MIT- AITI

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The New Wave Students Empowering Each Other
Across Continents Solomon Assefa
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What is MIT-AITI?

• A student run initiative at MIT
• MIT students sent to Africa during Summer
• Goals
• Increase utilization of IT in African high
  schools and universities
• Develop a long-term technical and cultural
  friendship between MIT and African Institutions
• Provide MIT students with community service
  opportunities to implement their strong
  engineering background

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How is MIT-AITI run?

• Student run
• unique, dynamic, creative, always evolving
• direct input from MIT students who travel
• Tasks designated to different committees
• Logistics
• Publicity
• Selection
• Curriculum
• Program excellence
• Fund raising

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The Four Seasons
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History of MIT-AITI
(17,000)
(17,000)
(50,000)
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00 - 02 Learning Model

• Classroom Learning
• Morning lectures by MIT students
• Afternoon lab sessions
• Exams, class projects, feedback from students
• Invited guest talks by local entrepreneurs

2000 2001 2002
of MIT students 4 4 14
of African Students 45 75 180
of African Teachers 5 5 10
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Implementation

• The courses are taught by MIT students who are
  selected from all disciplines in MIT.
• The courses are offered over the summer period
  for a period of 6 weeks.
• High demand at MIT receive over 100
  applications each year
• High demand in Africa many want to enroll

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Program content

• AITI offers courses in JAVA, Java Server
  Pages(JSP) , ASP.NET (cutting edge) and LINUX
  (free operating system)
• The African schools choose from our menu of
  courses
• Students take exams and implement community based
  projects

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03 Change and Expansion
Expansion
Kenya Ghana Ethiopia
of MIT students 2 9 7
of African Students 10 96 140
of African Teachers 2 5 4
Learning Models Ethiopia Classroom Learning
and Entrepreneurship Ghana Classroom Learning
Kenya Self Learning
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Self Learning Model
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Other Activities

• Entrepreneurship lectures conducted in Ethiopia
• Gave visibility to the program
• Liked by all participants (guests as well as
  students)
• AIDS awareness initiative in Ghana
• Brochures, open discussions
• Talks on how to apply to US colleges
• What exams to take, how to find on-line resources
• Inspire You can be successful You can empower
  yourself and change the future being proactive

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04 Advanced Model

• Continue classroom learning
• Select 50 students per country
• Self learning
• implement in all three countries
• involve 1 African professor from each school
  give a few practical lectures, work with
  students
• 2 MIT students working with students and
  professor
• 20 African students per country
• Entrepreneurship lectures
• implement in all three countries
• guest lectures by local entrepreneurs
• conduct a business plan competition
• Concentrate on universities (tertiary education)
• Actively seek for local internships for AITI
  graduates

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Impact MIT

• Unique experience for MIT students in a new
  culture
• Fostered the concept of community service and
  group collaboration by utilizing technical
  background
• Enhanced MITs involvement in providing novel
  solutions for bridging the gap between developed
  and developing nations
• MITs name has been mentioned in many African
  newspapers and other media outlets
• created goodwill for further collaboration with
  African institutions
• Increased awareness of MIT community about
  Africa
• dispelling stereotypical images

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Impact Evaluation MIT

• increasing of applications
• increased student involvement in the
  organization
• feedback from MIT offices
• Testimonials

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Impact Africa

• Over the last three years AITI has taught over
  500 students and 30 teachers
• Introduced cutting edge technology (eg. ASP.net),
  and promote open software (eg. Linux)
• Local community based websites initiated

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Impact Africa

• Students got jobs in local IT industry
• Utilizing novel learning models
• Inspired high school alumni initiatives
• Inspired African universities to actively seek
  collaboration with US universities

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Impact

• MIT students enable African students with the
  latest advanced IT tools
• African students enrich MIT students with a deep
  understanding of unique cultures and communities
• A new wave where students in different continents
  empower each other

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Future Prospects

• Strengthen AITI in Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia
• Would like to expand to two more countries
• Wishful thinking would like to get 500,000 to
  fund AITI projects over the next five years

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Program Sponsorship

• Mentors
• Professor Paul Gray
• Professor Richard Larson
• Foundations
• Engineering Information Foundation (EIF)
• Lord Foundation
• Government
• Educational Development Center (EDC)
• Companies
• Africa Online, 3Com
• Private
• Kate and Baty Gordon, Professor Paul Gray

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Support from MIT

• Office of the president and the provost
• Office of the chancellor
• Graduate Students Office
• Edgerton Center
• Public Service Center (PSC)
• Academic Computing Service

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Goals of LINC

• Implementation of world class tertiary education
  in developing countries leveraging internet
  (e-learning), television, and radio technologies
• Bring together professionals whose primary
  concern is quality tertiary e-learning in
  developing countries
• 2004 creating and sustaining learning
  communities

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Summary Link to LINC

• MIT-AITI
• a successful, scalable, flexible, and
  sustainable model
• a model for other similar initiatives
• Working with LINC
• AITI is a good model to evaluate the impact of
  e-learning on tertiary education in developing
  nations
• AITI is creating learning communities
• AITI is bringing together future professionals,
  NOW