Harriet Nyanchama Ocharo
Dr. Harriet Nyanchama Ocharo is a Kenyan applied-AI scientist advancing edge intelligence at Hitachi’s Central Research Laboratory in Tokyo. Trained in computer science at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (BSc) and the Tokyo Institute of Technology (PhD, 2020), she designs end-to-end machine-learning pipelines that fuse cloud, IoT, and 5G connectivity for industrial and social-infrastructure clients.
Since joining Hitachi in 2021 she has led a cross-continental team creating lightweight anomaly-detection models for smart factories, technology now piloted in 300 turbines and elevators across Japan and Thailand, reducing unscheduled downtime by 27 percent. She holds four patents on federated-learning orchestration and publishes in IEEE Internet of Things Journal, where she is an associate editor.
Committed to talent exchange, Ocharo founded the Africa-Japan AI Fellowship, guiding Kenyan graduate engineers through six-month stints in Tokyo labs; the programme’s first cohort produced two co-authored papers on energy-efficient vision systems. She mentors high-school girls via AkiraChix, keynotes at Women in Machine Learning workshops, and sits on Kenya’s National Task Force on Responsible AI.
Named to Business Daily’s Top 40 Under 40 Women list in 2025, Dr. Ocharo champions inclusive innovation, believing “AI should learn from everyone and work for everyone.”