The Infona portal uses cookies, i.e. strings of text saved by a browser on the user's device. The portal can access those files and use them to remember the user's data, such as their chosen settings (screen view, interface language, etc.), or their login data. By using the Infona portal the user accepts automatic saving and using this information for portal operation purposes. More information on the subject can be found in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. By closing this window the user confirms that they have read the information on cookie usage, and they accept the privacy policy and the way cookies are used by the portal. You can change the cookie settings in your browser.
Agriculture is the backbone of African economies, especially in rural areas where over 70% of people rely on subsistence farming for their livelihood. In Rwanda and Uganda, where Africa Development Promise (ADP) works, 90% of economically active women work in the agricultural sector. Overall women work more and longer hours compared to men because of additional household responsibilities such as preparing...
The inherent geographic nature of displacement in refugee camps is requiring further use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology for community-based information and asset management. Additionally, refugees have a fundamental need for livelihood development in host countries due to the protracted nature of displacement. This paper presents our work on the Refugee GIS or ‘RefuGIS’ project...
Pakistan recently released its first multi-dimensional poverty report in 2016, which underlined the fact that a country with almost 200 million in total population has a 39% rate for poverty, precisely estimating it to detail that around 78 million people are still living below the national poverty line. The poverty has distressed around 55% of the population residing in rural parts of the country...
Water is one of the precious factors in human life. It plays a vital role in the survival and existence of flora and fauna. But, now a days it is been exploited heavily by dumping of human waste, industrial and chemical waste in to the water bodies which is the resultant of water being contaminated with toxic chemicals. Water scarcity and water contamination has been one of the major issues faced...
OceanNet project uses a hierarchical point-to-multi-point backhaul network using long range Wi-Fi technology to provide extended offshore connectivity for fishing vessels. This work is aimed to understand the interrelationship between the design parameters and the reason for considering specific parameter values for the OceanNet solution. The research work explores the communication systems theoretical...
Educational institutions, should set a role model, in the reduction of the carbon foot print, to protect mother earth. In this paper we focus on designing a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based system, which can efficiently conserve the energy of class rooms and labs. We have identified temperature, light, pressure sensors to be utilized for this application. Infra Red receiver and transmitter is used...
Telemedicine systems are becoming prevalent in today's healthcare scenarios, especially in India where a large portion of the population resides in remote and rural regions where availability of specialty healthcare is scant. Many such telemedicine system implementations can be found in the existing literature. Since critical data are being transmitted over these networks, the reliability of these...
We report on UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle)-based imaging missions over rice and corn fields in Isabela province in the Philippines. Spectral reflectance sensors were deployed for ground truthing, while aerial imagery were produced from RGB and NIR-retrofitted cameras. The ground truth sensors function as calibration points for extending the measurements over the whole imaged field. UAV-based missions...
This paper proposes an ethics code for stakeholders on using Genetically Modified Ornamental Plants (GMOP). The advances in Genetically Modified (GM) plants had dramatic effect on increasing agricultural productivities. However, negative consequences were associated with GM plants such creating invasive and pervasive plants or pesticide tolerant plants. GM ornamental plants and grass created new colorful...
Over 95% of the population in Uganda relies on solid fuels for their cooking and heating needs [1]. These are burned in a variety of cooking appliances, ranging from three stone fires to improved cookstoves (ICS). Appropriate Energy Saving Technologies (AEST Ltd.) is a social business that manufactures and distributes Makaa fuel briquettes and charcoal cookstoves in Soroti, Uganda. This work summarizes...
In efforts to achieve universal electricity access, geospatial factors, particularly the distribution of populated places and other electricity demands, are fundamentally important in determining the relative costs of competing grid, mini-grid or home system electrification options. Research presented here goes beyond broad metrics such as population density to instead consider patterns of aggregation...
Over one billion people around the world lack access to grid electricity. Over the last few years, solar panel prices have dropped dramatically leading to more affordable solar electric systems. A typical solar home system comprises one or more solar panels, a charge controller, inverter and a bank of lead acid batteries. However, the weak point in these systems is the battery bank which requires...
Developing nations like India face major challenges in their developmental efforts due to issues related to waste management and open defecation. While the urban community faces challenges related to plastic waste which has become almost all pervasive, the rural counterpart's open defecation continues to pose significant health threats. Lack of large-scale utilization of plastic from the urban population...
The aim of this research was to construct a semi-autonomous seeker robot in the form factor of a rover that inherits a degree of intelligence for aiding rescue operations through rubble. The developed robot would be able to crawl through the limited space available under debris and wreckages, providing real-time video feed of the situation along with night vision capability. By the means of an onboard...
The Ayllu Solar project's main goal is to foster the sustainable development of rural/urban communities in Arica & Parinacota region, northern Chile, by means of using solar energy. This is a 5-year project based on three pillars, namely, (i) the creation of replicable and scalable energy solutions, (ii) the development of human capital capacities for the effective use of solar energy, and (iii)...
We introduce the design, calibration, and validation of a wearable, wireless, and secure air quality monitoring sensor system that is integrated with a smartphone application and back-end server for realtime data collection. To this end, an Alphasense OPC-N2 optical air quality monitoring sensor was integrated with a wireless hardware platform and real-time smartphone application, which sent particulate...
Data gathered from a site visit to a proposed internet distribution network installation in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea are interspersed throughout the sections of this paper. Motivation for the IEEE Smart Village (ISV) program is the topic of the introduction. ISV arranged for an assessment of the site by an IEEE volunteer. A volunteer, paper author Alan Mickelson, visited...
This paper proposes an enhanced three step design framework for microgrids designed with fixed capacity shortages (CS) that optimizes cost using load prioritization, battery thresholds and predicted solar data in the design phase instead of operational phase to reduce capital expenditure. This is achieved through reduction in battery size. The framework uses HOMER to model microgrids that are cost...
This paper presents a study of mobile device literacy in Senegal within the context of the AppliCafé project. Research in this area has been mostly conducted in Anglophone countries. We designed a kiosk structure that we call AppliCafé (derived from the term cyber café) that can move between locations and is equipped with mobile technology, including training videos and a mobile application. This...
This paper describes the design and construction of a portable solar-powered phone booth coupled with a GPRS/GSM module capable of providing reliable communication while being independent of the electrical grid and telephone land-lines. Each phone booth has a pay phone case with electrical and electronic circuits to control the phone booth's operation including its power consumption and its lighting...
Set the date range to filter the displayed results. You can set a starting date, ending date or both. You can enter the dates manually or choose them from the calendar.