CS students design ag. management program for Zambian NGO

Many college students spend their summers interning, traveling the world, or researching their field of study, but rarely are students able to do all three in the same summer. Three engineers at the University of Illinois were able to do just that.

Felix Liu is a computer science master’s student who worked Austin Lakayil and Dennis Lin, both seniors in the CS department, on a program for the Zambian relief organization Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a non-governmental relief organiztion. CRS gives relief to Zambians in need by providing them with food and other necessary supplies.

However, much of the food in Zambia comes from its agriculture, which often times lacks the necessary technology to produce at an efficient rate with all workers operating on the same page. The goal for the CS team was to design a program that allows the farmers to log into an online database, upload their current location, and log the details of their completed work.  With this program, not only are managers more able to delegate labor appropriately, but also the field workers have a more accurate way to log their work hours.

“The problem is they (CRS) have a really hard time tracking these field agents,” said Lin. “Our application is designed so the field agents can go out in the field and fill out this form, which is sent to an online database. Later the supervisors can get the information from the database, put it on a map, and look at it very easily. “

CRS and other agricultural organizations have used similar software programs in the past, but what makes their program unique is the way they incorporated touch screen technology into the application.

“[Programs like these] can be awfully complicated,” said Liu. “They were happy to see such an application that is so straightforward.”

While the students spent the majority of their time in Zambia working with CRS to perfect their application, they also had some great networking opportunities with other major agricultural contacts during their stay. 

“We went to the capital to give a presentation, and they invited heads of multiple projects to see what we’ve done,” said Lin. “A lot of them were very interested.” 

All three students were seeking professional work this summer, and the uniqueness of this position is what was so interesting to them. They all agree that they cannot wait to discuss their work with recruiters at the upcoming career fair, believing such distinguished experiences will yield high interest from recruiters.

“Many people get opportunities for internships, but not like this,” said Lakayil. “It was definitely unique. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

As for their cultural experiences in Africa, the students were shocked by how different life in Zambia is, as many times their work was interrupted by spontaneous, yet frequent power outages. 

“It can be hard to understand the limitations in other countries that do not have the same level of technology we do here,” Lin said.  “It makes you put things into perspective and realize many things that may work in the U.S. might not in other countries.”

Despite the technological difficulties in Zambia, the people are still very friendly and very receptive of the students’ work. In addition to improving their skills as engineers and their new international experiences, the students believe their biggest improvements may have been on the personal level, where they believe they have grown considerably.

“We grew up from this experience and learned from our mistakes,” summarized Liu. “It was very enjoyable working with Dennis and Austin. I really enjoyed every part of this project.”
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Writer/Photographer: Nick Lund, Engineering Communications Office

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.