Meet the jury

Freda Gbande

Africa Open Science Hardware (AfricaOSH) & Kumasi Hive

Freda Gbande attended the University of Ghana where she completed a 4-year bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology. She is currently a Research Associate at Kumasi Hive where she leads data gathering and analysis of projects and initiatives across a wide range of sectors. Freda serves as a member of the management team of Africa Open Science Hardware (AfricaOSH), a community of makers, scientists, policy makers and tech enthusiasts in Africa and beyond.

Offray Vladimir Luna Cárdenas

Mutabit

Offray Vladimir Luna Cárdenas is an apprentice, hacktivist, researcher, teacher and consultant. Founding member of HackBo, a Hackerspace in Bogotá; co-designer of the workshop + (anti)hackaton Data Week / Data Rodas and creator of the (meta)tool Grafoscopio, which has been used in: performative writing and (re)publishing, agile data storytelling and visualization, data feminism, civic hacktivism, reproducible research, making “Big Data” approachable, hypertextual resilient community and interpersonal memory and presences, among other topics. ∸ Twitter/ ∻ Blog ⊷ Indie Web

Audrey Dsouza

Priscilla Gyasi

Kumasi Hive

Project manager and grant fundraiser at Kumasi Hive, Ghana’s Tech Innovation Hub. She was a project manager in Ghana for Careables, where one of the key goals was to create low-cost assistive technology for people with disabilities. She currently serves on the Global Innovation Gathering Supervisory Board.

Gesche Joost

Professor of Design Research at the Berlin University of the Arts

Gesche Joost is a researcher, founder, political advisor and tech consultant. She focuses her work on the digital transformation and its implications on our society both in her research practice and on the policy level. She runs a research lab at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence specialized in human-computer-interaction and wearable computing and is part of the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin. She is member of the executive board of the Einsteincenter Digital Future to shape the future academic agenda for Berlin and beyond. From 2014 to 2018, she served as the German government’s Federal Internet ambassador “Digital Champion” to the European Commission. Since 2015, she is member of the supervisory board of SAP, ING and ottobock. In 2016, she founded Calliope gGmbH, a non for-profit organization offering digital learning to children.

Thomas Mboa

Mboalab & AfricaOSH

Dr Thomas Mboa is a researcher in Information and communication interested in the Maker Movement in French-Speaking African countries. Due to his background in Biochemistry, Thomas Mboa promotes DIYbio and the Biotechnology democratisation in Africa. His work with DIYBio is visible through his own biohacker space in Cameroon: the Mboalab, which is part of the Bioeconomy Lab. Thomas also operates through the Africa Open Science & Hardware network (AfricaOSH), which he co-leads to strengthen African stakeholders and catalyse grassroots innovation through Open Tech culture. Currently, Dr Mboa is a teacher at the École Supérieure des Sciences et Techniques de l’Information et de la Communication (ESSTIC). He coordinates the Documentation Center, in which he led the process of digitisation of scientific heritage.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9678-7765

Jouko Myllyoja

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Mr. Jouko Myllyoja works as a senior scientist in Future-proof societies-team in VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Jouko shares particular interest towards participatory activities and action-based methods as a part of futures knowledge creation. Jouko has worked in various substance areas of e.g. circular economy, city development, and futures of work. He has managed international research projects such as Cybersecurity Awareness and Knowledge Systemic Highlevel Application (Horizon 2020), and ICT for Health Innovation Ecosystems in South Africa (Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland). Besides career in research, Jouko holds MA degree in theatre and applies arts-based methods as a part of community building and learning.

Hannah Perner-Wilson

Expert in materials, craft techniques and electronics

Hannah’s work combines conductive materials and craft techniques to develop new styles of building electronics that emphasize materiality and process. Created prototypes demonstrate the kinds of electronic artefacts we might make for ourselves in a world of electronic diversity. A significant part of her work goes into documenting and disseminating her techniques so that others can apply them.

Website: https://www.plusea.at

Christina Rebel

Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Wikifactory

Christina Rebel is a social innovator and entrepreneur committed to unleash the creative ingenuity of people to solve major world challenges. Christina has been working at the intersection of digital fabrication, technology and sustainability for over a decade, where she has co-created initiatives with institutions (EU, UN), companies (Daimler, Autodesk), universities (Kingston University, London College of Communication) and online networks – that empower communities to design, develop and produce physical products that are smarter, local and circular.

Alessandra Schmidt

Fab Lab Barcelona, IAAC

Alessandra Schmidt is an enterprises’ administrator and social development specialist. She coordinates EU Research operations at Fab Lab Barcelona, a department of the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). Her work is pasticularly focused on supporting local communities’ of practice pathways for situated-innovation, gender transformation, and pushing positive societal change and transformation outcomes one step forward across gloCal communities. PhD Candidate in Management Sciences at ESADE, with masters at UCL and ESADE, and a Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship at INSEAD.

Europass: https://europa.eu/!Qp44fm

Ronald Tsatsi

iZoneHub Zimbabwe

I am a tech enthusiast who holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe. I have a background in electronics, power systems and computer programming. iZonehub Makerspace Lead, working to promote the use of tech to solve different community problems.

Maximilian Voigt

Open Knowledge Foundation Germany

Maximilian Voigt works for the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany on the topics of Open Education and Open Hardware and is the programme lead of the Prototype Fund for Open Hardware. He is also involved in Open Workshops and deals with physical computing. Maximilian is a board member of the German Association of Open Workshops. He studied technical journalism, public relations as well as culture and technology. https://hardware.prototypefund.de/about/team/ *** https://twitter.com/ma__vo