Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 19:01:37 +0200
Friday, 11 September 2015 03:22 | Written by Billion Temesghen | 
| Articles - Q & A |
5th year computer engineering students Daniel, Mehari, Bilen, Eluyud, Ebtisam, and Winta
We’ve seen trough years that colleges in Eritrea create platforms of interaction in which students implement what they learn. While at school, students very often share and gain thoughts and ideas, experiences, virtues and knowledge for lifelong purposes.
Today we will converse about an application developed by a group of 6 computer engineering students, who just like many more Eritrean college students have came up with an efficient idea.
Q:- The group…
Ebtisam Hussain (21): “My group mates are Bilen Alem (21), Daniel Goitom (age 22), Elyud Michael (23), Mehari Huruy (23) and Winta Issak (21). We all are fourth year computer engineering students. We developed an android application for our junior year project.
Q:-The mini project…
Bilen Alem: “Android applications have been developed many times before. For instance, some of our classmates developed a tour guide application. And we just wanted to think outside of the box and look into how we can apply what we learned in way that would serve for local use.
As we all know, the telephone services in our country are not linked to the Internet. So we planned on developing an android application that would make some of the phone services easier.
The app provides easy ways of recharging phone balance, checking the balance, renewing the balance, transferring money, speed dialing, and placing emergency calls with direct access.”
Q:-A bit about android…
Ebtisam Hussein: “Nowadays it is hard to find anyone, especially amongst the young folks, who is not aware of android. But just for the sake of information, it is a free and an open-source operating system that activates all sorts of middleware in an electronic device.
So applications can be easily built and installed, and eventually made accessible for other users to run. These days, smart phones are highly popular with lots and lots and people using Android applications.”
Q:-The journey while working on the app…
Ebtisam Hussein: “If you are to develop something you first need to be well acquainted with it. So when we first came up with the idea, we had to do a lot of reading, studying, referencing, and experimenting to provide ourselves with all the knowledge we needed.
We knew it was not going to be easy but we found the ride to-wards our finished project thrilling every step of the way.
Since we needed to be active at school, sometimes we would be tight on time and there were times when we had doubts and argued about whether to go through with it or not.
But we are very glad now that we accomplished what we initially set out to do. It was an eye opening experience.”
Q:-The feedback…
Bilen Alem: “People loved it. You know, at the beginning we simply wanted it to be of help to old people because sometimes they might find recharging or checking their balances troubling but afterwards we saw that even people of our age were satisfied with it.
Apparently, “easy” is a word that a lot of us are looking for nowadays. And we are glad to have it in our gadgets!! For our senior year project next year, we are looking for ways to take what we have started to the next level.”
Q:-Last words
Ebtisam Hussein: “As long as we are students, we are required to do our jobs right. No excuses. I have always seen myself working with computers.
Since Eritrea is a developing country, there’s so much left for us to do. It is a good place for us to practice our knowledge.”
Bilen Alem: “I believe in implementing what has been learned. Personally this experience has been one of the most constructive I had. As a part timer, I have been working with networking at TFanus Computer Center so I am planning to learn more on net-working and work with it.”
In expressing how the other team members felt Ebtisam Hussain says “Happy and proud”.
These young students just like many more students in different departments of various colleges are very much aware that they are more than capable of efficiently applying what they learn. And as a new academic year is just days away, Eritrea Profile wishes all the students a successful year ahead.