Apps from iLabs

While the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is known for 140 years of world-changing discoveries and 61 Nobel Prize winners, perhaps even more impressive is the institution’s philosophy of applying science and technology to meet human needs. One direct outcome of this focus is a groundbreaking effort linking state-of-the-art lab facilities in the United States with students in Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, allowing them to conduct complex experiments in the same Web-based labs used by students at MIT. This project, known as iLabs, which has received Corporation support, uses the Internet to give African students real-time access to equipment and technology that their own universities may not have the resources to provide. In 2011, this work resulted in a team of three student iLabs developers at Makerere University in Uganda winning an app development competition run by Orange Uganda, the French telecom.  The award carries a UgSh 5 million prize (around $2,000 U.S.) and an opportunity to work with Orange to further develop the application.  The team received considerable technical support from the MIT team as they developed the application, including spending a week at MIT this spring, supported by the Corporation’s iLabs grant.