Dear Editor,

While browsing the internet yesterday, I was lucky to land on an article that highlighted a Rwandan student; David Dushimimana, who just beat all his fellow Postgraduate classmates to emerge the winner of the eHandS prize for the best MSc Software Technology for the Web dissertation,  this year.

According to the article, Dushimimana won a cash prize that is awarded annually by eHands Health Safety Software for overall achievement in this course.

The eHandS Managing Director, Brian Hunter, handed Dushimimana his award. In his speech, he said, "The development of new computing technologies, such as mobile platforms, has the potential to revolutionise our industry and you have demonstrated this with the development of the android application for your project.

To fuel this technical revolution we need good quality IT graduates like yourself.  I would like to wish you every success as you graduate today, and I hope the attached cheque may be of some help as you take your next steps in this exciting industry.”

Dushimimana developed a mobile app which exploits the African continent’s phone infrastructure to support farmers in getting optimum prices for their crops.

His database driven app highlights crop prices and demand in local markets, helping farmers decide when to harvest and transport their crops to maximise sales and prices. Abiding by the principles of Fair Trade, Dushimimana’s software has the potential to improve the lives of farmers and traders throughout Africa.

His work has been recognised by a forward-thinking Scottish company, eHandS,  specialising in information sharing to protect staff through state-of-the-art health and safety software. EHandS has also been developing, in conjunction with Meteorology, successful mobile apps for energy saving.

Maureen Uwase
KIST