On February 24, 2017, Aelaf Dafla taught his final class at Ashesi, rounding off over ten years of impact to the school’s Computer Science Department, and the recently-opened Engineering Program.
Since joining Ashesi in 2006, Dafla committed himself to helping grow the then fledgling institution. Like most of the students who had joined Ashesi early on, he had also taken a leap of faith with the new liberal arts institution in Ghana.
“One of the things that drew me to Ashesi was the people - people with open minds, people who were willing to experiment and people willing to do things differently,” shared Dafla who heads to the United States to pursue a PH.D. “That was what attracted me – a small private school doing things differently, and that has remained throughout.”
From the early days, Dafla took charge of the Very Large Scale Integration and Digital Circuit classes, while playing a huge role in helping to develop the Computer Science curriculum at Ashesi, including serving a term as Head of the department. In 2015, when Ashesi opened its Engineering program, Dafla was an integral part of the team that designed the curriculum for the program, providing direction to create a world class engineering program. Outside Ashesi, he worked with colleagues in the Computer Science Department to build and implement mobile-based solutions to improve access to quality healthcare for people in under-served communities.
“Aelaf has played a huge role at Ashesi,” said Founder and President, Dr. Patrick Awuah. “As one of the early members of the team, he was very instrumental in getting our Computer Science program off the ground, as well as developing curriculum for the Engineering program. He’s not only been of service to just Ashesi and our students, but also a great service to the country.”
While Ashesi’s Computer Science and Engineering programs have expanded over the years behind the collective efforts of several people, Aelaf Dafla’s contributions, will remain indelible to the institution.