Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 4 | Linking African Universities with MIT iLabs, page 3

Spreading the Wealth
It’s accepted wisdom that the developing world, sub-Saharan Africa in particular, desperately needs to bridge the digital divide in order to stimulate economic growth, eradicate poverty and boost living standards. In a knowledge-based global economy, international development experts stress, the wealth of a nation is directly linked to its capacity for innovation, which, in turn, depends on the strength of its science and technology sector. But despite willingness to transfer Western technology to Africa, countries there have had a hard time absorbing and adapting that technology, and most have not managed to set up sufficient capacity-building institutions to create a critical mass of researchers, engineers and other essential human resources.

What’s behind these disappointing results? Typically, the problem is poor planning and unrealistic expectations on the part of the developed world. Simply providing African countries with access to unfamiliar technologies will not guarantee reaping the desired social and economic rewards. Unless strategies uniquely suited to each targeted region are hammered out well in advance—taking into account infrastructure, costs of acquiring and mastering new technology, degree of difficulty involved and the training required—projects often end up creating more problems than they solve.

Engineering graduate student Kayode (Peter) Ayodele.

One way to improve the odds is to choose the strongest prospect on the receiving end. In this case, OAU stands out for its flagship technology resources. The pilot educational and research network, OAUnet, was established to promote science and technology at the university and to fan out to other institutions across Nigeria. Most importantly, OAU has acted on its own initiative and set priorities for building technological capacity—a step that can make all the difference in getting the right technology, at the right time, to the right people. Mohamet H.A. Hassan, president of the African Academy of Sciences, puts it this way, “If sub-Saharan Africa is to join other developing nations and regions that have learned to harness science for development, it must set its own agenda and be willing to see it through. Others can help, but sub-Saharan Africa’s science and technology renaissance must ultimately begin—and end—at home.”

While it’s vital for Western donors to support African institutions, “we can’t push the development process faster than the universities are pushing it themselves,” cautions Andrea Johnson, Carnegie Corporation International Development Program Officer. “Otherwise, we risk mismatched priorities. Few universities in Africa will turn down offers of assistance, but would they always select that particular activity if they had a complete list of options from which to choose, or if they had their own resources to invest? The iLabs project is a case in point. Vice chancellors of the universities the Corporation works with have been exposed to many ideas, but rarely have I seen a reaction as enthusiastic as when the iLabs project was presented to them. We opted to act on their enthusiasm, and I think the project has been relatively successful to date because of it.”

Even when recipients seem ready, willing and able to deal with new technology, establishing close ties between the giving and receiving teams helps pave the way for success. According to Kehinde, collaboration among staff, in the form of conferences, training sessions and personnel exchanges, is one of the iLab project’s biggest pluses, along with “exceptional cooperation of the MIT team with African universities whenever there is a need for assistance.” That works both ways, in del Alamo’s view. “Some of the most critical feedback that we have received from users of our lab was that the documentation was inadequate,” he recalls. “This summer, we launched an effort to overhaul all our documentation. As a newcomer, Olu’s fresh look at our lab as been invaluable for us to understand the challenges that new users face as they attempt to operate the lab for the first time.”

Olumide Akinwunmi, Ph.D. student in engineering at OAU.

“I have great hopes for this program,” del Alamo says, having seen it through the kick-off phase in Africa early in the summer of 2005, then two rounds of student exchanges and the first stages of setting up the initial African iLabs. “Commitment and determination on the part of the staff involved is the vital ingredient that can make or break this project,” says Kehinde. “Combining iLab research with their regular job schedule has been very tough for our staff,” he explains, adding, however, “the excellent team taking leadership roles in the project means work is progressing very well. Students will be performing new experiments on the Internet and our initial attempt at setting up our own experiments should be concluded soon.”

Signs are good that this project will integrate successfully into OAU’s overall development strategy, as well as the other African partner universities in Tanzania and Uganda and, someday, throughout the continent. Also important is the fact that “a good number of MIT students will have had the privilege of working in Africa and being engaged in a worthwhile technical project that chips at the digital divide from the other side. By the time we are done,” del Alamo predicts,” there will be several iLabs in place, dozens of African students will have participated in the design and construction of iLabs, and hundreds of physics and engineering students will be routinely exposed to laboratory experiments through the Internet.” It’s a scenario he could hardly have imagined almost eight years ago when the notion of an Internet accessible lab at MIT first entered his mind.

Next page: It all began because of frustration. “I was teaching my students using books and charts, just as I had been taught microelectronics,” del Alamo recalls.

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5