Kabarak University, in underlining the important role of ICT, held its first Android mobile boot camp for Nakuru County on Nov 1 to 3, 2012 under the theme “Innovation & Solutions through Mobile“.
The event targeted local developers and university students around Nakuru County and attracted representation from public and private universities in the county presenting, 11 apps that running on Google platform.
Moses Nderitu and Moffat Ngacha (GSA) from the Egerton University emerged as the winners after pitching an SMS-based application called SMS manager, which enables users in critical need of emergency to broadcasts requests and rate them according to the need.
Sokoprice, an application aimed helping consumers know best prices from various shopping outlets as well as discounts on offer by Mildred Kulei and Elizabeth Jepkosgei from Kabarak University came in second with Rave, an entertainment application that lists entertainment spots categorized by towns by David Mabiria and Faith Chemutai from Egerton University taking the third spot.
Others featured included SemaSasa by Gerald Mbugua and Joan Njeri (Kabarak University), AfyaTip by Sammy Cheruiyot & Julius Macharia (Egerton University), Simple Calculator by Jabes Julius & Joseph Kioi (Kabarak University), ConnecT by Lewis Munene and Cleophas Kanyongo, LoginACtivity by Clement Nzau & James Kimaru, StudentPortal Registration by Brenda Chelangat and Amos Keng, Online Shares by Aaron Amoth & Nelson Osebe and Voice Recognition by Kennedy Gitohi and Dan Njoroge.
Google Student Ambassadors in Collaboration with the University’s ICT Department sponsored and organized the aimed at enhancing participant’s capacity to develop meaningful solutions and appreciate current innovative solutions using mobile technologies.
Moses Thiga, ICT Manager Kabarak University, opened the event with an inspiring speech and challenged the participants to embrace new technology, research the internet and consult lecturers and experts. He noted that there would be subsequent boot camps that would attract higher prize money and more awards.
The participants were equipped with practical skills in the use of current platforms, frameworks and tools used for the development of mobile applications, and got hands-on development experience of mobile applications for specific industries.
Tom Bruno, Google Student Ambassador challenged the participants to be innovative. “Content and development is the future”, he said in his Keynote speech.
He urged students to join the Google University Program, adding that Google Student Ambassador Program will be supporting such initiatives in the future and they should stand in the look-out for on-coming events.
He further reiterated the need for students giving feedback for the 3-Day event to know what to work on in future, considering that it was the first boot camp in Nakuru County.
The ICT Department in collaboration with the Google Student Ambassadors promised to hold more of such forums to impact skills on students and professionals in software development.
