When people think of IoT, IT infrastructure, or sensor development, the image that often comes to mind is still dominated by men in labs or behind screens. But our recent project in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is helping to rewrite that narrative.
As part of a VLIR-UOS collaboration between AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Ardhi University, and the Karume Institute of Science and Technology, students are working together to build a LoRaWAN network to monitor air quality in the city. And among the passionate tech teams setting up sensors, programming cloud platforms, and creating dashboards you’ll find girls with soldering irons in hand, confidently building the future.
One thing is clear: they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty or to hold a soldering iron. In fact, they’re proud to show that technology isn’t about gender, it’s about curiosity, creativity, and collaboration.
