JKUAT/MIT AITI-x mentioned on Google Africa Blog

Three AITI students from Jomo Kenyatta University (JKUAT) have organized a Java mobile application development course (the JKUAT Endeavor Program) at JKUAT. The course covers intermediate Java, SMS, J2ME, and Android. It also includes a mobile application development competition.

Read the full post here

JKUAT/MIT AITI-x: Competition Proposal Presentation

On Wednesday 21st October 2009, the students presented ideas for their entries to the Mobile Application Development Competition. Also present for the presentations were Mr. Ken Odhiambo, Ag. Chairman Department of Computing – JKUAT and Mrs. Agnes Mindila, a lecturer in the same department.

Senteu selling their M-Chuo idea

A total of 12 groups presented their ideas to the class. The groups were queried and adviced on how best to improve their ideas. Mrs. Agnes gave highlights to the students on presentation and public speaking skills stressing on their importance.

The presentations went on well and the project ideas were beyond what the instructors had envisioned before. Below is a montage of the presentations of the groups.

JKUAT/MIT AITI-x: Competition & Guest Lectures

All students are required to enter in Mobile Application Competition for the completion of the mobile application development course. The competition requires 2 deliverable from each entry:

• A presentation to a panel of Judges, and
• A working demonstration of your idea/service

The final presentations will be held on Saturday, 7th November 2009. We will also have guest lectures Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Production on the same day.

All students are required to enter in Mobile Application Competition for the completion of the mobile application development course. The competition requires 2 deliverables from each entry:

 A presentation to a panel of Judges, and

 A working demonstration of your idea/service

The final presentations will be held on Saturday, 7th November 2009. We will also have guest lectures on the same day.

JKUAT/MIT AITI-x: The Android Week Summary

The Android section of the course was a success despite some few challenges. Samuel gave an introductory lecture on Tuesday 13th October. On Wednesday, the students were taken through the basic android development concepts with an emphasis on the user interface design (Layouts and Views in XML). Also included in the lecture was access and use of resources, writing event-driven applications (OnClickListeners) and use on Intents. The students were given a link to an Android e-book and demonstrated how to use the documentation that comes with Android SDK. We didn’t have a class on Thursday, 15th October 2009 because of the JKUSO 2009 elections and all labs were kept closed.

The students seem to realize the uniqueness of the Android framework; openess, equality of applications, fast and easy application development, and the numerous features. As a result we have three (3) Adroid applications entered for the ongoing Mobile Application Competition.

The New JKUSO Council

The two-week long student campaigns looking to elect one student union –the Jomo Kenyatta University Student Union (JKUSO), came to a climax Thursday, October 15, 2009 when students in all JKUAT campuses flocked the polling stations to elect their leaders who will guide them through the next 2009/2010 academic year.

By the way, the guy who rocked the yellow, convertible BWM won. He is now the Entertainment Secretary. Read the full article here.

The JKUSO Elections 2009

Today the students go to the polls to elect 36 officials of the new look central student union body; the Jomo Kenyatta University Students Union (JKUSO). The new JKUSO constitution now operational saw the demobilization of the three unions (JKUHRDA, JKUADSA, JKUITCSO) then existing under the former constitution into a single union – JKUSO. This time students in all campuses (Juja, Nairobi, Mombasa & Taita Taveta) will be voting for the same leaders. The elections have attracted over 100 candidates.

This year, the campaigns have been very big. A year ago I remember the chairperson contenders used to go round the campus in one car being hailed by their supporters. This time round, it’s a different story. The candidates are moving around in motorcades of 5 or more vehicles. Let me not even start on the number of motorcycle escorts in these motorcades. This time they have gone all presidential!

A hired matatu being put to good use!

In the past two weeks we’ve had live concerts from Mejja and Juliani (who apparently is quite short in person). These were courtesy of the candidates vying for the Entertainment Secretary position. One of them has been doing his campaigns in a yellow, sleek convertible BMW.

The Yellow Bima

JKUAT/MIT AITI-x: Android application development lectures begin

This is the fifth week of the course and the lectures on Android phone application development have began. Yesterday, Samuel gave the introductory lecture on the Android framework. Students were taken through the steps on how to install the Android SDK and configuring the Eclipse IDE for android application development.

The students got a feel of the phone which was provided by the Google Kenya office and were awed by its many features and were greatly motivated to embark on developing android applications. Many thanks to Google for sponsoring the program.

The first JKUAT/MIT AITI-x Android Application – G Travel

Edwin Mugendi, a JKUAT/MIT AITI-x student, has developed the first Android application he calls G-Travel. The application is meant for people travelling on business or leisure. Edwin is a Computer Science student in his 4th year of study. At the beginning of the training, Edwin displayed good Java programming knowledge and skills  and was encouraged to move ahead of the class.

According to Edwin on full implementation, the application will have the following functionality.

Diary – This enables you to record and manage your experiences using diary notes. It has text-to-speech feature to read your diaries.
Places – This enables you to record and manage places you want to visit while you are traveling. It also enables you to check the weather of the place you are visiting. The places you visit are mapped on to Google Maps.
Photos – This enables you take photos of the place that you are visiting and supports location geo-tagging.
Budget – This enables you to manage your finances while you are on the move.

G Travel Android Application screenshot

So far, the application can manage diary notes. This is very commendable considering that we are yet to start lectures on Android applications (they start tomorrow).

Blog find of the week: Discover JKUAT

A short review of the Discover JKUAT blog by the Kenyan Pundit.

Wow, what an eye-opener. We rarely think of Kenyan public universities as centers of innovation anymore (at least I don’t). So discovering the JKUAT blog has been a revelation. Plus so much of the news around Kenya is negative nowadays, hard to remember why we love our country so much some times.

Highlights for me – insights into mobile development classes taking place there and seeing just how impactful the partnership with MIT-AITI is (different model for aid perhaps…teach skills rather than support corrupt govts?).

Read the full post here

JKUAT/MIT AITI-x: J2ME Applications

Yesterday marked the end of the J2ME section of AITI-x course. The student attendance was affected by the 3rd Computer Science/Computer Technology academic trip and the JKUSO (Student Organization) general elections. Actually one of the students in the class is vieing for a post. Good luck to him!

On Tuesday, Isaac presented a lecture on local mobile applications overview; design philosophy, user interfaces practices, coding practices and communications practices.

Wednesday started with an introduction to J2ME where Isaac covered major J2ME concepts. Later, Samuel presented a lecture on overview of J2ME UI elements after which he demonstrated how to run a hello world J2ME application/Midlet. During the class, students developed a simple J2ME application demonstrating the basic User Interface Concepts.

A Contacts J2ME App developed by the students during the lab