Thursday 17 September 2026 at 2:00 PM CET, 7:00 AM CDT

By Morgan Kiani (Texas Christian University), Mercy Chelangat Koech (Burns & McDonnell), Happy Harman (Texas Christian University)

Register now using the link below:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5767658025484385120

 

Abstract:

Across the globe, IEEE members and volunteers dedicate their time and use their talents, experiences, and expertise to lead, organize, and drive activities to advance technology for humanity. The IEEE Social Impact report showcases a selection of recent projects and initiatives that support that mission. The IEEE Public imperative initiatives serve society by promoting understanding, impact for humans and our environment, and responsible use of science and technology.

IEEE’s public imperatives are non-profit initiatives focused on STEM education, humanitarian technology deployments, and environmental sustainability. They reflect the organization’s mission to advance technology for humanity rather than for financial gain. Unlike many efforts advancing technology, these initiatives are not designed with financial opportunity in mind. Instead, they fulfill IEEE’s designation as a 501(c)(3) public charity engaged in scientific and educational activities for the benefit of the engineering community and the public.

This webinar will present details of IEEE’s public imperatives and non-profit initiatives focused on STEM education, humanitarian technology deployments, and global sustainability. These activities align with the IEEE’s mission to advance technology for societal benefit rather than financial return. As an example, battery production for electric cars (global sustainability) and AI in education (STEM education) will be discussed.

 

Presenters’ bio:

Topic 1:  The IEEE Public Imperative Activities, Building a Better World 

Morgan Kiani (S’05–M’05–SM’17) is a professor in the engineering department at Texas Christian University where she leads educational and research efforts in modeling and diagnostics of electric machines and adjustable speed motor drives.  Her research, scholarly activities, teaching, and service in engineering department at TCU and IEEE Industrial Electronics Society have allowed her to empower individuals to engage in activities that promote access to clean green energy and healthy living. She has been an advocate in the IEEE Women in Engineering and introduces resources that can help women to set higher education and career goals in STEM fields. She has reached underrepresented communities in Central America, Asia and Africa through humanitarian projects and workshops in her past activities and initiatives.
Dr. Kiani has been an active volunteer in the IEEE IES (home Society) in various positions including but not limited to:  IES AdCom member, IES Broadening Participation Committee, IES Power Electronics Technical Committee-Chair and organizing committee member for IES flagship conferences in the last few years. In addition, she has been an active member within IEEE TAB and MGA, to name a few committees. She has been serving in the IEEE Educational Activities Board – Faculty Resources Committee, the Smart Village Governing Board member, the IEEE TAB Broadening participation Committee, the IEEE Future Direction SusTech Committee, the HKN – Madni Family Scholarship Committee-Chair, the IEEE Humanitarian Technology Board member & MOVE Global Committee Representative and the Vice Chair in IEEE Dallas Section.

 

Topic 2:  The Battery Production for Electric Cars (global sustainability)

Sustainability of Electric Propulsion Systems – The global transition to electric mobility has accelerated the need for sustainable transportation technologies that minimize environmental impacts while maintaining high performance. This seminar presents research on the life cycle sustainability of electric vehicle powertrain systems, with a focus on traction motors, batteries, and power electronics. By integrating environmental life cycle assessment with engineering analysis, the study evaluates the impacts of different powertrain technologies across material extraction, manufacturing, operation, and end-of-life stages. The findings provide insights into key sustainability tradeoffs and highlight opportunities to improve the environmental performance of future electrified transportation systems. This work contributes to the development of cleaner, more efficient mobility solutions and supports informed decision-making for researchers, manufacturers, and policymakers.

Mercy Chelangat Koech is a Distribution Planning Consultant at 1898 & Co. part of Burns & McDonnell. She received her PhD from The University of Texas at Dallas, where she worked as a research assistant at the Renewable Energy and Vehicular Technology Lab, focusing on the sustainability of electric propulsion systems. She also served as a Graduate Research Intern with the Electric Drives Group at the National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Passionate about transformative community development, Mercy actively contributes to IEEE and has served on the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Governing Board and chaired IEEE PES Day 2022. She has worked with IEEE Students & Young Professionals (SYP), Women in Power, and Smart Village to promote last-mile electrification in underserved communities and socio-economic development. Mercy is currently serving as the IEEE PES/IAS/PELS Dallas Joint Chapter Secretary and IEEE Dallas Section SYP Chair.

 

Topic 3: AI in Education — Voice-First Learning for Sub-Saharan Africa’s Unconnected Classrooms

Abstract:

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to the world’s largest concentration of unconnected learners. Roughly 600 million people in the region live without internet access, and, according to the World Bank, 89% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read a simple text by age 10 – the highest rate of learning poverty on the planet. At the same time, mobile-phone penetration on the continent has passed 80% of adults, meaning nearly every learner already carries the delivery layer for education in their hand; it just cannot yet be used to learn. Rwanda illustrates the pattern precisely: 85% household mobile penetration but only 34% internet access; only 10.08% of Primary 3 students meet grade-level English literacy – 92% of girls and 87% of boys in P3 cannot read a grade-level English text – because only 4% of primary teachers and 38% of secondary teachers among the country’s 116,000+ teachers meet the B2 English standard they are required to teach in.
This talk presents a voice-first response designed for the continent’s real infrastructure: Bakame AI, an adaptive AI tutor delivered over an ordinary phone call – no internet, no smartphone, no app – piloted in Rwanda through Isomo Academy and IDebate Rwanda, with national deployment interest from the Government of Senegal alongside Sonatel/Orange (an operator in 18 African countries).
Bakame received the Gold Award at the 2026 World Governments Summit in Dubai, selected from 13,500 global submissions. The session examines how voice-first infrastructure can deliver curriculum-aligned instruction at scale across Sub-Saharan Africa, and offers the work as a working example of IEEE’s public-imperative mission: advancing technology for humanity, in the places where humanity most needs it.

Happy Harman is a Rwandan founder and Economics & Finance honors student at Texas Christian University’s Neeley School of Business and John V. Roach Honors College. He builds voice-first AI for learners in places where the internet doesn’t reach.
He is the founder of Bakame AI, a voice-first English-learning platform that runs over a normal phone call, targeting the 2.9 billion English learners without reliable internet in a $70B global market. Since launching in January 2025, Bakame has secured $135,000 in non-dilutive funding, run multi-school pilots across Rwanda, and negotiated SIP transit with Airtel Rwanda plus government partnerships with MINICT in Rwanda and Sonatel in Senegal. For this work, Happy became the 11th-ever recipient of the Global Best M-Gov Gold Prize at the World Government Summit in Dubai (2026).
Alongside Bakame, he serves as Lead AI Strategy & Leadership Fellow at Isomo, where he shapes a decade-long strategy for AI in Rwandan education and leads the design of Ijwi, a voice-first English-practice partner piloting with 80 learners across ~460,000 speaking minutes. At TCU, he is an Admissions Specialist promoted from intern to Systems Summer Analyst, where he built an offline OCR tool that cut prospect-card entry from four days to ten minutes.
Before TCU, Happy was a college counselor at Rwanda Coding Academy, where he helped place the country’s top 48 students at universities in the U.S., Italy, Qatar, and China — turning a $130,000 government grant into $4.84M in scholarships, a ~37× leverage ratio. He also fundraised $160,000 to scale the FIRST Lego League Challenge to 2,000+ Rwandan students with STEM Inspires.
His other 2026 recognitions include a Bain BEL ’26 invitation, Hult Prize U.S. Nationals finalist, TCU’s University Innovator Award, and IEEE Response Quest Phase 3 finalist (Sentinel, with Dr. Morgan Kiani).