Professor Software Engineering

Faculty of Computing and Informatics

Inaugural Lecture

Title APPLIED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND CAUSAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A PARADIGM SHIFT FOR PROPELLING INNOVATIVE SOCIETAL VALUE CHANGES

PROFILE OF PROF AMBROSE AZETA

Prof Ambrose Azeta is a lecturer in the Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Windhoek, Namibia. He joined NUST in 2021 and is currently a full Professor of Software Engineering. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) Computer Science Honours in 1992 from University of Benin, Master of Science (MSc) Computer Science in 1999 from University of Lagos, and PhD Computer Science in 2012 from Covenant University, all in Nigeria. He has over eleven years of industry experience working across different sectors before deciding to join academics in 2005. He has previously held various academic and administrative positions in the university system over the years, which include head of committees, undergraduate exam officer, postgraduate coordinator, Head of Department (HOD) and Deanship. He has taught several courses in Computer Science and Software Engineering, and graduated students at Bachelor, Honour, Master, and PhD levels.

Prof Azeta was a postdoctoral research fellow at University of South Africa (UNISA) in 2016-2017. His current research interests include Applied Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning, He also has research expertise in e-learning, dialogue systems (voice-enabled systems), web/mobile computing and computer programming for e-services sectors including e-education, e-health, e-banking, and others. His work focuses on developing software engineering approaches and AI techniques towards solving societal problems in Namibia, African countries and rest of the world. His research has made significant contributions in the field of computing. He has successfully authored and co-authored 136 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, conferences and book chapter outlets. Such outlets include IEEE, Elsevier Scopus, Springer/Springer Nature, Thomson Reuters Web of Science/ISI, IGI, university-based publications, amongst others. His research impacts with reasonable citations span across different research platforms, including Google Scholar, Scopus, Research Gate, Web of Science/ISI, and Academia. He is a member of the Dependable Advanced Network Systems (DANS) research cluster hosted in the Faculty of Computing and Informatics, NUST. He is currently the head of Software Engineering and Intelligent Systems (SEIS) research cluster. His active participation in presenting his research at prestigious local and international conferences like IEEE, Springer and Elsevier Scopus demonstrates his engagement with the broader academic community and his commitment to sharing his research findings.

Prof Azeta has successfully supervised a total of 9 PhDs, 20 Masters, 2 Postgraduate Diplomas (PGDs), and over 100 Honours students. This accomplishment further confirms his expertise and guidance in nurturing the next generation of scholars. He is currently supervising 2 PhDs, 9 Masters, and 4 Honours active students. During the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic sessions at his previous institution, he received an award for the most outstanding lecturer in the teaching of final-year students in Computer Science/Management Information System (MIS) programmes. In 2023, he won two awards at Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) as the best emerging researcher in the faculty and institution. Prof Azeta regularly play roles in pursuing and participating in local and foreign research grants including providing supervision and mentorship to postgraduate students working on the research projects. He serves as reviewer for several international journals and conferences, editorial board member of some journals, member of technical programme committee of several international conferences, external examiner to several universities in Namibia and internationally. He has participated in curriculum reviews of academic programmes for universities within and outside Namibia. He is always involved in internal and external collaboration meetings. He is a member of some recognised associations and professional bodies in the field of Computer Science and Software Engineering.