About Me

My background

I am an “out-going introvert” from Kenya who’s been living in Finland for over 10 years. I am relatively calm person with a dream to make the world a better place, but sometimes lacking the fortitude to continuously pursue the dream 🙂. I enjoy being of service to others and never pass up an opportunity to help if I can.

After years of contemplation (and starting and stopping one or two personal blogs), it was about time to have a place to share thoughts, learn, test ideas and along the way maybe educate one or two!

I earned my PhD in information processing science from the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Oulu in the Spring of 2018. In July 2020, I started working on a project in collaboration with an Oulu-based urban planning and design agency. An overview of the project here. In the Spring of 2022, I joined the Institute of Rehabilitation at JAMK University of Applied Sciences to work on an international project about digital rehabilitation.

My research has been about technology adoption and use, the design of persuasive systems, understanding human behaviour and how technology influences and can be used to change/shape human behaviour for the better.

My research interests include:

• Persuasive systems (design) and Gamification
• Use and adoption of digital services
• Digital Health
• Community-wide interventions for sustainable and active mobility
• Social and Digital Inclusion
• Understanding users’ decision-making processes and psychological aspects of behaviour change

Other interests:

• Data and content analysis
• Location-based social media analysis
• Principles and applications of digital fabrication

Hobbies

Football has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. As with my dream of making the world a better place, I haven’t had the fortitude to pursue football beyond the amateur level and my time is now long gone (if there ever was such a time 😌). In addition to football and following other sports like athletics, I enjoy word games, listening to music (at times very loudly), reading (mostly psychological, design and business-related books, but I can pretty much read anything), writing (when the motivation strikes!), occasionally binge-watching tv programmes and generally meeting people.

I also enjoy participating in voluntary activities. Over the years, I have been part of clubs and associations such as Rotaract in Kenya and AIESEC at the university of Oulu which focus on teamwork, members’ personal development and community service. In addition to volunteering for Plan Finland, Hercules Football Club and other organisations.

Photo by Harri Tarvainen

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