Poland trip hits a snag, Namibia trip is on

Some months ago, I announced that two of my papers were accepted for presentation and publication at IEEE Eurocon and IEEE African conferences. IEEE Eurocon will take place in Warsaw, Poland from Sunday, September 9 to Wednesday September 12 while the IEEE Africon will take place in Windhoek, Namibia from September 26-28.

I am not happy to report that I have failed to travel to Warsaw to take part in IEEE EUROCON. I was scheduled to present my paper in the Telecommunications and Multimedia Systems poster session on the final day of the conference. My failure to attend this conference stems from the Polish bank's failure to process my conference registration fees in good time.There were fears that my paper could be withdrawn because of non-payment. However, after exchanging emails with the EUROCON registration chair for a period of more than one month, the Polish bank processed the fees and as a result, my paper was included in the list of papers to be published. Although this was good news, it did not go down well with the organization which would have sponsored my trip because registration wrangle did not leave them with enough time to process my travel grant application. If my travel grant application went in earlier, I would have been crossing the Mediterranean Sea by now on my way to Warsaw. I will surely miss this exciting conference. I will also miss senZations 2007, a summer school on applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which runs from September 10 -14. You see, I would have killed two birds with one stone in Warsaw. But the most important thing is that all things whether bad or good work together for our own good.

Now forget about my EUROCON problems because I will wind up this post on high note. The Meraka Institute in Pretoria has paid my conference registration fees , travel costs and accommodation for my participation in the IEEE Africon conference in Windhoek. I would like to thank them for helping me in this way. The AFRICON organizing team has also asked me to co-chair one of the sessions at the conference. This is the first time for me to take up such a responsibility at a conference :)

Wireless Network for Health Applications project at the Malawi Polytechnic

In an effort to make engineering relevant to the society, the Electrical Engineering department at the Malawi Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi has been running the Wireless Network for Health Applications project since mid 2006. This work is being done with collaboration from the Radio Communications Unit, Aeronomy and Radio Propagation Laboratory, Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy. The goal of this project is to improve the delivery of health services by improving access to information and timely communication through low cost wireless-based communication network and basic telemedicine applications in the city of Blantyre. Some of the specific objectives of the project include the following:

1. To improve access to information and ease of communication for the delivery of health services through increased Internet connectivity bandwidth, low cost wireless-based network and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP);
2. To use basic telemedicine applications for the delivery of health services, such as exchange of medical records, statistics, epidemic surveillance data, transmission of X-rays; and consultations with specialists through email; thus availing expert opinion at the which otherwise is available only at referral hospitals
3. To increase knowledge and skills of staff at Ndirande and Limbe health centres in City of Blantyre on how to use ICT facilities for the delivery of health services.
4. To develop an appropriate model for wireless-based communication network for health applications to be replicated in other areas.

The project is comprised of two phases: network implementation and installation of telemedicine applications. The first phase involved the development of a wireless network connecting Ndirande and Limbe Health Centres to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), the biggest hospital in the City of Blantyre, through the Polytechnic. As of now, it is possible to access the Internet from the two health centres through the Polytechnic as a gateway. The Blantyre Malaria Project (BMP) housed within the premises of Ndirande Health Centre can upload research data to their server in USA. It is also possible to make VoIP phone calls between the two health centres and QECH.

Now that I am back to the land of the lake, I am pleased to let you know that I am part of this project. As the project goes into the second phase, there is a need for collaboration with organizations or institutions which specialize in telemedicine applications. As we mind more about the communication aspects of the project, you can help us with the telemedicine aspects of the same. If you are either part of or you know such organizations or institutions, please get in touch with me through nyirendac at gmail.com.