Star Google Student Ambassador Award: Best Christmas gift 2015 to Mbarara University Students

To do something that changes a life is something I hope to do each and every day. I am so grateful that I was the Google Student Ambassador to such an awesome University like Mbarara University of Science and Technology. It isn't just the University but the people that make it up that's special.

The Star GSA Award i received

Becoming a friend to the Googley students at the University; learning together with them and flourishing will always be one of the best moments in my life. I am glad that the Institute of Computer Science at the University helped make this a smooth process.

Admiring the accolade

We deserve it dear Mbarara University

Recently I received the Star Google Student Ambassador Award from Google on behalf of the super awesome Googley students at the University in recognition of the remarkable work we did together. Congratulations to you dear friends; The Android Students' Club, the Google AdClass members, the two teams that participated in the Google Online Marketing Challenge as well as all who got involved in all the Google events we had that year 2014/2015 including the Google Summer of Code 2015.

Posing with the award i won

I would like to thank  Mr. Chimdindu Aneke, Ms.Jeminatu Alabi-Isama and all the Google Student Ambassador Program team; Dr. Anabella Habinka, Dr. Evarist Nabaasa, Mr. Kimera Richard, Mr. Galiwango Martin, Mr. Wasswa William and all the lecturers and staff of The Institute of Computer Science at Mbarara University of Science and Technology; my mother Mrs. Gertrude Kalule; Amanya Ziyal and Ankwasa Bernadine (the GSA Alumni), Phyllis Ntananga and all the GSA Core Team; GDG Mbarara, Ugandan GSAs and all GSAs from Sub-Saharan Africa for making this a reality. I am forever grateful.

Thank You God for this award. Thank you Mbarara

Most importantly thank You God for this Christmas gift to the best students in the whole world; the Google Students @ Mbarara University of Science and Technology. As always, don't forget to...
                                    Do Cool Things That Matter

Team from Mbarara University emerge Semifinalists in Global Advertising Competition

Mbarara University of Science and Technology should be glad. Uganda must celebrate. A team of six students from the University recently emerged as AdWords Business Semi-Finalist in the Google Online Marketing Challenge 2015.

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an annual global advertising competition. Here a University team of 3 to 6 students with the guidance of a University lecturer sets out to market a local business online using Google AdWords over a period of 21 days maximum under a budget of 250$, which is provided free by Google.

Google AdWords is the platform that lets businesses show their ads alongside Google search results, on YouTube, inside mobile applications etc. The beauty about it is that businesses only pay once the user clicks on the ad and is then taken to the business' website. 

The team advertised a local business http://masanyu.com/, which sells computer devices and appliances during the competition.

The team shows its' swag at the start of the campaign [12-April-2015]

The competition brought together a total of 1761 teams from the four regions ie 584 from Americas, 199 from Asia & Pacific, 811 from Europe and 106 from Middle East & Africa. 

Of these only 5 teams represented Uganda, 2 being from Mbarara University of Science and Technology. 

The team was ranked as AdWords Business Semi-Finalist which means "they demonstrated very good AdWords proficiency and understanding of online advertising and were among the Top 15 teams in Middle East & Africa." according to the official website; http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/past/winners-2015.html

In other words, they were among the Top 60 teams in the whole world.

The team comprised of

1. Noah Aboda (Team captain), Bachelors in Pharmacy 3
2. Mirembe Vaolah (member), BSc. Computer Engineering 2
3. Nestor Atukwatse (member), BSc. Computer Engineering 2
4. Byamukama Boniface (member), Bachelors in Business Administration 3
5. Katusiime Patricia (member), BSc. Computer Science 2
6. Kagimu Brian Vicent (member), BSc. Computer Engineering 4

Our team Professor was Dr. Annabella Habinka Ejiri, the Director- Institute of Computer Science.

Am so glad to have been part of this amazing team. We are so grateful for the opportunity to learn digital marketing skills together as one. We hope to apply the acquired knowledge and expertise to help more local businesses meet their customers online.

Noah and Vaolah set up the campaigns

To the winners of the competition, congratulations.  For more information; go to http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/past/winners-2015.html. 

To see the ranking of our team, 

Use the ‘Find’ function in your browser.

Windows users: Press the Control key + F and type 

1615550487

Mac users: Press the Apple key + F and type 1615550487

Next week's article will be an interview with the team members. Stay tuned!

by Kagimu Brian Vicent, Google Student Ambassador (2014/15)

Android App Presentations @ Mbarara University 2015

It brings me great joy to say that the Android Student Club at Mbarara University of Science and Technology successfully completed the Udacity course and submitted back their projects. They are part of a much bigger team of students around the world who dared to learn Android mobile application development.

They went through 7 intensive weekly sessions based on the Android Fundamentals course on Udacity as well as the Android Developers’ site. They learnt concepts such as Intents and Intent Filters, SQLite Database, Fragments, etc.

The Android Student Club Poses for a Group Snap

The closing ceremony took place on Saturday 20th June 2015 at the Mbarara University campus. We were privileged to have Mr. Bamutura David and Mr. Mugonza Robert, who are both senior lecturers at the University as the chief guests. 

A total of 10 students submitted their applications and demoed them before the entire class, chief guests as well as the two facilitators who also double as lecturers at the University in the Institute of Computer Science.

A lady developer demos her app, CleanDisposal

The facilitators after carefully judging all the applications based on the implementation of key android development concepts chose the best three applications as follows;

1. MyBeats, an app by Waako Brian that allows one to mix their music files on their phone (DJ).

A Google Online Marketing Challenge 2015 Professor congratulates the MyBeats Developer

2. SmartTransportation, an app by Kalende Rebecca that eases payment for bus transportation by using mobile money instead of hard cash.

The facilitator hands over Google Swag to the SmartTranspotation app Developer

3. ShakeToCall, an application by Gusimba Paul that allows one to dial a number simply by shaking their phone.

The facilitator hands over Google Swag to the ShakeToCall Developer

The Club walked away with Google Swag inform of T shirts, Notebooks, Pen kits etc. I am so glad to have been the organizer of the Android Study Club and it wouldn’t have been possible without the facilitators; Mr. Kimera Richard and Mr. Galiwango Martin. Thank you so much. 

We are equally grateful to the administration of Mbarara University of Science and Technology most especially the Institute of Computer Science under the leadership of Dr. Annabella Habinka Ejiri.

Most importantly we are also grateful to the Google Students at Mbarara University of Science and Technology as well as the Google Student Ambassador Program. 

Hopefully we will continue to “Do Cool Things That Matter”. It was an honor to have served Mbarara University of Science and Technology as the Google Student Ambassador for the year 2014/15. God Bless.

For a link to more photos from the session; please click Android @ Mbarara University App Presentations or view the YouTube playlist; Android App Demos at Mbarara University 2015 for some of the session videos

by Kagimu Brian Vicent, Google Student Ambassador 2014/15

Android Session 7 @ Mbarara University 2015

Hey Android developers! Hope you're great. My name is Felix Kiiza, a second year student at Mbarara University of Science and Technology pursuing a Bachelors degree in Information Technology. 

I am passionate about coding especially developing mobile applications. Therefore i am right to call myself a Developer.

Developers during the session

Personally i have learnt a lot from all the Android Sessions. It's compelling to be part of the Android Study Group here at campus for instance i have managed to come-up with a Camera App which is encouraging me to build other Apps.  

On Saturday 23rd  May 2015, we had our 7th weekly meetup in lab 1 at the University where looked at Content Providers; how they work, and examples such as: The API you use retrieve data from a content provider etc     

Student Developers answering a question

A Content Provider manages access to a central repository of data. A provider is part of an Android application, which often provides its own User Interface for working with the data. 

 I learnt how to make a Calendar provider, which is a repository for a user's calendar events as well as the Calendar Provider API that allows one to perform query, insert, update, and delete operations on calendars, events, attendees, reminders, and so on.

Part of the Google Swag during the session

Finally, a word of encouragement to anyone there, programming is not only for the "geeks". Anybody can code. We can all make it if only we work hard and make research outside what we learn in class sessions. Thank you so much.

For a link to more photos during the event; go to Android Session 7 @ Mbarara University 2015 while to have a glimpse of how the session was watch either Android Session 7 Video or Android 7 @ Mbarara University of Science and Technology

+Chimdindu Aneke +Jeminatu Alabi-Isama +Richard Kimera +Kimera Richard +Galiwango Martin

Android Session 6 @ Mbarara University 2015

Hi Developers! My name is Ndibarekera Maureen. I am a final year student at Mbarara University of Science and Technology pursuing a Bachelors degree in Information Technology. 

Am glad to be part of the Android Students' Club here at campus because it has enabled me as a lady developer to discover alot and acquire new skills such as mobile application development.

Students work together on code during session

On the Saturday 2, May 2015, we had yet another Android session where we focused on SQLite Databases and i'm going to share with you what i learnt. 

SQLite is used to model databases where data is stored. During the session, we were able to insert data into a table and retrieve it afterwards. It was a fun packed lesson yet informative that we deserved before we begin our end of year exams. We'll resume android immediately after exams.

Maureen and other student developers during the session

The application that am working on and plan to submit back to Udacity by the end of the training is a "Hair Style Chart" guiding both men and women on how to have a nice looking hair style.

Finally i would like to take this opportunity to encourage all the ladies out there who think that programming is an activity for only men to believe in themselves. They can do great things if only they are willing to try by writing the first line of code.

Lady developers @ Mbarara University writing code

Thank you once again for your time and for a link to more photos; please visit Android Session 6 @ Mbarara University 2015