Cardano For Ugandan Universities

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

Build Cardano Study Clubs in the major Ugandan Universities to onboard learning devs on Cardano as a platform for blockchain based projects.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Blockchain Project management for 5 years with a tested team of community builders, blockchain local devs and blockchain advocacy in the country with a dream of bridging the technology gap in on the region.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Background

For a long time, Uganda has faced a back-lag challenge in the different folds of development for the singular purpose in question, a wide technology gap. The Ugandan education system has lately encouraged development through moves to restructure so as to step-up innovation. As known, university students must have final year projects to showcase their craftsmanship in innovation. As strong blockchain advocates in the country, we have through our community outreach noticed a lag in blockchain related innovations. In fact, for the traditional states of East Africa; That is to say Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Uganda still lags in blockchain related innovation. Whereas the Eat African neighbors leverage top positions with Kenya topping the p2p ranks as Tanzania ranks fourth(4th) according to the crypto adoption index https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-global-crypto-adoption-index/ Uganda is still left behind.

Proposed solution

To address the above challenge, we (The Blockchain Club of Uganda) shall embark on an initiative to introduce Cardano to the studying software engineers as a credible opensource platform to build Ugandan solutions.

But as hinted earlier, it should be noted that Cardano is not yet deep rooted among the local devs as well as those still at college and university plus the general blockchain community in Uganda.

Additionally, very few resources are available to Ugandan local devs to delve into building on Cardano. We shall diagnose this with a good connection between Ugandan local devs and the pre-existing ecosystems on Cardano in the region; a case in point, Wada. This will help the local devs here to access the necessary resources to help them get acquainted with building on Cardano.

Therefore, as the very first Cardano based initiative in Uganda, we shall focus on onboarding local developers especially those still in college and university onto Cardano. The rationale of pivoting our initiative around this group is because our previous Cardano meetups in Kampala have attracted more of them than any other group https://www.meetup.com/Cardano-Blockchain-Kampala/

We shall do this through community outreach in form of meetups, workshops and a hackathon within the with the next six months.

Through this, local devs will get to know Cardano as a blockchain platform for change makers, innovators and visionaries with tools necessary for creating possibility for all and bring about positive global change.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Problem Recap

For a long time, Uganda has faced a back-lag challenge in the different folds of development for the singular purpose in question, a wide technology gap. The Ugandan education system has lately encouraged development through moves to restructure so as to step-up innovation. As known, university students must have final year projects to showcase their craftsmanship in innovation. As strong blockchain advocates in the country, we have through our community outreach noticed a lag in blockchain related innovations. In fact, for the traditional states of East Africa; That is to say Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Uganda still lags in blockchain related innovation. Whereas the Eat African neighbours leverage top positions with Kenya topping the p2p ranks as Tanzania ranks fourth(4th) according to the crypto adoption index https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-global-crypto-adoption-index/ Uganda is still left behind.

Proposed solution

To address the above challenge, we (The Blockchain Club of Uganda) shall embark on an initiative to introduce Cardano to the studying software engineers as a credible opensource platform to build Ugandan solutions.

But as hinted earlier, it should be noted that Cardano is not yet deep rooted among the local devs as well as those still at college and university plus the general blockchain community in Uganda.

Additionally, very few resources are available to Ugandan local devs to delve into building on Cardano. We shall diagnose this with a good connection between Ugandan local devs and the pre-existing ecosystems on Cardano in the region; a case in point, Wada. This will help the local devs here to access the necessary resources to help them get acquainted with building on Cardano.

Therefore, as the very first Cardano based initiative in Uganda, we shall focus on onboarding local developers especially those still in college and university onto Cardano. The rationale of pivoting our initiative around this group is because our previous Cardano meetups in Kampala have attracted more of them than any other group https://www.meetup.com/Cardano-Blockchain-Kampala/

We shall do this through community outreach in form of meetups, workshops and a hackathon within the with the next six months.

Through this, local devs will get to know Cardano as a blockchain platform for change makers, innovators and visionaries with tools necessary for creating possibility for all and bring about positive global change.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

• We anticipate to face huge challenges with the man power to walk the students through the most relevant tutorials for Cardano.
• Adaption of the learning devs from web2 to web3 could also pose a challenge.
• Whereas we have two experience devs in the Blockchain Club of Uganda, they are quite busy with an availability of about twenty hours a month.
• Otherwise, we hope to push this as possible as we can through good use of the available tutorials on the Cardano Academy https://tutorials.cardanoacademy.io/

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

First three(3) months

Six(6) technical events in 6 universities around Uganda. These universities shall be Makerere University, Kyambogo University, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Gulu University, Busitem University and Uganda Christian University.

We shall also launch study clubs/groups in these very universities to keep holding Cardano study meetups amongst themselves.

Nest 3 Months

Host Three combined meetups in the regions of North/East, West and Central. These shall be one per month and shall attract representatives from the above 6 universities, preferably the Cardano Sturdy Club leaders.

These meetups will involve showcasing student’s acquire knowledge in Cardano and we intend to invite Cardano Established devs to join in virtually from already existing ecosystems in Africa such as Wada.

We shall the hold a Cardano Hackathon in the final month of this initiative; that is to say; the sixth month.

This will be held in Kampala City, Uganda Capita and suggested venue is Makerere University, College of Computing and Information Sciences(COCIS).

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Regional Meetups

Logistics

Venue Rent $200

Banners $200

Refreshments $600

Transport Costs $100

Honorarium $400

Sub total $1500

For the 6 University meetups 6*1500 = $9000

Regional Meetups 3*1500 = $4500

Hackathon

Venue Rent for three days 300*3 = $900

Facilitation $1000

Swag 30*12 = $360

Bandwidth equipment $140

Advertising $900

Participants’ incentives $1200

Sub Total $4500

Grand Total

$9000+$4500+$4500

= $18000

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

• Mucunguzi Moses: Lead, Blockchain Club of Uganda. https://twitter.com/NduguMucunguzi

• David Lumala: Developer Relations, Blockchain Club of Uganda & Advisor, Google Developer. Students' Club of Makerere University. https://www.linkedin.com/in/eng-david-lumala-2aa6a2167. GitHub.com/RealLumala

• Opio Elias Hezron. Blockchain Developer Advocate. https://github.com/eliashezron

• Ahimbisibwe Brian: Head of Education, Blockchain Club of Uganda. https://twitter.com/ahimbis07260494

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

• Cardano Local Community socials impression:- that is to say Telegram and twitter and the already existing Cardano Kampala meetup group.
• Social community engagements. these will be in relation to content posted relating to this initiative.
• Local mainstream media coverage. This involve the number of stories broadcast in both print and broadcast media in Uganda about this initiative
• Number of commits in the project GitHub repo. This shall serve as a tracker for the University Cardano Study groups.
• Initiative product. For purposes of this initiative, this shall refer to the number of software and computer science students that shall do their final projects on Cardano.
• Number of innovation partnerships especially the University Guild initiatives such as the Tech Week.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Having University Cardano Study groups set up in at least six(6) major universities will be the initial indicator of success of this project.

Of course, this will come with Cardano based activities starting to take shape in around these groups such as workshops and meetups in an autonomous manner.

Local social communities setup and having good and qualitative rather than quantitative engagements as well as attaining organic growth.

Students with a technical background starting to execute their final year projects on Cardano.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

At least 4 Cardano University Clubs will be formed in the 4 major public universities of Uganda.

At least 4 groups will pitch their ideas on Cardano.

500 local social following on twitter will have been realised.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This project had not received funding from the previous funds

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: Generating employment and income through innovation

Goal 8:Decent Work and Economic Growth: Creating jobs for all to improve living standards, providing sustainable economic growth