Beyond his love of football and music, Dr Onyema Sunday Nduka is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with a goal to help resolve the world’s energy challenges. His research involves developing computational tools for the planning and operation of 21st century electricity networks. “My current strongest engineering desire is to see in about a decade from now, that the challenges of electrical energy poverty in Africa and Asia are addressed in a sustainable fashion.”
In secondary school in Nigeria, Onyema was inspired towards an engineering degree path by an “extra-ordinary” maths teacher with a background in civil engineering. Ultimately he was awarded a prestigious scholarship which enabled him to take is Master’s and PhD studies in any of the world’s top 20 universities, and he chose Imperial.
Teaching power
Teaching others is now something that drives Onyema forward: he’s assistant supervisor to a PhD candidate, and supervised and co-supervised students on their masters’ theses in on our Future Power Networks MSc degree course. “Beyond being an electrical engineer, I love teaching and mentoring younger people.” If he wasn’t an engineer he thinks he might very well be teaching applied mathematics at university.
Imperial College is a great place to be. My Imperial experience has prepared me to take on engineering challenges as they unfold."
A major achievement in Onyema’s engineering career to date was being able to play an active role in Imperial’s Global Challenge Research Fund. “The project enabled me to coordinate and chat with my African collaborators about the way forward to address the sustainable electricity infrastructure problems in Africa where some hundreds of millions of people lack access to electricity.”
Onyema welcomes initiatives like This Is Engineering, and is keen to see continued outreach by prestigious institutions like Imperial College and the Royal Academy of Engineering.