Water Hackathon Kampala 2011 projects and winners

Close to 70 tech developers came together at Makerere University to attend the World bank water hackathon global event. 7 problems were solved out of a possible 16 pitched. Below are the winners and projects.

DEWS: Overall Best App and Audience favourite

DEWS (Disaster, Environment, Water and Sanitation) is a tool that crowd sources all the water related problems around water and visualizes them and gives communities a voice.

• URL: http://dewsapp.appspot.com
• Facebook: DEWS
• Team: Mukasa Roy (Project manager), Lutalo Joseph, Sanya Duncan, Shafik Kawuma, Muranga James, Caesar Mukama, Odeke Sam

Mazzi Trendz: Best Mobile App

Mazzi Trendz is an android mobile tool to help consumers visualize their water usage over time. It helps us keep track of water usage in check regarding how we spend.

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MazziTrendz
• Twitter: @MazziTrendz
• Team: Katusiime Lisa (project manager), Odongo Duke Daniel, Afimani Deogratious, Matovu Kenneth, Arigye Joreen, Opio Emmanuel, Muhatsi Shafffic, Engotoit Bernard, Allan Wambi, Abdu Hanan Ssekalala, Mugume Davis Arthur, Muhebwa Aggrey, Kisitu Augustine, Gerald Odur

Other Solutions developed:

Loopa

Loopa is an eco visualizing tool that enable the community to crowd source pollution reports in one's area and visualize it. This will enable create awareness on water pollution hotspots and thus drive the need for action.

• URL: http://wedcomuganda.com/loopa/
• Facebook: Loopa
• Team: Kabanda Nelson (project Manager), Nambasa Jamillah, Mugisha Stanley, Weere Anthony, Joshua Okello, Nabbunga Ashraf, Kiyemba Francis, Kyamaggwa Ibrahim, Joseph Balikkuddemba, Aodu Gideon

Water Fix:

This app is a dashboard to the consumer who uses the Uganda National Water and Sewage Corporation infrastructure. It enables the consumer report NWSC water related problems and get the nearest NWSC staff member available in the area to attend to the problem. This app is meant to improve response times to NWSC related problems.

• Facebook: WaterFix
• Team: Acellam Guy (project manager), Andrew Mugalu, Katamba Ronald, Odongo Ivan, Ssempijja Frank, Henry Tebajjukira, Namanya Hillary

Wash Reporter:

Wash (Water, Sanitation and Health) is a crowd funding and geo visualisation app that helps communities report Water, Sanitation and Health related problems and fundraise for them using Mobile Money, other payment systems

• URL: www.washreporter.com
• Facebook: Wash reporter
• Team: Ephraim Batambuze, Amutorine Moryn, Nakyanzi Lynnie, Bazanye Viola, Victor Ollieny, Bisaso Frederick, Daniel Nanghaka (project manager)

Map the crap:

This app provides visualizations of latrines that need emptying, thus saving cess pool emptiers many rounds in one area. It will also identify hotspots were crap is being dumped and needs to be removed.

• URL: http://mapthecrap.freezoka.net/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mapthecrap
• Team: Nkurunungi Francis (Project manager), Nzame Boris, Ayebare Racheal, Remo Samuel Paul, Harold Turyasingura, Ssengozi Julius, Andrew Mukiza, Atuhaire Alex, Sekabira Yasin, Waliaula Anthony, Ndeda Peter, Ochola Jacob

Water Crusaders:

An android water awareness game called water crusaders, creating awareness around water related problems like sewage disposal in wetlands.

• Facebook: WaterCrusaders
• Team: Kimbowa John Wamala, Wasswa Samuel, Jacob Muhire, Twesigomwe Fred, Ndahio Henry, Ochora Dennis Reagan, Kawuki Francis, Ampaire Christine (Project manager)

Thanks to all the participants and our local sponsors MTN Uganda and Ugo

Problems at Water Hackathon Kampala

The Water hackathon has been running from 21st - 23rd October 2011 at Makerere University. Close to 70 whackers ( mainly students) have come together to create innovative tech solutions around water problems. Seven problems are being solved at the moment and these include:

Loopa:
Water pollution is a very pressing issue given the poor drainage system in the country.
Loopa is an eco visualtool meant to crowd source pollution reports in one's area and visualize it. This will enable create awareness on water pollution hotspots and thus drive the need for action.

DEWS (Disaster, Environment, Water and Sanitation):

Communities would always want to speak out on water problems they face like cholera outbreaks, pipe breakages, but have the feeling they are not being heard. DEWS is a tool that crowdsources all the water related problems around water and visualizes them and gives communities a voice.

Water Crusaders:

Creating awareness around water related problems like sewage disposal in wetlands, should be fun and exciting. Therefore a team at the hackathon is coming up with an android water awareness game called water crusaders.

Mazzi Trendz

How many know how many gallons of water they consume daily? How many keep track of that water meter hidden in their basement? Water resource consumption is something we ignore yet very important! Mazzi Trendz is an android mobile tool to help consumers visualize their water usage over time. It helps us keep track of water usage in check regarding how we spend.

Map the Crap:

Cess pool emptiers spend a lot of resources going back and forth a given neighborhood trying to empty sewage pits of communities and thus sometimes waste resources where more than one person in the same neighborhood report the need to empty their sewage pits in an un cordinated way. These cess pool emptiers sometimes dump waste in areas not suitable for waste disposal. This app with provide visualizations of latrines that need emptying, thus saving cess pool emptiers many rounds in one area. It will also identify hotspots were crap is being dumped and needs to be removed.

Wash Reporter:

Wash (Water, Sanitation and Health) is a crowd funding and geo visualisation app that helps communities report Water, Sanitation and Health related problems and fundraise for them using Mobile Money, other payment systems . This can range from fundraising to build a water pipe to drilling a borehole. Communities out there are trying to fundraise for clean and safe water access.

NWSC Fix:

This app is being developed as a dashboard to the consumer who uses the Uganda National Water and Sewage Corporation infrastructure. It enables the consumer report NWSC water related problems and get the nearest NWSC staff member available in the area to attend to the problem. This app is meant to improve response times to NWSC related problems. The app also makes use of social media by tracking and recording problems picked up from social media channels.

These problems were selected from a total of 16 problems that were defined.

All the best to the teams

Google Zawadi Girls

This month, we are glad to feature one of the Ugandan Google Zawadi scholars on our blog.


From the Zawadi website (http://www.zawadiafrica.org) the Zawadi Africa Education Fund is a program designed to provide scholarships to academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds from Africa to pursue higher education in the US. Lynn writes about her experience as a Google Zawadi scholar and would love to encourage other women students to pursue this scholarship. http://www.google.com/jobs/students/emea/scholarships/

Picture above, Lynn Asiimwe ,3^rd from the left, Juliet Komuhendo 5^th from the left

My visit to Google Zurich

My name is Lynn Asiimwe currently in third year in Electrical and computer engineering at the University of Cape town. I’m also a Ugandan google- zawadi scholar and from 20^th to 22^th June this year, I got a chance to attend the Google Europe, Middle East and Africa retreat 2011 at the Google office in Zurich. In attendance were the Google anita borg EMEA scholars, Google Anita borg EMEA finalists, Google-zawadi scholarship recipients and Google Europe scholarship for students with disabilities. I don’t even where to start this article from but to sum it all in one word “AMAZING”.

I’ll start with the amazing women and men I got to meet from all over Africa, Europe and the Middle East all passionate about one thing computer science. There were 90 students in attendance and 3 were Ugandan . I got the opportunity of meeting the first Google Anita borg finalist from Uganda, Juliet Komuhendo from Makerere University. I was really impressed by her determination (the Google Anita scholarships applications are really hectic but it didn’t scare her! ) . People kept asking Juliet what are the chances someone from Ugandan is chosen?, well Juliet proved it doesn’t matter where you’re from to become an Anita borg finalist.

The Googlers I met during my visit were amazing and enthusiastic about their work all the time(it felt like some kind of utopia).I got a chance to interact with the googlers dealing with sub Saharan Africa and trust me it inspired me to another level. I feel like Google has taken very keen interest in Africa over the past few years and really want to connect Africa to the rest of the world (in terms of the internet ).Well in Uganda I can mention a few, Google in partnership with the Grameen foundation are working at getting rural Africa connected and you can visit the Grameen foundation blog to see more, the android phones (they are cheaper than your average smart phones),android apps development besides that they also tried to involve students with programs like the Google Ambassador program in universities and having the Google-zawadi scholarship program. I know there is a lot more but I can’t say it all in one blog post.

Now the Google Zürich office design is amazing ,they have design themes from jungle to aqua to combat to Victorian style. They also have a massage parlour and gym. Another thing is you can wear anything to work !!!.Well you can google the zurich office to see what I mean. I almost forgot the food, its everywhere and its good on a daily basis!! 

Well this is a brief summary of my google trip to zurich. I would like to encourage all Ugandan women out there to apply for next year’s google anita borg EMEA scholarship ,Google it for more details. And those all also planning to pursue an under graduate degree in computer science ,computer engineering or any related field should also apply for the google-zawadi scholarship. I feel it’s an experience of a lifetime!!!

Android Developer Challenge Launch Party Uganda

Google Uganda proudly hosted the Android Developer Challenge Launch Party organized by GTUG Kampala at their office on 6th May 2011.

The event drew close to 120 participants in the I.T industry, developers, students, bloggers and mobile enthusiasts.

Presentations were done on Android trends by Google Uganda Country Manager, Ham Namakajjo, SMS Media Business Convergence director Simon Kaheru presented on opportunities Android provides for developers whereas Victor Miclovich, an Android developer presented on how to write android apps and the android Marketplace.

The presentations of the day can be found at http://kampala.gtugs.org/presentations , pictures can be found at http://goo.gl/53CT2

Information about the Android Developer Challenge Sub Saharan Africa can be found at http://code.google.com/android/adcafrica

Uganda, let the Droiding begin

Android Developer Challenge - Sub Saharan Africa

Google launched an Android Developer Challenge for Sub Saharan Africa http://goo.gl/vwc14

The Android Developer Challenge is designed to encourage the creation of cool and innovative Android mobile apps built by developers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Invent apps that delight users and you stand a chance to win an Android phone and $25,000 USD. To get started, choose from one of three defined eligible categories (see below), build an Android app in a team or by yourself, and submit it via the competition website by July 1st. 

Developers submit their apps to one of three specially-designated ADC (Android Developer Challenge) categories beginning June 1st at 12 AM GMT. An application may only be submitted to a single category

Categories

• Entertainment / Media / Games
• Social Networking / Communication
• Productivity / Tools / Lifestyle

.

Timeline

• April 14th: Competition opens
• June 1st: Submissions open.
• July 1st: First round submissions are due at 11:59 PM GMT.
• July 15th: Finalist applications announced.
• August 30th: Finalist applications are due at 11:59 PM GMT.
• September 12th: Winners are announced.

Visit http://code.google.com/android/adcafrica/ for more information about the Android Developer Challenge.

Google Technology User Group Kampala shall have an interactive and fun filled launch event for the Android developer Challenge, where students, mobile developers, android fans, technology bloggers and anyone interested in ADC will be invited.  The details about the launch event will be communicated soon.

Let us take on the Challenge Now.

Ugandan App, mdgmaps, receives Honorable mention during Apps for Development competition

A Ugandan app, called mdgmaps.appspot.com has received honorable mention at the apps for development competition http://goo.gl/G9wMT

The application, designed by a GTUG Kampala member, is a geovisualization tool for the Millenium Development Goals. It enables one to generate printable maps for the different indicators.


The application, is built on Adobe flash technologies and Google Appengine.

Joshua, the developer of the software, won $2,000 USD for the award.

Way to go Joshua

Mdgmaps Screenshot

Google Technologies at Work in Uganda's education Sector

Chris Ntwatwa is a developer and administrative assistant at Makerere University.

Chris is a staunch User of Google technologies, moreso Google Web Toolkit.

He has used Google technologies to develop an Education Information System. Using GWT and other technologies, Chris developed an EIS, that handles Students Administration, Finances, student application and admission, student registration, document management of students and results management.

He has found using GWT interesting because of the nice user Interface one can create, doesn't require user sessions, the use of Ajax technology, platform independence among others. Chris' system is now being used in three academic institutions that include Makerere University, Makerere University Business School and Multitech business school.

He keeps adding functionality to the system and customising it depending on the user. The figures below illustrate two data entry forms and a report generated by the EIS.

Google Africa

Google Africa has released a new website specifically for Africa. http://www.google.com/africa/
The New website clearly outlines Google Africa's mission which includes:

• Reducing access as a barrier to all potential users
• Making the Internet relevant and useful to Africans
• Helping strengthen an Internet ecosystem in Africa that is vibrant, and sustainable and self-sufficient in the long-term

More to that, the website has links to great resources for developers, universities, tech businesses, those seeking  jobs to mention but a few. 

Google Africa has been around for some time now, in Uganda, we have had activities like G-Uganda that brought together tech enterpreneurs and developers, mapping competition and mapping party for the universities within Uganda. Google Global Caches are operational at some ISPs within Uganda and the Google University programme has been initiated within Universities in Uganda starting with Makerere University. 

Google Technology User Groups (GTUGs) are more like the LUGs (Linux User Groups) now, promoting the use of Google technologies and ICTs to businesses and individuals. You can join your local gtug by visiting the website http://kampala.gtugs.org

We believe Google will have great things for Africa in 2011.