MobileSenegal: Five Years of Lessons of Capacity Building with Impact

Dr. Christelle ScharffPace University, New York, NY, USA

Founder of MobileSenegal

http://mobilesenegal.org

mobilesenegal@gmail.comcscharff@pace.edu

The 1st mobile community in Senegal since

2009

@mobilesenegal /mobilesenegal

Founded in 2008

First initiative of this type in a Francophone country of Africa

Goal: Capacity building in M4D

Sponsoring from:

Our mission

• To build capacity in mobile technology by facilitating theintroduction of mobile courses in educational institutions andorganizing activities for the wider community.

• MobileSenegal is a virtual mobile lab that organizes bootcamps,courses, competitions and dedicated field projects, and arrangestraining for faculty and industry professionals. We are the firstinitiative of its kind in a Francophone country in Africa.

Collaboration with Universitiesand the Ecosystem in Senegal

Ecosystem and Communities

• Universities, companies, NGOs, associations, incubators etc

• Mobile Innovations Dakar– http://www.meetup.com/mobileinnovationsdakar– More than 400 members– Founded by Dr. Christelle Scharff

• Mobile Monday Dakar– For the professionals– http://mobilemondaydakar.org– Founded by Dr. Christelle Scharff

First Mobile Monday in West Africa

Model for Capacity Building

Community building

(Global) Software Engineering

Technology skills

Marketing and business skills

Oral / Written Skills

Mentoring / Follow-up

Entrepreneurship

Real Projects

Real Beneficiaries

Model for

Capacity

Building

Global Software Development as a Model for Capacity Building

Interdisciplinary teams to work

together

Global vision of Smarter Energy

Mobile solutions relevant globally

Collaboration between students

from the US, Senegal and India

More than 30 apps developed (6 in the store – 2 Android, 4

Nokia)

3 pilots implemented

6 Courses in universities

Dakar and St Louis

3 National Competitions

Organized

3 Faculty training

6 Bootcamps on Java ME

4 Years of Global Software Development

(US, Senegal, India, Cambodia)

More than 300 students in courses et bootcamps

From Dakar to Ziguinchor

Publications (M4D, ICSE)

Evolution of the focus on different technologies

4 training on jQuery Mobile

4 Prizes at National and International

Competition

Outcomes : National and International Competitions

• A “license” in Mobile Application Development was created at the University of Thies in 2011 with the sponsoring of Google

• KomKom, an accounting app for artisans, was awarded a Judge Choice Prize at the Nokia Calling All Innovators Competition in 2009. KomKom was piloted in the artisan village of Thiès.

• StopMalaria was awarded first prize at the Population Council Data Uncovered Contest in December 2011, participant of Carrefour des Possibles 2011, and presented at the GSMA Mobile Health University Challenge in June 2012.

• ArClean (submitted to the 3rd National Mobile Competition of MobileSenegal) was the winner of the Ericsson Application Award in 2013.

Outcomes : Apps in the Store

• 6 applications mentored by MobileSenegal competitions were released in the Google Play (SenGeoSante, Recycletron) and Nokia Store (Africa Quiz, Donor, CodeDeLaRoute, and Niett)

Outcomes: CibleCI• CibleCI, education app for 1st grade pupils, was developed by

students from Pace University (US), Thies, ESP and ESMT (Senegal), and Dehli (India) in 2010, and piloted in Senegal in July 2012

• Our results were cited in the mNumeracy report of GIZ: Promoting Numeracy in Pre-School and Early Grades

Where are the graduates of MobileSenegal?

• Developers and projects managers in the IT companies inSenegal (GSIE, Chaka Group…)

• Founders of startups incubated at CTIC

• Google student ambassadors

• Microsoft student partners

• Students in Europe…

Publications and Presentations

Over 20 papers and presentations on our work were

published in journals and presented at conferences

MobileSenegal has its own Blackberry app!(PlayBook and Blackberry 10)

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/24373904

MobileSenegal has its own Nokia app!

• http://store.ovi.com/content/355704

The Mobile Ecosystem of Senegalhttp://mobileecosystem.org

Mapping the mobile actors in Senegal

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Current and Future Projects

• Strengthening the project in Senegal during Fulbright at UCAD

• Extending the project in West Africa

1st bootcamp in June 2012 Online courses

Video: 5th Anniversary

• http://youtu.be/cpAhWyTKsM8