Rumbidzaishe Maisva is the Head of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for Womandla Foundation where she forwards the agenda of encouraging young girls to pursue careers in STEM and related fields. She is a QA Automation Engineer at Global Kinetic, a FinTech (Financial Technology) company working with software development.
Rumbi is passionate about educating, equipping, motivating and inspiring people with knowledge about computer science. She has worked with a number of NGOs in IT including: Code For Cape Town, CodeSpace and Women in ICT as a motivational speaker, panelist and keynote speaker. She has also worked as a tutor for Mathematics and Science at the SOZO Foundation in Vrygound. As the Head of STEM for Womandla, Rumbi has been at the forefront of organising the inaugural Women in STEM Awards Ceremony powered by Nedbank Women’s Forum, Career Expo for Langa High School, Mentorship workshops and currently planning the Coding Workshop as a way to address the digital divide.
Her passion about education and information accessibility resonates within her Honours Project that focused on an automated system that was geared at answering STEMI (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Innovation) questions for learners in underprivileged communities using of machine learning, symphonic and string matching algorithms. The automated system aims to address the digital divide by making use of raspberry pi devices to host information that can be accessed outside of an internet connection. The impact of rolling out this project would be education made easily accessible to learners through the use of Information Technology.
Her project work was published in a number of magazines including Engineering News <https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/print-version/nmmu-student-brings-knowledge-closer-to-learners-globally-2014-11-19>. Rumbi has also been featured on eTV news “Shining a light on women in science” on the 13th of August 2019 where she spoke as an advocate of getting more women in science.
