Aliasgher joined OCL in 2022 as a Project Lead. Aliasgher manages various projects that include the SCODA projects with the City of Johannesburg and City of Ekurhuleni, the Dexter media monitoring project and the Walk the Streets project with the Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrading (VPUU) organisation. The tools created from these projects are aimed at improving decision making through the use of data, creating a free and fair media environment, empowering users by streamlining their processes and connecting city practitioners to residents’ problems.
Aliasgher is an engineer by education with a Masters in Transport Studies and a Bachelors in Civil Engineering. He comes from a diverse background having studied and worked in South Africa, India and Tanzania since 2011, spearheading projects in a wide range of fields that include civic technology, public health strategic management, agriculture farming and road safety. In these projects, he has worked with various partners in the national and local government sphere, not-for-profit organisations, research institutions and consultancy companies. Aliasgher is particularly skilled in collaborating with cross-functional partners to execute complex projects while developing strategic solutions that enable development of better systems.
Anele Ngcoya’s background is in electronic engineering with a focus on robotics, she sees technology as one of the means to achieving social justice and equality; and the best place to put this into practice is in the civic tech space. Anele joined the Open Cities Lab research and engagement domain at the beginning of 2022, and also provides support to the communications domain.
She believes that modern social challenges require a nuanced and multidisciplinary approach, and embraces this approach with personal development. Before joining Open Cities Lab she was involved in the smallholder farming project, writing as a freelance writer for Mail & Guardian and Stellenbosch Magazine, and is the founder and formulator of the Earthly Q personal care products.
She is excited about the growth opportunities that exist within and for Open Cities Lab as a civic tech organization, and being a bridge between urban and rural civic tech solutions in the future.
Brian O’Leary is a freelance spatial, statistical and policy analyst and is working with OCL on a part-time basis.
Prior to joining OCL early in 2018 Brian was the Senior Manager: City Research and Policy Advocacy Department at eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa. Brian worked for eThekwini Municipality from 1998 until retirement on December 31st 2017. Brian has experience in the following sectors: public sector customer satisfaction monitoring and evaluation, public policy analysis, tertiary education lecturing, academic journal reviewer, commercial and development banking.
Brian has published in the following topics: ageing, neighbourhood and home; quality of life in Durban, measuring quality of life in informal settlements, changing racial geography, neural network analysis of patterns of service and socio-economic inequality; economic analysis of wind generated electricity at remote installations.
Brian has reviewed academic journal articles in the following topics: Poverty and happiness in rural areas; Multidimensional Poverty and Happiness; Visualizing the good life: A cross-cultural analysis; Inequality-and Happiness, Time perspective and subjective well-being; Transition Economies and Subjective Wellbeing; Happiness-maximization and government goals; Transitional Economies and Subjective Wellbeing.
At OCL Brian has worked on the following: Data principles, Data management policy, GIS based Crime data analysis at Ward level, documentation of municipal service delivery reporting, Land Audit summary statistics, Analysis of Mining Corporate Social Investment.
Dev Ninja completed his Btech in Information Technology and is currently studying towards MTech in Information Technology . Dev Ninja is currently working as a Software Developer at Open CIties Lab(OCL) which will grant him a great opportunity to further his knowledge in Web Applications and Software Development as a whole. The knowledge and experience that he will gain at Open CIties Lab will greatly benefit the research he is doing during his MTech studies. Dev Ninja is also lecturing Computer Application module at the Durban University of Technology part-time.
Ella Alcock joined Open Cities Lab in 2020, first as a project assistant intern and she currently works as a Junior Research and Project Management Assistant. Ella studied a Business Science degree specializing in Economics with Law and after graduation she left South Africa to explore South America whilst teaching English as a second language. Ella has gained some previous work experience as a research assistant covering topics such as environmental economics, the automotive industry and sustainable development.
Heiko officially joined OCL in 2021 but was a founding member of Open Data Durban and has worked with the company as a consulting data scientist since its inception. Heiko has a background in electronics and data analysis with PhD in Radio Astronomy, and work experience as a Square Kilometer Array South Africa (SKA SA) Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
In his role as a data scientist, Heiko gathers, cleans, analyses, and visualises data, providing the OCL team with insights and various data outputs.
Joanne joined OCL full time in June 2022, but had been consulting to OCL for 5 years prior to joining. Joanne manages various aspects of the SCODA programme, and is tasked with growing OCL’s impact in the area of “City Capacity Building”. The SCODA programme is an initiative to support cities with data management, through the provision of data tools, data processes and data training. It is currently funded jointly by OCL and the South African Cities Network.
Joanne has 11 years of experience conducting research, analytics and strategy for the public sector. Prior to joining OCL, Joanne was Director at Lumec; an Industry Specialist at The Ports Regulator; and a Development Economist at Urban-Econ. Joanne holds an MCom in Maritime Studies, and BA Hons in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
She is passionate about working with cities to build sustainable data solutions that genuinely improve the lives of city practitioners and, as a result, citizens.
Lerato completed her BA in Communication Design from the University of Johannesburg. During her studies, she was part of Black Apple Communications, the winning team of the Direct Marketing Association of SA Assegai awards, student category in 2015. She was also part of the Green Week Project, which involves students from various disciplines to work together to solve an economic, environmental or social community-based problem. Here is where her love for human-centred design originates. Her career started with an internship at an integrated agency where she learned how to solve marketing challenges with creativity and innovation. In 2017 she worked for a premium importer and distributor of branded and private label solutions to retail and hospitality industries as a Graphic Designer. Lerato has achievements in identifying gaps and creating efficiencies. In 2020 she joined Open Cities lab as a Junior designer.
Matthew Adendorff completed his PhD in Computational Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), studying on an International Science & Technology Fulbright Award. His research focused on network analysis, multi-objective optimization, and the advanced simulation of highly-dimensional systems; sparking an interest in developing robust, adaptable, and highly predictive analytical methods for application in the unique data environment that is modern South Africa.
In his role as lead technologist, Matthew oversees the design and implementation of computational infrastructure, web app deployment, data analysis pipeline construction, and the application of machine learning algorithms for insightful processing of information.
His full profile can be found here and his LinkedIn profile here.
Megan joined OCL in 2021 and works in a newly created position as Traffic and Communications Manager. She did a Bachelor of Social Science degree majoring in Psychology and English at Rhodes University
Fresh out of varsity Megan spent 3 years in South Korea teaching English and going on multiple adventures. Upon returning to South Africa Megan worked in recruitment in Durban before moving to Johannesburg for an Account Management position at a digital media company that lasted five and a half years.
At OCL Megan hopes to streamline processes and work streams keeping her finger on the pulse of OCL to ensure efficiency and smooth sailing within projects. She also hopes to celebrate the incredible work done at OCL by sharing it with communities on social platforms and encouraging interaction with the various OCL tools and platforms.
Her full profile can be found here and his LinkedIn profile here.
Megan joined OCL in 2019 as the Admin and Grants Lead after living abroad for 10 years. Coming from a diverse career background, Megan’s worked across a number of industries and held various positions over the years in South Africa, England and Singapore. Before working at OCL, she worked as the Grants Manager for The Titus Group for just over six years. The Titus Group is a grantmaking consultancy company based in Singapore that partners philanthropic organisations to strategically maximise the impact of their giving. As the Grants Manager, she helped design strategies, policies and frameworks for the entire grant-making process. This included the identification of worthy causes, review of proposals, granting of awards, relationship management and post-grant monitoring, evaluation and reporting. During her tenure there, she managed more than USD20million in grants to multiple grantees globally (in multiple countries across USA, Europe, Australia, South East Asia, and a few projects in Africa). Through a recent structure change, Megan has taken on the role of COO at OCL. She hopes to drive change and optimise processes and operations whilst executing on OCL’s core strategy. Encouraging good communication and collaboration within the organisation is imperative to its success.
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Paul completed his BAS in Architectural Studies at the University of KwaZulu Natal. He practiced in the architectural field for nine years working for two award winning firms. During this time he developed a deep interest in the relationships between intentionally designed elements, human interaction with those elements and the systems that allow these intersections. He left architecture to start a bespoke furniture manufacture business that placed user-centred design as its core ideal. It was in this period that he shifted his design interests from the built environment to digital focussing heavily on interpreting client needs and translating them to the final product whether that was a piece of furniture or a 3 dimensional design. Paul moved into full user based design and began freelance work with Open Cities Lab (called Open Data Durban at the time) until he was invited to join the team full time. He works as the user experience and user interface designer and has a specific interest in systems and usability.
OCL was born out of a desire to implement dynamic, living solutions to problems faced by urban communities in South Africa, and to contribute to developing a vibrant, inclusive society where all residents and stakeholders have an active role in decision-making. The founding committee observed that residents in South African cities have lost trust in public processes, and often do not have access to critical information, and forums or structures to be involved in decision-making.
OCL sought to move plans and interventions out of the static and inefficient long reports that gather digital dust on officials' shelves, and into problem-focused, user-centred interventions that are crafted in such a way that acknowledge vulnerability and build in inclusion and sustainability.
The team has gathered and developed technical capabilities and innovative approaches to build tools for evidence-based decision-making, as well as a desire to learn and adapt to different contexts as we journey on this mission. We like to partner with other awesome communities, CSOs and NGOs, government departments, academic partners, and the like, to strengthen the social fabric of the areas in which we work, towards building a better future.
