The Strathmore news service has posted an article covering some details of the bootcamp and Strathmore’s own Mobile Application Competition.

http://www.strathmore.edu/News.php?NewsID=120

While the Judges were deliberating, graduation ceremonies commenced.  Strathmore University organized a program of speeches for our students.  After the speeches, certificates were handed out to the students.  I was facilitating the deliberation session, so I missed the most of the speeches.  However, the rest of the team summarized the speeches for me.

The first speaker was Rose Wahome, Faculty of IT Manager at Strathmore University.  She was followed by faculty of the Strathmore Business School.  The final speaker was Reuben Marwanga, Dean of Strathmore’s IT Department.  The speeches focused on the singular opportunity that our course presented to the students: expert programmers and instructors devoting their summers to the students.  The speakers commended on the appropriateness of our curriculum and our entrepreneurial focus.  Small business opportunities and the entrepreneurial spirit were discussed as well as the ripeness of Kenya’s environment for small business creation.  As related to me, the outpouring of appreciation for the AITI instructors was emotional and overwhelming for the teaching assistants (Zach, Cory, Michelle, and Julian).

Reuben Marwanga during his speech

Michelle gave a speech to the students representing the view of the AITI Teaching Assistants.  I did not witness the speech, but I was told it was impressive.  We have it on video, and we plan to post the speech as soon as it is digitized and edited.  I cannot wait to view it.

Michelle during her speech

I arrived back in the room in the middle of the last speech.  The Judges had decided a winner, and I waited until the speech was complete to announce the decision to the students.  In front of the students, before announcing the winner, I spoke about how impressed the instructors and the judges were with the entries.   I spoke about how important it is to market an idea to potential investors and how the competition was good practice for such a situation.  I talked about some of the qualities of the winning team that the judges found so impressive.  Finally, I announced the winner to uproarious applause.  The members of the winning team, MobiTechno were surprised and overwhelmed, some were crying.  The winners came to the front of the audience for a brief speech and to accept their certificates and prizes.

After MobiTechno were seated we began to hand out certificates to the students.  AITI distributes three types of certificates:

• Certificate of Completion for those students who have successfully completed the course
• Certificate of Diligence for those students who worked particularly hard and showed extreme devotion to the course
• Certificate of Excellence for those students who demonstrated an excellent grasp of programming concepts

Most students earned Completion certification, while 5 students earned Diligence and 5 students earned Excellence.  The students were very excited as we were announcing the recipients of the last two awards, showing much happiness for the recipients.  Furthermore, I said a little about each of the recipients, a short anecdote or description, that amused the audience.  After the certificates were awarded, I spoke of the dedication and sacrifice of the TAs.  Each had worked extremely hard over the course of the program to ensure its success.  The TAs sacrificed better paying jobs for AITI and I (as well as the students) are very grateful.  Finally, I thanked everyone at Strathmore and Google who helped us deliver the course: Rose Wahome, John Matogo, Esther Gathenya, Belinda Nichols, Susie Vaks, and Elena Spitzer.  AITI tried many different and ambitious ideas for this program, and they could not have been successful without the help of these organizations and individuals.

Next, Jimmy Gathage, a member of the class, was selected to give a speech representing the students’ view.  The speech was wonderful.  It touched on their extreme appreciation and how much they learned from the course.  I was very emotional, as were the TAs.  Thank you Jimmy.

I am sure that I’m forgetting much, as it was a whirlwind day.  Our final event of the day was a reception organized by Strathmore.  The students, AITI instructors, and Strathmore faculty congregated in Strathmore’s beautiful reception hall for food and merriment.  It was an release of friendship and camaraderie that was built over the 6 weeks of the course.  Now the students and instructors could interact with less formality, as friends, and cut loose!

I’m still reflecting over the 6 weeks of the course and I will continue to update the blog with my thoughts and any news.  I believe the course was a great success and I learned much for future courses.  As mentioned, we changed AITI greatly as compared to previous years and I feel that this iteration was a big step in the right direction.  I look forward to our students’ comments regarding the course.  AITI does not end after the course is completed.  We encourage our students to remain in contact with us, employing email and our forums.  We are available to our students.

Today was the culmination of the course, the Mobile Application Competition.  The competition began this past Friday when the groups had to submit their business plans.  The business plans were distributed to the judges so that they could prepare themselves for the competition. Today the students presented their application (service) ideas to our panel of Judges.

You can find all of the business plans and presentations on our wiki:

http://aiti.mit.edu/wiki/index.php?title=MAC_Kenya_2009

We also recorded videos of each of the presentations.  We will post the videos as soon as we digitize and edit the footage.

With the judges arrayed in the front row, the 7 groups each had 20 minutes to present their idea to the panel.  None of the AITI instructors were included in the panel.  The presentations included a slide deck covering the basics of service, the financials, market research, competition, and 5-year plan.  Please view the presentations from the above link.  If you do, you will see how much work went into each of the presentations.  During the course of the class, students were given pointers and advice regarding presentation style and delivery method.

MoTickets Presentation

Forex Finder Presentation

The groups also needed to demonstrate a working implementation of the common use cases of the service.  The groups deployed SMS servers, client-side (mobile-side) J2ME applications, and databases for these demos.  Much work went into these technical demos and all worked flawlessly.  The groups were encouraged to interact with the judges and demonstrate their services so that the judges were excited.   Groups handed out phones to the judges, displayed emulated interactions on the screen, and some even asked the judges to use their own phones to interact via SMS with their service.

Brass Technologies Demo

MobiTecho Demo

The students took the competition very seriously.  As you can see by the images, most dressed to impress, and had well-polished presentations.  All of our students are engineers (software developers), and we realize that for many of them, this type of task is difficult.  However, the presentations were exciting and professional, with many questions from the judges.

Point U Right Demo

After the 7 presentations (which ran only 30 minutes late), I took the judges to the deliberation room.  I led them in a discussion to decide the winning team and the runner up.  This deliberation lasted about 30 minutes with the judges.  As we went around the room, a clear winner emerged: MobiTechno.

MobiTechno’s flagship service is to provide users with a database of prices for goods and services.  This database is updated by users and is searchable by users.  Content is fully built by users.  When the user encounters a good deal, he/she can update the system with a report via SMS or a J2ME application.  The service tracks fare prices, goods, services, properties, and traffic.  Please see their business plan and presentation available from the link above.  The judges were very impressed with MobiTechno’s demo, the polish of their presentation, and (of course) the potential for the idea.

MobiTechno with Certificates

The runner-up was Forex Finder.  The idea behind this service is to provide information for those seeking to exchange funds from one currency to another, a common task for both tourists and native Kenyans.  The group has created a system to capture the exchange structure (rates, fees, etc.) for forex bureaus.  Bureaus register with the service to advertise themselves.  Users can query the system via SMS or J2ME by providing their location, the currency and amount of money to exchange, and desired final currency.  The system will return the bureaus that will give the user the most money in the final currency also factoring in distance to the bureaus.  The bureaus can also update the system with any rate or fee changes securely via SMS or J2ME.

The instructors recognize and congratulate all of the groups for their hard work and dedication.  Each of the ideas from the competition could be spun into a viable business.  The atmosphere for the class for the last week was electric: the spirit of competition combined with inter-group assistance.  The goal of this class, even more so than creating expert programmers, was to create technical entrepreneurs: individuals who can see opportunities and understand what it takes to turn an idea into an actual business.  I feel that the course has achieved this goal.

We also thank the Judges of the competition.  Each Judge gave us the afternoon, listening attentively, asking questions, and taking notes.  We greatly appreciate that each judge could sacrifice an afternoon of work for AITI, and we are thankful for their expertise and opinions.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the teams.  We know that a few of them plan to follow through with creating a business from their idea.  We recognize the difficulties that exist in Kenya when founding a small business, and AITI will help our former students with contacts, funding opportunities, and technical advice.

The day before the Mobile Application Competition the class took a trip to Kenya’s Mount Longonot.  23 students and 3 instructors (Cory was injured and Michelle was sick) woke up early to scale Mount Longonot and hike the rim of the dormant volcano.    From wikipedia: “The gate is around 2150 m asl and the peak at 2780 m asl but following the jagged rim involves substantially more than the 630 m vertical difference.”  The instructors had a blast hiking with the students.

Everyone starting off on the hike:

The hikers at the start

The group that reached the rim:

Group that reached the rim

The group that reached the peak of the rim:

At the rim's peak

Everyone after the hike:

At the gates of the park

The business plans for the entries in the Mobile Application Competition were due at 5pm today.  We required that the students submit their business plans 3 days before the presentations so that the judges have time to peruse the plans prior to the competition.

Speaking of our judges, let me introduce you to the panel:

• Denis Gikunda, Localization Project Manager, Google Kenya
• Jeremiah Kamau, Geographic Specialist, Google Kenya
• Jack Maina, Head of Solution Development, Safaricom
• Will Mworia, Mobile Application Development Expert (previously Microsoft and AITI 2005 Graduate)
• Isis Nyong’o, Business Development Manager, Google Kenya
• Jackie Rajuai, Geographic Consultant, Google Kenya
• Dr. Joseph Sevilla, Faculty of Information Technology, Strathmore University
• Andrew Wachira, Technical Support Associate, Google Kenya

We are very excited to have such a distinguished panel of judges.  We thank all of the judges for agreeing to participate.  We also thank the organizations and companies are helping with the competition: Google, Safaricom, and Strathmore University.

Visit to University of Nairobi, originally uploaded by zekeafroid.

Strathmore University was closed today for graduation so the team took this opportunity to visit the campuses of the University of Nairobi. We were invited by our students and faculty at the University to tour the computing facilities. This year, we have 6 students from the University of Nairobi participating in the class. The instructors are extremely impressed by these students.

The School of Computing arranged a very nice welcome for us that included a tour of the facilities and a meeting with the school’s Director. Afterward, I met with Professor Peter Waiganjo and Tutorial Fellows Lawrence Muchemi and Stephen Mburu. We discussed the possibility of holding future AITI programs at the university and for AITI to help them launch entrepreneurial computer science programs.

Pictured above from left to right: Lawrence Muchemi, Zach, Stephen Mburu, Professor Peter Waiganjo, Derek, Erick, Michael, Julian, Cory, Michelle, and Helen.

Cory had this to say about the visit:

Outside of preparations for future programs, we enjoyed exploring the campus and chatting with our students. We remarked on U. Nairobi’s “campus feel” that we associate with universities back home. Moreover, it’s good to meet our students outside of class. Though we spend a lot of time coding with our students, we don’t often get the chance to interact with them in other settings. In short, Friday afternoon managed to be both productive and pleasantly enjoyable for us.

Will Mworia Guest Lecture, originally uploaded by zekeafroid.

Today Will Mworia gave a guest lecture that focused on his experiences as a developer in Kenya. Will is a former student of AITI. He successfully completed AITI’s 2005 Kenya program held at Strathmore University. He was a member of the team that won the Business Plan competition held at the end of the course.

Will’s guest lecture was delivered in a personal style that encouraged student participation. He reminisced about the 2006 AITI program and how much it affected him. He described it as “life-changing”. Will then described the path his life took after AITI: continuing his education in Canada, working for Microsoft, developing applications for the iPhone, and finally starting his own business.

His insights and experiences gave the students an exemplar for the their own plans and dreams.

Cory had this to say about Will’s talk:

Will walked us through the phases of a Microsoft or Google interview and gave some advice on how to prepare for the tricky, mathematical questions that interviewers tend to ask (read How Would You Move Mount Fuji?). He explained that interviewers care a lot about whether an interviewee can think logically as logic is the key to good programming. Of AITI, Will said that “it changed my life” and though the AITI diploma is not itself widely recognized, having the MIT name looks very good on a resume. Thanks for the kind words, Will.

Will spoke effusively about technical entrepreneurship in the modern world, saying that it fostered an environment that valued skills rather than connections. “Java is Java” he said, noting that our students could compete for jobs around the world, perhaps even with the MIT instructors! It was a good moment to remember that I am an economics major. As an example of the global nature of software development, he mentioned a job he had where the workers communicated entirely through chat. Even though they never met and never spoke on the phone, the work was still of superb quality.

For this last week the groups are busy completing their entries for the Mobile Application Competition.  The competition will be held on Monday the 20th.  Each entry includes 3 components: a written business plan, a working demo of the mobile application, and a presentation to be presented to the panel of judges.  The AITI instructors have cleared most of the time this week so that the students can work on their entries.  The students are very motivated by the $2000 USD prized awarded to the winning team.  Although the atmosphere is very competitive, individuals are making time to help other groups with technical and business issues.  Of course, the instructors are also helping the students with all aspects of their entries.

Here are some pictures from the last few days.

Eric working with two phones at once!

Julian giving advice regarding user interface

Group debugging with MobiTechno

Simon helping another group (MobiPages)

Today I gave a lecture that covered the general concept of threads followed by an introduction to threads in Java.  This lecture did not have slides for the first part because I wanted to give a very intuitive introduction to the concept of threads with many illustrations (although I cannot draw well on the whiteboard!).  For the Java specifics, the lecture followed an ebook we distributed during class.  There have been many questions regarding threads and how they relate to some of the code we have distributed.  This lectured cleared up many of the lingering questions and gave the students a firm foundation for the difficult concept of threading.

Hello readers.  You have probably noticed that we have failed to update the blog for a good 2 weeks.  Don’t fret, we have been working hard delivering an effective course!  Tonight, we had a flurry of activity on the blog.  If you look below, you will find about 10 post that look back over the last 2 weeks.  We have back-dated the posts to maintain the proper chronological order.

The team cannot believe that the course is in its final week.  We are holding the Mobile Application Development Competition on Monday July 20th.  We have assembled a distinguished panel of Judges.

Our students are now hard at work on their final projects/competition entries.  I have been observing our students and talking to them about the course.  Without being overly effusive, I’m thrilled with the success of the course!  Our students can now think of an idea and implement it.  One example: a student decided that he wanted to offer an SMS service that allowed users to check the status of their ID application.  In one night, he designed a fully deployed system solution.   AITI’s SMS, HTTP, and Regular Expressions curriculum allowed him to rapidly develop a solution.  We gave him a modem so that he can deploy his system.

The course is structured such that it changes the attitude of each student.  The guest lectures, our entrepreneurship lecturers, and our competition have combined to develop our students’ entrepreneurial spirit.  The technological prowess of the MIT instructors allows us to help the students when stuck and give them expert advice on their designs.  As demonstrated by our students’ role in the Mobile Bootcamp, our students are now on their way to being leaders of computer science in East Africa, ready to spread their knowledge.

Even the students that came into AITI with good programming experience have benefited greatly from our indepth coverage of Java and real-world mobile technologies. We provided them with curriculum and a software infrastructure that allows them to develop and deploy SMS-based services with little capital investment.  Our J2ME currriculum focuses user interface design for mobile applications.  We believe this is the most important aspect to mobile application development.  Our students are now creating useable and intuitive interfaces for their services.  Our coverage of Java, foundational for the rest of the course, has turned many of our students into accomplished software developers, now seeing their environment as full of opportunites for technological solutions.