Author: Sara Feijo | MIT Open Learning<\/p>\n
When June Odongo interviewed early-career electrical engineer Cynthia Wacheke for a software engineering position at her company, Wacheke lacked knowledge of computer science theory but showed potential in complex problem-solving.<\/p>\n
Determined to give Wacheke a shot, Odongo turned to MIT OpenCourseWare<\/a> to create a six-month \u201cbridging course\u201d modeled after the classes she once took as a computer science student. Part of MIT Open Learning, OpenCourseWare offers free, online, open educational resources from more than 2,500 courses that span the MIT undergraduate and graduate curriculum.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWacheke had the potential and interest to do the work that needed to be done, so the way to solve this was for me to literally create a path for her to get that work done,\u201d says Odongo, founder and CEO of Senga Technologies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Developers, Odongo says, are not easy to find. The OpenCourseWare educational resources provided a way to close that gap. \u201cWe put Wacheke through the course last year, and she is so impressive,\u201d Odongo says. \u201cRight now, she is doing our first machine learning models. It\u2019s insane how good of a team member she is. She has done so much in such a short time.\u201d<\/p>\n Making high-quality candidates job-ready<\/strong><\/p>\n Wacheke, who holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nairobi, started her professional career as a hardware engineer. She discovered a passion for software while working on a dashboard design project, and decided to pivot from hardware to software engineering. That\u2019s when she discovered Senga Technologies<\/a>, a logistics software and services company in Kenya catering to businesses that ship in Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n Odongo founded Senga with the goal of simplifying and easing the supply chain and logistics experience, from the movement of goods to software tools. Senga\u2019s ultimate goal, Odongo says, is to have most of their services driven by software. That means employees \u2014 and candidates \u2014 need to be able to think through complex problems using computer science theory.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people are focused on programming, but we care less about programming and more about problem-solving,\u201d says Odongo, who received a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and an MBA from Harvard Business School. \u201cWe actually apply the things people learn in computer science programs.\u201d<\/p>\n Wacheke started the bridging course in June 2022 and was given six months to complete the curriculum on the MIT OpenCourseWare website. She took nine courses, including: Introduction to Algorithms<\/a>; Mathematics for Computer Science<\/a>; Design and Analysis of Algorithms<\/a>; Elements of Software Construction<\/a>; Automata, Computability, and Complexity<\/a>; Database Systems<\/a>; Principles of Autonomy and Decision Making<\/a>; Introduction to Machine Learning<\/a>; and Networks<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe bridging course helped me learn how to think through things,\u201d Wacheke says. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to know how to do something, but it\u2019s another to design that thing from scratch and implement it.\u201d<\/p>\n During the bridging course, Wacheke was paired with a software engineer at Senga, who mentored her and answered questions along the way. She learned Ruby on Rails, a server-side web application framework under the MIT License. Wacheke also completed other projects to complement the theory she was learning. She created a new website that included an integration to channel external requests to Slack, a cross-platform team communication tool used by the company\u2019s employees.<\/p>\n Continuous learning for team members<\/strong><\/p>\n The bridging course concluded with a presentation to Senga employees, during which Wacheke explained how the company could use graph theory\u00a0for decision-making. \u201cIf you want to get from point A to B, there are algorithms you can use to find the shortest path,\u201d Wacheke says. \u201cSince we\u2019re a logistics company, I thought we could use this when we\u2019re deciding which routes our trucks take.\u201d<\/p>\n The presentation, which is the final requirement for the bridging course, is also a professional development opportunity for Senga employees. \u201cThis process is helpful for our team members, particularly those who have been out of school for a while,\u201d Odongo says. \u201cThe candidates present what they\u2019ve learned in relation to Senga. It\u2019s a way of doing continuous learning for the existing team members.\u201d<\/p>\n After successfully completing the bridging course in November 2022, Wacheke transitioned to a full-time software engineer role. She is currently developing a \u201cmachine\u201d that can interpret and categorize hundreds of documents, including delivery notes, cash flows, and receipts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal is to enable our customers to simply feed those documents into our machine, and then we can more accurately read and convert them to digital formats to drive automation,\u201d Odongo says. \u201cThe machine will also enable someone to ask a document a question, such as \u2018What did I deliver to retailer X on date Y?\u2019 or \u2018What is the total price of the goods delivered?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The bridging course, which was initially custom-designed for Wacheke, is now a permanent program at Senga. A second team member completed the course in October 2023 and has joined the software team full time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopers are not easy to find, and you also want high-quality developers,\u201d Odongo says. \u201cAt least when we do this, we know that the person has gone through what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Go to Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"