineering (WIE). Esther also sits in the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) Gender & Youth sub-sector board. Driven by a passion to provide mentorship, coaching, empowerment and motivation to youth and women to reach their full potential and seize opportunities, Esther founded and is the CEO of eMentoring Africa, a social enterprise based in Kenya. She is also the founder of the Work Experience and Mentorship Academy (WEMA) a company that offers an emersion program bridging the gap between academia and industry. At WEMA, graduate youth go through a one-year blended learn-work-earn program while being mentored and coached by seasoned professionals. Esther has provided thought leadership in the development of numerous mentoring programs and facilitated transformational and servant leadership trainings, business mentoring, and linkages to a cross-section of youth aged 13 to 35 years. Esther was a founding Advisory Council member of the Presidential Digital Talent Program (PDTP) under the Ministry of ICT where she developed the Mentorship Guide for PDTP and continues to train and support the mentors and mentees in the program. She holds a Global Executive MBA and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Systems and Technology from United States International University (USIU), Kenya. She is a certified eLearning in Practice (Design, Development, Management, and Tutoring) Expert with InWent, Germany; and a certified Mentor & Mentoring Program Manager with Mentoring University (USA - online). Esther is also a winner of the “Goldman Sachs 10000 Women Entrepreneur Program” scholarship offered by the USIU in 2010. She is a fellow in the Rockefeller Global Fellowship Program for Social Innovation 2015-2016 and pursuing the global Women Leaders of the World (WLW) Fellowship 2021-2022.

Dr. Kanika Singh, Ph.D

Senior Project Manager at American Bureau of Shipping

Dr. Kanika Singh, Ph.D

Senior Project Manager at American Bureau of Shipping

Dr. Kanika Singh is the Senior Member of IEEE and working as Senior Project Manager at ABS (American Bureau of Shipping). Dr. Singh pursued her education from Top university, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT, Delhi), Karlsruhe University, Germany and Ph.D from Pusan National University, South Korea. With her 25 years of IEEE Membership, she took various roles and positions at IEEE. Now serving as the Advisory Board Member of IEEE NTC TryNano and IEEE WISE. Also served as Vice Chair of IEEE IMS/EMBS Delhi chapter. She is recipient of various technical fellowship awards and academic awards, few of them include the prestigious Brain Korea (BK21) fellowship Award, Korean Research Fellowship (KRF) award, Best paper awardee at IEEE-IEC_KATS, IEEE Outstanding Young Engineer Award, DAAD German government fellowship award, and Outstanding research paper award at Int. conf. Kyushu University, Japan. She worked as the International Scholar at IMEC-KU-Leuven, Belgium and research on BioMEMS/Nanotechnology/Instrumentation/standards fetched some awards such as Best paper Award for Region 10, at IEEE Int. Conf. at Atlanta- Georgia USA. She also has given various invited talks at different forums.

Richard Mwaura

Ass. Director Research and Policy, Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy

Richard Mwaura

Ass. Director Research and Policy, Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy

•Mr. Richard M. Kiarie is a career civil servant having over 30 years of experience in the ICT industry. •He holds an MSc(Information Systems), MBA (Strategic Management), Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science and BSc (Maths and Computing) all from the University of Nairobi. He is also a CPA(K) • He is currently an Assistant Director heading the Research and Policy docket of the Ministry of ICT, and Digital Economy. The key role of the unit is to develop policies and strategies that can foster development and innovation of ICT and set the pace for the country to be one of the leading players of the digital economy in Africa and in the process unleash the new economic possibilities created by future industries and markets. •Previously, Mr. Kiarie was the Chief ICT officer at Kenya ICT Authority, a specialized government organization with broad mandate in ICT sphere such as coordination and management of National ICT Core infrastructure, Applications Project and Complex ICT Projects, formulation and enforcement of ICT Standards. It is also the implementing agency for the following key areas; Disaster Recovery Centers, ICT Capacity Building, Government ICT Security, ICT Standards and Government Shared Infrastructure. •In his long career in Government, Mr. Kiarie has developed and maintained diverse systems for government, implemented security mechanisms for different MDAs, carried out system audits and performed advisory roles to many public agencies on diverse issues of ICT. •He has research interests in Artificial Intelligence, Data Sciences and Machine Learning

Olivia Etyang'

Head of Innovation Studio, VISA Sub-Saharan Africa

Olivia Etyang'

Head of Innovation Studio, VISA Sub-Saharan Africa

I have broad Information Technology experience covering hands on Operations, IT Consultancy, Strategy, Planning & Management. I have had the opportunity to ply my skills in a variety of industries including Technology, Advertising, Media, and Manufacturing. My scope of responsibility has over the years grown from small businesses operating in Kenya to a Large Multinational Organization spanning the Sub Saharan Region of Africa. In my day to day engagements I have been able to interact with professionals and vendors in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Kithinji Muriungi

Vice Chair IEEE Kenya Section

Kithinji Muriungi

Vice Chair IEEE Kenya Section

Kithinji Muriungi is currently a Systems Engineer at Konza Technopolis popularly known as Silicon Savannah or Konza Smart City. He is working with the project consultants in the supporting roles to facilitate the consultancy services for the operationalization of the Konza National Data Centre, Smart City projects, and Knowledge Economy and Innovation Ecosystem. He was earlier appointed by the ICT Authority as a R&D Engineer to work among a team of researchers & innovators to design, develop and implement a ‘Fit-For-Purpose‘ digital computing device to support Digital Learning Programme (DLP) in Kenya. Previously, he was a Program Assistant – Intern at IBM. Prior to joining IBM, he was a Product Design and Development Mentee at Safaricom Alpha (Safaricom Innovation Center). He has also interned as a Network Operations Center (NOC) Engineer at Safaricom PLC. Additionally, he has founded an innovation-based startup focusing on building end-user solutions. He is currently working on Bestilaya.net: a platform that connects individuals to hire, buy/sell, exchange, download, or donate new or used books. Bestilaya focuses on SDGs 4, 10, and 17. He is a very active IEEE Volunteer where over the past 6 years he has been awarded Larry K Wilson (2019); Volunteer Achievement Award (2018); VoLT Graduate (2019); and several international travel grants. He is the pioneer and the founding Chair of IEEE Moi University Student Branch and currently the Corresponding Member, IEEE R8 Action for Industry Sub-Committee, IEEE Photonics Society Global Strategy Rep (Africa) – Globalization & YP Advisory Committee, and Chair, IEEE YP, Kenya Section. Kithinji is a graduate of BEng (Electrical & Electronics) from Moi University. Apart from engineering, he is very passionate about innovation, emerging technologies, youth, and transformative leadership.

Beryl Anne Chepkemoi

Beryl Anne Chepkemoi

Beryl Anne Chepkemoi is a Chapter Lead in Quality Engineering at Safaricom PLC where her role is to coach and helping the people of the chapter grow in their craft, whether it's QE processes, Agile Coaching, or other function. Over the passed 6 years she has gained both technical and leadership experience in Software Engineering under the different roles she has worked in. Beryl co-leads the Safaricom women in technology team where our objective is to equip campus students with latest technical skills that can be applied in the current job market through webinars, master classes and outreaches.

Donna Phoebe Rege

Chairperson, Safaricom Women In Technology

Donna Phoebe Rege

Chairperson, Safaricom Women In Technology

Donna Phoebe Rege is a passionate communication and technology enthusiast with diverse expertise and experience in partner/vendor governance and management, strategic thinking, customer service and experience in addition to having in-depth knowledge on fixed data and enterprise technologies. She has over 12 years’ experience across business technical and commercial skills that combined with her unique way with people, has seen her lead teams to various successful cost cutting ventures while managing heavy and delicate budgets. Donna is a highly detail oriented, selfdriven and ambitious go getter. Her passion and drive spans around supporting businesses to create valuable partnerships - both multinational and local - with a unique ability to draw out optimal maximum ROI from the same by aligning partners services/solutions to the business KPIs and the net impact to the business. She is also a budding technical start-up specialist with experience in E-commerce and Agritech platforms within the Kenyan market; focusing on different consumer types, their behaviours and product adoption. Donna holds a Bachelor in Science in Telecommunications & Information Technology from Kenyatta University and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Corporate Communication at Daystar University. When Donna is not mentoring, doing charity work and community development for women and girls, she enjoys spending time with her two boys and husband.

Janet Wafubwa

Innovation Architect Lead at Safaricom PLC

Janet Wafubwa

Innovation Architect Lead at Safaricom PLC

Janet Wafubwa is a Data and Product strategist who is building Human centered Innovative products through an Innovation Factory. She has gained enormous skills with over 11 years of experience in Strategy Build, Pricing, Campaigns Management, CVM, Data Strategy, Data Extraction and Analysis, Market Analysis, Network Quality Assurance Dashboarding and Reporting. Passionate about emerging technologies, championing digital transformation, and growing technical future skills to campus and university community.

Joyce Kangogo

Senior Manager at Safaricom PLC| Technical Program Delivery Lead

Joyce Kangogo

Senior Manager at Safaricom PLC| Technical Program Delivery Lead

Joyce Kangogo is my Name. I am currently the Senior Manager taking Lead of both Billing engineering and Financial reporting at Safaricom where I have been Instrumental in products roll out, integrations to billing system, optimization and commissioning of new platforms. My Primary role is Leading a team of Engineers to ensure we achieve key goals such as platform and service availability ensuring timely collection of all the GSM revenues, ensuring top class System & solution architecture. I hold a BSC in Telecommunications Engineering from JKUAT with 13 Years of experience in the Telecommunication industry. Over the years I have achieved success in being able to transform the lives of many by architecting & rolling out great solutions. One of my key successes was being able to lead the team to bring MPESA home from Germany with minimal interruption to the customers and with this modernization, there have been great impact around mobile money services being able to make instant payments for the goods and services. I have also Lead evolution and modernization of Key platforms, one of them being the convergent billing platform which has brought significant stability around customer services and great features. One of the biggest is having built a professional brand and break the perception barrier around women in Technology. I am a Mum of two, a wife of one, a sister to many and a daughter to my loving parents.

Michael Kamau

Training and Certification @Huawei Enterprise. Huawei ICT Academy Manager

Michael Kamau

Training and Certification @Huawei Enterprise. Huawei ICT Academy Manager

Michael Kamau works as the ICT Academy Lead in Huawei Kenya to establish & maintain education partnerships between Huawei, Universities and other stakeholders. He coordinates Huawei student Training & Certification in the Country and manages other programs such as the Huawei Job Fair, ICT Skills Competition and more He Holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Diploma in Project Management

Naisenya Mungai

Digital Delivery Lead at Safaricom PLC | Women In Technology - Champion

Naisenya Mungai

Digital Delivery Lead at Safaricom PLC | Women In Technology - Champion

A digital delivery lead with experience in leading digital transformation, network expansion and evolution, automation of processes and innovation, passionate about technology, building and optimization of high performing teams.

Sabrina Barongo

Senior Engineer - Cyber Security at Safaricom PLC | CEH | AWS Solutions Architect

Sabrina Barongo

Senior Engineer - Cyber Security at Safaricom PLC | CEH | AWS Solutions Architect

Sabrina is a senior cyber security engineer at Safaricom PLC where her primary role is focused on privacy by design, vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, red team and DevSecOps practices for Safaricom products. She also works with external security researchers on the HackerOne platform. She leads a team in defining privacy controls and frameworks to protect PII data and enforce data privacy requirements for all new products and services. She co-leads the Safaricom women in technology team focused on training students in university on the in-demand skills required for the job market, as well as on areas around talent identification, soft skills and how they can position themselves for the job market.

Ms. Sarah Wambui Ndegwah

Deputy CEO, eMentoring Africa

Ms. Sarah Wambui Ndegwah

Deputy CEO, eMentoring Africa

Ms. Ndegwah is the Deputy CEO of eMentoring Africa where she is responsible for administration, projects management and operations. Here over 15 years career experience also includes Logistics, Conferencing, Coordination, Finance and Portfolio Management. She is a youth mentor and trainer for young adults transitioning from campus to work life. Before joining eMentoring Africa, Ms. Ndegwah worked with Trade and Development Bank for over 9 years. Prior to that, she has worked with various developing and post-conflict economies including Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, and DRC. This includes working with the United Nations as a consultant where she coordinated International high-level workshops and meetings. She has also worked with IGAD (IGAD Gender Desk) during the Somali Peace and Reconciliation Conference. Ms. Ndegwah holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business Management from Africa Nazarene University, Strategic Management from European Business University and currently pursuing Master of Science in Global Management at the Salford University.

Kennedy Kiprotich

Senior ICT Officer, State Department for ICT and Digital Economy

Kennedy Kiprotich

Senior ICT Officer, State Department for ICT and Digital Economy

Title: Senior ICT Officer, State Department for ICT and Digital Economy Division: System Audit and Security Alumni: Presidential Digital Talent Programme Fellow: Public Service Emerging Leaders Fellowship Program