Students at the Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) say they are inspired by Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) graduates of the institution, Derrick Mugerwa and Muhammad Adam who have developed an electronically monitored greenhouse that will perform automatic irrigation for the crops by checking the moisture levels of the soil using technology.
A second year Bachelor of Information student at IUIU- Main campus Oriokot Isaac told Campus Bee that such innovations instill hope that they can also become inventors after leaving the campus.
“Such innovations boost morale within the ICT students to work harder and also instills belief among us that what we learn in class can actually be put into practice after graduating to solve rising problems in ever changing environment today. It also motivates us to create our own jobs and employ ourselves instead of waiting to be employed by a company,” Oriokot told Campus Bee.
He says the Islamic University in Uganda reviews its curriculum to produce graduates who solve diverse challenges rocking the world.
“IUIU always revises its curriculum after a few years and various topics are introduced and taught to the students. Examples of such topics include Cloud Computing, Java Programming, Data Warehousing among others so that students can aquire modern knowledge and hit the ground running after they are done with campus. IUIU Lecturers are also extremely helpful in guiding students on aspects they find challenging in various topics. IUIU also conducts joint examinations of all its four campuses in order to make students more competitive and hence produce quality output,” he says.
Oriokot told Campus Bee that the development has inspired him to believe that there is need to do more in the world that needs Information Technology.
“This shows me that there is a growing need of automisation of systems in different sectors of the country so as to yield abundant output and that can only be done using such innovations. Uganda has embraced technology in the past years and almost everyone has a smartphone at least. This provides a platform to deliver services to Ugandans in various sectors such as agriculture, business among others,” he says.
Oriokot says personally he is building his career towards computer networking.
“I will develop an application in line with cyber security. This is because privacy and confidentiality is a growing concern in this digital age. We need to be able to secure our data as we use our devices both online and offline,” he says.
On how it how it works, the developers , Derrick Mugwera and Adam Muhammad told a local newspaper that the autonomous greenhouse reaction is solar powered, and digitally monitors the environment in house by the usage of moisture sensors (a chip connected to the digital monitors and then immersed in the soil) to check the moisture level of the soil. After determining the moisture levels, it commands the monitor, if whether the soil needs watering automatically when the soil is dry.
“We use the GMS/GPRS module that sends data to the monitor, using a simline to show the temperature levels of the soil. It also monitors the aeration levels. The monitor reflects the data about when and what time the crops received water and how much the crops are grown. Currently this greenhouse has set 30 per cent as a threshold to check the moisture levels of the soil, if the reading falls below 30 per cent, it automatically triggers the system to start irrigation and if the reading meets the threshold, it stops irrigation,” says Adam.
They told the paper that the module is embedded with automatic taps called solenoid valves that use a micro-processor system to read the set results from the sensors and then triggers the water irrigation.
The system is connected to a single water pump that controls the amount of water to be irrigated. The unique thing about this module is each crop has its own solenoid valves connected with a water pipe for irrigation to avoid overflow of water for different crops. Aeration is another important factor in the greenhouse, it is installed with fans that control the amount of air. Aeration is triggered by the temperature and humidity sensors connected to a micro-controller.
“For the Aeration to happen, temperature in the greenhouse has to go beyond 29 degree Celsius and if the temperature falls below 29 degree, the aeration automatically stops. In case, the power goes off the micro-controller system will switch to roll up motor that draws the film up, allowing the air to pass through the net,” says Mugerwa.
