Masters Theses and Dissertations

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IoT based system for monitoring and controlling of electrical energy for leather industry a case study in Kenya
(NM-AIST, 2022-08) Kiguta, Joseph
Nowadays, most industries receive large energy consumption sheets daily, making it challenging to monitor and control energy consumption. This suggests a need for the development of an energy monitoring system to help observe the energy consumption behavior and be able to make timely corrections in energy consumption. Therefore, this project aimed to develop the electronic prototype of the monitoring and control system from an application for a cell phone with an Android system. The energy monitoring system could help in saving precious non-renewable sources. This project employed the agile methodology to allow for system requirements and analysis, system development, system implementation, integration, and testing. The information was acquired using energy consumption sensors and analyzed based on statistical tables stored in the cloud, for four days. The sensors communicate via a wireless network that operates on the 2.4GHz frequency, where the NRF 24 L01 + transceiver was used. Moreover, a Raspberry pi Zero was utilized for the configuration of the central node, and this was responsible for the collection of the information gathered in the sensors and publishing it in the cloud every hour. For the android system-based application, the data was collected graphically. Lastly, the developed system also produces real-time consumption data, which were then analyzed to identify the devices with the highest consumption level relative to the total number of devices. The information gained after the analysis of the data was also useful in identifying any damaged equipment or machine. The damaged equipment and machine portrayed different behaviors (they appear to be outliers) in their energy consumption when compared to undamaged ones.
Integrated cashless payment system for the Kayoola EVS bus
(NM-AIST, 2021-09) Khamasi, Jevinarlys
Public service transportation is the main mode of transport not only in Uganda, but the entire Africa at large. One of the main challenges faced by this industry, especially on passenger transportation is the lack of accountability in bus fare collection between the bus operators and the bus owners. To solve this challenge, long distance passenger vehicles have a ticketing system that is used for payment, unfortunately, the same system cannot be used for payment within the city or for short distance payment for it is cumbersome and not feasible in terms of applicability for it requires a single person to issue tickets to all passengers. Hence the main objective is to develop a cashless payment system that is convenient for short distance passengers and at the same time improve on the passenger experience on the bus. This report explains the implementation of a cashless passenger payment system, using two broad methods, mobile money payment and RFID payment for Kiira Motors’ Kayoola EVS buses. Mobile Money Payment is implemented within a mobile application, through the mobile application, a passenger is provided with an interface whereby they can pay for there bus fare after booking for a bus and a ticket is automatically provided to them as a Quick Response (QR) code which is scanned on the QR reader installed on the bus to validate payment. The RFID payment is implemented using RFID cards with passengers’ personal information and payment information, Bus fare is paid by a user scanning the RFID card on the card reader installed on the bus. Both the Mobile money payment and the RFID payment system receive location data from the GPS on the bus to determine the boarding location and destination of each passenger for automatic bus fare deduction and consequently communicate to passengers their respective destinations via the multimedia system installed on the bus. The Mobile money payment, RFID payment and the GPS both integrate/communicate with each other from the cloud database (Firebase cloud).
A passenger security system for mass transit electric buses: a case study of the Kayoola EVS bus
(NM-AIST, 2021-09) Koojo, Ivan
Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC), a state-owned enterprise was established in 2011 to champion the development of the Ugandan automotive value chain for job and wealth creation. Kiira Motors Corporation has developed several electric vehicles on the African continent since 2011, key among them is the company’s market entry product; the Kayoola EVS, a fully electric, low floor city bus with a passenger capacity of ninety-one. Through the passenger security system, KMC sees to attain its core value of customer satisfaction and solve issues like rampant insecurity of passengers and their property which are not alien occurrences on commuter taxis and buses in many African cities. The system further seeks to address, the spread of contagious diseases like COVID-19 and its risks to bus passengers. And easen difficult, time consuming tasks like passenger counting, measuring/recording temperatures, and collecting contact information. The system data and requirements elicitation was conducted using techniques like surveys, interviews, observation, literature review, webinars and desk research. These qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted to offer insight on passenger security and mass public transport operations. A prototype of a comprehensive system comprising software and hardware components like cameras, web and mobile applications, was developed and its units’ functionality tested in an office environment. The developed system denotes potential to ensure security on the Kayoola EVS bus. It also implies averting spread of contagious diseases, timely capture of contact tracing records plus easier management and accountability for the numbers of passengers on buses.
Design of an automatic escaped animal detection and monitoring system: a case study of Volcanoes National Park (VNP)
(NM-AIST, 2022-07) Zirakwiye, Innocent
The results have been shown that the people especially farmers living at the edge of Volcanoes National Park (VNP) practiced agricultural business due to the fertile soil found in the region. The rising number of agronomies in the zone, number of tourists, and illegal forest users such as poaching, and deforestation cause wild animals to get out of their habitats. Therefore, their crops are raided by forest animals which present a likely risk to damage crops whenever they get out of the forest. The current systems such as “Buffer Wall also known as wall of stones” was manually operated; electric fence systems resulted in death and pain to wild animals. Due to the development of automatic systems for detecting and monitoring all moving wild animals and intruders, it was stated that using automation at Buffer wall could be helpful for both wild animals and farmers keep safe. Security is an importance in the VNP whereby detection and monitoring wildlife would determine the needs by park officials. The objectives of developing an Automatic Escaped Animal Detection and Monitoring System were to reduce the probability of crop raids, death and injuries between wild animals and farmers, warning the wild animals through the use of buzzer, speaker with a recorder voice of lion and block of LEDs to remain in their habitats and the notifications sent to the park officials related to the forest animals getting out of the forest. Since wild animals and intruders found in buffer zone targeting to pass by the buffer wall for crop raiding and poaching activities; this system should primarily use sensing devices to detect and monitor their presence. On the other hand, for buffer wall security, warning equipment’s such as block of LEDs, Buzzer, SIREN Alarm and speaker should all together be activated. Whenever wild animals and trespassers would search to pass by another part would be activated the same way as the previous. The specialty of this technological system developed was to automate manual and improve the current systems by using Arduino NANO Microcontroller to execute system’s operations, GPS NEO 6M for locating moving wild animal, Ultrasonic sensor for detecting wildlife and calculating its speed, PIR sensor to detect intruders, GSM SIM900 to notify park rangers, reduction of crop raiding, and finally reducing death and pain of wild animals caused by current systems.
IoT based system for monitoring and control data center temperature at Habari Node Company
(NM-AIST, 2022-08) Ciza, Innocent
The Internet of Things (IoT) Based Systems have improved the way of life of companies as well as individuals. Through interconnected objects via intranet and Internet, IoT technologies enhance the productivities of businesses by reducing the wastage of time, reducing the expenses of the businesses by its low-cost property. The IoT is empowered by a system of detection, actuation, control, and cloud storage. IoT technologies should be applied to monitor the change of the value of valuables like temperature, voltage, gas and liquid level, etc.; it helps to get the record of the change in the value of the valuables detected. The proposed system was developed to monitor and control data center temperature through ESP32 board, DHT22 module, relays and ThingSpeak cloud. To significantly reduce the power consumption of the cooling devices, the system uses a cooling device backup which can be controlled by a microcontroller through a smartphone over the Internet. Moreover, the system assists the data center manager by automatically switching on the backup in case of the failure of one working cooling device. However, an email address and SMS are sent to the data center manager at any time when there is a collected value that is not in the normal temperature range. As a result, the project enhances the productivity of the company by reducing the cost expended in the data center infrastructure, and by reducing the activities performed by a data center manager.
A predictive model for early detection of diabetes mellitus using machine learning
(NM-AIST, 2021-10) Semakula, Henry
Diabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose or blood sugar that over time can bring severe damage to vital organs including the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves. Diabetes is therefore one of the major priorities in medical science research. Type 2 diabetes is common in adults, either because of inadequate insulin production, or when the body’s cells fail to respond properly to the produced insulin. For all the diabetes cases, it’s found out that 90% are Type 2 diabetes. Of the 422 million people with diabetes worldwide, 336 million people are found in developing countries, and 1.6 million people die of diabetes each year according to statistics by the World Health Organization. Around 19.8 million adults in Africa have Type 2 diabetes but approximately 75% are unaware of their condition (undiagnosed). Most people are undiagnosed because many people lack knowledge of symptoms for diabetes, and others are not diagnosed due to lack of testing kits more especially in rural areas. African governments have scaled up purchasing and distribution of diagnostic kits but the majority of the population has not been reached. Researchers have been developing predictive models for Type 2 diabetes, but African populations are not widely included in their datasets. The developed models may therefore not accurately identify at-risk populations in the African context. The main emphasis of this research was to come up with a machine learning prediction model to find out Ugandans likely to be suffering from Type 2 diabetes (output classes: high risk or low risk), based on input symptoms. Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, Naïve Bayes, and AdaBoost classifiers were trained on anonymised, real patient data with twelve features including age, gender (male or female), systolic blood pressure, residence (town or village), diastolic blood pressure, family Member with diabetes, alcohol intake, smoker, hypertensive, obesity, physically inactive and body mass index. This research’s experimental results after the comparison of the Accuracy Score and Confusion Matrix for all the above algorithms, the Random Forest classifier emerged the premier with the accuracy score of 85.4%, thus the experimental results shown that performance of Random Forest classifier as being significant superior compared to all other the machine learning algorithms.
Machine learning model for prediction and visualization of HIV index testing in northern Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2022-07) Chikusi, Happyness
Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) continue to pose a threat to Tanzanian society. Various tactics have been used to improve the number of persons who are aware of their HIV status. Index testing stands out among these methods as the most effective way to count the number of HIV contacts who may be at risk of catching HIV from HIV-positive individuals. The current HIV index testing, however, is manual, which presents a number of difficulties, including inaccuracies, is time consuming, and is expensive to operate. In order to forecast and depict HIV index testing, this study presents the findings of the machine-learning model. The software development procedure was in accordance with agile software development principles. The regions of Kilimanjaro, Arusha, and Manyara in Tanzania are where the data was gathered which consisted of 11 features and 6346 samples. The dataset was then separated into training sets with 5075 samples each and testing sets with 1270 samples (80/20). The datasets were subjected to the methods Random Forest (RF), XGBoost, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). Random forest MAE (1.1261), XGBoost MAE (1.2340), and ANN MAE (1.1268) were the three results obtained. Random forest algorithms had the lowest mean absolute errors (MAE). Therefore, RF appearing to have the highest performance when compared to the other two algorithms. In comparison to men (17.4%), data visualization reveals that females are more likely to test for HIV and to name their partners (82.6%). Additionally, there were higher instances of persons listing and mentioning their partners in the Kilimanjaro region. This work helped us realize the importance of machine learning in predicting and visualizing HIV index tests in general. The created model can help decision-makers build a viable intervention to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS in our communities. The report suggests that health centers in other areas employ this concept to make their work more straightforward.
Development of industrial IoT based monitoring and control system for radio broadcasting network in Tanzania: a case of Tanzania broadcasting corporation
(NM-AIST, 2022-07) Msimbe, Hamisi
The radio towers must be constructed in sharp elevations or mountains to ensure the maximum radio wave propagation and long-distance coverage of the radio station programs. Due to the sharp elevation positioning of radio towers, the tower operators or technicians are required to climb up every day to be able to take readings of the equipment. Strenuous and daily effort is needed to access these sharp locations either on foot or by car. A need to develop and implement a system that will monitor and send earlier notifications information on the status of the transmitter to the responsible tower operators. Therefore, this project aims to develop an IIoT based monitoring and control system for terrestrial broadcasting networks with outdated technology of Fm transmitter equipment which isstill used in Tanzania. As a result, the solution will effectively and timely assist tower operators to monitor, collecting information understanding and the existing problems that are happening at the radio towers without physically climbing to the radio towers. In addition, the system is cost-effective and collect information in real-time based as it is integrated with a mobile application in a smart device that is linked to the embedded system which is installed in a specific tower to monitor parameters such as forward power, reflected power, electrical units, fuel level, temperature, humidity, and smoke. This study has used a mixed-design approach of quantitative and qualitative methods using focus group discussions with 20 stakeholders to evaluate the developed system. The result of the evaluation shows that 90% of the respondents agreed that the developed system is robust and appropriate to manage the existing challenges at the radio towers.The radio towers must be constructed in sharp elevations or mountains to ensure the maximum radio wave propagation and long-distance coverage of the radio station programs. Due to the sharp elevation positioning of radio towers, the tower operators or technicians are required to climb up every day to be able to take readings of the equipment. Strenuous and daily effort is needed to access these sharp locations either on foot or by car. A need to develop and implement a system that will monitor and send earlier notifications information on the status of the transmitter to the responsible tower operators. Therefore, this project aims to develop an IIoT based monitoring and control system for terrestrial broadcasting networks with outdated technology of Fm transmitter equipment which isstill used in Tanzania. As a result, the solution will effectively and timely assist tower operators to monitor, collecting information understanding and the existing problems that are happening at the radio towers without physically climbing to the radio towers. In addition, the system is cost-effective and collect information in real-time based as it is integrated with a mobile application in a smart device that is linked to the embedded system which is installed in a specific tower to monitor parameters such as forward power, reflected power, electrical units, fuel level, temperature, humidity, and smoke. This study has used a mixed-design approach of quantitative and qualitative methods using focus group discussions with 20 stakeholders to evaluate the developed system. The result of the evaluation shows that 90% of the respondents agreed that the developed system is robust and appropriate to manage the existing challenges at the radio towers.
Development of swahili speaking body weight scale for visually impaired people in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2022-01) Nzasangamariya, Gloriose
Speaking weight scale is an important low vision health aid which measures and announces out the measured weight. It is valuable in numerous applications such as Bathroom scale, Kitchen scale and more. Different talking scales have been developed for blind community. Many talking scales have language option for English, German, French or Spanish. However, only limited work exists for Swahili speaking visually impaired community in East African Community (EAC) given the fact that no talking scale can announce weight in Swahili, which is the common language in EAC. Therefore, this project aims to develop a Swahili speaking weighing machine to assist visually impaired people in Tanzania. The proposed speaking scale is divided into two major parts. On the front-end of the design, sensors are used to capture weight parameters. The captured values are mapped onto sequence of voice patterns. The back-end consists of transferring a sequence of voice patterns to a loudspeaker whereby the voice patterns are stored on an SD card. Finally, the developed device has been evaluated on several objects (certified scale calibration weights) with known weights. Each object was reweighed two times. Placed certified calibration weights on the scale and note the output. Took the measured object off the scale and let the scale return to zero. Placed the same object on the scale again. Noted the output again. The results then showed that the scale displayed the same weights on each object. The expected weight of given objects was then compared with the recorded ones to assess the performance of the scale. The results then showed that the scale is able to measure objects, displays digital output of measured weight and announce it in Swahili language within the accuracy of 1% error range of the actual weight. The proposed device has a great potential as a low vision health aid for Swahili speaking. The features of this device can be further improved to increase the autonomy of blind people to use the device and navigate to the device’s location safely.
IoT-based control and monitoring system of a solar-powered brushless dc motor for agro-machines – the case of a Tanzanian-made oil press machine
(NM-AIST, 2022-07) Minja, Gilbert
The impulse in designing local agricultural machinery for curbing post-harvest losses in most African countries particularly Tanzania is unmatched. Locally made agricultural machines have proven to elevate the life of many small-scale farmers, which has increased the need to incorporate machine drives and controls to ease the process and operations. With potentials in Solar Energy, powering machine drive systems that operate in off-grid areas has been the best solution. Using the principles of Internet of Things (IoT) together with advancement in motor designs and readily available off the shelf microcontrollers such as the Raspberry Pi and Arduino UNO in the market, we achieve machinery that caters for our needs and the local content. Mobile apps play a huge role in industrialization where monitoring and even controls of machines can be performed by the mobile phones. This project incorporated Agile-Scrum methods to develop a control and monitoring system for a locally made avocado oil extraction machine that is powered by a solar system with 1600W panel arrays and 800Ah battery pack, and uses a Brushless Direct Current Motor coupled with electric solenoid valve, relay modules and a controller unit assisting on the control process and collecting crucial motor operation data such as voltage and current. The designed Mobile app ‘Blue’ acquire motor operation data from the Raspberry Pi via Bluetooth technology, delivering data to cloud server for later analysis. Easing data acquisition in off grid areas when engineers, technicians or operators have a physical access to the stations. It was concluded that this novel design would provide an effective control and monitoring mechanism with an acceptance on reliability, usability and effectiveness of up to 85.65% for a plethora of locally-made machinery that available in the market which still uses the manual means of operation emphasizing ease of use and productivity, thence joining hands with the global world on attaining some of the Sustainable Development Goals.
A mobile-based system for enhancing interactive communication among people in the protected area: a case study on human-wildlife conflicts management in Ngorongoro conservation area and Serengeti national park in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2021-07) Nyange, Frank
One of the core human rights is the right to the best possible health for humans and a balanced ecology for wildlife. Electric fences are the only way to prevent human-wildlife conflict, but they are ineffective in many countries due to the high cost of power management required to operate them. Camera trap management can help this problem, however, in underdeveloped nations like Tanzania, it fails to owe to poor GPS usage, which prevents the information from being reported to the protected area authority. The goal of this study is to create a mobile application A mobile-based human-wildlife conflict Management App) that would help to solve the human and wildlife conflicts within Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park. Mobile application captures video from camera trap and allows to report the information to the park rangers through live chatting. Interviews, observations, and questionnaires were used to gather information. The findings suggest that 93% from interviews and observation of people thought it to be really useful for receiving video from camera trap to the mobile app and able to report information to the protected area authority. The remaining 7% were unable to fix the problem due to a lack of smartphones and poor internet access within the protected area. Within the villages, the application may be used with a smartphone and a decent internet connection. People in the protected area gave the designed system positive feedback, with 95.2% of those who completed the system evaluation agreeing that the App should be used. Further development of the application would necessitate more functionality and improved internet accessibility.
RFID based warehouse management system. a case study of rok industries
(NM-AIST, 2021-09) Ngaboyimbere, Fabien
In the supply chain and logistics industry, the precision of the data assets inventory plays a crucial role in warehouse activities. The operations like storage locations arrangement, inventory management, and maintaining the flow of incoming and outcoming goods lead to the success of the warehouse. Nowadays, most people prefer online shopping all over the world because it is faster than local trade. Thus, there's massive information in the supply chain and logistics sector to explore in order to improve operations of the warehouse such as receiving, ordering, shipping, storage assignment to facilitate the automation in the warehouse. As result, this research is proposed to improve warehouse activities. The RFID-based warehouse management system automates storage and inventory management without any human intervention. In order to accomplish the objectives of the study, a software program was developed with sets of rules, and an algorithm to optimize the inventory operations with the help of RFID technology. The predefined rules help in giving priorities to some of the selected products to store and retrieve in the indicated location. The long-range RFID reader is used in this project. The reader is attached to the entrance of the gate of the warehouse to facilitate the reading of incoming goods. Once the goods arrive in the warehouse, the storage location function will assign to each one the storage location and update status in the database. A handheld reader attached to the forklift facilitates inventory management and communicates with the application via a wireless network and finally store data in the database for future use. After developing this system, a test was conducted for testing the feasibility and applicability of the system. The output showed that the inventory management operation was made strides, and the correctness of inventory location increased from 72.8% to 99%. The cycle time moreover decreases from 60 minutes to 20 minutes which is down to 28.79%.
Online platform for linking farmers and agro-vet services in Tanzania. case study: poultry
(NM-AIST, 2021-11) Mshana, Evelyn
Poultry farming is a rapidly, growing livestock sector in Tanzania that supports rural and urban households on income and source of information. In addition to poultry being a source of food, it provides manure which is used for improving crop farming. Currently, there is still a high demand of poultry in Tanzania. However, there are challenges that lead to low productivity in the sector. The uneven distribution of the Agro-vet shops/ Veterinary centers that provide poultry farming inputs such as feeds, drugs, vaccines, and other poultry equipment is a challenge to poultry farmers. The inadequate and lack of extension officers who are the potential information providers to the poultry farmers is another challenge. The objective of this paper is to help improvement of poultry production by linking poultry farmers to these poultry services. A sample size of 200 respondents comprised of poultry farmers, agro-vet owners and extension officers were selected using Cochran’s Formula from three regions in Tanzania. We found that there are areas where these poultry services are not found at all and others are very far from the poultry farmer’s locality. Thus, poultry farmers walk long distance accessing products and services from agro-vet shops and at times fail to get extension services rather they use their experience in husbandry and through word of mouth to improve production. However, poultry farmers try to address their problems either by asking their friends or neighbors due to inaccessibility of the poultry services within their locality. Therefore, in order to address these challenges, this study contributes a mobile and web based application that provides poultry farmers’ insight on the locations of the agro-vet services within their locality. Furthermore, the application facilitates the provision of extension services in addition to the agro-vet services. The contacts of the extension workers and the veterinarians within the location are provided on the application. The information provides direction for decision makers and investors about the areas where there are lack of Agro-vet shops/ Vet centers and to the need for Extension services. . The study concludes that through the proposed system, it can be a panacea to improving and accessing poultry services through linking the poultry farmers to the poultry services using both mobile application and web based application.
Enhancing access to information about civil society organizations and communities through an interactive android mobile application
(NM-AIST, 2021-09) Patrick, Emil
Civil Society Organizations are non-governmental and not-for-profit organizations which act as a bridge between the government, society and the private sector by holding the government accountable and give a voice to the marginalized groups on issues such as education, health and other sectors. The problem in this study is that currently, the information about CSOs and their activities in East Africa cannot be found in one place online and it is inaccurate and sometimes outdated. The data collection was done through questionnaires, observations and interviews with different stakeholders in the civil society arena. In the system development phase, agile development methodology was used. The study showed that there is a gap in the availability of a single platform where different actors can readily get reliable and up-to-date information about the available CSOs of interest. The outcome of the study is the development of an interactive online directory of Civil Society Organizations. The platform is mobile based and enables CSOs to register and fill up their current details, ensuring that there is always correct and updated information. The platform is equipped with a geo-mapping facility which enables users of the system to correctly geo locate their civil societies of interest on a map. The results of system evaluation showed that 88.125% of users were satisfied with the system basing on the evaluation criteria. The developed system will benefit stakeholders in the non-profit sector by having one platform where accurate and up-to-date information about civil societies can be easily found.
Development of radio frequency identification based library management and anti-theft system: a case of east African community region
(NM-AIST, 2021-10) Irankunda, Deo
Radio Frequency Identification Systems are becoming very useful and helpful in our daily life due to their advantages such as reduction of human error, theft prevention, time-consuming reduction, the auto-identification of targeted objects and data collection, find easily misplaced items as well as automating the processes business. Radio Frequency Identification systems have been applied in different areas including in library to manage items and library operations. Different approaches have been adopted to increase the efficiency of library management system in the East African region unfortunately, some challenges including theft of library item, pages removal, non-customer satisfaction, high cost of used system are persisting. To address the challenges an RFID system has been developed for East African Community Library. It used Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID readers and tags capable to send and receive data at a read range of 6m. The aim of this system is to speed up all library transactions, improve customer’s satisfaction and keep a track of all library items. It enabled also librarians to have videos records of all library operations which were used to identify page removing actors and other unwanted behavior. The developed system will facilitate users borrowing and returning library items with the help of RFID-enabled modules without more human intervention and issue an alert if a non-issued item is detected when user cross the library entrance or exit. The Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) camera and time-stamped access of library books provided with this developed system, will help to have video records of all library operations and facilitate to detect the actioner of the pages removal.
Development of low-cost IOT based infant incubator in Tanzania: a case of east African community region
(NM-AIST, 2022-07) Rwechungura, Daniel
Physical adjustment to life outside of the mother's body of a baby might be challenging due to health issues and other environmental factors. Prematurity is one of the most crucial problems in Tanzania since it contributes to a greater infant mortality rate. Despite the vital function that infant incubators play, their operation cost is too expensive for low-income countries to obtain and it relies only on electricity for their operation. The fundamental goal of this project is to create an inexpensive, efficient, and dual-powered incubator that saves premature infants' lives. We developed the system which utilizes ESP32 as the Microcontroller Unit board interfaced with DHT22, a thermistor for skin temperature computation, MAX30102 to evaluate heart rate and oxygen saturation in the blood. An oxygen sensor measures the air quality in the chamber, and a ultraviolet sensor records the light intensity of the phototherapy unit used to treat jaundice. The computed information is displayed and transferred to a webpage that tracks the infant's data. When the system detects a critical condition, it sounds an alarm and sends short messege services to medical personnel via Global System for Mobile Communication. The system adjusts the environment using a heater, humidifier, and oxygen valve. The final design was implemented on a Printed Circuit Board and tested after a circuit was designed and simulated. The sensors were calibrated against standard sensors to receive accurate measured data, and then transferred via Wi-Fi through the ESP32 to a webpage for remote monitoring and control. In conclusion, based on the test-performed the developed system can save the lives of premature babies, is low-cost, and is applicable in areas with limited resources. Furthermore, we recommend an easy way to assess the functionality of the locally developed systems by the regulatory institutions involved so as to be implemented successfully.
Fetal heart beat rate monitoring support device for pregnant women diagnosed with mild pre-eclampsia/hypertension in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2022-07) Mariki, Christina
The standard care for pregnant women in Tanzania is done in health facilities. The fetal heart rate monitoring among other things is done during scheduled antenatal clinic visits. High number of still birth caused by timely and inaccurate fetal heart rate monitoring is one of the major concerns in the management of those diagnosed with mild pre-eclampsia throughout their pregnancy. Pregnant women in the low income countries ,at gestational age of 28+ weeks are at high risk and require to perform fetal heart rate monitoring frequently. Therefore, the automated tool for self-monitoring of fetal heart rate remotely is of high need to save both the life of the mother and the unborn child. A mixed method was used to identify and gather requirements for fetal heart beat rate monitoring tool. Agile methodology was used to design the prototype of the fetal heart beat rate monitoring device. This study observed that, 54% of the pregnant women conducted their own fetal heart rate monitoring through charting fetal kicks manually. In addition, the fetal heart beat rate monitoring device has been developed to sense and record in real-time the fetal heart beats and pregnant women’s heartbeat. Apart from that the belt has also succeeded to record the temperature, location using GPS of the pregnant woman. Using GSM module and the Blynk Application the captured information is sent to the patient and health facility for monitoring purposes. In implementation of this study, it avails raise of awareness on the importance of continuously monitoring the fetal heart beat rate for pregnant women with hypertensive condition during pregnancy in communication with the health facility- medical personnel.
Warehouse management system enhancement for a-to-z textiles limited
(NM-AIST, 2021-09) Mbunda, Beatus
Technology utilization in industry in developing countries is the challenge, often there are crisis of equipment, goods and items destruction or loss in the warehouses. The enhancement of the warehouse management system for the Company help to utilize resources effectively thus improves Company performance. The aim of this study was to improve warehouse management through the use of information communication and technology. The study developed mobile application for customer registration, order management and stock management but also the study developed web application for account management, order management, invoice generation, client registration and stock management. The study extended the features of the mobile application to web-based application for the easy of the management of the application and reduce the load of the mobile application. Data were collected through observations and interviews for the aim of understanding the current system, how the company is managing the warehouse and getting requirements for these developed systems. The developed web and mobile application of warehouse management system were assessed and verified to evaluate functionalities and usability of the systems. The system enhanced the access of information at the fingertips, increase availability of service for the customer 24 hours per day through making order on spot, easier flow of information between the personnel of the company such as sales personnel, administrator of the systems and storekeeper, but also getting stock level instantly, order management and tracking, invoice generation and status of the invoice.
A mobile-based system for loans management: a case of banque de gestion et de financement
(NM-AIST, 2022-07) Bizoza, Armel
As technology has evolved and has embraced nearly all sectors of human daily life, bank processes are not left behind. Moreover, mobile technology penetration and internet access in Africa have increased a lot. In Burundi, internet users have increased by 452 thousand (+39%) between 2020 and 2021. Therefore, the introduction of a mobile system for the banking process would be in line with the region’s digital trends. As for the case of the Burundian bank, the Banque de Gestion et de Financement (BGF) some processes are still done manually and the physical presence of the client is mandatory. This is the case in the loan application process. Existing studies have presented digital solutions for loan management but the studies are not tailored to Burundian banks' processes and regulations and there are security issues that are not addressed. To tackle the above challenges and enhance the loan management process, this study proposes a mobile-based system that manages the loan requests: the customer applies for a loan and is informed of the approval or rejection of the application online without reaching the banks’ offices. The system provides feedback to the customer within fewer processes and in secure and reliable conditions. The proposed system does not incorporate the entire loan management process. The flow of information within BGF departments during the loan application analysis is not included in the proposed system. The system development process was based on the agile model methodology and the prototype was completed with the use of tools such as android studio, html5, css3, angular JavaScript, bootstrap for the front end, and PHP and MySQL for the back end. The system verification and validation included 10 participants from BGF (staff) and 15 BGF customers. The 25 participants evaluated the proposed system and gave positive feedback regarding the performance, ease of use, and usefulness.
Mathematical modeling for helminths and mycobacterium tuberculosis co-infection
(NM-AIST, 2021-10) Lambura, Aristide
Tuberculosis continues to be a life-threatening disease in Sub-Saharan African countries despite the available vaccine whereas soil-transmitted helminth is among the neglected tropical disease that causes threats to pre-school, school-aged children and child-bearing mothers. The infection by helminths increases susceptibility to tuberculosis. Thus, there is a need to investigate the possi bility of co-infection of the two diseases due to its geographical overlap at cellular and population levels. This dissertation presents deterministic mathematical models that are aimed at describing the transmission dynamics of soil-transmitted disease and the co-infection with tuberculosis. The first model that describes the transmission dynamics of soil-transmitted helminth with optimal control is presented. The model was qualitatively analyzed and the threshold that governs the spread of the disease derived. The best control model was developed, and numerical simulations were run using a variety of control measures to determine the most cost-effective method for effectively containing the disease. According to the findings, the most cost-effective method for combating the spread of soil-transmitted helminths is a combination of health education and sanitation. The soil-transmitted helminth model was modified to form the second model for the co-infection with tuberculosis. The qualitative analysis was made to determine the equilibrium points and the conditions for the disease eradication. The impact of helminth infection on tuberculosis and vice-versa were discussed and it was observed that helminth infection enhances tuberculosis in the community. Numerical simulation for the model revealed that the interventions that include a combination of measures for controlling helminth infection, vaccinating the babies with bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine and the treatment of ´ individuals with active tuberculosis were effective in controlling the spread of the diseases. The last model considered the interaction of the helminth parasites, mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogens, and the immune competence within an individual host. Numerical simulations showed that primary infection by either helminth parasite or Mtb bacteria is unsuccessful within the host when the basic reproduction number is less than the unit.

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