Lily Botsyoe

Graduate Student of the Year

Lily Edinam Botsyoe is a Ph.D. student in Information Technology, part of UC’s Presidential Fellowship Program, and former Adjunct Instructor. She researches the deployment of technology in service of public needs and is an ardent contributor to technology communities working widely on issues relating to the internet with a particular interest in Women and Youth Inclusion, Accessibility, Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Digital Sustainability. As a believer in the power of technology to accelerate development, her work focuses on human-centered approaches to building technology that ignites real impact for users. Lily grounds her strategies in the principles of digital inclusion and solutions focused on sustainability.

In her research assistantship, Lily collaborated with the Avondale Development Corporation and Uptown Consortium, Inc. to host digital skill training workshops with residents of the Avondale Neighborhood. According to the 2020 Census, 92 percent of Avondale residents are African American, and more than 40 percent are living at or below the poverty level. The workshops that Lily lead targeted three populations; school-aged youth, adults, and seniors. The workshops used a train-the-trainer model wherein participants of each workshop are invited back to be paid facilitators in the following workshop. Lily worked with a team of students to perform a thematic analysis of digital inclusion strategies shared by 16 cities across the US. This analysis was later developed into a publication, was included in a report shared with community partners, and was the basis for the project that Lily was a part of, which was funded by PNC Bank. During her time on this project, Lily identified a subset of policies related to the reuse of hardware through e-waste programs that she has extended into her thesis topic.

Lily is a STEM advocate engaging with the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations Internet Governance Forum. She has walked the TEDx UCincinnati stage as a speaker.