PhD student Ebubechukwu Uba has been invited to present her work at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) conference, Net Inclusion 2026, which will be held on February 3-5 in Chicago. Uba will discuss her digital inclusion work with StepUp Academy, a nonprofit education and digital inclusion initiative in Nigeria that she founded in 2023.
"Our mission is to close digital skill and access gaps for underserved learners through community-based training and support," said Uba. "Over the past few months, we have been running programs in rural Nigerian communities that include foundational digital literacy training for youth in low-income and orphanage communities, support for basic device use and navigation of educational resources, training local teachers and volunteers as trusted community digital support contacts, and adapting learning materials for use in low-resource environments."
In her doctoral research, Uba is examining how education technologies, including AI-driven tools, are designed and implemented to shape learning equity, especially in underserved rural communities in Nigeria and across Africa. A member of the Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Lab, she uses critical technology design and community informatics frameworks to study how digital literacy and access interventions work in practice and how they can be designed to better fit local contexts. In addition to offering her the opportunity to share her work, NDIA will cover the cost of her conference registration and related expenses.
"I look forward to this opportunity being an avenue to engage with national digital equity leaders, exchange insights, and explore collaboration opportunities that connect US-based digital inclusion models with rural community contexts in Nigeria," she said.
Uba holds a bachelor's degree in library and information science from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois.