Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOSIn order to jump-start an ‘African Android Developer Community’, Fraunhofer Portugal decided to launch the A4D – ‘Android for Developing’ initiative in Mozambique, which will enable university students from Universidade Eduardo Mondlane to start implementing applications for mobile and internet devices using Android-based mobile devices under the technical supervision of Fraunhofer Portugal.
The Android platform is an open source operating system based on Linux, developed specifically for mobile devices. The Android OS is currently used mostly as platform for smartphones that comply with the specifications of the ‘Open Handset Alliance’ created by Google, but already other devices are also using this platform (tablets, e-book readers, portable hotspots, in-car entertainment solutions, TV set-top-boxes, etc.), as more and more consumers and developers experience its advantages.
The A4D initiative received very positive feedback from the students, which have been sending ideas for projects having in mind their local usefulness and impact as mobile applications or services.
The A4D Jury, consisted of members from UEM, PT Inovação, SAP Research and Fraunhofer AICOS, has been evaluating the received ideas and will decide until April 17th which ones will be funded (in addition to the technical supervision, FhP will also distribute a small budget to help fund the best project proposals).
After the completion of the projects, the Jury will select one representative of the three best projects to go to the AFRICOMM 2010 conference in South Africa to present their project results.
Source: 29.03.2010, Fraunhofer Portugal