Description: Africa is referred to more its endemic problems than for its opportunities. But this may change with current investments from major venture capitalist targeting the mobile phone market. A substantial amount of money has been already invested in telecommunications and this continent is now the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. Mobile phone subscribers have raised to more than 200 millions in Africa in 2006 - the fastest growing rate in the world. Developing mobile applications adapted to the African market is a challenge and an opportunity demanding a deep understanding of the African realities - as diverse as they are even inside a single country. African computer science students will play a crucial role in this context and be key in the development of such applications corresponding to the needs of their compatriots - from various backgrounds. The goal of this project is to educate Senegalese students of Thies University on the potential and procedures - at the technical and business levels - for creating tech startups corresponding to the needs and realities of their country.

Sponsor: Sustainable Technology-based Entrepreneurship for the Senegalese Market National Collegiate of Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), May 2008.

People:

• Prof. Christelle Scharff, PhD, Associate Professor, Pace University, US, cscharff@pace.edu, http://www.csis.pace.edu/~scharff

  • [http://atlantis.seidenberg.pace.edu/wiki/senegal/Home?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=christelle.png]

• Mbarou Gassama Mbaye, PhD, NCNW/WBC/CIDEF Managing Director, Senegal, mbarou.gassamambaye@gmail.com, http://www.ncnw.org, http://www.incubator-ncnw.org

  • [http://atlantis.seidenberg.pace.edu/wiki/senegal/Home?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=mbarouf.jpg]

• Prof. Anita Wasilewska, PhD, Associate Professor, Stony Brook University, US, anita@cs.sunysb.edu, http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~anita

  • [http://atlantis.seidenberg.pace.edu/wiki/senegal/Home?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=anitaf.jpg]

• Prof. Ibrahima Ndiaye, PhD, Director of the Economic and Social Sciences Education and Research Unit, Thiès University, Senegal, ibndiaye2004@yahoo.fr, http://www.thies.univ.sn/sitethies/

  • [http://atlantis.seidenberg.pace.edu/wiki/senegal/Home?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=ibrahimaf.jpg]

• Mamadou Bousso, Assistant Professor, Thiès University, Senegal, mamadoubousso@gmail.com, http://www.thies.univ.sn/sitethies/

  • [http://atlantis.seidenberg.pace.edu/wiki/senegal/Home?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=mamadouf.jpg]