OFFICE OF RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Our Six Research Clusters
Ashesi’s research agenda is organized around six thematic clusters, each one a deliberate response to challenges and opportunities for the African continent to advance global knowledge. Our clusters bring together faculty across disciplines, graduate and undergraduate students, and partners to tackle problems that are technically demanding, and socially impactful.
01
Sustainable Technologies & Climate Resilience
Renewable energy, smart infrastructure, climate adaptation.
02
Healthcare, Food Systems & Bio-Innovation
Disease detection, sustainable agriculture, medical technologies.
03
AI, Robotics & Intelligent Futures
Machine learning, automation, digital transformation in Africa.
04
Business, Entrepreneurship & Market Innovation
Venture creation, market development, applied economics.
05
Policy, Governance, Law & Ethics
Institutional design, regulatory frameworks, AI ethics.
06
Education, Culture & Social Advancement
Humanities scholarship, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, African literature and society.
— CLUSTER 01
Sustainable Technologies & Climate Resilience
Africa contributes least to global carbon emissions and bears the most from their consequences. This cluster develops practical, locally adaptable solutions; renewable energy systems, smart grids, IoT-enabled climate monitoring, and resilience strategies for African cities that address the continent’s environmental challenges.
CLUSTER LEAD
Dr. Richard Akparibo
CLUSTER CO-LEAD
Dr. Gideon Osabutey
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
DC-DC Power Converters for Solar PV Applications
Designing highly efficient power converters and control algorithms that extract optimal energy from solar PV systems — bridging the gap between low-voltage renewable sources and grid supply.
Online Characterization of Solar PV Panels
A non-intrusive, real-time system for monitoring solar panel performance using DC-DC converters and MPPT algorithms. Prototype built and under testing.
Digital Early Warning Systems for Flood Management
Community-centered flood detection and response systems for Accra’s most vulnerable neighborhoods — combining IoT sensing, local knowledge, and urban resilience planning.
— CLUSTER 02
Healthcare, Food Systems & Bio-Innovation
Quality of life is determined by what people eat, how quickly diseases are detected, and how well health systems serve them. This cluster integrates healthcare technologies, sustainable food systems, and biological innovation, from biosensors and medical imaging to precision agriculture to improve outcomes across Africa.
CLUSTER LEAD
Dr. Elena Rosca
CLUSTER CO-LEAD
Dr. Millicent Awuku
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Smart & Sustainable Agriculture with Hydrogels
Using synthetic biology and hydrogel technology to improve soil water retention and crop yields in water-stressed farming communities across Ghana.
Transforming Agricultural Waste into Essential Oils
A value-chain innovation that converts near-waste produce from Ghanaian farms into high-quality essential oils — building economic resilience in the agricultural sector.
Fast Detection of Tuberculosis
Developing rapid, low-cost diagnostic tools for TB detection — a disease that remains a leading cause of death across sub-Saharan Africa despite being largely treatable.
— CLUSTER 03
AI, Robotics & Intelligent Futures
This cluster explores how intelligent systems can be designed for, and by, African contexts: adapting to local infrastructure realities, addressing local languages and cultural dynamics, and building automation that serves and draws learning from African communities.
CLUSTER LEAD
Dr. Ayorkor Korsah
CLUSTER CO-LEAD
Dr. Joseph Kwame Adjei
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Building Resilient, Inclusive Future Cities
A blueprint for the design of African cities that are technologically smart, socially equitable, and environmentally sustainable, grounded in local governance realities.
Watch: Designing A Life-Saving Prenatal Monitoring System
Computer Science graduate Juliann Mc-Addy ’25 created MamaMonitor, a real-time prenatal monitoring system aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality.
Watch: Fighting Deepfakes with Real-Time Detection
Anne Achieng Alwala ’25 developed TruthScope, a browser extension that detects deepfake videos in real time on social media, helping users combat misinformation.
— CLUSTER 04
Business, Entrepreneurship & Market Innovation
This cluster advances research from insight to real-world applications, through venture creation, market development, applied finance, and organizational growth. Drawing from economics and business, it works across the Ashesi ecosystem and beyond in close collaboration with the Center for Entrepreneurship.
CLUSTER LEAD
Assc. Prof. Disraeli Asante Darko
CLUSTER CO-LEAD
Dr. Esther Laryea
RESEARCH & LAB HIGHLIGHTS
Green Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Business
Examining how young women entrepreneurs in Ghana are integrating sustainability into their business models — and what conditions make green entrepreneurship viable at scale.
Applied Finance Research Lab
An applied research environment producing rigorous, data-driven work on African financial markets, investment behavior, and economic policy — with direct relevance to practitioners.
— CLUSTER 05
Policy, Governance, Law & Ethics
The frameworks that govern societies, and the institutions that uphold them, determine who benefits from development and how resources are effectivly distributed. This cluster produces research that interrogates, critiques, and proposes ideas for African governance systems, regulatory frameworks, public policy, and law. It pays particular attention to the ethics of emerging technologies, including AI and data-driven systems that are reshaping how societiy is effectively governed.
CLUSTER LEAD
Assc. Prof. Maame Mensa-Bonsu
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Statutory Interpretation in Ghana’s Fourth Republic
A rigorous assessment of how Ghanaian courts interpret legislation in the republic’s third decade — tracing the gap between legal theory and judicial practice.
Queenmothers & Dispute Resolution
Evaluating how Greater Accra Queenmothers exercise mediation in community disputes — and what their practice offers for sustainable development and gender-inclusive governance.
Currency Policy & Macroeconomic Stability
Two parallel studies on whether currency boards, central bank independence, or dollarization could guarantee macroeconomic stability in anglophone sub-Saharan African cities, with Ghana as the primary case.
— CLUSTER 06
Education, Culture & Social Advancement
How do people learn? What does Africa’s cultural heritage have to teach? How should universities on the continent think about their own practice? This cluster anchors contextually grounded research in the humanities while advancing Ashesi’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), producing knowledge that shapes African literature, social policy, pedagogy, and the experience of students.
CLUSTER LEAD
Dr. Rebecca Awuah
CLUSTER CO-LEAD
Dr. Adwoa Opoku Agyeman
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Impact of AI on Higher Education in Africa
A Ghana-based case study examining how generative AI is changing how students learn, how faculty teach, and what universities need to do to respond thoughtfully.
Experiential Education & First-Year Transformation
A SoTL-based inquiry into how project-based learning transforms how first-year students understand themselves, their communities, and their capacity for leadership.
STEM Pathways: A Tracer Study
Mapping the academic and career trajectories of Ghanaian and Liberian students who entered STEM fields — identifying the conditions that sustain or interrupt STEM participation.