James Katende was born on 19th September 1954 at Kampala, Uganda to Mr and Mrs Yoweri Sempa, both of blessed memory. He was brought up on a coffee and banana plantation at Bweya village (between Entebbe town and Kampala city), in Uganda. Between 1963 and 1968 he did his primary education at Kisubi Boys’ Primary School, a Catholic Mission School run by Banakalori Brothers. The school was 8 km from the Sempas’ family house and hence little Katende, and his siblings, had to trek 8 km to school for the duration of six years of his primary school education. In spite of this hardship the young man consistently took first position and collected prizes every term throughout his stay in that school. He passed the Uganda Primary Leaving Certificate Examinations with Distinction which opened the door to the prestigious St Mary’s College, Kisubi, a boarding mission school for boys, where he studied from 1969 to 1974 for his O’levels and A’levels. While at St Mary’s College Kisubi, he was Captain of the Chess Club and an active member of both the Anglican Christian Union (CU) and the Catholic Young Christian Students (YCS) and at different times held position of President in each.

In July 1975 he gained admission into Makerere University, Kampala and was accommodated at the popular Lumumba Hall. At that same time he obtained two scholarship awards: the INTERAF Award gave options to read Electrical Engineering at University of Lagos, Nairobi University (in Kenya), or Fourrah Bay University (in Sierra Leone); and the only Kuwait Government Scholarship for that year, to study Electrical Engineering in Kuwait. The Kuwait visa forms were in Arabic and the nearest Embassy was in Egypt. He therefore opted for the African Oil Giant and left Makerere University to arrive Lagos, Nigeria on 11th November, 1975.

As a student at Unilag he was an active sportsman, and participated in NUGA and WAUG long distance races for many years. In the year of his graduation, 1978, Unilag hosted the NUGA games. He won three gold medals and made a NUGA record in the 5000m race which was not erased until the 1990s.

James Katende holds B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering obtained in 1978, 1982 and 1987, respectively, from the University of Lagos. His Masters’ degree programme at University of Lagos was sponsored by a Scholarship award of the World University Service (WUS), (UK), while the PhD programme was self-sponsored with the generous support of the Italian Government which provided a two-year Research Fellowship at University of Rome’s Institute of Systems and Informatics as well as the graduate assistantship of University of Lagos.

He is a COREN registered Engineer and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. His professional experience involved engineering research and training, supervision of engineering projects, and engineering consultancy.

From 1984 to 1990 he was a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Lagos. While on the Unilag faculty he served as Departmental Admissions Officer, Departmental Examinations Officer, and Departmental SIWES Officer. He joined the Electrical Engineering Department, Bayero University, Kano as a Senior Lecturer in 1990 and rose to the rank of Professor of Electrical Engineering in 2000. He overhauled the undergraduate Electrical engineering curriculum and developed the postgraduate programme in Electrical Engineering in 1991. He served Bayero University in several capacities including among others: Dean of Technology (1995-1998), Head of Electrical Engineering Department (1995-1998), Member of Senate (1995-2000), Chairman University Works and Maintenance Committee, Chairman University Transport Management Committee, Chairman, Taskforce on Installation and Commissioning of Generators; and many others.

He joined Covenant University as Professor of Electrical Engineering in April 2006. He is presently the Dean, College of Science& Technology, Head of Electrical & Information Engineering, Coordinator of the SIWES Unit, Chairman Webometrics Taskforce, Chairman University ICT Committee, Member University Publications Committee, and Member University Purchasing Committee.

Professor Katende serves many higher institutions as external examiner in the field of electrical engineering. These include, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Federal University of Technology, Yola; University of Maiduguri; Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna; Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna; University of Lagos; Kano State Polytechnic; and Federal College of Education (Technical), Bichi. He is on the Editorial Boards of several journals in Nigeria.

He served the Nigerian Society of Engineers in the capacities of Chief Interviewer, Kano Zone (2 years), Branch Technical Secretary (Lagos and Kano Branches), and Ex-officio Member of Exco, Kano Branch. He participates in COREN and NBTE accreditation panels on several occasions.

Professor Katende’s research interests are in the areas of robotics, industrial automation, control engineering, and application of artificial intelligence techniques to control of electric power systems. He has supervised more than eighty engineering projects of final year electrical engineering students, over thirty completed Masters Theses and seven successful PhD theses in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics. Results of the various research works form the basis for well over forty publications in local and international journals and conference proceedings.

Professor Katende is a Ugandan and is happily married to Opeoluwa Adedoja James-Katende. The family is blessed with four sons: Jesse, David, Francis and John.

He enjoys working, reading, cycling, and playing chess on his PDA.