A panel comprised of alumni from the 2024 Rutgers Mandela Washington Fellowship Program presented at the 12th International Conference of the African Materials Research Society (AMRS) in Kigali, Rwanda in December. The panel discussion, titled “Tech Entrepreneurship in Practice” included Highness Mtemah from Zimbabwe, Douglas Remhunga from Zimbabwe, and Rivaldo Costa from Angola, and was moderated by Akpene Hoggar from Carnegie Mellon University–Africa.
This panel discussion addressed the entrepreneurship journeys of three young business leaders in the technology sector. Highness Mtemah, who works at the Scientific and Industrial Research Center (SIRDC), Douglas Remhunga, who runs Malcolm Paints, and Rivaldo Costa, who leads the Sustainable Water Solutions for Rural Communities project, each represented a different stage of business development and the leadership journey. Each of the panelists described their background and experiences in education that influenced their interest in entrepreneurship as well as the challenges of building an enterprise.
Johanna Bernstein, Assistant Dean for Faculty Engagement, has coordinated the Mandela Washington Fellowship at Rutgers for the past ten years. In addition, she served as the Chair for the Session on Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer at the AMRS Conference and helped organize the Mandela Washington Fellowship alumni panel. She noted, “Our Mandela Washington Fellowship alumni panelists represented a bridge between research and development in materials science and scaling up a successful business. Unlike some of the other presenters who have developed successful ventures already, our alums discussed how they are in the process of building their enterprise, detailing barriers, resources and next steps. It was an illuminating and constructive conversation.”
IREX, Rutgers’ partner on the Mandela Washington Fellowship program provided support to the panelists to attend the conference, as well as to three more Mandela Washington Fellowship alumni, including a fourth from Rutgers, Faith Aweko (who was also part of the 2024 cohort).
Vice President for Global Affairs Rick Garfunkel has been involved with the AMRS for the past two decades and currently serves on the AMRS Board. Johanna Bernstein has helped to plan and been a participant at the meetings since 2011. This year’s conference, The Kigali AMRS2024 drew participants from around the world, with an approximate attendance of 500 people. The goal of the AMRS series of conferences is to allow the scientific and research communities to build knowledge, foster relationships and promote action for further understanding and collaborations in the broad fields associated with materials science and technology.
