Information and communications technology
CMU-Africa is a regional ICT center of excellence educating future leaders from all over Africa, who will use their hands-on skills and knowledge to advance technology innovation and grow businesses. ICT research at CMU-Africa seeks to identify key opportunities and address challenges in the field of information and communications technology.
Information and communications technology (ICT) seeks to enable the reliable storage, processing, access, and communication of any type of information at any time from or to any location. It involves the convergence of computing and telecommunications equipment, software, algorithms, networks, and enabling regulatory policies. As low-cost access to mobile phones, the Internet, connected devices, and computing spreads in Africa, there are growing opportunities to use ICT to impact banking, healthcare, education, transportation, and more.
The ICT field is broad and may include elements of computer science, electrical engineering, telecommunications.
CMU-Africa's impact on ICT
Researchers at CMU-Africa work in diverse areas including internet and internet of things technology and policy, wireless networks, software development, computer networks, cybersecurity, robotics, mobile applications, smart infrastructure, financial technology, and ICT business and entrepreneurship. CMU is positioned to consider the particular opportunities with ICT for Africa.
ICT has the potential to improve many sectors in health, education, transportation, agriculture, energy, and more. To be effective, ICT needs to be inclusive and relevant in the local context. Some questions that researchers at CMU-Africa are exploring are:
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Where can we build information systems to broadly collect data such as vehicle crash reports, microscope images from rural clinics, or air quality data from low cost sensors in order to improve traffic safety, better manage population health, or address urban pollution?
- How do we build inclusive systems for all parts of society in low-resource communities, among low-literate populations, and assist people with physical challenges?
- How do we ensure that the systems are secure and protect people’s privacy and rights?
- How do we build systems that reflect local languages and unique cultural norms?
- How do we work in environments which may have intermittent connectivity or power?
ICT projects at CMU-Africa
Supporting teachers in rural Côte d'Ivoire
As new forms of teaching are rolled out, teachers in rural areas lack sufficient training and mentoring support. Working in the field, we have identified roles that technology can play to help build communities of support that promote teacher initiative and development. For example, a chatbot-based tool is being tested with 100s of teachers to build the level of peer support and engagement with an innovative teaching program.
Faculty involved: Amy Ogan, Tim Brown
Automatic traffic data management system
The Evidence-based Road Safety: an Automatic Road Traffic Crashes Data Management System (AutoRTC-DMS) project aims to design and bring to the market innovative tools and applications to record, analyze, and share road traffic crashes information in Rwanda. The main deliverables of the AutoRTC-DMS will include: cross-platform, multi-devices mobile applications for road crashes recording and reporting, a repository of road traffic crashes, a web-based dashboard displaying road traffic crashes statistics, and machine learning algorithms for a deeper analysis on road traffic crashes.
Faculty involved: Eric UmuhozaRelated news
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