MAREN Engineers Take Home-Grown Expertise to UC2026 Regional Stage

It starts with the work happening quietly behind the internet connections students, lecturers and researchers rely on every day. In MAREN’s Network Operations Centre, female engineers who once had little representation in these technical spaces are now helping deploy and manage critical infrastructure. Elsewhere, engineers are looking at an increasingly hostile cyber landscape and asking how artificial intelligence can help identify threats sooner. And when unreliable power threatens to disconnect an institution, another challenge emerges: how can connectivity be designed to stay on?

Over time, solving these problems produces more than working infrastructure. It produces experience, lessons about what works, what does not, and what others facing similar challenges might learn.

This October, three such experiences from Malawi will travel beyond the institutions where they were developed. Papers by three MAREN engineers have been accepted for presentation at UbuntuNet-Connect 2026 (UC2026), bringing lessons in gender inclusion in technical roles, cybersecurity and resilient connectivity to a regional and international audience.

UC2026 is the premier international academic and research technology conference across Eastern and Southern Africa. It brings leaders and professionals from the research and education community together to discuss the technologies, infrastructure, policies and innovations shaping higher education and research. Hosted by MAREN, this year’s conference will take place from 29–30 October 2026 at the Pearl Convention Centre in Lilongwe, Malawi, under the theme “Shaping Digital Horizons.”

Infrastructure Engineer Olivia Mkandawire will share MAREN’s experience of increasing women’s participation in traditionally male-dominated technical roles and their contribution to research and education network infrastructure, while Infrastructure Engineer Rexa Mphuwa will explore how Artificial Intelligence and open threat intelligence can strengthen cyber resilience. Meanwhile, Network and Infrastructure Manager Alexius Chipwalamwazani will present MAREN’s experience with solar-powered infrastructure for resilient and inclusive connectivity.

“Having our work accepted shows that what we do every day matters far beyond our own network. The challenges we address at MAREN are shared by engineers across Africa, and our experiences and lessons have value beyond Malawi,” said Mkandawire. “For women in technology, I hope it shows that we belong in these spaces not just as participants, but as builders. Representation opens the door, but impact is what we do once we walk through it,” she continued.

For MAREN, the three papers show how experiences developed while addressing challenges at home can become knowledge with relevance far beyond Malawi.