@iLabAfrica Theses and Dissertations

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Accessing Maternal Healthcare Information Using A Mobile Application
(2013-11-14) Kioko, Shadrack
The ubiquity and penetration of mobile phones in Sub-Saharan Africa presents the opportunity to leverage maternal care information provision in both prenatal and postnatal cases. The slow progress and funding constraints in attaining the Millennium Development Goals for child and maternal health encourage harnessing innovative measures, such as mHealth, to address these public health priorities. Mobile health (mHealth) encompasses the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia into increasingly mobile and wireless health care delivery systems and has the potential to improve tens of thousands of lives each year. Being pregnant can be very challenging to mothers especially if they are expecting for the first time. In Kenya, many women rely on information that is down from one to another which may not be accurate as experience from each pregnancy can be different from one pregnancy to the other and from one person to another. Matters are made worse when information past down is mixed with cultural taboo. The aim of this research was to determine the challenges expectant women face when accessing maternal healthcare information in Kenya, to determine the current sources of the information and their limitations, determine the design requirements, the best mobile platform to develop the mobile application on and lastly to develop and test the mobile application. The findings of this research show that only a few expectant women currently access information from Internet sources. In developed countries, mobile phones are widely used to provide maternal healthcare information through mobile applications, SMS. In Kenya, few women use mobile and Internet to access this information because they rely on books, stories and doctors information which they receive rarely. The research established that mHealth has a great potential in increasing access to maternal information in developing countries. LEA, a Java based mobile application, was developed to provide maternal healthcare information to expectant women. It represents a proof of concept that mobile applications lead to sustainable prenatal and neonatal mHealth services.
Accessing maternal healthcare information using a mobile application
(Strathmore University, 2012-10) Kioko, Shadrack; Sevilla, Joseph (Dr.); Marwanga, Reuben (Dr.); Kiraka, Ruth (Prof.)
The ubiquity and penetration of mobile phones in Sub-Saharan Africa presents the opportunity to leverage maternal care information provision in both prenatal and postnatal cases. The slow progress and funding constraints in attaining the Millennium Development Goals for child and maternal health encourage harnessing innovative measures, such as mHealth, to address these public health priorities. Mobile health (mHealth) encompasses the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia into increasingly mobile and wireless health care delivery systems and has the potential to improve tens of thousands of lives each year. Being pregnant can be very challenging to mothers especially if they are expecting for the first time. In Kenya, many women rely on information that is down from one to another which may not be accurate as experience from each pregnancy can be different from one pregnancy to the other and from one person to another. Matters are made worse when information past down is mixed with cultural taboo. The aim of this research was to determine the challenges expectant women face when accessing maternal healthcare information in Kenya, to determine the current sources of the information and their limitations, determine the design requirements, the best mobile platform to develop the mobile application on and lastly to develop and test the mobile application. The findings of this research show that only a few expectant women currently access information from Internet sources. In developed countries, mobile phones are widely used to provide maternal healthcare information through mobile applications, SMS. In Kenya, few women use mobile and Internet to access this information because they rely on books, stories and doctors information which they receive rarely. The research established that mHealth has a great potential in increasing access to maternal information in developing countries. LEA, a Java based mobile application, was developed to provide maternal healthcare information to expectant women. It represents a proof of concept that mobile applications lead to sustainable prenatal and neonatal mHealth services.
An automatic number plate recognition system for car park management
(Strathmore University, 2016-06) Mutua, Simon Mandi
With an increased number of motor vehicles on the Kenyan roads, there is need for a vehicle identification mechanism that is effective as well as timely. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is an internationally recognized methodology that is used in vehicle identification. ANPR systems allow for real time recognition of a vehicle’s number plate. Vehicle parking is an important component within any transportation system, whereby vehicles must be parked at every destination. Most vehicles are parked most of the time during the day. There has been a problem with the car park entry registration process for visitor/staff/student entering the Strathmore University. The problem involves a security guard having to confirm membership details by checking for membership sticker on the windscreen of the vehicle or by checking the driver’s identification card. The security guard has then to record by writing onto an occurrence book the vehicle details include vehicle number plate, color, model, entry/exit timings as well as the ticket number assigned to the vehicle. This process of writing is tedious and time consuming and is also prone to inaccurate recordings, furthermore the backup and sharing of this vehicle information is difficult because the data is hard copy. This dissertation has its basis on the adoption of software solution operating on a mobile device that has ANPR capabilities to aid in vehicle identification and vehicle registration. The software application that was developed adopted an object oriented analysis and design methodology, the software developed implements Optical Character Recognition (OCR) using the mobile device camera to detect and capture the vehicle number plate. This resulted in the elimination of the pen and paper that were required in the registration process and introduced a faster electronic means of vehicle identification and vehicle registration as well as an easier means of vehicle data storage and vehicle data sharing.
A Blockchain-based prototype for car registration
(Strathmore University, 2020) Njoroge, Nikita Thuo
Vehicle registration is an important exercise as it assists various departments including motor vehicle authorities, the police and tax authorities to make use of vehicle registration details for purposes of determining legitimate vehicle owners. Various methods including mobile and web technologies have been adopted in the registration of motor vehicles. However, inconsistencies have always emerged in the vehicle ownership details. Current vehicle registration systems have not been able to mitigate against the threat of tampering with vehicle owners’ details or at least keep track of the fraudulent transactions in the system. This has informed the need to review the current motor vehicle registration systems as well as the challenges faced in the registration of vehicle ownership details. Based on the weaknesses of the current systems this research focused on developing a prototype based on the blockchain technology that ensured there was proper trail of all the transactions that were performed in the system including vehicle registration, transfer of vehicle ownership as well as confirmation of ownership transfer. The proposed development of the product adopted agile methodology in its software development lifecycle. With known participants needed in a vehicle registration system, the study established that a permissioned blockchain was best suited to create the blockchain network. Hyper ledger Fabric framework was therefore used to create the blockchain network, the reason being it is an enterprise grade, permissioned, distributed ledger technology platform for use in enterprise contexts. This means Hyper ledger Fabric offers features that are required or essential in enterprise applications. Android platform was used for development of the mobile application and Angular JS used for the web portal. The tests done on the prototype were functional testing with 70% of the test cases indicating satisfied. Usability testing with 85% of the responses indicating that the system was user friendly. Finally, compatibility testing with the mobile application running efficiently on most of the Android versions and the web application was compatible with the major web browsers, Internet Explorer version 4 and above, Mozilla Firefox version 4 and above and Google chrome on all versions.
A Career guidance mobile application based on personality
(Strathmore University, 2017) Too, Faith
Providing secondary school students with early and ongoing exposure to experiences, information necessary to make informed decisions when selecting a career that connects to academic preparation and future aspirations has been left to career counsellors. However, not all schools are privileged to have them and even those who have them, these career counsellors also have other subjects to teach and this leaves them with limited time to attend to all the students or even plan for activities or forums on career guidance. This has denied secondary school students adequate career guidance that ought to help them relate their academics and extra curriculum activities to their career goals.This research provides a comprehensive study of the career guidance situation in the country and globally, the factors that ought to be considered for successful career guidance and the existing solutions. The collection of data was done using document reviews and questionnaires this was useful in identifying the improvements that need to be made in the way career guidance is done currently. Analysis of the data collected was done using Google analysis tool and the results used to come up with system requirements. Agile methodology was adopted as the software methodology for developing the application.The solution is a mobile application that can be introduced to students early enough to enhance their understanding of personality types and what different careers involve to help in career planning, development and guidance.This will be achieved by use of Holland’s intruments that is the Self Direct Search (SDS) and the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) to match students to career possiblities. A web based application was also developed to be used by professionals in offering guidance to students and for administrative purposes. Testing was carried by potential users of the application.
A Centralized credit scoring prototype for micro lending institutions in Kenya
(Strathmore University, 2020-06) Karingithi, Law Maina
Microlending involves giving small loans to people in need. Usually, these loans are issued to entrepreneurs or those who need extra cash to either expand their businesses or for personal use. Digital lending is becoming a leading source of credit especially to low-income citizens with minimal or no financial footprints in Kenya and other parts of the world. It has quickly become the default way for lenders to service loan requests from borrowers due to the convenience it brings about as well as the increased number of requests that can be processed compared to the traditional way that required quite an amount of paper work. As the number of lending companies grows, there is the need to standardize the credit scoring process and maintain an updated credit activity log for every user. This ensures that lenders are always aware of any other unsettled debts a borrower might have and provides them with the most recent information to assess the risk they face by lending to a borrower. The proposed solution which is a representational state transfer (REST) based web service allows lenders to submit details of loans they have approved and issued to a borrower. The information is used to generate and keep track of the user’s credit score and amount of risk lenders face should they consider to lend to the user. Agile development methodology was used to develop a robust credit scoring prototype and an Android mobile application. The final prototype was tested to ensure that the requirements were met and the functionality working as required. Results of the tests showed the system was able to generate user credit scores and differentiate between good and bad borrowers at an accuracy level of 92%. The average response time for querying a user’s credit score was slightly below a second and this allows lenders to get a response form the system almost instantly. During tests conducted, no system failure or downtime was experienced.
Citizens on Patrol
(Strathmore University, 2013-05) Njeri, Mutheki Tropister
Economies the world over thrive on the existence of security and the upholding of laws, police departments are entrusted with both of this roles. Policing has evolved over many centuries having begun back in the 900 A.D. With time the policing modes and styles have changed to suit the needs of people. An emerging concept in the policing world is known as community policing. It’s a policing model that views communities as police partners in solving crimes. This concept is being adopted both in the developed and developing world with visible success. A notable example is the city of Singapore that has been ranked safest city in the world since 1996. Kenya has also adopted community policing and has implemented it in varying degrees throughout the country. This study found out that communities and police officers are not satisfied with the current implementation of community policing. Among the reasons cited was communication, community members are fearful of being seen at the police stations and thus shy away from reporting crimes to the police officers. This study explored ways mobile technology can be used to counter such problems in community policing making it more efficient and effective. From the research 85% of the respondents regarded mobile technology as a practical and simple way to ease communication in community policing. Confidentiality is an issue that community members regard very highly and they want their communication with the police to maintain confidentiality. Both parties involved in community based policing indicated that they would be willing to use technology in implementing community based policing.
Citizens on patrol: mobile technology in enhancing community policing
(iLabAfrica, 2014) Mutheki, Tropister Njeri
Economies the world over thrives on the existence of security and the upholding of laws, police departments are entrusted with both of these roles. Policing has evolved over many centuries having begun back in the 900 A.D. With time the policing modes and styles have changed to suit the needs of people. An emerging concept in the policing world is known as community policing. It’s a policing model that views communities as police partners in solving crimes. This concept is being adopted both in the developed and developing world with visible success. A notable example is the city of Singapore that has been ranked safest city in the world since 1996. Kenya has also adopted community policing and has implemented it in varying degrees throughout the country. This study found out that communities and police officers are not satisfied with the current implementation of community policing. Among the reasons cited was communication, community members are fearful of being seen at the police stations and thus shy away from reporting crimes to the police officers. This study explored ways mobile technology can be used to counter such problems in community policing making it more efficient and effective. From the research 85% of the respondents regarded mobile technology as a practical and simple way to ease communication in community policing. Confidentiality is an issue that community members regard very highly and they want their communication with the police to maintain confidentiality. Both parties involved in community based policing indicated that they would be willing to use technology in implementing community based policing.
Class attendance monitoring system using NFC technology
(Strathmore University, 2018) Mwangi, Philomena Waithira
The ubiquitous nature of ICT has made it possible to create innovations which have contributed to efficiency across different industries. As such, ICT has been applied in different areas of educational management, from content creation and distribution to electronic assessments. More recently, it has been applied in the monitoring of class attendance in different institutions across the world. Local institutions still rely on manual monitoring of this information, and as such prompted this research which seeks to find a lasting solution to this problem through the application of ICT. NFC technology involves wireless communication between digital devices through the use of electromagnetic signals. This technology has been used for a variety of purposes, especially in electronic payments. The properties of NFC tags which allow identification information to be written on them has made it possible for the technology to be used in place of biometric technologies. NFC has therefore emerged as a means through which identification can be done using a device with an NFC tag and read through an NFC reader. This research presents preliminary information relating to the class attendance monitoring process. Informed by the growing need for automation in this process, this document has addressed the challenges and opportunities for change around manual class attendance monitoring. Relevant literature was reviewed in an effort to differentiate a solution that has be applied to the current local situation. The qualitative method was used to obtain information on the challenges faced with the current manual system, and thereafter the prototyping methodology used to develop the solution which is based on the NFC technology. The intention of this research paper was to revolutionize the ways in which attendance information is collected within institutions of higher learning.
A compression-based mobile data collection system: a test case with climatepal project
(Strathmore University, 2014) Rutto, Roy
Data collection is the process of preparing and collecting data as part of accountability and process improvement. Organizations globally, and particularly in the developing countries, are being forced to internalize and account for costs and impacts of environmental and community projects through monitoring and evaluation. Data collection and aggregation is conducted for this purpose and is done using various tools, the most common being paper-based methods. The use of mobile phones for quick-time data collection is increasing rapidly around the world. Mobile-based data collection has proven to be a more efficient tool to perform data collection activities. While current mobile data collection solutions provide the necessary requirements for data collection, they are inefficient in terms of network bandwidth consumed during data transmission, especially when collecting significantly large amounts of data from a large population and a large number of surveyors. This is because as quantity of data increases, this increases the amount of data bandwidth, increasing the time it takes to upload surveys, data bundles consumed and stretches local memory which is limited. There is need to solve these problems through implementation of more efficient data collection systems. This research proposes a mobile-based data collection system that uses data compression methods in order to improve data collection efficiency. To test the proposed data collection model a mobile- web based monitoring and evaluation system was implemented to collect data for an on-going environmental project by Climate Pal Kenya. The findings indicate the efficiency of this approach for mobile-based data collection tool and the effectiveness of the chosen data compression method in reducing the amount of data collected, saving on time, data transmission costs and device storage.
Constituency bursary fund information management application
(Strathmore University, 2017) Nyamboga, Lilian
Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in Kenya has been hailed as one of the most innovative creations of the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC) administration (2003-2007). With the Government working hard to cultivate an image of transparency and inclusiveness for good governance in Kenya, implementation of E-Governance services for creating better relations between citizens and those in power has been a real struggle. ICT has been exploited in this relationship to help transform the accessibility, quality and cost-effectiveness of public services. The emergence of mobile technologies has further accelerated the different sectors of Government in implementing faster and cost-effective means of communication. However, there have been notable challenges in the CDF Bursary Fund application process including but not limited to delayed information relay about commencement of application window and disconnect between CDF bursary officials and the applicants.This dissertation describes a study on the challenges and gaps in the bursary fund application process in the context of technological need. The study identified challenges such as delayed information relay on commencement and updates on disbursements as well as lack student historical data with regards being a bursary beneficiary. The study also aimed to develop, test and validate a mobile application that can be used to solve these challenges. In order to establish the relevant system requirements needed, data collection methodologies including interviews with stakeholders, questionnaires with CDF Bursary applicants were used to highlight the needs of the applicants. This data was then analysed using data analysis tool IDEA and used in the design of the application. Waterfall methodology was then used to develop the mobile application using Android Platform. The application included features that enabled capture of applicants data, SMS updates for applicants at the inception of the application window, after application, and during disbursements process. The application also enabled the applicants to obtain application forms easily during the application window. This solution was tested by the developer and validated by selected users who formed part of the test team. The solution proved to be a viable solution with 90% acceptance levels.
Cross SACCO information sharing and collaboration environment: ucredit mobile application
(Strathmore University, 2019) Mukenya, Edwin Eddy
Savings and Credit Co-operative societies (SACCOs) are the financial arm of the cooperative movement in Kenya. SACCOs have identified with mobile banking applications as a means of cheaply, efficiently accessing SACCOs transaction by their membership. These SACCOs mobile applications are designed to fit individual SACCO policy and Philosophy, locking the membership from access and comparing rival SACCOs service rates and products portfolios on same application. Hence no information sharing or SACCOs collaboration is being supported on these mobile platforms.Nevertheless, modern trends need to be adopted in the cooperative movement that will enable sharing of SACCOs information through mobile technology and inter SACCOs collaboration using mobile phone collaboration tools and thus SACCOs gaining stakeholders’ trust. These factors are important for increasing growth of SACCOs financial base and increase of individual SACCOs potential to grow. Thus, avoid the need for SACCOs to merge, and make SACCOs provide a united front that perpetually creates a large business entity to compete effectively with other large financial institutions such as banks, for customer market share. Entrenching an environment that will make SACCOs able to maintain efficiency and security on financial information access. The mobile application platform will expand delivery of products and services to consumers who are SACCOs members, expand members’ investment options and provide a simplified but high-quality service access to both current and new members.The SACCO collaborative information sharing platform is expected to provide a simplified concept that will enable consumers select services competitively across multiple SACCOs on one platform, consuming less time and reduce options burden to membership and reduce operational burden to individual SACCO.This dissertation is a study into possibility of designing and developing a mobile phone-based SACCO information sharing platform by adopting a collaborative business model. The study will apply theoretical frameworks which have been developed from existing literature on adoption of innovation in the sharing and collaboration application platforms. The factors that could influence SACCOs intention to adopt and use collaborative sharing platforms.
A Cryptography-based system for offline collection, verification and accounting of revenue in County governments
(Strathmore University, 2017) Wanga, Carlton H
An integrated revenue collection system is primarily a cash and receipt management system that incorporates a highly-distributed payment processing system. It enables county governments to consolidate revenue across their operating branches at the end of the day. In the current context of county governments in Kenya, efficient tax collection is highly dependent on validation of payment documents. This has significantly been challenged by the fact that revenue collection has traditionally employed paper-based collection receipts. The research targets to address the challenges of validation of payment receipts in offline revenue collection systems. It supports automation attempts that have been made through the introduction of electronic mobile point of sale terminals. The solution is based on providing an offline model that supports the distributed nature of payment stations. This approach focuses on using cryptography-based techniques to enable offline validation of receipts even in cases of unreliable network connectivity. The aim is to provide a solution that affords ease of both revenue collections for the county governments and payments for the Citizenry while stopping revenue leakages, ensuring reliable verification of payment receipts and maximising of revenue collection by providing reliable accounting reports. The research applies the use of the Waterfall methodology. Waterfall methodology was preferred because it provides better management of timelines and project deliverables. The research lead to the development of a reliable revenue collection system that enables offline receipting and verification of payment receipts in integrated mobile point of sale terminals.
Development of a mobile advertising application for Kenyan businesses: a case study of Mr. Price clothing Store
(iLabAfrica, 2014) Gitau, Stacy Wairimu
The main goal for advertising is to increase sales of the advertised product. An advertisement portrays a particular product in an attractive way so that the product may draw the customer’s attention. An advertisement seeks to convince the consumer that the product is the best choice for the consumer. The current mediums of advertisements being used in Kenya are billboards, newspapers, flyers, radio announcements and advertising through websites on the internet.The aforementioned media of adverting bring with them a number of challenges and the main challenge being high costs of advertising. While this may not be the case for advertising through a website, advertising through the internet faces the problem of customer reach as not all consumers can access the internet all the time to keep themselves updated with the current products being sold. The issue of high costs has made most businesses shy away from advertising themselves since they cannot afford the high costs that are brought along with these traditional mediums of advertising.This dissertation presents the analysis of the Rapid Application Development methodology and development of a mobile advertising application system for businesses in Kenya. The Rapid Application development was considered the suitable methodology for this dissertation because of the time constraint and the methodology’s flexibility to accommodate customer’s changing requirements. The dissertation objectives are; to develop a mobile advertising application for Mr Price clothing store. To test the mobile advertising application developed and to investigate the customer attitude towards the developed mobile advertising application. The investigation of customer attitudes towards the mobile application was done by conducting a survey. The survey was conducted on the customers of Mr Price clothing store. The customers had a positive attitude towards the mobile advertising application and they indicated that they would recommend the application to their friends. The dissertation was carried out successfully and it was indicated that the mobile advertising application would be well received by the Mr Price clothing stores customers. From the study the customers indicate that the developed application is a reliable and efficient platform to showcase products from Mr. Price store. The customers also suggested that the application should have an M-Pesa feature and a reservation feature to make purchase easier.
Development of a mobile application for customer data capture: a case of Cooperative Insurance Company Limited
(Strathmore University, 2014) Chebet, Daizy
Mobile Technology has a high impact on the way of doing business for many insurance firms in Kenya today. Mobile devices are therefore quickly becoming part and parcel for insurance business; this is because mobile devices allow real time access to important insurance data and information. Mobile technology therefore accelerates the speed of mobilizing insurance customers which in turn improves the value proposition of mobile applications and solutions. Technology is inevitable for insurers and has become a catalyst that the insurance companies need so as to keep abreast with the rising needs to real-time business processes of agents and customers. Despite the wide coverage of mobile phones in Kenya, Insurance firms have not ventured a lot into mobile application as a solution to data capture. This may due to a major challenge which is the definition of the line of business to be made mobile. This is because Insurance processes are complex while mobile solutions are simple and easy to use. There are not so much studies done to evaluate the impact of mobile applications (app) on data capture in insurance business. The main goal of this study is to assess whether the implementation of mobile phone has had any influence on data capture and management as a whole. The total population of study was 80 including CYC senior and middle level management staff and back office staff. The location of study was CIC head office at CIC plaza, Mara Road, Upper Hill. The questionnaire and observation methods were used for data collection. The research findings revealed that the majority of the employees had a positive feedback on the implementation of mobile phone app for data capture. Management staff had the opinion that business has improved with the use of mobile app and the app had a relatively low cost. A greater percentage of the CIC back office staff respondents attested that customer complaints related to missing data in the system has reduced with the use of mobile application. Recommendations for further study by the researcher included: Evaluating the influence of the implementation of mobile app on the level of insurance sales, the influence of the use of mobile app for data capture on customer satisfaction and on cost of data capture. The researcher also recommended the use of other research approaches other than descriptive and explanatory models.
Development of a mobile application for road incident reporting in Kenya
(Strathmore University, 2016) Ngichabe, John Kulova
Road users lack a medium where they can report road incidents and complaints directly to the authorities concerned. The authorities lack concrete evidence to solve road incidents since there is no proper road incident reporting system. Road incidents happen everywhere but the witnesses to these road incidents lack a convenient and efficient method to report them. The frequency of road incidents that go unnoticed in Kenya is on the rise especially the hit and run incidents. Since there is no medium to report them, they go unaccounted for and hence the parties responsible are never held responsible. The witnesses to road incidents would rather leave the incident to chance rather than walking to the authorities responsible to report it because they have no convenience of reporting these incidents at the touch of a button. With the increase of smart phones in Kenya, an opportunity exists because of the untapped gap of incident reporting. The proposed solution was to develop a mobile application that can be used to report road incidents. The mobile application was developed on the Android platform. It was developed concurrently with a web application developed in PHP and JavaScript languages to supplement its functionality. The testing of the application was successful and it was strongly agreed by the respondents that the system would be effective in reporting road incidents. Thus the mobile application comes in handy to provide a solution to the way users report road incidents. The recommendations made by users were used to improve the application. The application will allow users to report incidents that happen on the roads. Based on the overall statistics of user testing and evaluation, it is safe to say that the application fulfills its simplicity and usability requirement. Based on the questionnaire responses, the application is generally considered easy to understand and use. The implication of the results of application testing is that the application will come in handy in reporting road incidents thus improving road safety.
Dynamic passenger recovery model for airline disruption management
(Strathmore University, 2017) Mutinda, Almodad Muendo
Airline operations experience schedule disruptions every day. These schedule disruptions require intervention from the airline operations controllers through schedule recovery. In a hub and spoke airline network model, a disruption such as a flight cancellation can affect passenger itineraries in multiple fight legs, making it hard for airlines to re-accommodate disrupted passengers within a short time period. The current airline recovery solutions do not explicitly consider passenger recovery. This dissertation investigates the passenger recovery process by considering the challenges faced by passengers during a schedule disruption, the current solutions used to recover disrupted passengers and how a suitable solution can be designed, developed, tested and validated to ensure that it solves these challenges. Data was collected from existing records of flight schedules and passenger bookings. The data collected was used as input to an optimisation model for passenger recovery. Scrum Agile Development methodology was adopted as the software methodology for developing the solution. A proof of concept web application was developed to make passenger recovery easier and reduce operational cost and passenger delay time. An optimization model was developed based on IBM ILOG CPLEX optimiser to help solve disruptions faster. Testing was conducted by both the developer and a selected sample of airline industry users.
E- Content delivery platform for university students
(iLabAfrica, 2014) Kuria, Karen
The recent growth in the telecommunications field has experienced an exponential increase in network coverage, speed, and technological innovation in Kenya. The growth has also led to increased use of Information Communication Technology in education. The demand for higher education has escalated and many institutions are turning to eLearning to expand their presence online. The demand for local educational content is also increasing with the growth of eLearning in Kenya.There is therefore a need to build capacity for the development and distribution of local e-content.There is need for a platform that enables easy exchange of educational content in Kenya and especially one that incorporates mobile payments systems that are commonly available. Authors of educational content need a way of sharing their content with students for free or at a fee. The purpose of this research was to find out the relevant information and structure that would be suitable in an e-content distribution platform. The researcher studied the current e-content platforms in use by university students by sampling students in five universities.The research was done through interviews and questionnaires. The analysis of the feedback revealed that in as much as most institutions have e-learning platforms, the acquisition and the distribution of e-content was still not as easy. However the study revealed that most of the students were open to the idea of paying for content from a commercial platform.The results of the study were the design and implementation of a content delivery framework that enabled easy exchange of educational content between authors of such content and students. To achieve this a mobile-web based platform which uses DRM to protect downloaded material was developed, which enables authors to upload their materials easily and students to download the material easily thus bridging the gap between availability of e-content and accessibility of e-content for learning purposes.
Embedded System for Vehicle Speed Monitoring
(Strathmore University, 2016) Murakaru, Anne Wamuyu
Speed violations have been classified among the major causes of road accidents in developing countries. Speed control on roadways is critical in reduction of the number of road accidents reported on a day to day basis. It is important to specify speed limits on different sections of the roads in order to alert motorists and drivers of speed regulations at any given time.This study aims to develop a system to help motorists maintain the specified speed limits on roads and capture speed violations in real time. The system is comprised of the following critical parts: an embedded system to be deployed in the vehicle, android mobile application and a web application. The embedded systems’ main functionality is to capture speed violations and transmit data to the central processing server. It is composed of a capacitive display unit, GSM/GPS module, 3 axis accelerometer and an audio buzzer. All these components are integrated to form one functional unit.This research adopted agile software development methodology since it was more flexible to the changing requirements of the users and the developer was able to go back and change the system with user views and recommendations in mind. System testing was done to ensure all functionalities met the specifications. The following tests were performed: Unit and integration testing, user testing, functionality testing, and compatibility and acceptance testing. All aspects were deemed to be working according to the requirements.
Enhancing emergency services access through a mobile based directory
(Strathmore University, 2016-06) Wachira, Patrick Weru
An emergency is any situation that poses an immediate risk to property, life, environment or health. The emergency situations demand urgent intervention to avoid more damage. Worse still, it is usually difficult to predict the occurrence of a given emergency and therefore impacting negatively on response. In most cases, the victims or the people around a given victim lack a reliable and professional contact during emergency periods and might end up increasing the magnitude of the damage. With the advent of mobile technology in Kenya, the previously used printed directories are less popular. It should be noted that emergency contacts in the directories are at times location dependent and do not operate in the victim’s current location hence delaying any response. In addition, some of the currently available contact-directories are web based and in the event of an emergency, the panic stricken victims may lack the emotional strength and composure to conduct the web searches for a given emergency facility. Based on the aforementioned challenges, this dissertation presents a geo-location based mobile emergency directory that allows the user to get the nearby emergency centres from any location. The system leverages on the phone’s geo-locating features, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) to identify the user’s location. This is then used to search from a database of available emergency centres for the centre(s) that are closest to the user and responds with the centres’ contact information, which can then be used to reach them. Professional response from the emergency centres can then be enhanced. The development of the solution followed the Waterfall Software Development Methodology. The developed solution comprises of two main components: a mobile application which serves as the client side and a backend. The proposed solution has been tested and recorded positive feedback in terms of accuracy, performance and reliability.

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