Habesha in Tech Podcast

Habesha in Tech

Habesha in Tech
በቴክኖሎጂ የስራ ዘርፍ መሰማራት ይሻሉ? በቴክኖሎጂ ውስጥ የሚሰሩ ኢትዮጵያውያንና ኤርትራውያን የህይወት ተሞክሮ ማድመጥ ይፈልጋሉ? ወደዚህ ክለብ የምንጋብዛቸው እንግዶች በቴክኖሎጂ የሙያ ዘርፍ የተሰማሩና ልምድ ያላቸው ሲሆን ለያለፉበትን መንገድ እና የመረጡትን የሙያ ዘርፍ ያካፍሉናል። በተጨማሪም በተመረጡ የቴክኖሎጂ የሙያ ዘረፎች ላይ ያተኮረ ውይይት ይደረጋል። We will invite guest speakers working in tech to share with us how they make their decision to join the tech, answer some questions from the audience and provide their advice on how to be successful in the field. The Language of discussions are 𝗔𝗺𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗰 or 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵.
Mekonnen Kassa’s Tech Journey: Audience Questions
Audience Questions It was a great honor to have a conversation with Mekonnen Kassa on Habesha in Tech club. We spent close to 3 hours talking about his personal &  professional journey. It was an eye opening session where we learnt how  he was able share us his personal story starting from his life in  Gondar, Ethiopia. Mekonnen left Ethiopia during the Socialist Derg military was leading  the country. He was young & ambitious so he and his friend together  walked to Sudan, yes WALKED TO SUDAN. He was able to  escape the suffering in Ethiopia but the suffering in Sudan was there  waiting for this young new Refugee. After few years in Sudan living as a  refugee, Mr. Kassa was fortunate enough to come to the US with his  partner. That’s where he was able to start his English language class.  He also started working as a taxi driver. Mekonnen is polyglot. He speaks Amharic,  Tigrigna, Arabic, English. He loves learning new languages he tried to  learn Afan Oromo too, he probably need some course – feel free to give  him tips 😀. While he was attending his language class he was able to  learn about his deep interest about education, therefore, he went to University of Washington to study Mechanical Engineering. While he was attending school he also works as a cab driver. The  conversation he had with one of his frequent customers was the one that  changed his life. His customer was kind enough to tell him what his job.  Mr. Kassa used this opportunity to pitch what skills & trainings.  His customer supported Mekonnen by guiding him to prepare his resume and  get him an interview at Accenture (then Anderson Consulting). That how Mekonnen’s Tech Journey was  launched. You can call it fate, opportunity or luck: but Mekonnen was  able to capitalize on what he was given. After he joined Accenture, his  career took off and still going strong. He is currently a Senior  Director of Cyber Security Engineering at Microsoft. Mekonnen told us that he struggled to move up the ladder at  Microsoft. But he wasn’t able to understand why. He was doing everything  right and was a successful tech leader but that wasn’t enough to get  him promotion. But one day he insisted to get the right reasons so that  he can improve & move up the management ladder. That where  everything changed: he was able to change course and made changes on his  communication, leadership & interpersonal skills. That changed his  career. He is now a leader, a mentor, a coach. It was an honour to have a chance to chat with you. I can’t wait to  listen to our conversation again. It was very rich with your personal  story and tech Journey. Thank you 🙏🏾 so much for sharing us your  journey. Please listen to our conversation and share it with your network. Follow | Share | Comment | Like Website | Clubhouse | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Feb 24, 2022
53 min
Mekonnen Kassa's Tech Journey: From Gondar-Khartoum-Seattle
It was a great honor to have a conversation with Mekonnen Kassa on Habesha in Tech club. We spent close to 3 hours talking about his personal & professional journey. It was an eye opening session where we learnt how he was able share us his personal story starting from his life in Gondar, Ethiopia. Mekonnen left Ethiopia during the Socialist Derg military was leading the country. He was young & ambitious so he and his friend together walked to Sudan, yes WALKED TO SUDAN. He was able to escape the suffering in Ethiopia but the suffering in Sudan was there waiting for this young new Refugee. After few years in Sudan living as a refugee, Mr. Kassa was fortunate enough to come to the US with his partner. That's where he was able to start his English language class. He also started working as a taxi driver. Mekonnen is polyglot. He speaks Amharic, Tigrigna, Arabic, English. He loves learning new languages he tried to learn Afan Oromo too, he probably need some course - feel free to give him tips 😀. While he was attending his language class he was able to learn about his deep interest about education, therefore, he went to University of Washington to study Mechanical Engineering. While he was attending school he also works as a cab driver. The conversation he had with one of his frequent customers was the one that changed his life. His customer was kind enough to tell him what his job. Mr. Kassa used this opportunity to pitch what skills & trainings. His customer supported Mekonnen by guiding him to prepare his resume and get him an interview at Accenture (then Anderson Consulting). That how Mekonnen's Tech Journey was launched. You can call it fate, opportunity or luck: but Mekonnen was able to capitalize on what he was given. After he joined Accenture, his career took off and still going strong. He is currently a Senior Director of Cyber Security Engineering at Microsoft. Mekonnen told us that he struggled to move up the ladder at Microsoft. But he wasn't able to understand why. He was doing everything right and was a successful tech leader but that wasn't enough to get him promotion. But one day he insisted to get the right reasons so that he can improve & move up the management ladder. That where everything changed: he was able to change course and made changes on his communication, leadership & interpersonal skills. That changed his career. He is now a leader, a mentor, a coach. It was an honour to have a chance to chat with you. I can’t wait to listen to our conversation again. It was very rich with your personal story and tech Journey. Thank you 🙏🏾 so much for sharing us your journey. Please listen to our conversation and share it with your network. Follow | Share | Comment | Like Website | Clubhouse | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Feb 21, 2022
1 hr 45 min
Ethiopia's Digital Transformation with Myriam Said
My guest on Habesha in Tech was Myriam Said, who is currently Digital Advisor at the Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia coordinating efforts in transitioning Ethiopia to a Digital Economy. Previously she was the Director of the National Digital Transformation Program at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology where she led the development of “Digital Ethiopia 2025”; an Inclusive National Digital Transformation Strategy. Myriam was born in Addis Ababa, went to Lycée Guebre-Mariam and attended her secondary education in France (1st Degree in Mathematics, 2nd Degree in Physics, Master in Physics applied to the Environment). She moved back to Ethiopia to focus on practical works. Her first unpaid job was at UNHCR as Environmental Impact researcher. But at the time, ICT was vibrant in Ethiopia more specifically the system integration area. For that reason she took a CISCO certification and start working for a System Integration company as a junior engineer. Myriam spent over 15 years in the private sector. She started in a leading ICT System Integration Company implementing National IT Infrastructure projects and was then the co-founder of a Digital Financial Service Provider that built several digital platforms to enable payments and bring efficiency on how people transact. We discussed about Ethiopia's Digital Transformation & on issues that are currently changing the digital space. We talked about unleashing value from agriculture, The next version of global value chains in manufacturing, building the IT enabled services, and, digital as the driver of tourism competitiveness. We also talked about the "broader ecosystem: People, Connectivity, Payments, Digital ID, Cyber security, E-Governance and more. I would like to thank Myriam for her willingness to come to our session to share us the latest information on Ethiopia's Digital Transformation Journey. Please have a listen and tell us know if you have any question and what you feel about our conversation.
Feb 13, 2022
1 hr 30 min
Habesha in Tech club | ሀበሻ ኢን ቴክ ክለብ
Welcome to 𝙃𝙖𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙝𝙖 𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙚𝙘𝙝 Club.                                              As the global market moves into more tech-oriented businesses, 𝙀𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙨 & 𝙀𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨 are joining the tech world either through an academic path or making a career change.    We will invite guest speakers working in tech to share with us how they make their decision to join the tech, answer some questions from the audience and provide their advice on how to be successful in the field.  In this room, we can help each other by sharing our experience.  The Language of discussions are 𝗔𝗺𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗰 or 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵. This sessions occur every Saturday @1:00 PM EST.  Stay tuned for more exciting episodes.  ________________________________    እንኳን ወደ ሀበሻ ኢን ቴክ ክለብ በደህና መጡ!   ይሀ ክለብ በየሳመንቱ ቅዳሜ ከሰዓት 1:00ፒኤም (በቶሮንቶ ሰዓት) ወይም ከምሽቱ 3:00 (በኢትዮጵያ ሰዓት) የቴክኖሎጂ ባለሙያዎችን በመጋበዝ የሚከናውኑ ውይይቶቸ የሚዘጋጅበት ክለብ ነው።    ወደዚህ ክለብ የምንጋብዛቸው እንግዶች በቴክኖሎጂ የሙያ ዘርፍ የተሰማሩና ልምድ ያላቸው ሲሆን ለያለፉበትን መንገድ እና የመረጡትን የሙያ ዘርፍ ያካፍሉናል።   በተጨማሪም በተመረጡ የቴክኖሎጂ የሙያ ዘረፎች ላይ ያተኮረ ውይይት ይደረጋል።  በቴክኖሎጂ የስራ ዘርፍ መሰማራት ይሻሉ? በቴክኖሎጂ ውስጥ የሚሰሩ ኢትዮጵያውያንና ኤርትራውያን የህይወት ተሞክሮ ማድመጥ ይፈልጋሉ?   እንግዲያውስ ይህንን ክለብ ይከታተሉ፣ ፖድካሰትና ዩቱዩባችንንም ሰብስክራይብ ያድርጉ ለወዳጆችዎም ያጋሩ።  Website | Clubhouse | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Feb 2, 2022
35 sec
My Tech Journey with Dawit Lessanu, ED of Enterprise Architecture at The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
Dawit Lessanu was born in Addis Ababa but raised in the United States Dawit Lessanu is an accomplished senior technology leader with over 26 years experience in Information Technology. Dawit has worked across diverse industries as a big 4 consultant, Media, Music, Publishing, Finance and Retail Consumer Goods. He has degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Africana Studies and an MBA in IT Management. Dawit is also an accomplished artist and a yoga instructor. He has raised 2 adult children and enjoys reading, meditation and traveling. He hails from the greater New York area and is currently Executive Director of Enterprise Architecture at the Estee Lauder Companies.
Jan 30, 2022
1 hr 14 min
My Tech Journey with Abeba Birhane (PhD)
Our guest is Abeba Birhane (PhD), a cognitive science PhD researcher at the Complex Software Lab in the school of computer science at University College Dublin, Ireland. She hails from the beautiful city of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. She was a brilliant student. You may not guess how she earned her first salary, by being a DJ. She is now living in Ireland. Abeba completed her PhD in Cognitive Science from Complex Software Lab in the school of computer science at University College Dublin, Ireland. Congrats to her.  Abeba is fearless to challenge the status quo whenever she sees injustice and inaccurate representations. One of the researches Abeba co-wrote was a reason for MIT to takedown the 80 million datasets that has racist and offensive content. She also don't support Robots to be given rights because that only is going to give more rights to the Robots manufacturers.  Thank you Abeba for sharing us your Tech Journey.  Have a listen and share this with your friends.
Jan 23, 2022
1 hr 27 min
Ethiopian Digital Transformation Journey - Review (November 20, 2021)
Overview of the Digital Ethiopia 2025 and Ethiopians Digital Economy strategic documents. Current progress and barriers. Concluding with insights and feedback.
Jan 21, 2022
1 hr 36 min
Blockchain for IoT Security with Jay Jamal, Wondimu Zegeye (PhD) & Hailu Kassa (PhD)
In this session we discussed about Blockchain & its impact in the Cyber Security space more specifically IoT Security. Our panelist are experts in their field and they shared us their point of views in this regard. I would like to thank Jay Jemal for bringing his colleagues to share their knowledge in the blockchain space. I also would like to thank Wondimu Zegeye & Hailu Kassa for willing to join our session. Please find the below excerpt of Panelists' Profile, Click learn more to view the full profile.  Jay Jemal is a Blockchain/distributed ledger technology expert. He has implemented Blockchain solutions for several government agencies such as HHS, CDC, NSF and DoD, to mention a few. He leads the architecture and implementation of the only CGI’s Blockchain IP based platform, Secure Data Fabric (SDF™), CGI’s first Blockchain/ML/AI IP commercial product (Patent issuer and number us 63054225). Mr. Jay Jemal is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Dallol Consulting Group, LLC founded and based in Atlanta, GA. Mr. Jemal, as a successful Sr. Technologist, has a proven track record of more than 20 years of experience in architecting and implementing cutting-edge software systems for government agencies and fortune 500 companies. Mr. Jemal holds a master’s in Computer Science and B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Dallas. He also holds several technology and management certifications. Mr. Jemal is currently pursuing Doctor of Engineering (DEng) in Cybersecurity track at Morgan State University (MSU) CREAM Lab – with research focusing on Blockchain for IoT security. Learn More Wondimu Zegeye (D.Eng) is a Sr. Research & Development Engineer, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Post-doc fellow at Cyber Security Assurance and Policy (CAP) Center, and Adjunct Professor at Morgan State University. Dr. Zegeye has been doing research in the areas of Cellular networks, Data and communication networks, Cyber Security, Machine Learning and AI. He has published over 20 scientific papers globally. He currently leads a team of researchers at MSU’s CAP in IoT security for Smart homes. He runs multiple projects in collaboration with John’s Hopkins University, Dartmouth College, University Michigan, University of Maryland at College Park, Tufts university, and University of Illinois Urban campagna in the NSF funded project, Security and Privacy in the Lifecycle of IoT for Consumer Environments (SPLICE). He also teaches advanced computer and data communication, Cyber Security, and digital electronic courses. Learn More Hailu Kassa (D.Eng) is a research scientist at Cyber Security Assurance and Policy (CAP) Center, and Adjunct Professor at Morgan State University. Dr. Kassa has been doing research in the areas of 5G security and Energy Efficiency; Distributed Sensor Networks and IoT; Wireless Sensor Network for Healthcare Applications; Big Data Analysis, Extraction and Forensic. Dr. Kassa also worked with over 26 MSc students. Advised and graduated 11 MSc students at Hawassa University, Ethiopia. Given a training on Solar Technology Technical and Business Training for Small and Large scale enterprises, organized by GIZ. Learn More Cheers, Tef Kassa Website: https://habeshaintech.com Clubhouse:https://www.clubhouse.com/club/habesha-in-tech Facebook: https://facebook.com/habeshaintech/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/habeshaintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/habeshaintech/
Jan 5, 2022
1 hr 54 min
My Tech Journey with Alem Abreha
On Saturday November 6, 2021, I had the opportunity to chat with Alem Abreha, who is a Systems Engineer, with more than 10 years of experience in Infrastructure, Service Reliability Engineering, Tooling/Automation and DevOps. He started his career as a Systems Administrator in Unix and Linux operating systems while he was in College (Mekelle University). He is now a Lead Systems Engineer at Mulesoft (a Salesforce Company). Alem walked us through his tech journey starting from his school year to where he is now.  He also shared us about his startup that he worked on. Alem is the founder & CEO of Gooday™. He founded it in 2019, Gooday Online is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The word "Gooday", while it has a well intentioned meaning in English, also means "business" or "errand" in Amharic, spelled 'ጉዳይ'. I would like to thank Alem for his time and willing to share us his tech journey. I want to also thank our audiences who were listening to us and those who participated in the Q&A. Please listen to our full conversation to get more perspective and discover his journey. Cheers, Tef Kassa Website: https://habeshaintech.com  Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/habesha-in-tech Facebook: https://facebook.com/habeshaintech/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/habeshaintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/habeshaintech/
Jan 5, 2022
1 hr 27 min
My Tech Journey with Goitom Seyoum Q&A [Part 2]
I had the opportunity to chat with Goitom Seyoum, Staff Software Engineer at Google, on Clubhouse to discuss his Tech journey. Goitom was very honest to share us his journey from where everything started. He is the one of first Ethiopians to attend at Maharishi International University. While at the university he used to apply for jobs but he felt like he could apply to even more companies if he could find help. So he decided to build his own automated program that search(crawl) websites for keywords he set up (such as job title, skills ...). After he completed the development, he was able to apply to more companies than his fellow classmates and he was getting email & phone call responses from recruiters. When his friends saw the success of his program, they wanted to use it and he made the program accessible to them.  Goitom is A father, an entrepreneur, problem solver, ambitious, strategy thinker, engineer and people leader... Built more than 5 startups. Currently working at Google for the last 8 years as a tech lead manager at Google Play. I would like to thank Goitom for his time and willing to share us his tech journey. He is also an amazing story teller. I want to also thank our audiences who were listening to us and those who participated in the Q&A.   Please listen to our full conversation to get more perspective and discover his journey.   Cheers,  Tef Kassa  Website: https://habeshaintech.com  Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/habesha-in-tech  Facebook: https://facebook.com/habeshaintech/  Instagram: https://instagram.com/habeshaintech/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/habeshaintech/
Nov 5, 2021
1 hr 13 min
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