UbuntuNet-Connect 2016

30 Oct 2016, 08:00 → 4 Nov 2016, 22:00 Africa/Kampala

Imperial Golf View Hotel, Entebbe/Uganda

"Optimising the Impact of NRENs on Africa's Research"

UbuntuNet-Connect is the Annual Conference of UbuntuNet Alliance that focuses on research and education networking activities in Africa. It is organized by UbuntuNet Alliance and hosted by member NRENs. The Conference brings together practitioners in the research and education networking community, researchers, policy makers, academicians, connectivity providers, and a pool of expertise from across Africa and beyond. In previous years, the conference has attracted sponsorship from leading commercial companies and service providers.

UbuntuNet-Connect 2016 will be held at Golf View Hotel in Entebbe, Uganda on 3-4 November 2016 and will be precedeed by a series of other pre-conference events from 31 October to 2 November 2016. The events will be hosted by the Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU), the NREN of Uganda.

The annual networking conference and pre-conference events provide opportunities for people with special and common interests to share their experiences, ideas and plans in the light of research and education networking and applications. Proceedings and report of previous conferences are available under ISSN 2223-7062. The conference also provides great sponsorship opportunities for commercial companies who get meet the research and education networking community in one place.

For further information and sponsorship opportunities, contact uc2016@ubuntunet.net.

Sunday, 30 October

08:00 → 17:00 Network ToT Workshop: Day 1

Monday, 31 October

08:00 → 17:00 AfricaConnect2: Admin Meeting

Convener: Mr Tiwonge Banda (UbuntuNet Alliance)

08:00 → 17:00 DevOps Bootcamp: Day 1

Convener: Mr Chris Rohrer (UbuntuNet Alliance)

08:00 → 17:00 Network ToT Workshop: Day 2

Tuesday, 1 November

08:00 → 17:00 DevOps Bootcamp: Day 2

08:00 → 17:00 Network ToT Workshop: Day 3

08:00 → 12:00 UbuntuNet Alliance: Commercial & Technical Commitee Meeting

Convener: Mr Tiwonge Banda (UbuntuNet Alliance)

Wednesday, 2 November

08:00 → 17:00 DevOps Bootcamp: Day 3

08:00 → 17:00 Network ToT Workshop: Day 4

08:00 → 17:00 Pre-Conference Workshop: End up with Users

Thursday, 3 November

07:30 → 08:30 Registration

08:30 → 10:10 Opening Session

08:30 Introduction and Welcome Remarks from RENU CEO

Speaker: Mr Isaac Kasana

08:40 Welcome Remarks from the CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance

Speaker: Dr Pascal Hoba

08:50 Remarks from the Vice Chairperson of UbuntuNet Alliance

Speaker: Dr Iman Abuel Abdelrahman (SudREN)

09:00 Goodwill Messages

09:30 Remarks from Representative of the EU Delegation in Uganda

Speaker: Mrs Elizabeth Ongom

09:50 How ICT and Collaboration with NRENs are Changing the Face of Higher Education

Speaker: Prof. Deirdre Carabine

10:10 → 11:00 Group Photo, Tour of Exhbitions and Health Break

11:00 → 12:40 Building and Expanding the NREN

Convener: Dr Boubakar Barry (WACREN)

11:00 Networks for European, American, and African Research (NEAAR)

Speaker: Mrs Jennifer Schopf (Indiana University)

Slides JenniferSchopf.pdf

11:20 The Role for NRENs in Internet Standards Development

Speaker: Mr Kevin G. Chege (ISOC)

Slides KevinChege.pdf

11:40 When is it an African NREN: Building a Vibrant and Sustainable National Research and Education Network in Africa

Speaker: Mr Benjamin Eshun (Ghanaian Academic and Research Network (GARNET))

Slides BenjaminEshun.pdf

12:00 Improving quality education and research capacity through advanced ICT Services: Lessons of NREN implementation in Sierra Leone

Speaker: Dr Thomas Songu (Njala University)

Slides ThomasSongu.pdf

12:20 NRENs and Schools

Speaker: Dr Duncan Martin (Consultant)

Slides DuncanMartin.pdf

12:40 → 14:00 Lunch and Exhibition

14:00 → 16:00 Virtual Collaboration Tools and Platforms for Research and Education

Convener: Dr Khalid Elbadawi (SudREN)

14:00 Video and Web conferencing-as-a-Service for African NRENs: The route to realisation

Speaker: Mr Rob Bristow (TENET)

Slides BristowRob.pdf

14:20 Video- Conferencing for Outreach Communication Strategy to Enhance Academic Publishing and Research Communication in Africa

Speaker: Prof. Wilson OKaka (Kyambogo University)

Slides OkakaNagasha.pdf

14:40 Grid computing, compute and data storage services

Speaker: Mr JUDE IYKE NICHOLARS (NDEJJE UNIVERSITY)

Slides NicholarsJude.pdf

15:00 A collaborative research review platform for enhancing project quality in Universities in Zimbabwe

Speaker: Mr Tatenda Gotora (HIT)

Slides GotoraTatenda.pdf

15:20 Using trust federations for Virtual Research Organizations at research centers in Mali and Uganda

Speaker: Christopher Whalen (NIH)

Slides WhalenChristopher.pdf

15:40 The Case for Digital Spaces at Daeyang University

Speaker: Mr Chifundo Chilivumbo (Daeyang University)

Slides ChiliwumboChifundo.pdf

16:00 → 16:30 Health Break

16:30 → 17:30 Networks and Security

Convener: Mr Yousef Torman (ASREN)

16:30 Securing A Campus WLAN

Slides MasaiJoan.pdf

16:50 Deploying Educational Roaming (eduroam) in a Rural Research Institution in Rakai, Uganda; Challenges and Lessons Learned

Speaker: Mr SSENTONGO LLOYD (Rakai Health Sciences Program)

Slides SsentongoLloyd.pdf

17:10 The Global Network Architecture (GNA) - Shifting Gears on Intercontinental Research Networking

Speaker: Mr Erik-Jan Bos (NORDUnet)

Slides BosErikJan.pdf

20:00 → 22:00 UbuntuNet-Connect 2016: Cocktail

Friday, 4 November

08:00 → 10:00 Open Data and Access to Scientific Information

Convener: Prof. Lourino Chemane (MoRENet)

08:00 EOSC and the Free Riders

Speaker: Dr Margareth Gfrerer (Education Strategy Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)

Slides GfrererMargareth.pdf

08:20 Mobile Gateway for Open Educational Resources (OER): A case with University of Swaziland libraries

Speaker: Mr John Paul Anbu (UNISWA)

Slides AnbuJohn.pdf

08:40 Knowledge Intermediation Strategies: Novel Evidence from Canada

Speaker: Dr Namatié Traoré (Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada)

Slides TraoreNamatie.pdf

09:00 The research performance and citation impact of Tanzanian scholars: a scientometric study

Speaker: Mr Raphael Zozimuzi Sangeda

Slides SangedaRaphael.pdf

09:20 Towards better access to scientific information: The Case for Transforming Scholarly Communication Model in the African Region

Speaker: Prof. Joseph M. Kavulya (The catholic University of Eastern africa)

Slides KavulyaJoseph.pdf

09:40 Towards parabiotic partnerships for access and discovery: Leveraging access to econtent within the framework of library consortia in Zimbabwe.

Speaker: Dr Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita (Harare Polytechnic Information Science School)

Slides ChisitaCollence.pdf

10:00 → 10:30 Health break and Exhibition

10:30 → 11:30 Enhancing Research and Collaboration through regional and global projects

Convener: Mrs Cathrin Stover (GEANT)

10:30 Global Science Communities

Speaker: Mrs Tania Altamirano-Lopez

Slides AltamiranoTania.pdf

11:00 African Science supported by the Sci-GaIA project

Speaker: Roberto Barbera (University of Catania)

Slides BarberaRoberto.pdf

11:30 → 12:30 Roundtable discussion on Optimising the Impact of NRENs on Africa’s Research

Convener: Prof. Meoli Kashorda (KENET)

11:30 Panelists

Speakers: Mr Ben Ruhinda (Inter University Council of East Africa), Dr Benjamin Gyampoh (African Academies of Science), Prof. Meoli Kashorda (KENET)

12:30 → 13:30 Lunch and Exhibition

13:30 → 15:30 Applications for Enhanced Service Delivery

Convener: Mr Erik-Jan Bos (NORDUnet)

13:30 Label generation rules for the Internet’s root zone for African scripts

Speaker: Mr Yaovi ATOHOUN (ICANN)

Slides AtohounYaovi.pdf

13:50 Leveraging Inter-Institutional Connectivity to Facilitate Weather Data Transmission from Automatic Weather Stations in Uganda: A cost-benefit analysis

Speaker: Mr Maximus Byamukama (Makerere University)

Slides ByamukamaMaximus.pdf

14:10 Design of an executable solutions management platform based on virtual machine snapshots

Speaker: Mr Rosenthal T Robert Shoniwa (Harare Institute of Technology)

Slides ShoniwaRobert.pdf

14:30 Low Altitude Remote Sensing and its Application in Precision Agriculture: A Case Study of Traditional Authority Somba in Blantyre District, Malawi

Speaker: Mr Donnex Chilonga (Mzuzu University)

Slides ChilongaDonnex.pdf

14:50 Responding to the demands of big data scientific instruments through the development of an international software defined exchange point (SDX)

Speaker: Prof. Luis Lopez

Slides LopezLuis.pdf

15:10 A Technical Evaluation of the Performance of Classical Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Methods Based on Computational Intelligence (CI) i.e. Supervised Learning, Unsupervised Learning, Ensemble and Immune Algorithms in Intrusion Detection Systems.

Speaker: Mr Kudakwashe Zvarevashe (Harare Institute of Technology)

Slides Zvarevashe_Kudakwashe.pdf

15:30 → 16:00 Coffee Break

16:00 → 16:45 Closing Plenary

Convener: Mr Hastings Ndebvu (UbuntuNet Alliance)

16:00 Closing Speech

Speaker: Mr Hugo Verbist (Belgian Ambassador to Uganda)

16:10 Conclusion and Way Forward

Speaker: Mr Bonny Khunga (ZAMREN)

16:20 Closing Remarks - Chairperson of Board of Directors of RENU

Speaker: Prof. Michel Lejeune

16:25 Closing Remarks from CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance

Speaker: Dr Pascal Hoba (UbuntuNet Alliance)

17:50 → 18:30 Data Sharing & Connectivity

Conveners: Dr Manj Sandhu (University of Cambridge), Dr Pascal Hoba (UbuntuNet Alliance)

20:00 → 22:00 Closing Dinner