RESEARCH CLOUD SERVICES WORKSHOP
Under the theme: Research Cloud Service, the University held a workshop on 15th March 2019. The objective was to emphasize the need to use the cloud for research purposes. The workshop was officially opened by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Lucy Irungu who encouraged the participants to embrace cloud research for all their research work and tap into this available and cost effective resource. Also present was the Deputy Vice chancellor (Research, Innovation and Linkages) Prof. Peter Mwita who also addressed the workshop. The key facilitator was Prof. Meoli Karshorda, CEO of KENET (Kenya Education Network) and his team. The Senior management team was briefed on its formation, agenda, governance, connections and role it plays to the members.
Apart from cloud research the senior management team was informed of other services that the organization offered. This included research mini- grants for early career faculty with PhDs, education technology services for member institutions and travel grants for graduate students/ early career researchers.
In her opening remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Lucy Irungu stated that cloud services are designed to provide easy, scalable access to applications, computing resources and services, servers, storage databases networking, software, analytics and intelligence. Of great interest is the fact that cloud computing has made deployment of ICT services efficient and enjoyable. She emphasized that the cloud computing is cost effective since an institution does not have to invest in expensive infrastructure which may be idle most of the day but acquires the services on demand basis. She encouraged the participants to take advantage of the training since the university supports such forums. She welcomed the idea of Research cloud being hosted by KENET. “the world has become a global village and it would be a great disadvantage to us if we fail to utilize this great opportunity provided by cloud research. As we know it is also a channel of communication our research output and gaining global recognition” Prof. Irungu re-emphasized.
The workshop was very interactive with the KENET team demonstrating how to use their services which included web conferencing as one of the services enjoyed by members.
In his closing remarks, The Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research, innovation and Linkages), Prof Peter Mwita gave his experience of cloud computing as a student in Germany. He thanked the Vice Chancellor, facilitators and participants. He encouraged the participants to put to use what they have been trained on.
