State University of Zanzibar Vice Chancellor
Dr. Rai is the 3rd Vice chancellor of The State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) since 2011. He is currently Associate Professor in Communication Networks. He holds a PhD in networking and computer science from Telecom ParisTech a word-class telecommunications school found in Paris, France. He obtained his. His MSc. and BSc. degrees , both in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, were awarded respectively by Bilkent University and Bogazici University, in Turkey.
Prof. Rai worked as a Research Associate at Lancaster University for three years until 2007.
Prior to this appointment, he was a Professor at the School of Computing and Informatics Technologies of Makerere University, Uganda. At Makerere University, he served at various leadership position and spearheaded the establishment of the School of Computing and Informatics Technology into one of the largest and renown IT training hub in the region and Africa. He served as a Deputy Dean in charge of Academic Affairs of the then Faculty of Computing and IT of Makerere University. While a Deputy Dean, he was also a member the University Senate, a member of University Council Committee on ICTs, and other Senate Committees.
In his capacity as a Vice Chancellor, he has been serving in Boards and Councils of various national, regional, and international HE institutions and organizations. He is a member of the Council of Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), a member of International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), a member of Governing Board of the African Institute of Capacity Development (AICAD) and its Technical Committee, and a member of Quality Assurance Committee of the Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA).
He is a member of Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), and a member of its Accreditation Committee, and also a member of the Council of Open University of Tanzania and Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST). He is also a member of the Scholarships Committee of Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Fund.
Since he joined SUZA, he has pioneered institutional reforms which have transformed SUZA to an internationally renown and regionally competitive university. The university now has five schools, and two research centers from only 1 school and two institutes prior to his joining. SUZA now offers 28 programs at all levels up to PhD, which is a significant expansion from only 8 programs at degree and diploma levels in 2011. He has been able to mobilize resources for institutional capacity development and quality improvement initiatives leading to over 50 staff currently pursuing masters and PhD degrees across the world. Under his leadership, SUZA has been constantly developing new innovating programs that distinguish itself from other mainstream regional institutions. Indeed, SUZA is on its way attain its vision of being the most preferred regional university.
Prior to this appointment at SUZA, Dr. Rai was employed at Makerere University, Uganda. At Makerere University, he served at various leadership positions and spearheaded the establishment of the School of Computing and Informatics Technology into one of the largest and renown IT training hub in the region and Africa. He served as a Deputy Dean in charge of Academic Affairs of the then Faculty of Computing and IT of Makerere University. While a Deputy Dean, he was also a member the University Senate, a member of University Council Committee on ICTs, and other Senate Committees. Dr. Rai has a strong track record in attracting external resources and establishing partnerships with private and educational institutions. To that effect, he has won grants from numerous global IT, Educational, and International corporates such as Google, IBM, CISCO, HP, ISOC, ITU, UNESCO, EU/EU, British Council raising over 1million USD of grants for Makerere University.
He is a founding member of the Joint Institute for Mobile Innovations (JIMI), a collaborative research and development institute between IBM, University of Southern California (USC), and Makerere University, and a founding member of Mobile Monday Kampala (MoMoKLA).
He has served as a regional Principal Coordinator of EuroAfrica-ICT project, which is a European Commission funded project under FP7 platform aimed at promoting collaborative research on ICTs between African and European researchers. He has also served as the Manager of the ITU Center of Excellence at Makerere University, which was established to build capacity on Telecommunications sector in the region.
He has significantly contributed into the body of knowledge through his research activities on Internet protocols and systems, and mobile computing. As such, he has published extensively in international conferences and journals on varying areas of communication networks. He has organized various International conferences and forums, served as the Technical Program Committee member/chair and a referee for numerous international conferences and journals respectively. He has successfully supervised over 30 graduate students.
Dr. Rai has received various awards and recognitions as a result of his contribution in research and academics. He is the winner of competitive 2009 IBM Faculty award, 2010 Google research grant, 2009 and 2010 Internet Society fellowship, and his biography appears in 2010 Marquis Whoiswho in the World. He has reached prestigious level of IEEE Senior Membership and is a Professional member of ACM.