School of Technology

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.168.8.146:4000/handle/123456789/70

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Start date: 2013End date: 2019

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 22
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    Dynamics of technology transfer for innovation processes in a constrained resource settings :
    (Scientific & Academic Publishing Co., 2018) Kiarie, Peter; Mwangi, Henry; Rong, Chunming
    Abstract Technology transfer, defined as the movement of scientific inventions from an enterprise to the market place, is often a difficult and frustrating process. Stakeholders in this area of study are usually at different levels of understanding due to many factors involved and speak different languages. There are number of problems associated with technology transfer processes in constrained resource settings such as lack of researchers in specific domains, motivation, bureaucratic climate, inability to make effective public investments, funding and inappropriate infrastructure, culture among many others. This research explores the above problems and others discussed by varies researchers in technology transfer and particularly those in Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework using Data analytics and System Dynamics modeling approaches. Data analytics will facilitate in developing a more promising and data rich System Dynamics model. The study will shed light on technical and social factors that lead to formulation of policies which enable accelerated technology transfers in constrained resource settings.
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    Supporting e-learning in computer-poor environments by combining oer, cloud services and mobile learning
    (ICCE2014, 2014) Mwendia, Simon Nyaga; Hoppe, H. Ulrich
    Abstract Research supervision is an important type of support for advanced students when engaged in study projects or in writing their final theses. One of the most common complaints from research students is erratic or infrequent contact with supervisors, who might be too busy with other responsibilities or are not present frequently enough . High proliferation of mobile phones(i.e. 'mobile-rich') but no computer prevalence (i.e. 'computer-poor') in African countries calls for using mobile technologies to address this challenge. However, limitations of mobile devices (such as usage cost, memory capacity and small screen) are some of the barriers for mobile learning adoption. In this paper, we combine mobile learning with OER and Cloud Computing Services to enhance supervisors’ availability to their research students, who are in 'mobile-rich' but 'computer-poor ' learning settings typical for African universities.
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    Environmental risk factors influencing bicycle theft:
    (PubMed Central, 2016) Mburu, Lucy W.; Helbich, Marco
    Abstract Urban authorities are continuously drawing up policies to promote cycling among commuters. However, these initiatives are counterproductive for the targeted objectives because they increase opportunities for bicycle theft. This paper explores Inner London as a case study to address place-specific risk factors for bicycle theft at the street-segment level while controlling for seasonal variation. The presence of certain public amenities (e.g., bicycle stands, railway stations, pawnshops) was evaluated against locations of bicycle theft between 2013 and 2016 and risk effects were estimated using negative binomial regression models. Results showed that a greater level of risk stemmed from land-use facilities than from area-based socioeconomic status. The presence of facilities such as train stations, vacant houses, pawnbrokers and payday lenders increased bicycle theft, but no evidence was found that linked police stations with crime levels. The findings have significant implications for urban crime prevention with respect to non-residential land use.
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    Contextual factors and public value of e-government services in kenya
    (Global Scientific Journals, 2017) Kamau, Gabriel; Wausi, Agnes; Njihia, James
    Abstract E-government research has been skewed towards technological deterministic perspective mainly centering on technological issues. This provides no explicit guidance to the design and practice of e-government programs that result to increased uptake of e-government services. Theoretical discourse reveals undisputed consensus among e-government researchers that e-government uptake may be influenced by others contextual factors such as administrative and political consequences and should not be overlooked as they are valued. This study filled this gap by conducting an empirical investigated of the influence of contextual factors: ICT infrastructure, human capital and governance and the public value of e-government services. The study employed a mixed method exploratory, descriptive cross-sectional approach to realize the research objectives. Structural Equation Modeling was used to conduct statistical analysis of data collected. The study findings demonstrated that ICT infrastructure insignificantly contributed to public value of e-government services. However, the study revealed significantly contribution of human capital as well as governance to public value of e-government services.
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    Modeling spatial interactions between areas to assess the burglary risk
    (MDPI, 2016) Mburu, Lucy W.; Bakillah, Mohamed
    Abstract It is generally acknowledged that the urban environment presents different types of risk factors, but how the structural effects of areas influence the risk levels in neighboring areas has been less widely investigated. This research assesses the local effects of burglary contributory factors on burglary over small areas in a large metropolitan region. A comparative framework is developed for analyzing the effects of geographic dependence on burglary rates, and for assessing how such dependence conditions the community context and the urban land use. A local indicators spatial autocorrelation analysis assesses burglaries over five years (2011–2015) to identify risk clusters. Thereafter, effects of different variables (e.g., unemployment, building density) on burglary frequency are estimated in a series of regression models while controlling for changes in the risk levels of nearby surrounding areas. Results uncover strong evidence that the configuration of the surroundings influences risk. After controlling for area-based interaction, patterns are identified that contrast with the previous literature, such as lower burglary frequency in areas with higher tenancy in social housing units. Together the findings demonstrate that the spatial arrangement of areas is as crucial as contextual crime factors, particularly when assessing the risk for small areas.
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    Directing attention through gaze hints improves task solving in human-humanoid interaction
    (pubMed, 2018) Mwangi, Eunice; Barakova, Emilia I; Díaz-Boladeras, Marta; Català Mallofré, Andreu; Rauterberg, Matthias
    Abstract In this paper, we report an experimental study designed to examine how participants perceive and interpret social hints from gaze exhibited by either a robot or a human tutor when carrying out a matching task. The underlying notion is that knowing where an agent is looking at provides cues that can direct attention to an object of interest during the activity. In this regard, we asked human participants to play a card matching game in the presence of either a human or a robotic tutor under two conditions. In one case, the tutor gave hints to help the participant find the matching cards by gazing toward the correct match, in the other case, the tutor only looked at the participants and did not give them any help. The performance was measured based on the time and the number of tries taken to complete the game. Results show that gaze hints (helping tutor) made the matching task significantly easier (fewer tries) with the robot tutor. Furthermore, we found out that the robots' gaze hints were recognized significantly more often than the human tutor gaze hints, and consequently, the participants performed significantly better with the robot tutor. The reported study provides new findings towards the use of non-verbal gaze hints in human-robot interaction, and lays out new design implications, especially for robot-based educative interventions.
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    Ambient learning conceptual framework for bridging digital divide in higher education
    (IGI Global, 2014) Mwendia, Simon N.; Wagacha, Peter W.; Oboko, Robert
    According to ITU (2012), digital divide is the difference between countries in terms of levels of ICT development. This difference remains significant. In 2011, the ICT Development Index (IDI) value of developed countries (6.52) was twice as high as that of developing countries (3.24). The need to link the digital divide for universal broadband Internet access is within the key international development goals, which include World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) goals and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Ambient learning is the next generation of M-learning (Bick, Kummer, Pawlowski, & Veith, 2007), which allows flexible content access by considering learner's current situation and learning context (Kofod-Petersen, et al., 2008). However, ambient learning has not yet attained a state of common understanding (Winker, Scharf, Hahn, & Herczeg, 2011) and is not widely used or adopted (Bick, et al., 2007). This chapter presents a theoretical conceptual framework to foster creativity for innovative ambient learning applications, which can be used to bridge the digital gap between universities in developed and developing countries.
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    Culture aware M-learning classification framework for African countries
    (IGI Global, 2014) Mwendia, Simon N.; Wagacha, Peter W.; Oboko, Robert
    African countries are currently experiencing proliferation of mobile phone subscriptions but no prevalence of personal computers or electricity (Parker, 2011). It is estimated that, by the end of 2015 in Sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of people with mobile network access will surpass that of access to electricity in homes (Rao, 2011). This phenomenon is also experienced in learning institutions, particularly universi- ties, where almost every student owns a mobile phone (Kashorda & Waema, 2009). Although there is a great potential for Mobile Learning (M-Learning) in education, the formal integration of M-Learning in the education systems is in its infancy since there is limited number of M-Learning projects in the region. This is in contrast with the rapid increase and integration of mobile phones in the daily lives of the population in the region (Isaacs, 2012). According to Olaniran (2009), online learning needs to be culturally aware and investigate the dimensions of cultural variability as well as its influence on learning within global education. In an attempt to address this need, this chapter focuses on the African region in describing dimensions of cultural variability and proposes four categories for M-Learning projects as well as their influences on dimensions of cultural variability.
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    Evaluation model for improving ambient learning systems towards achieving sustainable development goal four
    (2018) Mwendia, Simon N.
    Among the 17 sustainable development goals specified by United Nations organization in 2015, goal four is the key for progress towards the achievement of all the other goals. However, studies show that this goal is yet to be achieved among African universities in terms of supervision due to inadequate availability of supervisors to their research students. Ambient learning approach promises to address the problem by allowing access to education services like research supervision at anytime, anywhere and anyhow. Nevertheless, little research has been conducted to assess its effectiveness towards achieving sustainable development goal four. The aim of this paper is to describe a model that illustrates how ambient learning systems can be combined with decision support tools to support evaluation of its effectiveness.
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    Ambient learning - knowledge as a service model: towards the achievement of sustainable development goal four
    (IEEE, 2018) Mwendia, Simon N.; Karanja, Richard G.
    Studies show that United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Four is yet to be achieved. This paper presents an artefact named “Ambient learning- Knowledge as a Service model” for describing how actionable knowledge can be extracted from ambient learning systems to support improvement and consequently facilitate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal Four. A creative process was adopted to guide the development of the model. The process involved carrying out problem analysis through literature review, designing the model by combining ambient learning and Knowledge as a Service concept and demonstrating its application by developing a prototype. Evaluation results revealed that C4.5 algorithm that is implemented in Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) software is suitable for extracting knowledge from ambient learning systems while Swi-prolog software can be applied to create a tool for knowledge delivery.