The LuxWays doctoral training programme hit a major milestone: its first doctoral student completed his training in computer science last spring at SnT, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust at the University of Luxembourg.
LuxWays has been launched in 2020 at SnT with the support of the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. It aims to train Master’s student from Universities in Burkina Faso and Senegal to join SnT and earn PhDs, mainly in cybersecurity. Once their doctorate is achieved, they return to their home institution and become professors in their area of research.
A support for the economy
Thanks to his PhD, Abdul Kader Kaboré will be joining the Virtual University of Burkina Faso as one of the first professor in French-Speaking West Africa to teach computer science disciplines. These qualifications acquired in Luxembourg aim to support the regional economy as the master’s students in computer science graduate and fill skill gaps in local companies or create their own start-ups.
“We are very proud of this great success. Dr. Kaboré is not only the first graduate of the LuxWays programme, but most likely the first participant to return to West Africa as a professor of cybersecurity”, said Prof. Tegawendé F. Bissyandé, who is in charge of the LuxWays programme.
“Back in Burkina Faso, Dr Kaboré will not only help fill the large gap of teaching staff in universities but will also support the regional economy and digital transformation”, added Tegawendé F. Bissyandé.
Notable contributions
Dr. Kaboré already has a number of achievements to his name as a PhD student in the LuxWays programme. He helped set up the master’s programme in Cybersecurity at the Virtual University of Burkina Faso, which he is currently directing. Several research articles have been published in scientific journals such as the ACM Transactions series. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Prof. Bissyandé, focused on software vulnerabilities, in particular how artificial neural networks can help predict and automatically repair vulnerable code.
“At SnT, Dr. Kaboré has already contributed to the discovery and resolution of cybersecurity problems in government software in West Africa. He has already achieved LuxWays’ objective: to train talent to help the local economy in West Africa in its digital transition”, explained Prof. Bissyandé.
Since 2020, ten PhD positions in cybersecurity have been awarded to students from West African countries at SnT. Three universities are partners in the programme: the University of Cheikh Anta Diop from Senegal and the Universities of Joseph Ki-Zerbo and the Virtual University, both from Burkina Faso.