Principal Officers

Dr Engineer Talon Garikayi
Pro-Vice Chancellor : Research, Innovation and Commercialisation

Dr Garikayi holds a M.Eng and a B.Eng (Hons) Mechatronics. He graduated with a First Class degree B.Eng(Hons) Mechatronics from Chinhoyi University of Technology and a First Class M.Eng Manufacturing Engineering from the National University of Science and Technology. He also holds a PhD in Mechatronics from Stellenbosch University, specialising in Bionics, Artificial Intelligence and their applications in Biomedical Engineering. He has a strong bias towards firmware and hardware designs for IT embedded systems and has worked as a Robotics and Automation Engineer for DrySys Pvt Ltd at Ford Motors, Pretoria, South Africa.

He has more than 10 years industrial experience as a Certified Automation Engineer and has developed control systems, automated processes, optimised production lines, SCADA and HMI Systems for several manufacturing and processing engineering firms including Steelmakers, Unilever, Ford Motors, Greif, Kadoma Textiles, Glendale Spinners, Zimplats, Mega Pak, Canuad Metal Box and Cottco.

He is a professional member of the IEEE, Zimbabwe Institute of Engineers, Engineering Council of Zimbabwe and Global Engineering Teams. Dr. Garikayi is a Certified Design Thinking Methodology Expert from Hasso Plattner Institute, German. He is also an expert in Research and Policy formulation.