Hosted by the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Education Science and Technology, and Supported by the European Commission (EC) and African Union Commission (AUC), IST-Africa 2013 (29 - 31 May) was the eighth in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Research Conferences.
Download the IST-Africa 2013 Conference Report
The Best Paper was awarded to "Cloud Computing for Development - Improving the Health Information System in Ghana", authored by Denis L. Adaletey Ghana Health Service; Olav Poppe & Jørn Braa, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway.
The Runner-up Paper was awarded to "Embedding Business Model for Sustainable Collaborative Innovation in African Living Labs", authored by Vincent Grezes & Antoine Perruchoud, HES-SO Valais Switzerland and Harry Fulgencio, LIACS, Leiden University,The Netherlands.
The Best Demonstration Stand was awarded to NAILAB - My Order presented by Angela Ouma.
The Runner-Up Demonstration Stands were awarded to three stands: Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology - ChamaApp presented by Lilian Nyarera, Autonomous System Research - Haptic Audio Augmented Navigation Device presented by Moses Mwuara and Egerton University - ICT in JUAKALI - presented by Maureen Maina.
The Final Programme featured Opening and Closing Plenary Sessions and a Scientific Programme with 45 Parallel Sessions featuring over 200 presenters from public, private, education and research organisations in 40 countries (22 African and 18 European). Click here to download the Final Programme in pdf.
The Scientific Programme for IST-Africa 2013 was based on a double blind peer review of Papers submitted to an open Call for Papers which closed in December 2012. The published papers are available in the Paper Repository
Plenary Speakers included:
- Prof Crispus Kiamba, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Kenya
- Prof. Shaukat Abdulrazak, CEO, National Council for Science and Technology, Kenya
- Dr Katherine Getao, ICT Secretary, eGovernment Directorate, Kenya
- Mr. Christopher Kemei, Assistant Director, Licensing - Compliance and Standards, Communications Commission of Kenya
- Mr Daniel Obam, Ministry of ICT, Kenya
- Mr Moctar Yedaly, Head of Information Society Division, African Union Commission
- Mr Morten Møller, Programme Coordination, DG CONNECT, European Commission
- Prof. Meoli Kashorda, Executive Director, KENET
- Prof. Koi Muchira Tirima, Ag. Deputy Vice Chancellor-ARS, Inoorero University/LIWA, Kenya
- Mr Jerome Morrissey, CEO, GESCI, Kenya
- Mr Stéphane Hogan, Science Counsellor at the EU Delegation to the African Union, Ethiopia
- Mr Moses Bayingana, ICT Expert, Information Society Division, African Union Commission
- Vincent Kaabunga, IEEE Kenya Section, Kenya
- Ms Grace Wandera, Director of Strategy, Vision 2030 Secretariat
This participatory Living Labs Working Group Meeting (28 May) built on progress achieved at previous IST-Africa Living Labs Working Group Meetings (IST-Africa 2011 - establishment of EU - AUC Living Labs Taskforce for Africa, IST-Africa 2012 - establishment of new Living Labs in Tanzania). Download the IST-Africa 2013 Living Labs Thematic Working Group Meeting Report
Cunningham, P. (2013) proposes that: "Living Labs are environments or a methodical approach focused on user-driven open innovation. End-user communities collaborate with Innovation Stakeholders (public, private, education and research, societal and funding sectors) in real-life settings to co-create innovative products, services, processes, business models or policies, or adapt existing ones, to better match market or societal needs. Successful deployments can be replicated or networked to achieve scale and wider impact ".
This 3rd Annual IST-Africa Living Labs Working Group Meeting provided an opportunity for all key Innovation Stakeholders to (a) learn more about the potential of leveraging Living Labs methodologies for socio-economic development and (b) contribute to the establishment of a network of experts and key stakeholders committed to supporting national and cross-border Collaborative Open Innovation in Africa