Amos Gichamba, a Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) student won the second mobile application competition and was presented with a cheque of Kshs50,000 by the Kenya ICT Board and a data enabled cell phone, a 3G modem and Kshs 5,000/- airtime from Safaricom on Thursday, 24th September.

The theme of the competition was 'Mobile Applications for Development in Africa'. Participants developed applications in the fields of M-Learning, M-Health and M-Agriculture. Amos' winning application is called M-Kulima. It seeks to bring efficiency and effectiveness in the milk buying and selling process between the farmers and the milk buyer, in this case a SACCO. Using the application, a milk agent can send the amount of milk collected from a farmer to a remotely accessed database. Also, the SACCO administrator can retrieve information such as the collections done by the SACCO, individual farmer records, etc.

The application consists of a Java ME application and an SMS (short messaging system) application. The Java ME application runs on a Java enabled mobile phone with the capability to send and receive data using http (hyper text transfer protocol). On the other hand, the SMS Application runs from a remote server, with a Mobile Gateway plugged into it (A mobile phone or USB GSM Modem). The SMS application receives and sends SMS messages over a mobile subscriber's network via the mobile gateway.

Kenya ICT Board Directors Dr Catherine Adeya and Mr Solomon Mukenion presented the cheque to Amos while Mr Robert Mugo, Safaricom's Chief Information Officer presented the awards from the firm. Mr Mugo said Safaricom was working closely with the University in developing products and adding value to them. He added that software developers should also embrace entrepreneurship and think about the value they unlock with their innovations.

Dr Adeya, an academic and ICTs consultant lauded the Faculty of Information Technology's curriculum. "I looked at Strathmore (ICT) curriculum. It is well thought out. It was a breath of fresh air. The University should keep it up," she said.

Dr Joseph Sevilla, the lead researcher of the Mobile applications Research Group in the Faculty of Information Technology said that the University would provide students with servers and phone sets to run and tests applications. He said that the information and resources available over the internet now put students in developing countries like Kenya on the same footing as students in developed countries.

Dr Sevilla's sentiments were echoed by Dr Adeya who said that the internet had leveled the academic field as far as access to resources goes. She also said that she was concerned that only one mobile application was deemed up to standard by the judges and urged the students to up their game.

The third mobile boot camp will be held on 19th - 21st of November 2009. It will be open to both undergraduate and post-graduate students from within and outside Strathmore.