International University of East Africa (IUEA) has applied to Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) for an amateur (VHF/UHF/S-band) license. If permitted IUEA will build Uganda’s first Education satellite (UGA-SAT 1). This will make IUEA the first university in Uganda, and among the few African countries to launch an educational satellite.
According to IUEA, the mission is in line with Uganda’s history of providing academic excellence and with the use of technology to advance national economic development especially in difficult times where learners cannot physically meet their instructors.
Dr. Emeka Akaezuwa IUEA Vice Chancellor, enlightened that the project is also in conformity to IUEA’s vision and mission of being the technological university of choice in Africa, and providing education that includes practical experience and skills.
“The satellite project will involve the combined scientific, engineering and useful ability of IUEA’s faculty of science, faculty of engineering, the department of environmental science and IUEA’s soon to be the operational department of agriculture. Modern-day education and the Fourth Industrial Revolution mentality mandate an inter-disciplinary approach to problem-solving, and this is precisely what IUEA’s satellite programme demonstrates,’’ Dr. Akaezuwa explained.
IUEA also plans to design and build a Cube Satellite that will address the climate change and incurable crop diseases aspects of the problem by analyzing and forecasting weather patterns for Uganda’s agricultural sector.
Other beneficiaries of IUEA UGA-Sat1 include agriculturalists, environmental scientists and policymakers. Weather-driven data, collected and beamed down by the satellite, will be shared with the beneficiaries and with any government agency that will be attracted in the data collected.
Currently, IUEA teaches satellite communication courses and is waiting UCC’s approval to start the project.
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