Current National and International Research Projects

supported by donations from Analog Devices (ADI) Inc.

By: Dr. Yacob Astatke, Associate Professor,

ECE Department, Morgan State University

“Growing the Future Leading the World”

Projects with international collaborators

1. Dr. Scott (Chair of ECE department at Morgan State) and I participated in an “5th

National Research Symposium” at Debre-Berhan University DBU, Ethiopia May 6-8

2014. We also donated new equipment (5 laptops and 10 Mobile Studio Boards) that

were donated by and conducted short training sessions for the instructors.

MSU is leading the work in using state of the art and inexpensive wireless

communication technology called “Dragino” nodes to develop applications that have

the potential to improve the life of farmers in Debre-Berhan (130 Km north of Addis

Ababa). We plan to implement this new technology in their “Aquaponis (soilless

agriculture)” project located in the “Showa Robit Integrated Agricultural Research

and Demonstration Site.” The site is managed by Debre Berhan University.

We are currently collaborating with Addis Ababa University ECE dept (AAiT)

and formulating ideas in the area of agricultural information management system to

provide relevant information for farmers in the rural parts of Ethiopia. We also intend to

apply the Dragino nodes, various sensor nodes, and communication links to collect

relevant information from the different farmers at a central location and use it for

managing their farms more efficiently. The “Dragino” wireless modules can also be used

for “e-Health” application to collect vital health data from remote rural places. We are

currently working with the Mayo Clinic and other colleagues from Europe to implement

a prototype of this application in Ethiopia in 2014-2015. Both approaches, have the

potential to be replicated throughout Ethiopia and also in other African countries.

2. I will be attending the “2014 World Engineering Education Forum” that will be held in

Dubai, UAE December 3-6 2014. I will be one of the expert panelists in the session

entitled “MOOCs in Engineering Education.” I will also be presenting the results of

some of my work with Ethiopian Universities that is funded by donations from ADI

Inc.

Pictures from our work in Ethiopia – May/June 2014

The pictures below are from a newsletter article from DBU

DBU presentation related to their Aquaponics project at the

Showa Robit Integrated Agricultural Research and Demonstration Site