<20090919>
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Prof. Kyandoghere Kyamakya
Kinshasa, Congo

References:

(a) (20090728) Possible creation of GUS/Congo

(b) Al-Azab, M. and T. Utsumi, (2007), "Creation of Global University System in Egypt (GUS/Egypt)," Paper for "ICT-Learn 2007" conference in Cairo, Egypt, September 2 to 4, 2007

(c) (06/25/09) (1) Report on the preliminary planning workshop to create GUS/Nigeria and (2) Concept paper of Niger Delta Renaissance project

(d) (20090802) SEACOM undersea fibre optic cable along eastern African coast

(e) (06/26/09)-B(1) E-Healthcare system in Rwanda (2) Art of Medicine vs Art of Wisdom/Virtue and (3) Hopefully resuming Columbia University seminar from this coming fall semester

(f) (05/28/08) Japanese $4 billion for Trans-Africa transportation infrastructure

(g) (05/20/08) Follow-up on the Idea for Trans-Africa Ultra High Speed Optical Fiber Network

(h) (02/14/08) Idea for Trans-Africa Ultra High Speed Optical Fiber Network

(i) (05/23/09) The US finally glimpses the logic of fiber drops and road construction and the application of its principle to Africa?

Dear Prof. Kyamakya:
(1) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT I) in response to the Reference (a) above.

BTW, before forgetting, pls inform me your full address (affiliation, snail mail address, phone/fax, URL, etc.)

(2) This is very encouraging news, indeed, about the creation of GUS/Congo -- especially for on-line engineering education at post-graduate level (Master of Science level and beyond).
This is the current vogue and future direction. As a computer simulationist, I would very much like to go along with this direction — see Item (2) of the Reference (a) above.
(3) Your next step is to hold a planning workshop as mentioned in Section IX “Action Plan” of Reference (b) above, which was also mentioned in Item (3) of Reference (a) above.
At this occasion, you may form teams for the following tasks;

(a) infrastructure,
(b) e-learning,
(c) e-healthcare,
(d) community development,
(e) globally collaborative R&D.

During a half year after this event, they are to construct comprehensive proposals with budgets, which are to be consolidated into one. You then obtain endorsement letters from ministries of telecom, education, healthcare, etc. The proposal with the letters are to be submitted to the Official Development Assistance (ODA) fund of the Japanese government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Congolese government.
(4) You would firstly need to raise fund for your planning workshop. For this, pls construct a brief (say, 4 to 5 pages) concept paper with a rough budget for the planning workshop, and send me its first draft to work on it together.
You may refer to the precedence made by our Nigerian colleagues — see Reference (c) above.
As you see in this reference, they hope to work out on their Niger Delta Renaissance (NDR) project and GUS/Nigeria to help it on its modeling and enhancement since it requires detailed knowledge of wide areas.
You may also follow this precedence — i.e., firstly finding some economists or social scientists who may be interested in similar approach as NDR project. The ECOWAS is now planning to construct national economy models of its 15 member countries. Although Congo is not its member country, your government officials may wish to follow ECOWAS example and may be willing to finance it, too. Anyway, it would be prudent to have this project together with GUS/Congo as two wheels of a cart.
BTW, our Nigerian colleague is now planning to hold their workshop on January 14th, 2010, and invite me to attend it.
(5) I agree with you that the broadband VSAT network with WiMax and microwave links can be an “interim” infrastructure, but broadband optical fiber network would be cheaper and for the future of Internet.
The Japanese government has already pledged US$4.5 billion to construct super highway to connect almost all sub Saharan African countries. We have advocated to take this opportunity for deploying ultra high speed optical fiber lines along the highways — see References (d) to (i) -- particularly (i) above. How to take this advantage in Congo could be a major discussion at your planning workshop.
Along this line, you may also plan to have wind or solar energy for constant supply of electricity, and diverse server for cloud computing for various users in Congo.
I look forward to receiving your next msg.
Best, Tak

ATTACHMENT I

From: Kyandoghere Kyamakya <
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:47:40 +0200
To: Tak Utsumi <
Cc: >, Kyandoghere Kyamakya <
Subject: Re: [gu-new] (20090728) Possible creation of GUS/Congo

Dear Prof Utsumi,
I am now back from DR Congo (Kinshasa) after many weeks of stay there. There, I could contact most of the major local universities and all of them do welcome the creation of a GUS/Congo. The interest for on-line engineering education is very high, especially at post-graduate level (Master of Science level and beyond).
Due to the immensity of the country we suggest to interconnect 4 major congolese cities which host each more than 5 big universities. A broadband VSAT network could form the national backbone with a node in each of the 4 towns (Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Kisangani, Goma). Further, a microwave-based wireless city backbone should interconnect, through for example an SDH-Ring (WiMax may also be an option), the 4 to 5 universities (+ eventually some schools and some hospitals) located in each of the respective 4 towns. Wireless links are cheaper and easier to deploy and maintain in DR Congo due to the very bad or even non-existing (reliable) basic telecommunication infrastructure. Beyond that, appropriate diverse "server infrastructures" should be designed for each of the university.
Beside connectivity, content related infrastructures are also needed and requested from/by the interviewed university.
Question: how should we further proceed? First coarse estimation of the overall costs indicate that the project will cost several millions USD. Do you have any fixed procedure that will allow us to apply for funding for the GUS/Congo ("IP backbone" + "Online education Content Management") project ?
Looking forward to hearing of you
Best regards
Prof. Kyamakya
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* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *
* Founder and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of *
* Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-5913, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Email: *
*
* U.S. Federal Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 <
* New York State Tax Exempt ID: 217837 <
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