For much of her early academic life, research felt intimidating to Daisy Kudzai Tsenesa ’26. Academic papers seemed dense and highly technical, packed with unfamiliar terminology and methodologies that often took hours to grasp.
“I would spend an entire day trying to understand a ten-page paper,” she recalls. “I would read one paragraph for an hour because I had to keep searching for the meaning of terms.”
For many students, that kind of frustration might have ended their interest in research, but not Tsenesa. To build her understanding, she turned to simplified articles that translated research activities into very simple terms. Today, Tsenesa graduates from Ashesi University as a computer science major and an emerging researcher applying Artificial Intelligence(AI) to challenges in healthcare and business.
Her interest in AI was sparked in an introductory course to AI. In one class project, she and her partner built a large language model capable of understanding Shona, using natural language processing techniques. Courses in deep learning and speech recognition further expanded her interest in developing AI solutions grounded in African contexts.
That curiosity evolved into some research-driven innovations. One of them is SheaGlow, an AI-powered skin diagnostics platform designed specifically for melanin-rich skin. Research by Kleinberg, and colleagues found that many dermatology AI tools are trained on datasets that overrepresent fair-skinned individuals, making them less accurate for darker skin tones. The challenge is even greater in Africa, where the PASSION project notes that many countries have fewer than one dermatologist per million people.
SheaGlow enables users to upload images of skin conditions through a mobile application. Dermatologists connected to the platform can then review each case and provide recommendations. The team has already developed a prototype model and is now building the full application while collaborating with dermatologists to create more representative datasets. Prior to this stage, funding and coaching from the Ashesi Venture Incubator(AVI) helped refine the product.
Tsenesa’s capstone project, Mrika AI, focuses on computer-use agents that automate customer interactions for small businesses. The idea emerged from a common challenge faced by many Ghanaian entrepreneurs: relying on platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook to manually manage inquiries and sales, which is time-consuming.
The system is designed to handle these repetitive tasks, giving business owners more time to focus on growth. Now, Mrika AI includes a functional WhatsApp demo with high accuracy in coordinate detection.
“At one point, I almost got frustrated because if the coordinates were even slightly wrong, the whole system would fail,” Tsenesa says. “But I kept troubleshooting until I discovered what finally worked.”
On campus, Tsenesa invested her time in community-centered work through Magnificent Smiles, a student-led impact project. As Co-Lead for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics(STEM), she helped design lesson plans and develop Information Communication Technology and science curricula for children in orphanages, while also participating in outreach and donation activities.
Experiences outside of the Community also shaped Tsenesa’s growth as a researcher. During a study-abroad semester at University of California, Berkeley, she encountered students balancing rigorous coursework with jobs and extracurricular commitments. Their discipline challenged her assumptions about what she was capable of.
“It made me question my own limits,” she says. “I realized that sometimes I convinced myself things were impossible before truly pushing myself.” The experience also deepened her appreciation for collaboration and networking and taught her “how to confidently occupy a global space as an African student.”
Tsenesa’s growing research portfolio recently won her a Zonta International Women in STEM Award, making her one of only 16 international awardees. The award recognizes women making impactful contributions to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through innovation, research, and leadership.
After graduation, Tsenesa intends to focus on growing Mrika AI Studio, the company she co-founded with her capstone partner and their supervisor. Inspired by her capstone and a shared belief that Africa should play an active role in shaping the future of agentic AI, the team is building AI agents that work through WhatsApp. These tools help businesses and individuals automate tasks and access information more easily. Their first AI agent, SecondMemory, which allows users to save and retrieve important information directly within WhatsApp, has been launched.
