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Festus Boamah
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Curriculum vitae

Festus Boamah

IT educator and software engineer. Research interests in trustworthy AI, application security and privacy, with a focus on dependable digital systems for resource-constrained environments.

Accra, Ghana[email protected]festusboamah.comgithub.com/festusboamahLinkedIn

Download PDF Research interests

Education

  1. Completed Oct 2026

    Master of Education (Information Technology)

    University of Cape Coast

    Final examinations completed October 2026; awaiting graduation.

  2. 2020 – 2023

    Bachelor of Education (Hons.), Information Technology

    Valley View University, Accra

    Second Class Upper. Relevant coursework: Data Communications & Computer Networks, Enterprise Information Security, Operating Systems, Database Systems Design, Distributed Computing, Managing IT Projects, Computer Ethics.

  3. 2015 – 2018

    Diploma in Basic Education

    Dambai College of Education (University of Cape Coast)

    First Class.

Research interests

  • Security of AI applications: prompt injection, unsafe tool use and sensitive-data leakage in LLM-based software
  • Privacy and verifiable digital systems: auditing, secure electronic voting, authentication and access control
  • Artificial intelligence for cybersecurity: explainable threat detection, phishing and fraud detection

Research and applied security work

  1. 2026

    Security evaluation of a production web platform (festusboamah.com)

    Independent applied work

    Threat-modelled the public contact API (assets, trust boundaries, attacker capabilities) and implemented defence in depth: input validation, honeypot, per-IP rate limiting, Cloudflare Turnstile, parameterised SQL and a strict Content Security Policy. Ranked the remaining weaknesses by risk in a published remediation plan, and secured the admin login with a least-privilege GitHub App. Documented in three technical articles (see Research outputs).

Research outputs

Technical articles (not peer-reviewed)

  1. The real price of "free" AI

    festusboamah.com/writing/the-real-price-of-free-ai

  2. Small organisations, real data: AI and cybersecurity for civil society

    festusboamah.com/writing/ai-and-cybersecurity-for-civil-society

  3. Fixing my own findings: a remediation plan, ranked by risk

    festusboamah.com/writing/fixing-my-own-findings

  4. Locking the back door: how I secured my website's admin login

    festusboamah.com/writing/securing-my-website-admin-login

  5. Your phone number is not your identity: SIM swaps and mobile money

    festusboamah.com/writing/sim-swap-mobile-money-phone-numbers

  6. Threat-modelling a contact form: defence in depth on a very small API

    festusboamah.com/writing/threat-modelling-a-contact-form

Creative writing

  1. 2024 – 2026

    26 poems, short stories and a series, published as Elikem Inspires

    Poetic Koncept (poetickoncept.com)

Workshops and presentations

  1. Oct 2026

    Leadership and entrepreneurship panel (guest panellist)

    Career Horizons Project, Gabi M.A Junior High School, Kpando

    Spoke on entrepreneurship, starting with limited resources and learning from setbacks, to about 320 students.

  2. Mar 2026

    Robotics for science teachers (workshop trainer)

    Basic STEM (BSTEM) teacher workshop, Teshie Presbyterian SHTS, Accra

    Trained 16 science teachers, each from a different school, to assemble robots and use them in their teaching.

Teaching experience

  1. Dec 2024 – present

    Mathematics and Computing Facilitator

    Martey Tsuru Presby JHS, Accra

  2. Dec 2019 – 2024

    Maths, Science, Career Tech. & Computing Facilitator

    Adjobue GCD D/A Basic School

  3. Apr – Jul 2022

    ICT Teaching Assistant (internship)

    St. Francis Senior High Technical School

  4. Jan – Nov 2019

    English Teaching Assistant (National Service)

    Baatsona TMA JHS

Professional experience

  1. 2025 – present

    Co-Founder and Software Engineer

    Nerds IV Technologies, Ho

    Independent product studio: 12 software products, 11 live in production, across education, retail and healthcare. Includes Balotiq (tenant-isolated e-voting with encrypted secret ballots, a hash-chained ledger and an immutable audit trail), suku360 (school operating system with role-based access and offline attendance) and Boafo AI (WhatsApp customer service with AI-assisted replies). Backend engineer for AfeHab, a verified-rentals platform in the Volta Region.

  2. 2019 – present

    Founder

    PagezTech Ventures, Accra

    Online store for phones, laptops, accessories, data bundles and WAEC results checkers, with online payments and delivery across Ghana. Also operates Boafo AI.

Certifications and professional training

  1. In progress

    Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate

    Google (Coursera), through the One Million Coders Programme

    Preparing for CompTIA Security+.

  2. In progress

    Founders Academy

    ALX

  3. In progress

    Front-end Web Development

    ALX

  4. Jun 2026

    Foundations of Cybersecurity

    Google (Coursera)

  5. Mar 2026

    Microsoft SQL Server series: SQL Foundations; Data Manipulation and Transactions; Indexing, Performance Optimization & Functions; Relational Database Design and Advanced Querying

    Coursera

  6. Mar 2026

    Excellence in Online Teaching (with honours)

    Johns Hopkins University (Coursera)

  7. Jun 2025

    Certified Data Protection Officer (CDPO)

    Data Protection Commission, One Million Coders Programme

  8. Sep 2024

    AI Career Essentials

    ALX

  9. Apr 2023

    National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: “A Safe Digital Ghana”

  10. Jun 2022

    An Assessment of Cybersecurity Readiness of Businesses and Individuals

    IIPGH

  11. Mar 2022

    Cybersecurity Training for Teachers

    Commonwealth of Learning and NTC

  12. Jun 2021

    Teaching in a Digital Age

    National Teaching Council (NTC)

Technical skills

Security and data protection
Threat modelling, least-privilege access, audit trails, encryption, strict web security headers
Languages
JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, SQL, Java, C++
Platforms and tools
Microsoft SQL Server, Cloudflare (Pages, Workers, D1), Git, GitHub Actions, REST APIs, WordPress and WooCommerce, Paystack, Figma, Adobe Creative Suite

Professional memberships

  1. 2023 – present

    United Nations Youth Ghana Initiative

  2. 2021 – present

    Ghana Society of Education Technology

  3. 2020 – present

    Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana

  4. 2019 – present

    Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT)

  5. 2017 – present

    Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI Network Ghana)

Service and outreach

  1. Oct 2026

    Volunteer, planning committee member, Career Horizons Project

    Career Leadership Development Fair 2026, Gabi M.A Junior High School, Kpando

  2. Aug 2026 – present

    Founder, Boys Club Initiative

    Martey Tsuru Presby JHS, Accra

    A structured mentorship programme on discipline, responsibility and leadership.

  3. Jun 2026

    Delegate for COMoG, Ghana Civil Society Forum 2026

    University of Ghana

    Sessions included responsible use of AI and cybersecurity in civil society.

  4. May 2026

    Volunteer, PadHER Project: menstrual hygiene education for 150 learners, Ho

    COMoG

  5. 2023 – present

    Volunteer

    United Nations Youth Agency

  6. 2018 – present

    Volunteer: yearly Child Online Protection campaigns

    TLPCI Child Development Centre

References available on request.