Inaugural Mobile Boot Camp held

Dr Reuben Marwanga, Acting Dean, Faculty of Information Technology opened the camp

The University's inaugural Mobile Boot Camp was held was held on 28th and 29th of November. About 100 information technology developers (programmers) and students attended the event. Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre (SRCC) hosted the event in collaboration with the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT).

The camp consisted of both theoretical and practical sessions. Participants gained insights on the telecom world and the Mobile Application Development scenario.

The sessions on the first day were facilitated by Zain and covered topics such as Telecom Billing Systems, Call Centre Technologies, Data Warehousing Telecom Data, Providing Content for Mobile Operators, and Mobile Application Development using SimToolKit (STK).

Other facilitators included Ericsson, Skunkworks, Symbiotic, Interactive Media Services and Seven Seas Technologies. The practical sessions were covered on the second day and comprised development using J2ME (Java Micro-Edition), Python, Blackberry and iPhone facilitated by developers from Skunkworks.

Participants said the event was well-organised and very informative. "The event was generally good. It was an eye opener," said Lydia Were, a participant. Another participant, Dennis Osoe said it was real good for an for a first-time event.

"The demand for more practical sessions and future mobile boot camps from the participants is very inspiring. Hence, it will become an annual event," said Jessica Colaco, the event's organiser.

Currently, there is an on-going Mobile Boot Camp Competition. Mobile applications must be submitted to Jessica Colaço at: jessica.colaco@srcc.co.ke by Friday 19th December, 11.59 pm. (Nairobi Time). Mr Paul Kukubo, CEO of the Kenya ICT Board pledged that the board will award cash prizes to the best mobile applications in J2ME, Python and Blackberry.