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Vol 1:Issue 1: March 2015
Table of Contents
- Four University Teams win Raspberry Pi Student-Owned Laboratory KENET Mini-Grants
- KENET Capacity Building Calendar 2015
- An outlook on the KENET Graduate Trainee Program. Exclusive interview with Mr. John Saruni
- Three Things to Know About Broadband
- Joan Masai attends APRICOT- APAN meeting in Japan
- Broadband Access in South Eastern Kenya University
Four University Teams win Raspberry Pi Student-Owned Laboratory KENET Mini-Grants
Out of ten highly competitive proposals from different institutions competing for the award of the Raspberry Pi project grant, four proposals won $10,000 mini-grant award each! The winning proposals were; ‘Re-imagining electrical engineering education using Raspberry Pi” from Dedan Kimathi University of Science and Technology; the project is led by Dr. Ciira Maina a lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, “Use of Raspberry Pi in teaching ICT courses at Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST)” from MUST; the project is led by Mr. Daniel Maitethia a lecturer in the Department of Physical Sciences, “Leveraging the Raspberry Pi kit for laboratory experiments” from United States International University (USIU) – Africa; the project is led by Dr. Sylvester Namuye a lecturer in the School of Science and Technology and “Integration of the Raspberry Pi or equivalent low cost computers as student-owned teaching labs for engineering” from the University of Nairobi (UoN); the project is led by Prof. Ouma Absalom a lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering. (http://raspberry.kenet.or.ke)
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KENET Capacity Building Calendar 2015
The KENET 2015 training calendar is out. This year, KENET plans to hold four (4) residential courses for the purpose of strengthening our member institutions technical capacity in both academic and research areas. The calendar and full details of the planned courses can be downloaded from the KENET website or by clicking on the link (http://training.kenet.or.ke/index.php?title=Main_Page).
The first course for 2015 is the Scalable Campus Network Training which will be held in the week of April 13th to 17th, 2015. The nomination of trainees is on-going with the deadline for submission being Friday, 6th March, 2015. Nominations can be sent to Maureen Njue (mnjue@kenet.or.ke) or Nelisa Mwongera (nmwongera@kenet.or.ke).
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An outlook on the KENET Graduate Trainee Program. Exclusive interview with Mr. John Saruni
Mr. Seur John Saruni was appointed as a Graduate Trainee in Information Systems and Communication on 1st July 2014. He is a graduate of Kenyatta University, where he pursued a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication and Information Technology. He also attended the Kenyatta University CISCO networking academy where he acquired certification in the following; Network Fundamentals, Routing Protocols and Concepts, LAN Switching and Wireless, and Accessing the WAN.
Briefly share your experience of the graduate trainee program?
I have found the program to be very informative, fascinating and relevant especially to young graduates with no clear picture of which path to take in the broad telecommunication field. Interacting with highly qualified, motivated and experienced team of experts on a daily basis makes every work day a worthwhile learning experience. I would encourage other engineering and IT graduates to take advantage of this well-structured program to kick-start to their careers.
Three Things to Know About Broadband
The late Stephen Covey in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” introduced the term BIG STONES, as a way of identifying the important issues that each of us or our organizations must focus on first in order to be effective. One of KENET’s 2015 big stones is, “deployment of KENET-owned last mile broadband connectivity up to 20 main campuses of universities, university colleges, research institutions and other Government affiliated institutions”.
Broadband has proven to not only increase economic development, but also to have a positive impact on the productivity of organizations. According to a United Nations report released February 2013, “broadband connectivity has the potential to transform education by giving teachers and students access to learning resources and technologies that will allow them to improve their skills in the context of a globalized economy”.
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Joan Masai attends APRICOT- APAN meeting in Japan
Ms. Joan Masai, Assistant Network Administrator at KENET was awarded the Abha Ahuja bursary that has allowed her to attend the APRICOT/APNIC 2015 meeting in Fukuoka, Japan from 24th February to 6th March 2015.
The Abha Ahuja Fellowship Award was established in memory of Abha Ahuja, who was involved and committed to many activities in the Internet community (https://nsrc.org/abha_ahuja_bursary/).
The aim of Abha Ahuja Fellowship Award is to allow engineers from developing economies to attend an international Network Operators Group (NOG) meeting or a Regional Internet Registry (RIR) meeting (http://www.afnog.org/abha_ahuja_bursary/). The Bursary targets individuals from developing countries who are actively involved in internet development, in any of the following roles; Engineers (Network Builders), operational and infrastructure support personnel, educators, teachers, and trainers. Ms. Masai was nominated by her trainers for the bursary at the last African Network Operators’ Group (AFNOG) training, which she attended in November 2013 in Djibouti.
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Broadband Access in South Eastern Kenya University
On 11th February 2014, the KENET team visited South Eastern Kenya University (SEKU). The University main campus is located in Kitui County in a serene and conducive learning environment, 12 Kilometers off Kwa Vonza Market, along the Kitui-Machakos main road. SEKU has witnessed tremendous growth and currently offers various certificate, diploma, undergraduate and post graduate programmes. The University has other campuses namely Kitui Town Campus, Machakos Town Campus, Wote Town Campus, Mtito Andei Campus and Nairobi Town Campus. The University has over 6,000 students registered in the various campuses with the bulk of them studying at the University main campus.
The purpose of the visit to SEKU by the KENET team was to light the fiber. The lighting of the fiber would establish a connection between the router (located in Hostel 9) and the Northern block, thus allowing SEKU Community to use the KENET radio that is terminated at the old server room. The lighting of the fiber will provide SEKU with higher capacity link that will allow SEKU constituents to have access to higher and faster bandwidth.
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