The 17^th ICT conference, organized by the Faculty of Information Technology, took place on March 21 – 22, 2019, at the Microsoft Auditorium. The annual conference provided a platform to share innovative ideas that will nurture progress towards a sustainable information society.

Currently, ICT and related disciplines are working with various disciplines towards improving human life in the society. To this respect, the conference focused on the interaction between ICT, society and development.

This conference event brought together various experts to discuss the current status, technical challenges, and future services and applications of ICT. The conference addressed and captured highly-innovative and modern research from academia and industry. Students, faculty and researchers made presentations in the form of papers, keynotes, demos and corporate sessions.

The topics featured included Artificial Intelligence, data science, cryptography and IS security and Internet of Things.

Kevin Omyonga, a Bachelor of Business Information Technology graduate, presented Balandroid; a self-balancing robot. The robot, made from simple materials such as tape and cardboard, is an improvement from previous prototypes. Kevin is currently working on a way to power both a Raspberry Pi and Arduino as well as the motors so as to go completely wireless.

Kennedy Mumo’s project was conceived while he was on Community Based Attachment (CBA) at Shariani Primary School after realizing the gaps in the learning system used at the school. A Bachelor of Science in Informatics and Computer Science student, his project involves the use of augmented reality teaching module with image recognition system (ARTEMIS) for elementary school science in order to ease the acquisition of knowledge for the students.

In the health sector, the research covered a mobile-based HIV patient’s immunity level remote monitoring system; radio frequency based patient tracking system; and a vision-based approach to fall detection for elderly patients receiving home-based care.

Speaking on building a foundation for digital business, Evelyne Kamau, Channel Lead at VMware East Africa emphasized on the importance of leveraging technology that is powering the fourth industrial revolution. “For instance, Technology avails analytics-driven precision farming. Farmers get accurate information on weather and soil conditions which improves yields,” she said.