Joseph Suhudu, Fourth year who Redesigned Students' Management Information System

Please introduce yourself? My name is Joseph Suhudu. I am a fourth year student pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electric and Information Engineering.

Field of study and motivation behind it? Growing up, I was always fascinated by the technology and how it works.  For example, why a radio can talk to me and why I cannot talk back to it and what makes it do what it does and why can’t it do what I want it to do. I wanted to understand the systems and I figured out that Electrical and Information Engineering was the best way to do that.

 Has it always been your career of choice? We were introduced to computer science as a minor in my first and second year. I had already established an interest in coding and Computer Science. I did not want my knowledge to ‘die down’ the fact that the course had to be replaced with others. I Figured that what to do to keep it going. I could do software and solutions development, websites, and looking for projects to re-enforce my knowledge. I was having trouble with the SMIS portal and couldn’t find what I was looking for. And I was like, why don’t I redesign the portal and put the things that I wish were there? that’s how I ended up redesigning the system.

Tell us more about your innovation? What is the difference from the existing Student Management Information System (SMIS) and your redesign? The difference is that what I have is a template in that, it presents the information that is in SMIS differently but it doesn’t change the logic of SMIS, for example the logic to check if you’ve paid fees. The logic is not implemented in the system. It renders itself as a template for what they would use to cover that system.

 We have an SMIS system that is working. You said that there is some information missing in the current SMIS. Have you approached the management with your re-design?  That’s where the Talent Day comes in. I figured instead of waiting I would use the platform to present the idea.  

How did it feel to present in public especially in front of the Vice Chancellor? It was an honour to present in front of the Vice Chancellor; I did not know he was going to be present. It is one thing to meet him for the first time and another thing to meet him the first time when you are presenting something. I was worried that I was not going to pull it off. It was an amazing opportunity.

Being a finalist, has there been any progress? Has anyone contacted you yet with regards to your innovation? Yes. Some officials from the university have reached out, and we exchanged contact information. I reached out to them, I got some feedback and I am waiting to hear back from them on the way forward.

What else have you innovated? I redesigned the e- learning platform. I did create one from scratch and not just a redesign but a complete logic implementation. I added to the platform what was missing in my view.

Have you shared your Ideas with other students? Yes, I have. Other students have access to the e-learning platform called Inkwell. It’s easily accessible online.

The Information you add to these systems, where do you get it from?  As a student, I often struggle with content with regards to future courses, for example , as a fourth year student going to my fifth year, I cannot get any information on my fifth year courses until I interact with my lecturers. The idea of the e-learning platform was to encourage students to share course notes and past papers on the platform so it can be easily accessible by others.

How accessible are you systems? Are they mobile friendly? Yes they are, I redesign them for use on the mobile phones then build up from there .The systems I build scale up from the phones to the desktops.

What do you do during your free time? When am not coding, I love to do graphic design and to sing.