Rita Orji
Rita Orji is a Canada Research Chair in Persuasive Technology and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University. Her work centres around human-computer interaction, with a major focus on designing interactive systems to achieve various health and wellbeing objectives.
Rita Orji is passionate about persuasive technology and how to design technologies that can promote health and wellness. She designs interactive systems and persuasive technologies for the benefit of the underserved populations. Rita Orji’s research tackles real-life problems such as healthy eating, physical activity, mental health and smoking cessations.
Rita completed her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Nnamdi Azikiwe University and was best graduating student. She later completed a master’s degree in Information Systems (Informatics) at Middle East Technical University. She was awarded a Vanier scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and obtained her PhD at the University of Saskatchewan as a Vanier scholar in 2014. Rita later joined McGill University as a postdoctoral fellow, working on technological interventions that can affect behavioral change.
Passionate about youth empowerment and women’s access to education, Rita launched Education for Women and the Less Privileged in Nigeria (2002), a nonprofit that provides mentorship and scholarship opportunities for women in education. In 2012, Rita presented at the Parliament of Canada, where she spoke about health promotion and disease prevention. She also spoke at the 2018 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) Panel: It is Up to Me, and attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York City.
She has received several accolades including winning over 50 awards and recognitions from both national and international organizations. In 2020, she was appointed Canada Research Chair in Persuasive Technology, and inducted into the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, and received the LinkedIn Top Africa Influencer Award for Top Voice.
In 2019, she received the Rising Star Award of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions, the 2018 Women Leaders in the Digital Economy Award, 2017 Enugu State Award of Excellence in Recognition of Scholarly Achievement and Contributions to Advancement of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe Award of Excellence in Recognition of Contribution towards the Advancement of Knowledge in Computer Science, 2017 Top 150 Canadian Women in STEM, 2013 Research Excellence in Science award by the University of Saskatchewan amongst other prominent achievements.
Using her personal experience, Rita is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of female technology leaders. She is committed to promoting excellence, diversity and inclusion in Computer Science.
We recognize Rita Orji for using innovative technology to provide health and wellbeing solutions in the global space. She is a force to reckon with and we are rooting for her.