IP: Hewlett-Packard in Ghana

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Rohan Amin" <rohana () seas upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 20:21:52 -0400
To: "Dave Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: Hewlett-Packard in Ghana

Hi Prof. Farber,


http://www.hp.com/country/aa/eng/feature_1.htm

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/whatsnew/digdiv.html

PENN TEAM AWARDED $1 MILLION FOR EFFORTS TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
WITH COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE IN GHANA

PHILADELPHIA - Engineering faculty and students at the University of
Pennsylvania and an African university have received a grant of
Hewlett-Packard equipment and services totaling $1.12 million to lay the
foundation for a high-speed information and communication infrastructure
in the West African nation of Ghana.

The award represents a breakthrough in the grassroots efforts of Penn's
School of Engineering and Applied Science to bridge the global digital
divide, efforts believed to be the most extensive and concrete
undertaken by an American institution of higher education involving
undergraduates in the field. In three years, Penn Engineering students
and their professors have created computer laboratories in four
developing nations as well as impoverished areas of the university's
home city, Philadelphia.

"Few events have a more positive effect on a community than the arrival
of digital technology and the web; they are the loudest heralds of
progress and global inclusion," said Penn Engineering Dean Eduardo D.
Glandt. "This program will empower individuals and change their lives.
We are extremely fortunate to be able to participate in it."

Much has been said and written about the "digital divide" that separates
the world's wealthier people, who have come to rely upon the Internet
for information critical to their business and personal lives, and
poorer citizens without access to these revolutionary technologies.
Beyond bringing its resources to bear in tackling this worldwide
problem, Penn Engineering is providing undergraduates an opportunity to
learn hands-on about both information technology and the cross-cultural
dynamics increasingly important to the global workforce.

"Many of the students who have traveled overseas to work on these
computer centers have told me that it has forever changed their lives,"
said electrical engineering professor Sohrab Rabii, faculty leader of
Penn Engineering's digital divide initiatives in Ghana and other African
nations. "At the age of 20 or 22, being involved in an effort like this
can have a profound impact on one's outlook and direction in life."

The Hewlett-Packard award, to be administered jointly by Penn and
Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), will
develop a computing infrastructure at KNUST and community technology
centers (CTC's) in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city, and in the
country's Eastern Region. Hewlett-Packard and their local business
representative CIS (Computer Information Systems) will work with KNUST
and Ghana Telecom in the coming months to put in place high-speed fiber
optic lines. The CTC's will be supervised and monitored by Community
Services Foundation (CSF), a non-governmental organization (NGO) based
in Ghana.

Next summer, a team of Penn Engineering undergraduates will travel to
Ghana to offer a train-the-trainer program on basic computer usage.
Additionally, they will offer a training program in systems
administration, including computer repair and maintenance, at each CTC
location. Through these training initiatives, over 100 local citizens
will be directly impacted, enabling them to impact thousands of others
through the CTC's for years to come.

In addition to Penn Engineering, the International Literacy Institute
(ILI) at Penn has joined in the effort and will collaborate in
developing the train-the-trainer curricula.

Next summer's efforts will build upon a 30-station computer lab created
at KNUST last summer by Penn Engineering and KNUST students using
technology donated to Penn by national and local businesses. It's hoped
that Ghana, where annual per capita income hovers around $400, will
eventually boast 50 such centers. E. Kwame Obeng, an alumnus of KNUST
who is a parent of a Penn Engineering undergraduate and a key leader in
this initiative, adds that "this HP Digital Villages grant will make a
deep and significant impact in Ghana in education, community health, the
growth of the business sector, and will greatly accelerate the pace of
social and economic development in general."

Since the first computer center was built three years ago in Ecuador,
some 60 Penn undergraduates have traveled overseas to help set up
facilities there and in India, Mali and Ghana. Another 150 have worked
from Philadelphia to implement local projects and in support of the
global programs, which routinely fields four times as many
technology-savvy applicants as there are slots available on trips to
developing nations.

"In addition to enabling our undergraduates to gain a priceless
educational experience, we regard this as a small way for Penn
Engineering to serve the global community," said Joseph Sun, the
school's director of academic affairs and the person who has spearheaded
the school's technology-based service learning initiatives. "This is our
version of being a good citizen of the world."

To date, the initiative has been cobbled together with used computer
equipment, university support, and students willing to foot part of the
bill to spend a summer installing computers in faraway parts of the
world. Donations of surplus computer equipment have come from
Philadelphia's business community, including Keystone Mercy Health Plan
and Cozen and O'Connor, and from computer giants such as 3Com,
Microsoft, and of course HP to cover the hundreds of thousands of
dollars' worth of computers, servers, modems and other materials needed
for each facility. Additionally, funds have been raised from local and
national sources to cover the costs of each of service programs
overseas.

Rabii and Sun hope that the Hewlett-Packard support portends a new, more
potent phase of Penn Engineering's efforts to narrow the digital divide.
Rabii and Sun are communicating with officials in Senegal, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, and South Africa who would like to replicate last summer's
efforts in nearby Mali and Ghana.

"When we set up computer facilities overseas, we consult with local
scientists, community leaders, and officials to determine what people in
these countries want and need," Rabii said. "We don't want to go in and
impose a setup that we think will work, because those facilities will
quickly fall into disuse."


Sun said that with the growth of globalization in virtually every
industry, increasing numbers of engineering undergraduates and companies
view cross-cultural experiences as an asset. Additionally, experiences
of this kind expand the students' awareness of the social, economic, and
educational impact technology can make in civil society.

Hewlett-Packard's support comes via the company's Digital Villages
program, which aims to help communities in developing nations and in the
U.S. harness technology in collaboration with schools, universities,
governments, community services, nonprofit organizations and small
businesses.

 



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