Prof Billy Mathias Kalema
Billy Mathias Kalema holds a Doctor of Technology in Computer Science and Data Processing from Tshwane University of Technology, a Master of Science in Computer Science, a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science with Education from Makerere University, Uganda. Prior to joining the University of Mpumalanga, Billy was an Associate Professor at Durban University of Technology where he joined after serving as a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of Informatics at Tshwane University of Technology. At UMP, he is currently the Acting Programme Leader for the Diploma and Advanced Diploma of ICT in Application Development, and the Institutional Research Theme (IRT) leader of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D).
Prof Kalema has spoken at various international conferences, Doctoral symposiums, seminars and workshops. He is a C2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher. He is a member of various academic bodies including the Association of Information Systems (AIS); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE); Information Society for Africa (IST-Africa); International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT); Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE) and an Associate Member of the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS).
Prof Kalema is an experienced leader, researcher and mentor and has supervised to completion 11 PhDs and 42 Masters. He has examined over 50 postgraduate studies at both masters and doctoral levels at several universities in Africa. He serves on several technical committees as an Editorial board member and peer reviewer for both journals and conferences. He has published 30 accredited journals and over 50 international peer reviewed conferences in areas of socio-cognitive aspects of human response to information technology including acceptance, use, utilization and evaluation of technology for decision-making, ERPs, E-learning, ICT4Education, ICT4Business Enhancement, MOOCs, Big Data, Mobile Computing, Cloud-based integrated systems, and Smart Health. His research work is widely recognised by international research bodies and scholars with Science and Scientometrics measures of 817 citations, h-index of 13 and i10-index of 21.
His current and future research plans revolve around the practical application of research in daily life by putting IT to use, especially in economically and technologically disadvantaged developing countries. In this respect, Prof Kalema’s previous research include, a 3-year, R700 000 project on Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) that sought to help learners in South African areas of low bandwidth to upgrade their Matric exams, funded by the National Electronic Media of South African (NEMISA). His current project is big data analytics for a smart healthcare system of diabetic patients in rural South African settings.