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)