The maiden International Conference on Science, Technology and Health Innovation for Sustainable Development
(STHISD Conference) |

We are pleased to announce the hybrid version of “The maiden International Conference on Science, Technology and Health Innovation for Sustainable Development (STHISD Conference 2023)” which will commence from 23rd-25th, August, 2023 at the main campus of University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana.

The Grand Theme for the maiden edition of the STHISD conference is dubbed “Advancing Sustainable Futures through Science, Technology and Health Innovations – The Role of African Scientists”. The hybrid event allows contributors to participate either through in-person engagement in Sunyani, Ghana or using the virtual route, where you join us from your home, work or any convenient place.

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Reasons to participate

The maiden International Conference on Science, Technology and Health Innovation for Sustainable Development
(STHISD Conference) |

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Africa’s Agenda 2063, and other major global goals and objectives for mitigating current and future anticipated modern life challenges would hardly be achieved without the adoption of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI), which pervades all sectors of our national and global economy. STI oriented research is essential for new economic transformation models and sustainable solutions. This requires acknowledging the role and strengthening the capacity of research scientists to continue making substantial strides in diverse walks of our modern life through innovative-driven research in science and technology.

The objective of the STHISD conference in Ghana with the theme “Advancing Sustainable Futures through Science, Technology, and Health Innovations – The Role of African Scientists” is to bring together experts, researchers, scholars, policymakers, and practitioners from various fields of science, technology, and health to discuss and explore innovative solutions for advancing sustainable development and economic transformation. The conference aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, ideas and best practices, as well as foster collaborations and partnerships among participants from different parts of the world. By addressing key challenges and opportunities related to sustainability, the conference seeks to promote evidence-based policies, practices and interventions that can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and largely Africa’s Agenda 2063. Ultimately, the conference aims to inspire and empower participants to make meaningful contributions to the global efforts to build a more sustainable and resilient future for all.

Professor Elvis Asare-Bediako

Host & Vice-Chancellor, University of Energy and Natural Resources

Prof. Elvis Asare-Bediako is the current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana. He is a professor of Plant Virology. He holds a Doctorate Degree in Plant and Environmental Sciences from the University of Warwick, UK, with specialization in Plant Virology. He also holds Master of Philosophy Degree in Crop Science (Plant Pathology), Bachelor of Science in General Agriculture, and Diploma in Education, all from University of Cape Coast. Professor Asare-Bediako specializes in virus diseases of horticultural, vegetable and food crops, with special interests in virus characterization, diagnostics, plant-virus-vector interactions, and development of integrated crop improvement strategies. He has conducted a number of scientific research works including breeding for high yielding and virus resistant crops. He has been involved in releasing a number of high yielding cowpea varieties that are resistant to viruses, striga and drought (2018) and two white flesh and three yellow flesh cassava (high beta carotene content) which are resistant to cassava mosaic disease (2018). He has won several research grants from both local and international institutions such as: World Vegetable Centre, AVRDC. Shanhua, Taiwan (2013); CSIR-West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) (2014); International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture-FAO, Rome, Italy (2016); Ghana Skills Development Project-COTVET fund (2015); and Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy, University of Cape Coast (2015, 2017). European Union (LEAP-Agri) grant, an African- European collaborative research, for the development and implementation of N-Plasma technology; Grant award from Master Card Foundation / Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) to undertake a pineapple value chain project in the Central region of Ghana, 2018.

Professor Akbar Saeed

Associate Professor of Information Systems, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo Canada

Akbar Saeed is currently Associate Professor of Information Systems in the Business Technology Management program at the Lazaridis School of Business at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. He is also the former Director of the Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa ([link]) based at the same university. He teaches courses mainly related to technology and entrepreneurship which include cyber ethics, information and communication technology in the developing context and the entrepreneurial environment specifically focused on startups. His research interests are generally centered on how technology influences both the way we understand ourselves and the way we operate in the world. He has published in the Journal of Management Studies, International Political Sociology, the Journal of Management and the Journal of Leadership Education. His current research involves studying innovation and entrepreneurship in technology-infused markets in the developing world. To that end, he researched impediments to entrepreneurial success in small-scale solar markets in Ghana. His current project is focused on understanding how to better train and support Ugandan solopreneurs by building entrepreneurial effectual capacity and providing working capital loans that can be leveraged for long-term business sustainability. He is also currently working on a book that profiles the limitations and failures of humanitarian technologies to solve large scale crisis in the developing world. Recently, he delivered a TED talk entitled “Transformation in Africa: Global Citizenship and the Digital Divide” ([link]) in which he argued that true transformation in Africa can only be achieved when African youth are able to gain access to knowledge and education, through the internet, thereby empowering themselves to become more entrepreneurial in solving some of Africa’s major problems.

Professor Samuel Fosu Gyasi

Lead Co-Chair, Local organizing Committee

Prof. Samuel Fosu Gyasi is a Professor in Microbiology and Global Health and the Dean; School of Sciences, University of Energy and Natural Resources. He obtained his bachelor degree in BSc Biological Science at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in September 2000. He further pursued his Master of Science degree with research in Environmental Science in the same department a year after his bachelor education. In September 2009, he obtained research funding from the office of the Vice Chancellor (KNUST) to pursue his PhD in Microbiology at the same department, doing part of his research work at Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research into Tropical Medicine (KCCR). He holds various certificate in Global Health Research; Leadership and Management in Health Research; Monitoring and Evaluation in Global Health; and Introduction to Epidemiology in Global Health all from the Department of Global Health, University of Washington, USA from March 2020 to February 2022. His current research area is in neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) (Including Buruli Ulcer, Schistosomiasis, Filariasis), Malaria, Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH); Environmental Health and Global Health. He has successfully supervised 95 undergraduate project works with 27 in progress. He has about 40 publications in peer review journals and 14 conference papers to his credit. Prof. Gyasi was a proud recipient of an International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases, ISNTD, London, United Kingdom award in 2016 at the Russel’s Square, London, United Kingdom. This was in recognition to his research in WASH and Buruli ulcer. He is also a co- recipient of PATH (A Washington Non-Profit Corporation) funded project “The Dynamics of Healthcare Utilization in the Context of RTS,S/AS01 Vaccine Introduction in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The partner Institutions include University of Health and Allied Health Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and University of Cape Coast with a project funding of $1 million over 3 years. In September 2020, he also won Instrumental Access Programme (Seeding Labs) equipment, worth about $1m.

Ing. Professor Amos T. Kabo-Bah

Co-Chair, Local Organizing Committee

Ing. Professor Amos T. Kabo-Bah is an Associate Professor and currently the Dean for the International Relations Office of the University of Energy and Natural Resources. Formerly, he was the Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department for Energy and Environmental Engineering and the Earth Observation Research and Innovation Centre between 2015 and 2020. He is a Programme Board Member for the Group on Earth Observation (GEO); an intergovernmental organization working to improve the availability, access and use of Earth observations for the benefit of society. Under GEO programme, he is a Scientific Committee for GEO AquaWatch Programme and Co-Chair for developing the strategic direction and implementation schedule for the GEO Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). This initiative will assist countries, regions and others interested in addressing land degradation with monitoring and reporting necessary to implement and achieve SDG 15, “Life on Land”. He is also a Scientific Steering Committee Member for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). He has published 60+ articles in several journals, is an Editorial Member for Oriental Journal of Chemistry (OJC), Editor for Information Technology and Engineering Section – Scientific African Journal, and a Co-Chief Editor for the Journal of Energy and Natural Resource Management (JENRM). Dr. Kabo-bah obtained his bachelor education in Civil Engineering at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana and MSc Environmental Hydrology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. In 2013, he obtained his PhD Hydrology and Water Resources at Hohai University in Nanjing, China, and later for his Post-doctoral research on Climate Change Impacts on Hydropower Generation in Ghana at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Professor Bob Andoh

UK, Development Director for ACE-Events Management Ltd., UK

Prof. Andoh earned his Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Civil Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and received both his Master of Science (MSc) and his Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Public Health Engineering from Imperial College, London. He is currently a visiting professor at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), UK, Development Director for ACE-Events Management Ltd., UK, and a Technology Consultant with AWD Consult Inc., USA. He is an accomplished Water and Environmental Management professional with more than 30 years of experience and his pedigree and exhaustive international experience include Technology Development and Commercialization, Due Diligence, Quality Assurance and Audits, Training, Capacity Building, and “Know-How” Transfer.

 

He was Chief Technology Officer, Director of Innovation, and Group Research and Technical Director for Hydro International plc., where he managed teams in the UK and USA, developing and commercializing a range of award- winning water and environmental technologies that saved clients several hundred million dollars; participating in decades-long management turnaround that resulted in phenomenal revenue increases, return to growth and increasing profitability.

Prof. Andoh has played active roles in a wide variety of corporate and civic initiatives such as involvement in policy issues through chairing the Skills and Innovation Task Force of the UK Water Sector Advisory Group and conducting innovative industry research into the use of computational fluid dynamics to accelerate product development. He received a SMART award for innovation given by the UK Government Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), to assist in the development and bringing to market, a novel non-powered, self-cleansing, fine mesh screening system which was subsequently awarded the coveted “millennium product” status, addressing a prevailing environmental pollution challenge and contributing significantly to company growth. He is a named inventor on several patents and the inaugural winner of the “Outstanding Individual” category of the IWEX (now UK Water Industry) Innovation Awards in recognition of his contributions to the water industry.

He has been involved in several Industry-Academia collaborations that have led to technology developments, improvements in knowledge, and “know-how” transfers. These include decades-long collaboration at LJMU leading to improvements in Hydrodynamic Vortex technologies and the championing and identification of market trends leading to the strategic augmentation of product portfolios to include novel environmental technologies such as a stormwater filtration product initially developed at the University of Alabama, USA under a US-EPA SBIR grant. He focused his efforts on technology developments, overseeing high-level marketing and product sales support operations, technology integrations related to acquisitions, and leading training for licensees and new global distributors in Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and the Middle East.

Bob is an industry “thought leader” who has been responsible for inventing, positioning, and improving knowledge on a broad range of water and environmental management systems and has authored hundreds of articles and op-

ed pieces in industry publications. He is affiliated with the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana where he serves on the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Regional Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (RCEES). He is also the vice-chair of the International Scientific Advisory Board of Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Center Kumasi (RWESCK) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, an associate editor for the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) Journal of Flood Risk Management and an editor for Elsevier’s Scientific African Journal. He has served on Thames Water (UK) Plc’s Independent Advisory Group (a team of leading industry experts), providing independent advice and oversight on the Counters Creek Flood Alleviation Scheme. He is a member of the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE) and a Fellow of CIWEM where he received the President’s Award and is the Honorary Vice President for Africa with a remit that includes the promotion of professional development in the Water and Environmental Management sector on the continent.

Professor Seth Owusu-Agyei

Former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Science

Professor Seth Owusu-Agyei is a former Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho, Ghana. Prior to this, he was the Director of Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana Health Service/Ministry of Health and a Professor in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology at the Faculty of Infectious Tropical Diseases in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is currently a Professor of Epidemiology in the Institute of Health Research (IHR) in UHAS. Professor Owusu-Agyei had his basic degree education at the University of Ghana, Legon, a Master of Science degree in Applied Medical Parasitology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK and a PhD in Epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland. He started his research career at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana some 36 years ago; he later moved to Navrongo to work as a pioneer staff on the Ghana Vitamin A Supplementation Trials, which later became the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC). He undertook several research studies in field/clinical epidemiology in Navrongo and served several years as a management member. He was later appointed as the Director of Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) under the Research and Development Division of the Ghana Health Service where he served in this capacity for 14 years. He spearheaded research, diversifying the scope, expanding on research collaborations with various research institutions, attracting funders to KHRC and building both human and infrastructural capacity required for excellent research. He has been and continues to be Principal Investigator for several large-scale field/clinical intervention studies/trials in Ghana. Of special mention is studies carried out on the most advanced malaria vaccine that approved and licensed by the World Health Organisation as the first ever malaria vaccine to be deployed. Professor Owusu-Agyei’s main area of research is in infectious disease epidemiology, especially malaria. He has extensive experience in the design and implementation of large and longitudinal studies and is well-known in maternal, neonatal and child health intervention studies as well as in non-communicable diseases research. He has served as temporary advisor and member of several WHO Committees. He was a board chair of the INDEPTH network for 4 years. He has served on several local and international committees and boards. He has over 350 publications in peer-reviewed journals, several Technical reports conference presentations, and has co-authored 4 books. In 2023, Professor Owusu-Agyei is ranked as top scientist in Ghana based on the AD scientific index for ranking of scholarly works. Details of some major works in the field of infectious disease can be read here.

Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo

Pro Vice-Chancellor of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)

Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo is a Consultant Public Health Physician, University Teacher, and Researcher, who currently serves as the Pro Vice Chancellor of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). as a Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health, his area of expertise is in Medical Epidemiology and Applied Public Health Technologies. As a university teacher, he has trained undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as mentored young faculty at both local and international levels. Ellis is a demonstrable, experienced, and astute university administrator, ethically-sound industry leader and a research project management consultant. He is highly driven in his research interest area, mainly non-communicable diseases in low-income country settings. He also has considerable interest in population genomics of pulmonary tuberculosis. Ellis has secured and managed multimillion United States Dollar research grants from principal granting institutions such as the European Union, National Institutes of Health (NIH), The World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) as well as many bilateral organisations. He has travelled extensively and serves on several boards at both local and international levels, while having a massive network of individuals and organisations he works with.

Conference Host & Keynote Speakers

Speakers of the plenary sessions are experienced scientists with diverse specializations, drawn from different cultural and higher-learning environments.

Target Participants

We extend an open invitation to all persons who wish to make original contributions using innovative-driven research in science and technology to addressing current and future anticipated modern life challenges. Participation of the STHISD Conference is open, but not limited to:

Important Dates

The key dates, prior and to the STHISD Conference day of event are as scheduled as follows:

Call for Abstracts:
10th May - 15th August, 2023

Final Acceptance Abstract Notification:
16th August, 2023

Conference Date:
23rd - 25th August, 2023

Early Bird Registration:
10th May - 31st July, 2023

Late Registration:
1st August - 15th August, 2023

The STHISD Conference is planned to be held at the main campus of the University of Energy & Natural Resources, Sunyani.

Ghana Post GPS Address of Conference Venue

BS-0061-2164

Conference Fees & Registration

The conference fee covers registration, two lunch buffet, four coffee breaks, water, and conference materials.

The LOC is working with Scientific African journal (indexed by Scopus) to get waiver for high quality manuscripts.

For early bird registration, that is, from 10th May – 31st July, 2023, the following fees are applicable:

For late registration, that is, from 1st August – 15th August, 2023, the following fees would be applicable:

Call for Abstract

We encourage submissions of abstracts from unpublished original manuscripts that relate, but not exhaustive to:

  • Zoonotic infections (diseases) and antimicrobial resistance
  • Neglected Tropical Diseases
  • Malaria
  • Malnutrition and metabolic diseases
  • Environmental biotechnology and carbon sequestration
  • Ecosystem health and changes arising from energy generation/climate stresses
  • Infectious disease modeling
  • Traditional and herbal medicine
  • Medical pluralism
  • Psychic healing
  • General health financing (including traditional medicine)
  • Innovations in herbal medicine practice
  • Regulation on herbal medicines
  •  
  • Biodiversity
  • Transitioning to a green economy and green growth (resource efficiency, avoiding/reducing emissions, green financing, etc.)
  • Climate change adaptation and resilience
  • Climate change and food security
  • Sustainable food production systems
  • Vertical farming and alternative sustainable farming systems and practices
  •  
  • Solid waste management
  • Liquid waste management
  • Clean water and sustainable sanitation: Equity and social inclusion
  • Good health and well-being
  • WASH and climate change
  • Water resources and quality
  • Water treatment
  •  
  • Communications and infrastructure connectivity
  • Blockchain applications
  • E-Government and Surveillance
  • Information security and trusted computing
  • Data security and privacy
  • Internet economy
  • Smart grid security
  • Censorship and Control of the Internet
  • Virtual & Augmented Reality
  •  
  • Advanced materials for smart energy devices
  • Energy storage
  • Energy transitions
  • Energy economics
  • Energy modelling
  • Energy markets (including statistical modelling & forecasting of energy markets)
  • Renewable energy and sustainable energy technologies
  • Energy, climate change, and environmental risk assessment
  •  
  • Artificial Intelligence in modeling scientific data
  • Bayesian networks and analysis
  • Neural networks
  • Application of data analytics
  • Machine and statistical learning
  • Deep learning
  •  
  • Economic diversification
  • Econometric modelling of financial and economic variables
  • Financial risk modeling
  • Financial and monetary institutions
  • Financial markets
  • Innovative public finance, Accounting, Auditing, and performance monitoring
  • Application of stochastic models in insurance (life & non-life insurance), actuarial (pensions, etc.), and related areas
  •  
  • Therapeutic Communication
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Language of Health Consulting
  • Health Communication
  • Language as the means of intercultural communication
  • Studies of culture and intercultural communication
  • Language communication in the media space

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