Our school

Research and Innovation

  1. Research and Innovation Agenda
  2. Research and Innovation Projects

In order to operationalize the Research and Innovation Policy, a Research and Innovation Agenda has also been developed, and approved by the NM-AIST Council. The R&I Agenda is aligned with the Tanzania National Development Vision 2025, national policies and strategies, as well as EA regional development strategies. In formulating the R&I Agenda cognizance has been taken of the fact that the main challenges Tanzania, and the rest of Africa, face in the coming years are related to rapid population increase and globalization of the world economy. Similar to all other SSA countries, the population of Tanzania is projected to grow fast reaching 129 million by 2050 from its current size of about 49 million. With such fast population growth, ensuring food and nutritional security, job creation for a population dominated by youth through promotion of industrial development, are challenges that need immediate attention. The R&I Agenda also takes into account the following:

  • Increased agricultural and industrial productivity can only be ensured when workers are healthy and well fed. However, today many people in Africa suffer from one or the other type of diseases. This, in addition to affecting the health of workers and reducing their work efficiency, causes significant mortality and morbidity resulting in huge socio-economic crisis.
  • Most diseases affecting millions of people in Africa (up to 60%) are communicable diseases that include malaria, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, etc. Access to health services in most African countries is very limited and most clinics and hospitals are often overburdened with patients. Moreover, most hospitals and clinics face serious shortage of resources and lack access to modern technologies that could help them in patient management.
  • In addition to individual health, environmental sustainability is another area that will have serious impact on sustainability of economic developments and the health of society.
  • To sustain life and support industrial development, access to clean and safe water is considered vital. Water is also essential for agricultural practices, for both crop farming and animal husbandry. But Africa in general, and Eastern Africa in particular is a water stressed area calling for research and innovation in the sector. Water shortage often leads to conflicts among different populations. Therefore, issues related to governance are also important to be addressed.

To address the pressing societal needs and problems in Tanzania, the EA region and SSA generally, the following main research themes have been identified and formulated with prioritized sub-themes in a manner that facilitates multi-disciplinality:

  • Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security
  • Harnessing of the Biodiversity of Nature and Eco-systems Management
  • Human and Animal Health focusing on Eco Health
  • Energy Security, and Management of the Environment for Safety and Sustainable Development
  • Water Security and Sustainability
  • Core and Applied Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information sciences

By addressing these issues NM-AIST will contribute substantially to addressing the major problems Tanzania and SSA in general is facing today, namely, poverty. Download Research and Innovation Agenda.

Current and ongoing research projects fall into two main categories, namely; those undertaken by teams involving NM-AISTians (staff and students) and others from collaborating institutions, and those undertaken by students solely as part of their dissertation- or thesis-work. Download the current Reasearch and Innovation Projects.

Products in the Market

 



NanoFilter

Researchers: Isack Onoka (student) and Dr. Askwar Hilonga (school of MEWES)

Description: The NanoFilter is a 3-part filtration system capable of removing bacteria, microorganisms and harmful heavy metals. The first part of the filter is a slow sand filter which removes the microorganisms. The second part is patented and is acombination of nanomaterials made from sodium silicate and silver to eliminate toxic heavy metals such as copper, fluoride, or other chemical contaminants depending on a particular geographical area. The third part is a micron hollow fibre membrane. It then absorbs all the contaminants leaving water very clean and safe and can later be removed manually.

Spinoff Company: Gongali Model (https://gongalimodel.com/)

Nutrano, SimBar and NutriApp

Researchers: Jofrey Raymond (student) , Dr. Athanasia Matemu (supervisor - school of LiSBE), Prof. Morris Agaba (supervisor – school of LiSBE)

Description: Nutrano and SimBar (energy bar) are high quality sesame-based formulations. The inspiration behind their development was improving nutritional security in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). NutriApp is an app geared towards helping women in the SSA context to make informed decisions on what foods to feed their family in order to ensure they are eating a balanced diet.

Spinoff Company: NutriPlus Ltd.

Eco-friendly tech of lather processing using turnings from locally

Researchers: Cecilia China (student), Prof. Karoli Njau (supervisor) school of MEWES, Dr.swarna.v.kanth (supervisor), Dr.Askwar Hilonga (supervisor) school of MEWES)

Description: Tanzania is Africa's second largest producer of livestock, producing more than 11 million pieces per year, but the contribution of the leather industry to its gross domestic product is still poor. Processed skin is less than 50% produced, while more than 50% of raw skin is exported or dumped on dogs or given to dogs This situation affects the leather industry's contribution to achieving Tanzania's goals of manufacturing, youth employment and overall GDP growth. A major factor contributing to the limited efficiency of the industry is the lack of proper skin processing technology. The skin processing technology using chromium salts adversely affects the ability of local industries because they are expensive, polluting the environment and causing diseases such as cancer Therefore, reliance on chromium salt will destabilize the skin industry

Vuruga

Researchers: Never Zakaya (student) and Ernest Mbega (supervisor, school of LiSBE)

Description: Tuta Absoluta or tomato leaf miner disease is a highly destructive pest to tomato plants and fruit which has been resistant to many pesticides. Vuruga is an effective formulation of a fungal based bio-pesticide (FBB) that works on the disease. It was initially tested under field conditions in three major tomato growing regions of Tanzania namely Arusha, Iringa and Morogoro. It is now undergoing nationwide trials before mass production commences.

Omega-3 DHA Superfood

Researchers: Christina Charles (student), Dr. Musa Chacha (supervisor, school of LiSBE), Prof. Hulda Swai (supervisor, school of LiSBE)

Description: The goal of our innovation is to prevent mental health retardation associated with under nutrition by encouraging consumption of our product which is rich in active omega-3 DHA and EPA, the very nutrients which are fundamental for brain development and cognitive performance and sadly are usually missing in most typical African diets. The main objective is to add value to natural nutrient dense ingredient which is available in Tanzania and present it to both the domestic and export market as a finished product.

An ICT Based Solution for Pesticides Authenticity Verification

Researchers: Catherine Ngirwa (student) and Dr. Mussa Ally Dida (supervisor, school of CoCSE)

Market status: Adopted by TPRI (Tropical Pesticides Research Institute) and TTCL (Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited)

Biogas Stove

Researchers: Lucia Petro (student), Dr. Thomas Kivevele (supervisor, school of MEWES), Dr. Revocatus Machunda (supervisor, school of MEWES)

Description: WISE biogas burner stove has been designed, fabricated and deployed for use in community. The stove was developed to substitute firewood and charcoal in order to reduce environment impact, health effects and social economic impact. The user of locally man made biogas burner face the problems such as heat loss and high biogas consumption fuel which affects the whole cooking process. This situation causes the low efficiency to biogas burner. To solve these problems the needs to design and to fabricate a biogas burner with improved (efficiency) have been considered in the WISE biogas burner stove.

RhozoBacteria based bio-fertilizer

Researchers: Becky Aloo (student), Dr. Ernest Mbega (supervisor, school of CoCSE), Dr. Makumba (Nairobi University)

Description: Indigenous potato rhizobacterial isolates to identify those which can successfully be used to reduce the use of artificial fertilizers in potato cropping systems in Tanzania. I isolated a total of 145 rhizobacteria and after careful screening in vitro and in the screen house, selected three strains for further analyses. These were formulated into biofertilizers using locally available carrier materials like sawdust, wheat bran and rice husks and evaluated for stability and viability both in the laboratory and field trials.

Back to top