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Professor Amon Murwira has appointed Dr Engineer Talon Garikayi as Pro-Vice Chancellor responsible for Research, Innovation and Commercialisation with effect from 01 May 2021.

Reporting to the Vice Chancellor, Dr Garikayi has been mandated to lead the University’s Research, Innovation and Commercialisation activities, bringing together the critical functions of research, innovation and commercialisation leadership and the identification and establishment of strategic and wide ranging, local and global partnerships. He is also expected to help position HIT on the international stage and deliver opportunities for major development, incubation, transfer and commercialization of technology as well as research and teaching collaborations with like-minded institutions globally.

Dr Garikayi holds a M.Eng and a B.Eng (Hons) Mechatronics. He graduated with a First Class degree B.Eng(Hons) Mechatronics from Chinhoyi University of Technology and a First Class M.Eng Manufacturing Engineering from the National University of Science and Technology. He also holds a PhD in Mechatronics from Stellenbosch University, specialising in Bionics, Artificial Intelligence and their applications in Biomedical Engineering. He has a strong bias towards firmware and hardware designs for IT embedded systems and has worked as a Robotics and Automation Engineer for DrySys Pvt Ltd at Ford Motors, Pretoria, South Africa.

Prior to his appointment, Dr Garikayi was the Director for Technology Transfer, Licensing and Commercialisation Centre (TTLC) at Harare Institute of Technology. He has more than 10 years industrial experience as a Certified Automation Engineer and has developed control systems, automated processes, optimised production lines, SCADA and HMI Systems for several manufacturing and processing engineering firms including Steelmakers, Unilever, Ford Motors, Greif, Kadoma Textiles, Glendale Spinners, Zimplats, Mega Pak, Canuad Metal Box and Cottco.

He is a professional member of the IEEE, Zimbabwe Institute of Engineers, Engineering Council of Zimbabwe and Global Engineering Teams. Dr. Garikayi is a Certified Design Thinking Methodology Expert from Hasso Plattner Institute, German. He is also an expert in Research and Policy formulation.

He has published in several books and journals on Mechatronic Systems, Embedded Systems, Biomechatronics, Bionics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Control Systems and Industrial Automation. Dr Engr. Garikayi has played a major role in unlocking value from research and innovation outputs for the Harare Institute of Technology in the past 3 years.