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CIT students win Microsoft East and Southern Africa Imagine Cup

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For the fifth year running, students from the School of Computing and Informatics Technology (CIT) have won the Microsoft East and Southern Africa Imagine Cup competition and will go on to compete in the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals to be held in Sydney, Australia in July, 2012.

The Team, Cipher 256 designed an application codenamed WinSenga that focuses on how to detect ectopic pregnancies in women as well as monitor baby movements and position in the womb during pregnancy. The team, comprising of Aaron Tushabe, Joshua Okello, and Josiah Kavuma was also voted the best by facebook and twitter users who were following the competition online. In total, 14 teams from different universities participated in the finals held in Nairobi last weekend. The competition is aimed at inspiring the youth to use their imagination, creativity and technology to help solve the world’s toughest problem.

According to Aaron Tushabe, their application addresses the UN Millennium Development Goal 5 – Reducing Maternal Mortality by 2015. “Our inspiration to develop this application was drawn from prior visits to the Mulago Hospital Pediatric Ward. Mulago being a national referral hospital, has an ultrasound machine, but what about the midwives in the villages? They use a Pinard Horn but in some instances some might lack the adequate skills to appropriately interpret the sounds,” said Tushabe.

System Architecture of the WinSenga Mobile App developed by the Cipher 256 Team of Students from the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS).
System Architecture of the WinSenga Mobile App developed by the Cipher 256 Team of Students from the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS).

In this system, the Pinard Horn is connected it to a smart phone through an external microphone placed at the flat end of the Horn. The phone contains an application that has a sound recording module and sound analysis module which will produce a report detailing the position of the baby during the different trimesters, the age of the baby and the fetal heart rate.

This system, according to Tushabe gives a more accurate diagnosis compared to using only a Pinard Horn. “WinSenga is effective, faster and affordable and can even be used at home by a pregnant woman.”

WinSenga is being developed with the help of Dr. Davis Musinguzi from Mulago Hospital and a former finalist in the Project Inspire Africa session 1. The students are mentored by Joseph Kaizzi, a former CIT student and previous participant in Microsoft Imagine Cup competitions. More support is drawn from the Microsoft Innovation Center – Uganda.

By July, the application will be able to display cardiograph information and also employ cloud technology to make the patients’ records more accessible by different medical practitioners.

Find WinSenga on facebook at www.facebook.com/winsenga and follow them on twitter: @winsenga.

Mak Editor

Computing & IS

Bridging Mental Health Service Gap in Africa using AI

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Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Mental Health Service Improvement in Africa. Makerere University Centre for Artificial Intelligence (Mak-AI), Kampala Uganda, East Africa.

How can AI help bridge the mental health service gap in Africa?

Through this project, teams from Uganda and Tanzania implemented AI-powered call center solutions at national mental health hospitals, leveraging Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze conversations in local languages and generate insights that support better service delivery.

Some of the key achievements include:

  • Developing ASR models for Ugandan-accented English and Luganda mental health recordings
  • Assessing the quality of mental health conversations
  • Detecting mental health topics from speech recordings
  • Generating escalations and decision-support insights for healthcare practitioners

The project also reinforced important lessons: local-language AI improves accessibility, user-centered design builds trust, and privacy and ethics must remain at the center of AI-driven healthcare innovation.

As Africa continues to embrace digital health solutions, initiatives like these demonstrate the potential of AI to strengthen mental healthcare systems and improve access to quality care for underserved communities.

View related projects

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Computing & IS

CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses Jul-Sept 2026

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A male student studies on his laptop in the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS), Block B, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.

Makerere University College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS) is the main ICT Training, Research and Consultancy Centre in Makerere University. The College has six Academic departments comprising of the Department of Computer Science, Department of Networks, Department of Information Technology, Department of Information Systems, Department of Library and Information Sciences, and the Department of Records and Archives management.

In addition to the mainstream degree programmes, CoCIS has a specialized Center for Innovations and Professional Skills Development (CIPSD) which delivers state-of-art training in ICT e.g. the Cisco Networking Academy for Cisco related courses, the Microsoft IT Academy Program for Microsoft related courses, International Computer Driving License course, Oracle Certified Training center for Oracle, Linux and Unix Training center. CIPSD also offers Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Ethical Hacking as online courses. The College is an authorized Testing center, operating under PearsonVUE and Kryterion. Listed in the table (see downloads below) are the courses currently offered at the Center with their next start dates, duration, and cost.

  • All courses are at affordable fees catering for Students, Vacists, Professionals and
  • Anyone who wants to start a career in ICT or polish his/her ICT skills.

Register here: https://forms.gle/eTVwcAfBGXaVLL9b7

Contact Information

E-mail: psd.cis@mak.ac.ug
Tel: +256 752 779964 | +256 701 806656 | +256 752 373023
URL: https://cocis.mak.ac.ug/cipsd/

CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses for Vacists, Students and Professionals.
CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses for Vacists, Students and Professionals.

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Computing & IS

CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses for Vacists, Students and Professionals

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Block B of the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS), Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.

Makerere University College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS) is the main ICT Training, Research and Consultancy Centre in Makerere University. The College has six Academic departments comprising of the Department of Computer Science, Department of Networks, Department of Information Technology, Department of Information Systems, Department of Library and Information Sciences, and the Department of Records and Archives management.

In addition to the mainstream degree programmes, CoCIS has a specialized Center for Innovations and Professional Skills Development (CIPSD) which delivers state-of-art training in ICT e.g. the Cisco Networking Academy for Cisco related courses, the Microsoft IT Academy Program for Microsoft related courses, International Computer Driving License course, Oracle Certified Training center for Oracle, Linux and Unix Training center. CIPSD also offers Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) as online courses.

Click link below for start dates and to register:

https://forms.gle/eTVwcAfBGXaVLL9b7

  • All courses are at affordable fees catering for Students, Vacists, Professionals and
  • Anyone who wants to start a career in ICT or polish his/her ICT skills.

Contact Information

E-mail: psd.cis@mak.ac.ug
Call/WhatsApp: +256 752 779964 | +256 701 806656 | +256 752 373023
URL: https://cocis.mak.ac.ug/cipsd/

CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses for Vacists, Students and Professionals.
CoCIS CIPSD Short Courses for Vacists, Students and Professionals.

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