Who are we and what we do?

The Department of Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) is a center of excellence for teaching and research in Information Technology. It is a part of the Faculty of Science of Uganda Martyrs University.

The department provides a home to experts in computer programming, data communications and networking, database technology and information systems. The department has an international flavour due to collaborations with universities in the UK, USA, Netherlands, Tanzania and Kenya.

Due to the nature of its work, the department has a very close collaboration with the Information and Communications Technology (ICT)department of the university.

Courses offered in the department

The department is offering the following programs:
Diploma in Computer Science
Bachelor of Science Computer Science
BSc in Information Technology

At the post graduate level the department offers the following programs:
Masters in Business Administration (MBA) with IT specialization (In collaboration with the Faculty of Business Administration and Management)
Masters Degree in Development Studies with IT specialization (In collaboration with the Institute of Ethics and Development Studies)
MSc Information Systems
PhD in Information Systems

The Department of Computer Science and Information Systems has received a status of Regional CISCO Academy. Within the academy, we offer Cisco Certified Network Associate courses. The Courses are offered as part of the Bsc IT program, but also are offered in weekend and holiday certificate programs.

Career Prospects

Computers and Information Technology play an increasingly important role in the growth of organizations in Uganda. Quick access to vast amounts of information determine the success of an enterprise. IT has, as a result, become indispensable for this task.

The courses offered under the department train students to become competent IT professionals in the various fields ranging from highly technical systems administrators, in charge of running the entire computer systems ,Network Administrators, Security Administrators, Developers, Migration specialists, Educationists , Trainers, Database Administrators and also Designers of complex ICT projects. Practical courses combined with solid theoretical knowledge and access to a large electronic library and various professionals from academia and industry ensure that graduates under the department are of world standard. Research

The department collaborates in research and teaching with the following universities:
Radboud University - Nijmegen - Netherlands
University of Baltimore - Baltimore - USA
Vrije University - Amsterdam - Netherlands
University of Cape Town- South Africa.
Delft University of Technology - Delft - Netherlands

In the area of research the department specializes in the following areas:
The Use of Open Source Software for Development
Web Development with Open Source Technology
Appropriate ICT Technology for Developing Countries
The department is always interested in collaborating with researchers and people from the industry who are interested in any of the above research areas.

Completed Research
Improving Information Access through wireless technology and extension of the University wireless network.
The Use and Implementation of Voice over IP.
The Design and Implementation of an Intranet to enhance dissemination and utilization of information for Moyo District Local Government.
Design and Implementation of a Networked Electronic Voting
Design and Implementation of Distributed Sales Processing Network System for Phonex publishers limited( Kenya)
To enable reuse of the old computers, the Linux terminal server project was implemented.

Projects

The staff of the department have worked on several Development of the web portal for the National Council of Higher Education
Development of the web portal for Mbarara University of Science and Technology
Development of Open Source course materials for the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD.org)
Establishing a center of excellence for wireless computing in Rural Environments. On going Project (Nuffic Project)
The university is to establish a research center next year.
A wireless Network has been established with in the University and has been extended to neighboring communities.
Designing an E- learning System ongoing Avoir Project in collaboration with University of Cape town South Africa.

The department has discovered that increasingly the government, and private sectors are adopting open source solutions to enhance the effectiveness of IT deployments in enterprises and e-government initiatives. By training students in Open source technologies the Department of CSIS is adapting this trend.

Free and Open Source Software at UMU

Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi is the first organization in Africa to adopt a Free and Open Source Software policy. This was done through research from the department of Computer Science and Information Systems and in very close collaboration with the ICT department.

Rising licensing costs, improvement of ICT capacity development and the belief that software should be available for all people, made the university decide to make Free and Open Source Software the standard at the university. This means that the university uses software that is available free of charge and that can be copied without compromising copyright laws.

At present most of the university has been migrated to Linux (SuSE), OpenOffice, Mozilla and other free and open alternatives for expensive software without compromising of the functionality and compatibility with other computer users. The university recently received praise and an award from the Uganda Communications Commission for it's outstanding contribution to the ICT capacity development in Uganda

Contact Information

Mr. Kalema Peter
Ag. Head of Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.

Uganda Martyrs University
P.O. Box 5498
Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256-(0)38-410611
Fax: +256-(0)38-410100
Web: http://www.umu.ac.ug
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