Eli
Tanzania Students and Scholars Foundation Limited Stack
Buoyed by his passion to give back to the community and unprecedented interest in science, mathematics, and technology, Dr. Elimboto Yohana is very keen on promoting and advancing the status of education in Tanzania and the Africa continent in general. He is the advocate of education that can significantly contribute to building the body of skills and knowledge desirable for solving various challenges, with an ambition to realize Africa's considerable global contribution in the cutting-edge sciences and their applications.
In order to pursue his interest in matters related to the furtherance of mathematics, sciences, and education in general, Dr. Yohana founded Tanzania Students and Scholars Foundation Limited TSSFL in 2012. TSSFL is established on the notion that knowledge is not only power but the answer to all challenges, and must be applied to solve various societal problems. TSSFL serves as a medium that targets to bring together people who are focused, disciplined, dedicated, and faithfully strive to achieve and utilize their full potentials and are willing to provide unprecedented solutions to various, social, economical, educational, and developmental challenges. To realize the objectives of TSSFL, Dr. Yohana launched an online platform, namely, TSSFL Stack (TSSFL Stack) in 2014.
TSSFL Stack is a knowledge base platform comprising a set of interactive forums that facilitate the exchange of valuable information and knowledge between students, scholars, and the general public for the purpose of discussing and solving real-life problems. Since 2020, TSSFL Stack infrastructure has been integrated with a number of third-party, open-source software, and web-based technologies that can be instantly deployed to provide inspiring and unprecedented cost-effective technology-assisted solutions in STEAM education and research. Following various technological integrations, TSSFL Stack has become a very robust cloud environment for real-time teaching/learning, research, and problem-solving.
What Challenges TSSFL Stack Solves? Which Solutions Does it Offer?
It has been shown that both teaching/learning and research can be greatly enhanced with the use of digital technologies. Appropriate digital tools are very helpful, for example, in presenting, analyzing, and visualizing data, and in simulating, exploring, and animating various science and mathematical models in order to make a sense of them. These can be achieved via TSSFL Stack as follows:
- Firstly, TSSFL Stack tools and technologies provide an opportunity to create teaching and learning solutions that help to enhance understanding by making abstract concepts easy, hence motivating learners to approach and solve real-life problems more confidently.
- Secondly, TSSFL Stack tools and technologies can aid greatly in providing meaningful interpretations of models and research data to alleviate rote learning, cramming, and reproductive learning which make many students and graduates unable to assimilate the acquired knowledge to face and solve problems in contexts different from those of instruction delivery.
- Thirdly, TSSFL Stack infrastructure alleviates the burden of software installation, configuration, maintenance, and upgrades on the premises - since numerous learning and research tools are natively integrated into it. Availability of tools at TSSFL Stack that are standby and ready for deployment substitutes the local environment set-up, and further saves weeks of software troubleshooting, bypasses hassles of fixing broken and incompatible software, helps individuals and institutions to save substantial capital cost and technical personnel requirements (as they do not need any physical software and hardware/set-up investments) while accessing the latest applications at any time from anywhere, since all forum software are automatically updated and continuously integrated.
Expected Outcomes
- TSSFL Stack integrated technologies can greatly improve interaction, speed, flow, and accuracy of instructional materials to increase performance and optimize teaching and learning outcomes, and impactful research that can provide answers to numerous developmental challenges.
- TSSFL Stack uses cutting-edge digital and web-based technologies to make learning attractive, interactive, social, and fun. These tools aid to create learning experiences that motivate the emergence and development of abilities in STEAM teaching, learning, and research.
- TSSFL Stack will initiate and realize the increasingly emerging need for technology inclusion into classroom instructional design/practices in Tanzania, and beyond.
- TSSFL Stack will stimulate and establish an impactful take-off of technology-assisted learning and research in Tanzania, Africa, and beyond while virtually bringing together distantly located individuals, initiating and nurturing life-long collaborations in learning, research, and problem-solving.
TSSFL Stack digital and ICT solutions are truly dedicated to empowering, accelerating, and building Tanzania’s and Africa’s resilience through education, research, science, and technology for sustainable social, economic, and industrial developments.
Endorsements
In 2018 Dr. Yohana was ranked number 32 in the list of the one hundred most influential people in the online learning industry in Africa following the founding of TSSFL Stack. This list of top 100 Africa’s Movers and Shakers in Corporate Online Learning was published under Bob Little Press & PR. However, following the creation of TSSFL Stack, since 2018, Dr. Yohana has been profiled by the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) as an ideal alumnus and featured in the AIMS success stories, which were then used for the Next Einstein Initiative reports submitted to IDRC and other AIMS donors.
Success
Currently, Dr. Yohana is the Principal Investigator for the project titled “Open Source Software and Web-based Technologies to Enhance Early Grade Teaching and Learning” which is being funded through the University of Dar Es Salaam Competitive Research and Innovation Grant for the year 2020/2021. This project targets to transform traditional numeracy contents into enriched digitized interactive GeoGebra applets. These applets will then be curated at TSSFL Stack for the purpose of revitalizing numeracy teaching/learning and establishing the open-access database of digitally enriched early grade teaching and learning resources.
Since 2020, a number of participants during a series of virtual workshops of the Abram Gannibal Project have been using Sage and Macaulay2 computing interface integrated at TSSFL Stack to carry out various computational tasks as part of their training exercises.
A number of times, TSSFL Stack has been presented at local and international scales. For example, in April 2021, Dr. Yohana presented TSSFL Stack and showcased how it can be used for accelerated STEM teaching, learning, and research (see abstracts) under the category Education, Development and Outreach during the 2021 inaugural conference of the African Astronomical Society (AfAS) taking place from 8th to 12th March 2021. However, in 2020, he presented TSSFL Stack during the Coastal Zone secondary school teachers' mathematics training organized by the Mathematical Association of Tanzania (MAT/CHAHITA) at Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), from 14th to 18th September 2020.
Furthermore, from September 16th - 17th, Dr. Yohana exhibited TSSFL Stack and its associated technologies during the First International conference, titled "Towards Digital Transformation in Research and Education" organized by Tanzania Education & Research Network (TERNET), that took place at White Sands Hotel in Dar-es-Salaam.
Showcase During Science, Technology and Innovation Competitions (MAKISATU) at Jamhuri Stadium in Dodoma From 6th - 11th May
TSSFL Stack has promoted Dr. Yohana to national and international scales. In 2021, he was among the top 10 winners who participated in the National Science, Technology and Innovation competitions (Mashindano ya Kitaifa ya Sayansi, Teknolojia na Ubunifu, MAKISATU) organized by the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and the Tanzania Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, from 6th - 11th May 2021, that took place in Dodoma region. Dr. Yohana was also chosen by the Dar Es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE) management to represent the College during the national Science, Technology, and Innovation exhibitions that took place at the same time and place as MAKISATU competitions. In both cases, Dr. Yohana showcased/contested TSSFL Stack against other innovations. He showcased how TSSFL Stack digital and web-based technologies can accelerate research, teaching, learning, and problem-solving.
Showcase During Sabasaba International Trade Fair
Dr. Elimboto Yohana showcased at Sabasaba International Trade Fair (from 28th June - 13th 2021) how to use TSSFL Stack (TSSFL Stack) and the integrated digital and web-based technologies to solve a wide range of real-life problems. He showed how TSSFL Stack facilitates communications and collaborations to discuss and offer solutions to various challenges in education settings and workplaces. The platform is integrated with numerous web-based digital technologies, making it a very robust cloud environment that can be instantly deployed to provide inspiring and unprecedented cost-effective solutions in research, teaching, learning, and problem-solving.
TSSFL Stack Founders
Dr. Elimboto Yohana founded TSSFL Stack collaboratively with Mr. Emanuel Yohana in 2014. Dr. Yohana is a Lecturer at the Department of Physics, Mathematics, and Informatics (PMI) of the Dar Es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE), A Constituent College of the University of Dar Es Salaam (UDSM), in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. He obtained his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics (Cosmology) (2016 - 2020) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), his Master’s Degree in Computational and Applied Mathematics (with distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand (2010 - 2012) (Johannesburg, South Africa), a one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Mathematical Sciences from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS South Africa) (2008/2009), and a Bachelor of Education in Science from University of Dar Es Salaam (2004 – 2008).
Mr. Emanuel (TSSFL Stack Co-founder) is a professional software developer with significant experience in the field. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Software Engineering (2012 - 2016) from the University Of Dodoma in Tanzania.
