Day One: Friday October 11, 2024
A meeting was held to discuss and make plans for the second and third year of the project activities. The following was discussed and deliberations made:
Master curriculum:
Different aspects regarding the courses to be developed under the project were discussed regarding the required course materials and requirements, related required approvals and accreditations, teaching the courses, assessment and evaluation of the courses and their outcomes which could be done through a questionnaire survey – could be done in the last year of the project. Also, the selection of trainers and trainees, training materials, requirements for purchase of required literature was discussed. It was noted that a draft of the course requirements has already been developed by Makerere team which will be shared. A share-point would be created where to upload all necessary documents.
Makerspace and laboratory:
A draft practical course offered at BOKU university in measurement systems and applied programming for hybrid renewable energy systems was shared including its details. Such a course could be inline with the approach to be implemented at Makerere University.
Training programme for non-academic stakeholders:
An online worskhop in January 2025 was agreed for this training programme. Key participants will include policy makers from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, engineering practioners both in the private sector, consultants etc.
Other aspects discussed:
Three publications are required from the APPEAR project. Already one publication is in place. This was presented at the just concluded SEEP conference held in September 2024 at BOKU university. The team should start to prepare think about two more papers to be published in indexed journals. There is an upcoming conference on Materials science in September 2025 which the team at Makerere University can participate. Members from Makerere University to be included on an application for Erasmus mobility programme.
Finally, a visit to the Makerspace laboratory where the training was to be conducted was made.
Day Two: Monday October 14, 2024
This was the first day of the practical training. Prior to the training, two presentations were made:
The participants (teachers) thereafter introduced to a practical session on setting up basic electric circuits with the arduinos and raspberry pis. Basic programming approaches were looked at.
Day Three: Tuesday October 15, 2024
Programming with the arduinos was undertaken. The start of the arduino based solar-traker project was done in the respective groups of about 2-3 participants.
Day Four: Wednesday October 16, 2024
Continuation work on the arduino solar tracker project and introduction to 3D printing.