Marie Alice Uwingabire’s journey of purpose and impact

Seeing problems as opportunities and making a difference to individuals, her community, and Africa, motivates Marie Alice Uwingabire. She is a graduate student earning her master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU-Africa) as part of the advanced studies program. Uwingabire is spending the fall semester in Pittsburgh as an exchange student.

“I always wanted to do something that improves people's lives,” she said. “...something like solving one or two key problems that we have in Africa, that are related to energy or communication.” To that end, she started working to solve an issue related to waste management when she was earning her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Rwanda.

I always wanted to do something that improves people’s lives.

Marie Alice Uwingabire

While earning her undergraduate degree, Uwingabire identified the issue with waste management in Rwanda. She applied the leadership skills she learned in high school during her time as a Mastercard Foundation Scholar to communicate about the issue in a positive way.

Through a grant from the Rwanda Ministry of ICT (now Ministry of ICT and Innovation), she created a startup initiative, which turns biowaste into bio briquettes and chemical-free organic fertilizer. “While I was creating the business, I realized that you could use technology to do something meaningful for society,” she said.

Her work in waste-to-energy has since received national and international recognition. She was selected for the African Women Entrepreneurs Program by the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda, supported by the Rwanda Green Fund and GIZ through the Ireme Invest initiative, and awarded by Grid Innovation and Incubation Hub. At CMU, she is also conducting research on renewable energy optimization and machine learning applications in speech and mobility systems, aiming to build scalable solutions for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Her efforts to make a difference also include supporting other students who are in need. Although she herself had limited funds as an undergraduate student, she found a way to provide financial support for a primary school student with disabilities, whom she learned was planning to drop out of school. She also spoke with teachers to help stop the student from being bullied. She is proud to share that the student improved and moved from the bottom of the class to among the top five students.

She continues to support 100 students at her former primary school through funds raised by her and a friend. They provide money to pay for food for each student for a year, shoes, bags, books, and other expenses. Uwingabire credits her mom, her only family, for her help with “connecting her with people who are in need.” When she told her mom she applied for the exchange program, her mom encouraged her to “go and make me proud,” and when she applied to be an exchange student, her mom said, “who knows, maybe you will learn something that will help you help others.”

In Pittsburgh, she is focused on her courses, including speech processing and machine learning classes. Following graduation, she plans to possibly continue her education and continue work on her startup.

“I'm really grateful for the academic experience at CMU-Africa, the academic part, and also, being part of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program,” she said. “Young generations from Africa should stop seeing African problems as obstacles to us. To me, I feel like it's an opportunity, an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to grow, and also an opportunity to do something meaningful.