Information Technology

This study assesses the role of mobile phone in information seeking of fish markets in two woreda of Gambella regional state. The main objective of the study was to assess the role of mobile phone in information seeking of fish market information in Abobo and Itang woreda. The sampling techniques deployed for this study was both simple random sampling and purposive sampling of probability sampling and non-probability sampling respectively. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, which included frequencies, percentages, and non-parametric statistics that used to test for statistical significance of the difference in the number of landing sites visited before and after the mobile introduction. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in this study. The data analysis was done with the help of statistical Package for Social Science version 20.0 and Ms excel Package. Data was represented in tables and figures to give a clear picture of the research findings and data gathering tools were questionnaires, interview and observation methods. The study shows how mobile phone use among fishermen has enhanced the purchasing of fishermen necessary materials from the markets for artisanal fishing and improved their businesses relations and livelihoods. The results indicate that market friendship improved and price variations reduced as a result of better availability of up-to-date, fingertip fish market information with fishermen. The use of mobile phone has enabled fishermen to boon from their catches, improve and boost incomes, expand their markets, feel more secure at sea, and keep in touch with close customers, families and other fishermen and exchange their catches with good mood among themselves. Even though there are problems related to network coverage, mobile phone has helped fishermen to break down transportation cost, cost of time, cost of searching for good fish price and effort, simplify the work, motivate the fishermen and reduced the quantities of catch spoilage in the markets and inspired both sellers and buyers. The principal recommendation by researcher to improve the usefulness of mobile phones would be the regional Ethio-telecom. Sub-office should expand the reach of network coverage beyond the long range of kilo meters at sea. The Gambella government and other NGOs should analyze the cost-effectiveness of encouraging mobile phones and compare it to other programs that are intended to bridge access to fish market information gaps among fishermen and business partners and also should established new strategies and policies to extend the electric power facilities to the remote rural communities and fishermen would charge their mobile phones and get enough access to market information easily.

—Pharmacy handles all the medicine needed in the hospital that consists of vast amount of records. These produce large scale of datasets that are complex to manage and thereby need tools and technique to easily process, interpret, forecast and predict future consumption. Due to this, the method of predicting and forecasting stock consumption using Data Mining technique in hospital pharmacy is not be a surprising issue. Thus, this research investigated the potential applicability of data mining technology to predict the Anti-Retroviral drugs consumption for pharmacy based up on patient's history datasets of Jugal hospital, Harar, Ethiopia. The methodology used for this research is based on Knowledge Discovery in Database which had mostly relied on using the decision tree algorithms specifically M5P model tree. WEKA software, a data-mining tool were used for interpreting, evaluating and predicting from large datasets. Result with the data set suggests that tree based modeling approach can effectively be used in predicting the consumption of ARV drugs.

Simulation-based training techniques, tools, and strategies can be applied in designing structured learning experiences, as well as be used as a measurement tool linked to targeted teamwork competencies and learning objectives. An adequate computing lab support for advanced computer courses that needs practical understanding and hands-on approach is a perennial challenge for most higher educational in Ethiopia. The study presents a model of using dedicated and flexible lab support information security and assurance courses as part of the curriculum of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology in Haramaya University, Ethiopia. Using virtualization technology different laboratory setup on a single computer machine has been implemented using one of the well-known operation system for penetration testing called backtrack. Information Security topics like Port Scanning and Service Identity Determination, Password Cracking, Trojan Attacks, Steganography, Man-in-the-middle attacks, and Web SQL injection were able to learn and simulate by students under this virtualization setup. A self-administered survey questionnaire has been employed to assess the class service quality and perception of the students on this matter. The result shows that after the students are introduced to the activity in the laboratory using virtual Original Research Article

ICT has brought unprecedented changes and transformation to banks such as online banking, mobile banking, branch networking, automated teller machine (ATM)and Point of sale services. In Ethiopia, in particular to the government-owned Commercial Bank the lack of assistance of employee to its customers on ICT enabled-services and resistance within them hamper its slow adoption. Thus, the purpose of the study is to identify factor affecting customers and employees usage of ICT services in selected branches of commercial banks in Hossana town branches. The study employs descriptive research design and both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Using structured questionnaires, observations and personal interview, the data were collected from 192samples which were selected by employing availability, convenient and purposive sampling techniques. In order to achieve the research objective descriptive and econometrics (ANOVA, pears correlation and multiple regression models) were employed for data Case Study Tirkaso and Cerna; ACRI, 5(2): 1-8, 2016; Article no. ACRI.27924 2 analysis. The result of multiple regression model revealed that gender and marital status had no influence on the use of ICT services; there was a positive relationship between the age, education level, occupation, security concern, system quality and experiences of the respondents with the use of ICT services. The study confirmed that lack of computer literate professionals, high cost of internet, power interruption, security risk, system quality risk, poor internet connectivity, lack of ICT skilled employees and customers are a major factors that affect Information and Communication Technology services in the banks. Thus, it has been recommended that Commercial Bank of Ethiopia should give additional emphasis to reliability, responsive and transaction efficiency to increase the awareness of customers and employees to use ICT services.

In many higher education institutions in particular in Africa including Ethiopia proper attendance monitoring is a very important criteria in providing quality to promote student satisfaction. Biometric technology offers an advanced verification for employees used in most schools and companies. A prototype using biometric technology has been proposed to facilitate the recording of the employees' attendance and generate automatically the payroll The prototype utilize Adafruit Fingerprint Fuzzy Vault scheme algorithm through Raspberry Pi 3, Pi Camera for face detection and recognition using Multi-task Convolution Neural Network (MTCNN) Method and output simulated through MATLAB respectively. A user interface module was develop using Visual Basic where fingerprint and face registration is done and during logging with the prototype. The resulting prototype was tested in the non-academic staff of Federal TVET Institute, an institute of higher learning specializing Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) offering both undergraduate and postgraduate program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Money is a non-negotiable, indispensable commodity in every person's life. The possession of money in itself is a resource and the usage of it can help acquire resources. Most of the things we use daily have monetary value, whether directly or indirectly. In Ethiopia, small and medium enterprises (SME) usually use a paper currency counter to put all of the money they have earned and received that is not in order and usually will cost a lot of time to organize. However, there has been a lot of challenges occurred in SME's in sorting paper currency. Usually, SME owners experience during difficult times whenever there are many people gathering around their store to buy anything. The proposed design and implementation create an automated safekeeping machine, which acts as Paper Currency Sorter with Fingerprint Access Protection for Ethiopian SME's. It will help them lessen their worries every time that the store will be jam-packed with customer. Since it is operated automatically, everything can be done smoothly and will definitely make them worry-free from any thieves because it has a special feature of registering your own fingerprint for access protection. This study will sort out money paper currency according to its color (value). It will also have a safety lock that can only determine the fingerprint of the owner. The study considers banknotes that are currently functional, i.e., 1 Birr, 5 Birr, 10 Birr, 50 Birr and 100 Birr. This design is strictly for sorting money and safekeeping. This design is not a fast paced sorter, and its precision is not perfect when it comes to the last paper bill to be sorted. The device will receive an error if the wrong value of money is sensed at the color sensor.

Concrete blocks or hollow blocks are widely used in the community for building infrastructure, functioning as a necessity for shelter. However, the Philippines is also known to experience various natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons. Relative humidity is also high in the country causing it to have higher temperatures compared to different nations. Given that, the natural disasters and the high relative humidity found in the country contribute to the continuous damage on the infrastructure and lesser thermal properties. In response, the researchers have decided to create an alternative design of a hollow block with improved thermal properties and structural capacity. The researchers have derived and sketched a feasible design of a hollow block with high thermal resistance using Fusion 360. Three hollow block designs namely Design A, Design B, and Design C were then conducted of uniform simulations in the form of a non-linear stress test using Fusion 360. Statistical ana...

The ever increasing users' information need of electronic resources forced librarians to increase their effort of collecting, organizing, preserving and disseminating huge amount of electronic materials, which require state-of-the-art infrastructures so that the electronic resources be deployed easily, quickly and economically. Cloud library is the best option for libraries; especially where electronic library services divide is highly visible, like the Ethiopian higher learning institutions. Such library system allows the establishment of information technology infrastructure on demand and lowers the difficulty of control mechanism. The integration of existing library services can be implemented by clustering current library environment. The methodology employed for this work include a rigorous analysis of a recent research on one point cloud library service as an alternative to e-service provision and management. In addition, to designing a final framework a researchers conduct a survey research which helps to identify the stakeholders view on cloud library services, the model required and services needed. Questionnaire was used to collect data from purposively selected academic libraries. The selection was centered on the generation of universities namely 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd generation.

ICT has brought unprecedented changes and transformation to banks such as online banking, mobile banking, branch networking, automated teller machine (ATM)and Point of sale services. In Ethiopia, in particular to the government-owned Commercial Bank the lack of assistance of employee to its customers on ICT enabled-services and resistance within them hamper its slow adoption. Thus, the purpose of the study is to identify factor affecting customers and employees usage of ICT services in selected branches of commercial banks in Hossana town branches. The study employs descriptive research design and both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Using structured questionnaires, observations and personal interview, the data were collected from 192samples which were selected by employing availability, convenient and purposive sampling techniques. In order to achieve the research objective descriptive and econometrics (ANOVA, pears correlation and multiple regression models) were employed for data Case Study

Students require a great deal of information from colleges such as admission notices, timetables, events details, assessments etc. Currently, this information is provided to students through college website. The information present on website is generic, pertaining to large group of students and other stakeholders. Currently in Ethiopia, Higher Educational Institution (HEI) information is distributed to students in two ways, one using traditional paper means and other is using its University website. However, the major challenge in obtaining information from website is that it provides collective information pertaining to large groups of students instead of focusing to individual student needs. In view of this problems and issues concerning the accessibility on on-time information of student in different higher educational institution of the country. In this study, the researcher propose a mobile educational framework student engagement information system coin as mSEIS, integrating the existing web-enabled system of the University and include other features pertaining to student services. The proposed framework and its implementation will empower student by providing them with relevant personalized information anywhere anytime. The study proposed extensible 3-tier architecture from its formulated mobile framework which consists of the following functionality: Grades Inquiry, Class time table, m-Learning, m-Library, Notice Board and Helpline. Among the 40 Ethiopian, HEI 6 institution was selected using purposive sampling technique because the goal of the study was to acquire the best-positioned and the most able thinkers on the problem. Using the Software Quality ISO 9126 standard based modified Likert survey questionnaire, the respondents strongly agreed that the acceptability factor of the system's functionality, reliability, efficiency, usability, maintainability and portability are significant. The proposed system passed all criteria except the portability, in which it is recommended that it should be available in iOS and Windows Phone mobile operation system as future work.

In many higher education institutions in particular in Africa including Ethiopia proper attendance monitoring is a very important criteria in providing quality to promote student satisfaction. Biometric technology offers an advanced verification for employees used in most schools and companies. A prototype using biometric technology has been proposed to facilitate the recording of the employees' attendance and generate automatically the payroll The prototype utilize Adafruit Fingerprint Fuzzy Vault scheme algorithm through Raspberry Pi 3, Pi Camera for face detection and recognition using Multi-task Convolution Neural Network (MTCNN) Method and output simulated through MATLAB respectively. A user interface module was develop using Visual Basic where fingerprint and face registration is done and during logging with the prototype. The resulting prototype was tested in the non-academic staff of Federal TVET Institute, an institute of higher learning specializing Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) offering both undergraduate and postgraduate program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Today the rapid advances in electronic technologies have resulted in a variety of new and inexpensive control capabilities. The rapid rise of the internet and accessibility of computer resources also led to the concept of Open Source Software as a means to provide free and transparent access to computer code so that individuals could review, modify, improve, and distribute computer software. One such Open Source Hardware project resulted in the creation of a microcontroller-based development platform called Arduino. The main objective of this research is to develop an arduinobased PRS to be manufactured by small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Ethiopia. Specifically, it seeks to answer the (1) What are the technical requirements in the development of the PRS (2) What are the basic functional capabilities of the PRS in terms of Combinational Logic Functions and Sequential Control Functions and (3) What is the acceptability level of PRS as perceived by experts in terms of functionality, reliability, usability, maintainability, aesthetics and safety. The study used descriptive experimental methods of research utilizing laboratory techniques and adopted scholarly questionnaires. The methods were appropriate to determine the physical design, components, tools, functions and features needed in the development of the project. Those were extremely useful in the development of the actual circuit, final parts selection, and software programming to ensure a robust design. Two experiment were tested namely Combinational Logic Functions and Sequential Control Functions using the Programmable Relay Switch and it generates acceptable results by passing all the testing condition. It was concluded that the PRS product model has standard functional capabilities comparable to most standard PLC's in the market and it is a cheaper but efficient alternative. It can also be constructed from commercially available parts. Moreover, it can be used for actual industrial applications or as a training module in teaching industrial automation or mechatronics courses.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is information system that integrates departments and functions across an organization into one computer system to streamline all the organizational process. Thus, each department across the organization shares a common centralized database, which enables the flow of information in the organization to be faster and reliable. Since, there is no common ERP framework design for specific domain; but most existing ERP framework design is based upon SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). This is because of SOA based ERP framework allows different applications to exchange data with one another effectively. This paper describes ERP framework design and implementation for Poly technique colleges in Ethiopia. To achieve this goal, we reviewed existing general ERP framework components and the process of various departments of poly technique colleges. The basic components we used in the framework are SOAP (Simple Object Access protocol) over HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) protocol for communication between service consumers and service provider. The other component we applied is web service remote façade module integration mechanism to integrate each module. Finally, the researcher designed a novel framework that is suitable for the Poly Technique Colleges which show the integration among the internal department.

Ethiopian Higher Educational Institution (EHEI) established an ICT Directorate office for each public universities, colleges and institute, with the same supervisory level as Dean of Colleges, Faculty and Institute to implement and integrates ICT in all aspects of educational system from teaching, learning and research. It has been established a university wide ICT Infrastructure and built capacity to serve the University core processes and outreach the external community with required ICT consultancy services and other research/development requirements. However, to date based on the existing literature and in the case of TVETI, there has been no common and uniform IT manual of policies for each above-mentioned department in ICT Directorate and up to today it has not been assimilated in Senate Legislation of each EHEI. This research study focus on effective IT strategy for the ICT Directorate aligned to the strategic targets and management of Ethiopian Higher Educational Institution...

A Decision Support System (DSS) is a computer-based, interactive information system, i.e. it inherits the qualities about information systems in general. The term interactive implies that there is an exchange between the system and the user. A complaint management system is a set of procedures used in organizations to address complaints. In doing so, it tries to improve qualities, customer satisfaction, and decision-makings of the organization. Inadequate complains handling mechanisms currently in existence, where in the organization is not responsive to complaints. There is inadequate structure in place within the organization to handle such incidences. the researchers conducted an applied research experimental through an Intelligent Decision Support System for Managing Complaints (IDSSMC) that enables Ethiopian Polytechnic TVET Colleges handles complaints via web-based interface integrated to a mobile application with SMS notification. The system enables users of the system to reg...

For a construction project to be completed successfully there must be an effective and efficient utilization of resources. One of these resources is human resource which includes women worker. This research focus on the effectiveness analysis of women worker in construction projects at Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and analyzing its impact towards personal safety and construction accidents, quality of construction, project completion or lead time, and effectiveness in project management as a whole. Descriptive survey research method were utilized and questionnaire was administered to 200 randomly selected respondents which comprised of women workers, foreman, project managers and contractor firm owner. The results of the overall analysis shows that most of the workers in construction are women in Debre Berhan, whereas the construction industry in Addis Ababa is dominated by males and most of the job positions in Debre Berhan are equally distributed among male and female emp...

Risk management has long been a topic worth pursuing, and indeed several industries are based on its successful applications, insurance companies and banks being the most notable. Data Mining (DM) - is one of the most effective alternatives to extract knowledge from the great volume of data, discovering hidden relationships, patterns and generating rules to predict and correlate data, that can help the institutions in faster decision-making or, even reach a bigger degree of confidence. This research was conducted in a form of case study in the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation (EIC) at its main branch located at Legehar- Addis Ababa. The general objective of the study is to examine the potential of data mining tools and techniques in developing models that could help in the effort of Risk level pattern analysis with the aim of supporting insurance risk assessment activities at EIC. In this research two data mining technique which are decision tree and neural network. The best decision...