Africa Engineering Hardware: Education Change

My name is Engineer Banomugisha. Yes, the engineer is my first name and my career. My parents named me the engineer, and they have recognized engineering symptoms in me since childhood, such as perseverance, flexibility, and want to understand how things work.

I grew up and spent my early years in a rural part of Uganda, which is more than 300 kilometers outside the capital, Kampala. As a young boy, I always used to molest and rage: I cut the old radio battery for power lighting, made home utensils from wood, and sold the village to help the animals to help earning money.

In high school, I studied physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology. When i started studying Mekere UniversityIn Kampala, I joined the computer science program. It was in 2003. I had never interfered with computers before, and it was true for many of my classmates. Limited number of computers meant that students were common internet cafes, for which required to pay 500 Uganda Shilling (US $ 0.14) for 30 minutes. Access to programmable hardware was limited, with no access to microcontroller or hardware manufacturing.

Once I found the original introduction to computer science, I was eager to create things with things available for people around me to solve problems. At that time, the phones were very limited, and calling was expensive, so SMS text messages were very popular. The students, most of whom did not call, were required to send texts without one. In its first year, I created a free web-based SMS platform, which allowed people to send messages easily. This quickly gained popularity among the students of the university- a good result for my first “product”.

In 2006 I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Professor Venusius AuraramurebaThen the dean of the faculty of computing and information technology in Mekere inspired me to apply for a graduate school in Belgium. I got a scholarship to get a master’s degree Vreeje University Brussel (Free University of Brussels).

There, I faced Arduino microcontroller board For the first time. I saw graduate students using Arduino boards and sensors to implement embedded-system projects, such as autonomous equipment that can detect, identify, understand and control their surroundings. I wondered how long it would take universities in Africa to get access to such hardware. After all, Arduino’s motto “is empowered to innovate anyone,” but unfortunately, that empowerment was yet to reach the sub-city Africa.

Fast for today, and the situation has changed significantly. Laptops are now widely available in Africa, internet connectivity is sharp, and smartphones and mobile internet are common among computer science faculty and students. But the launch of a technology and its availability in Africa is important, as the oluvatocin shows the story of the collade (see “a lesson from a janoci drone,”).

Africa has immense ability to address a wide range of challenges for computer science and electronics engineering. Existing software solutions may be insufficient, and public digital infrastructure may be deficient, so projects at the intersection of hardware and software can fill significant intervals. However, it is important for students to get better learning opportunities to interact and create with physical systems. There is a wide range of exciting applications in agriculture, transport, education and environmental monitoring, which is likely that the Engineering Professor of Colade encouraged his team’s monitoring drone project, which faced difficulties.

Access to hardware remains a bottleneck

While the bottlenecks in hardware access to students and researchers in Africa have decreased since my time as a student, obstacles persist. As the collade is attached, both scolastic funding and supply chain have significant challenges. It hinders learning and puts a big financial burden on young people. As Colade states, students should exclude their undergraduate projects from their pockets, which should create significant obstacles to people with limited financial resources.

The AirQO project (Circuit Board shown here) provides students’ 3D printers, soldering stations and basic sensor boards and components.Andrew Essebo

Electronics components should often be obtained from outside the continent, mainly from China, Europe or United States. While the number of online stores has increased, the order from order to delivery can be several months. This is not uncommon for inexpensive shipping options for the requirement of 60 days or more, while rapid delivery options can be many times more expensive than hardware. Online shopping, while often required, presents an indispensable complexity for students and faculty, especially if they have limited access to credit and debit cards. Conversely, students in Europe can achieve their components within a week, allowing them to complete a hardware project and introduce new recurrence before their counterparts in Africa, even receive their hardware for the initial building. What is more, some vendors together with real or perceived customs complications cannot choose a ship for addresses in Africa due to transit risks.

Customs and tax withdrawal procedures can actually be a burden, with imported duties up to 75 percent in some countries. While some countries in the region provide tax exemption for educational resources, such discounts are often difficult to obtain for individual components, or procedures are unclear and cumbersome. Local vendors, most of the startups and tech hubs, are emerging, but they often have sufficient stock deficiency and may not be able to fulfill wholesale orders from educational institutions.

Hardware access can accelerate education

In the light of these challenges, universities and students can be wooed to transfer their attention to purely software projects or otherwise their priorities can be replaced. However, it limits both education and innovation. Engineering projects that include both hardware and software, awaken the creativity of students and promote depth skills.

Africa should seek viable solutions. University programs should increase their support of students by providing special manufacturers equipped with essential hardware and electronic components and fabrication hubs. The emergence of high-end manufacturers is encouraging, but attention should be on providing the required component, such as the sensor. Students can learn a lot only in manufacturers who have 3D printers, but no 3D-printing filament, or printed circuit board construction and assembly, but there is no sensor component.

Community groups and workshops focused on hardware projects can help remove accessibility challenges. These communities can tap in global open-sources hardware groups for education and research. Data science AfricaA non -profit organization that trains Africans in data science and machine learning has run a hardware session, which may probably be scalled to reach many more students. The emergence of research teams working on large -scale projects related to the development and deployment of hardware systems also presents opportunities for students and employees to access facilities and prototypes. Showing hardware projects from the continent and sharing lessons learned, can motivate new projects. For example, at the University of Mekere – where I are now a computer science professor and chairman of the department – Airco The project, which focuses on environmental sensation, provides access to major equipment including 3D printers, soldering stations and basic sensor boards and other electronic components.

Despite the delay in supply-series, import duties, and limited local vendors, which continue to obstruct access to hardware in African universities, finding creative ways to create, innovate and learn engineering students and teachers of the continent. The emergence of makers and research projects such as leading SMS platforms and AirQO ranging from rural Uganda to my own journey to the global open-source network from my own journey to allied communities, Africa is constantly shutting down technology differences.

The question is no longer whether African students can compete in hardware innovation – how soon it will recognize the world how soon some groundbreaking solutions of yesterday are being prototypeped in laboratories from Kampala to Cape Town. They are being made by students such as Oluvatocin Colade, who learned for engineer solutions with whatever he can achieve his hands. Imagine what they can do if they had access to equal resources in a graduate school. African engineering ability is infinite, but to reach our full capacity, we need access to technology that is more easily available in most parts of the world.