Technology Innovation and Research Center (TIRC)

Dambi Dollo University

College of Engineering and Technology

Department of Computer Science

Proposal for establishing Technology Innovation and Research Center (TIRC)

Submitted to:

Office of Research and community services Vice president

By:Mr. Abdu Aliyi

February 22, 2022

Dambi Dollo, Ethiopia

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am especially indebted to Mr. Abdisa Bencha Jara, Managing Director of oroict.com, who
inspired me on this analytical task and provided unending guidance. As my manager and mentor,
he have been in supportive of my career goals and worked actively to provide me with the
protected academic time to pursue those goals. He taught me a great deal about project
management, current trends in ICT and ERP applications, and gave me a practical advice on the
software development.

I would especially like to thank Mr. Diriba Andasha, Education Quality assurance and
assessment coordinator. As my teacher and mentor, he has taught me more than I could ever give
him credit for here. He has shown me, by his example, what a good teacher (and person) should
be.

This work would not have been possible without the ideal support of the computer science staff
members. I am grateful to all of them with whom I have had the pleasure to work during this and
other related professional tasks. Each of the members has provided me extensive personal and
professional guidance and taught me a great deal about both trends technologies and life in
general. In particular, I would like to thank Mr. Belay, Head of the Department of Computer
Science; he co-led the work and provided a clear roadmap to the team.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This proposal presents a conceptual and organizational framework for establishing a Technology
Innovation and Research Center (TIRC) in DaDU. Such a center might initially focus on the
telecommunication and information technology (IT) sector (including software development,
ICT Consultancies, Training and Support, Web Services, System Maintenance, Integration and
monitoring), where the University displays strong, albeit under-utilized, technical talent. The
center might encompass an export-oriented IT service and, surpass the toughest client
requirements and expectations challenge and use methodology, tools and solutions which are
based on proven, mature and state-of-the-art technologies and standards that will nurture hi-tech
companies and help them commercialize innovative ideas and technologies. The purpose of the
paper is to suggest the organizational, structure and management solutions for Center of
Innovation and Research that can be applied in DaDU. Additionally, consideration is given to
potential actions and practices to incentivize inclusion, engagement, and buy-in by faculty and
staff members at DaDU.

The paper is divided in two chapters. The first chapter broadly discusses the overview of the
proposed organizational structure of the center, vision, mission statements, and goals of the
center, motivation, and service provided by the center. Chapter two describes establishment,
structure, functions and team coordination of the team.

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Table of Contents
Contents Pages

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... i
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... ii
LIST OF ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................................. iv
CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction and Overview ..................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Vision and Mission statement ............................................................................................................. 2
1.2.1 Vision statement........................................................................................................................... 2
1.2.2 Mission statement ........................................................................................................................ 2
1.3 Goals of TIRC ................................................................................................................................. 3
1.3.1 General Goals............................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.2 Specific Goals .............................................................................................................................. 3
1.4 Motivation and Approach ................................................................................................................... 4
1.5 Scope ................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.6 Significance of the Center ................................................................................................................... 5
1.7 Services and Products ......................................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................................... 6
2. Establishment, Structure, Functions and Team Coordination of TIRC ..................................................... 6
2.1. Establishment. .................................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Structure of TIRC ................................................................................................................................ 7
2.3 Team Coordination of TIRC ............................................................................................................... 7
2.4 Core functions, partners and levels of TIRC....................................................................................... 9
2.5 Support Activities ............................................................................................................................... 9
2.6 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 10
References ................................................................................................................................................... 11

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LIST OF ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS

CMS Content Management System

CoE Center of Excellence

CoET College of Engineering and Technology

DaDU Dambi Dollo University

DC Department Committee

E.C Ethiopian Calendar

ERP Enterprise Resource Planning

HEI Higher Education Institutions

HoD Head of Department

ICT Information and technology

ILTT Industrial Linkage and Technology Transfer

IoT Internet of Things

R&D Research and Development

STEM Science Technology Engineering Mathematics

TIRC Technology Innovation and Research Center

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CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Introduction and Overview

The use of ICT in education is irrevocable in a knowledge economy and mandatory for sustained
development. Today the world is being revolutionized by the figurative and novel radical
development of science and technology. Especially in the universities different Development and
Research centers are being established for the purpose of initiating and supporting younger
developers in universities and community as well as to implement some ERPs and IoT. Leading
Higher Education Institutions (HEI) all over the world are making relevant investments in ICT in
other to upgrade their operational process; thereby conserving energy and time as well as saving
cost. Along with the growth of ICT has grown the impression that ICT solutions are expensive.
Our philosophy in TIRC is to deploy solutions that are the newest technology, tailored to the
client‟s need and at the best price. In general, ICT has caused a paradigm shift introducing the
age of network intelligence, reinventing businesses, governments and institutions.
The Center for Excellence and Innovation is committed to bringing the intellectual and human
resources of the university into partnership with area organizations and schools to contribute the
development of ICT. The Center can incubate novel solutions to curricular and programmatic
concerns, support ongoing efforts in the community and engage students in paid and volunteer
opportunities. The Center can support the design of programmatic and curricular responses to the
needs of individual schools or larger organizations.
Coming to our country, Ethiopia has named eight universities Center of Excellences in research.
Addis Ababa, Gondar, Bahir Dar, Mekele, Jimma, Hawassa, Arba Minch and Haromaya
Universities have been named center of Excellences by Ministry of Science and Higher
Education. A senior advisor at the Ministry, Dr. Worku Negash said the eight higher education
institutions are selected out of 46 public universities in the country due to their age long
contributions in problem-solving research works over the years. The ministry will take various
capacity building measures so as to make the eight universities internationally competent in
research and related fields, the advisor underlined. In addition to the eight selected as center of
excellences in research, the remaining 15 have been labeled as a competency center for science
and technology, and the other 23 as center for general education, according to Ministry of
Science and Higher Education.

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In our university, as a purpose in the institute the center (TIRC) is suggested to excel in project
development, research and other IT supporting activities aimed at nurturing ideas and
innovations (knowledge-based and technology-driven) into successful startups. The Centre
conducts cutting-edge multidisciplinary research and innovation in the area of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) with emphasis on the Monitoring, Control, Security and
Management of Critical Infrastructure Systems. TIRC envisions is DaDU to become the top
ranked university as Technology and Innovation CoE among Ethiopian public universities. With
this regard the center supports the stakeholders and the community as a whole supplying
transferable knowledge, technology and innovation through continuous and effective teaching-
learning, training and research both within our university and across the country. On the spot at
the ground the center is will be engaged on providing quality software products, problem solving
and transferable technology and innovation, research and training and outcome based
dissemination activities in line with the stated goals of the center cascaded from the requirements
of the ICT sector as per the plan of the DaDU. In particular, the center will enable the university
to develop ERP and other IT products with available resource and expert on its own instead of
buying those products from external development companies. Therefore, this paper will propose
the overall overview of such center‟s establishment at DaDU. It will discuss the vision and
mission statement, goals, motivation, scope and services of TIRC.

1.2 Vision and Mission statement

1.2.1 Vision statement

The vision of the center is to become one of the best Technology and Innovation centers in
computer sciences, and ICT arena in Ethiopian universities in 2019 E.C, recognized for its
problem solving and transferable Technology and innovation to society.

1.2.2 Mission statement

The mission of the Technology Innovation and Research Center (TIRC) is to advance life,
sciences, technology ,research, innovation and education at DaDU and throughout the country by
creating a multi-disciplinary environment that would foster interdisciplinary interactions,
advance and disseminate knowledge in this emergent center, with the final goal to deliver
solutions in ICT development through effective public-private partnership. In other word, it is
established with the mission of establishing a suitable environment by which students and

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College/staff scale-up their academic excellence and potentials by being involved in project
development, research activities, Training and transferring acquired knowledge and skills in as
systematic way to industries and community at university and national level.

1.3 Goals of TIRC

1.3.1 General Goals

a) For seamless transfer of data from the point of student registration to registry, finance,
student services, human resources and pedagogy; the respective systems or databases
involved in the process must be able to communicate with each other intelligently. ICT
has proven its value in that it can process voluminous records quickly, meticulously and
impeccably. This will significantly improve the capability of the Dambi Dollo
University‟s administration.
b) To enable DaDU and its community to implement and make wisely use of ERPs
c) To expand and deepen innovation and research in computer science arena as well as
related science and technology activities.
d) To promote and initiate creative and innovative faculty/staff and students
e) To enable DaDU to develop ERP applications ad CMS using available resources and
experts as well as working with software development Company Partnership (zHorn
oroICT Solutions-software company offering strategic partnership program that is unique
and industry defining ).
f) To establish DaDU as a national leader university in conducting community research and
promoting creative and innovative faculty/staff and students.

1.3.2 Specific Goals

 To provide ICT Consultancies and Solutions for DaDU and its community
 To maintain, Integrate and Monitor Systems in the university.
 To train and support, practice-oriented expertise in the IT arena. We strive for 100%
university satisfaction in any project we undertake and, to achieve this, we continuously
update our knowledge base to ensure that we surpass the toughest client requirements and
expectations challenge and use methodology, tools and solutions which are based on
proven, mature and state-of-the-art technologies and standards.
 To promote expert of computer software

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 To leverage campus and state/national collaborations and partnership companies so that

each benefits the other
 To establish and maintain long-term, sustainable, mutually-transformative partnerships
across campus and between campus and community
 To expand into new, relevant programming arenas (such as Innovation Service-Learning)
 To collaborate with faculty/staff, students, community members, and programs engaged
in related forms of experiential, community-based teaching, learning, research and
innovation, thereby helping to strengthen such efforts and generating new models for
effective curricular engagement across a range of venues (e.g., internships, undergraduate
research, learning communities, training etc.)

1.4 Motivation and Approach

A huge challenge that results in Higher Institutions of learning not achieving their ICT-related
goals is a lack of coherence between the processes, the commitment of the community of users,
the ICT model and ICT management.
Our approach is to start up a conversation with the users, understand the existing structures &
systems, before designing a final model.
We propose a treatment that is generic enough to apply to the broad notion of higher education –
not just the administration of the University; but all functions of the University, in a bid to deeply
realize the fundamental mission of the University.

1.5 Scope

1. The design and installation of physical ICT infrastructure and associated technical
systems in the Administrative Department & college of the DaDU.
2. The development of management and support frameworks required to successfully
respond to users of ICT in the university.
3. The establishment of the status and opportunities for use of ICT innovations in teaching,
project management, research, outreach and networking at DaDU.
4. To establish the status and opportunities for institutional ICT policy strengthening.

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1.6 Significance of the Center

The Center allows for:
 access to college and staff on a consultative basis;
 access to graduate and undergraduate students through internships and co-op
arrangements;
 access to university facilities and proprietary technology and intellectual property;
 contractual use of university owned scientific, engineering and computing equipment;
 the ability to receive on-site customized training and education offerings;
 Expansion and wisely use of ERPs.

1.7 Services and Products

 Web Services
 ERP Systems
 System Maintenance, Integration and monitoring
 Desktop and Mobile apps
 ICT Consultancies and Solutions
 Training and Support
 Community Researches
 Industrial Linkage

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CHAPTER TWO

2. Establishment, Structure, Functions and Team Coordination of TIRC

2.1. Establishment.
The center can be established at one of available buildings in the university, which may have
computer lab and one office for the center coordination. Establishing the center on the basis of
existing facilities is much less costly. As in the case of a university-based CoE, those colleges
and laboratories that are at an advanced stage of developing suitable ICT products and services
can become the first options of the center. A young IT-service can also serve as a major
attraction to software development and information technology-related companies. The research
personnel and faculty of the university as well as its students will be encouraged to participate in
the center as consultants, members, and interns.
Another major component of the center can be ICT Office/ college that will provide professional
and information support to software development and hi-tech R&D projects. The Office will
offer:
 technical assistance and consulting in information technology and software development;
 information service, linked to the University;
 professional services – financial and management consulting, marketing, and legal
services;
 Technical support – developers, Training and communication services, office equipment,
etc.
The ICT Office‟s professional services can be staffed by the colleges of the University or the
ICT Director. If suitable professionals are not available, some of the services can be provided by
an outside firm (partnership companies) on a contractual basis. To facilitate research and project
development activities, tenant components will be encouraged to interact with one another and
hold joint seminars/workshops at a common meeting place in the center.
In addition to the partnership companies‟, it will be extremely beneficial for the marketing image
of the center if a foreign company (e.g. the IT service firm) is attracted as an early resident. An
emerging trend in science and technology parks around the world is their internationalization; i.e.
attraction of foreign companies through a preferential regime of registration and operation.

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2.2 Structure of TIRC

We propose the TIRC to be created by separating the TIRC function from the currently existing
centers such as STEM, indigenous knowledge and etc. Separating them into the TIRC would
benefit the centers by allowing each office to focus on its core mission instead of the different
implicit missions currently overseen by them. Science and Technology efforts would be
specialized to include a wide range of system development and IT Solutions-supporting
activities, some of which already exist at DaDU, while developing new areas of expertise to
widen innovation activities at DaDU, including the wide use and creation of ERPs in DaDU. The
TIRC would coordinate these technology and innovation - and education-supporting efforts with
other existing innovation and research centers, educational and organizational partnerships, and
other-supporting organizations around the University.

2.3 Team Coordination of TIRC

There will be three major teams in the center.
1. The Software and Technology Innovation team
2. The Research and Training team
1. The software and Technology Innovation team
The team will formalize and better support the established model for student-initiated, student-
designed intensive capstone projects. In these projects, students develop their own curriculum
and reflection strategy and their own community partnerships, mentored by faculty and
community members; the projects often include research, dissemination, and ongoing refinement
of the capstone model and supporting materials and processes.
Focus on facilitating student projects and faculty research engagement around certain topics with
small business and corporate entities inside and outside DaDU. The team will develop a
framework for campus participation with ICT office, Research and innovation office to work in
an interdisciplinary and inclusive manner with faculty and students on projects and semester-
long programs to address problems companies or entire industries need to consider. Companies
will pay to support such classes.

Working closely with the Office of Corporate Partnership or with existing centers within the
university colleges and centers, the team would also facilitate and oversee sponsored projects and
internships for student development and talent pipelines.

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This team may be composed of CoET staffs (e.g. DC ILTT), students, ICT staff, and members of
partnership companies.
In general, the core roles of this team include:
1. Conducting the ICT situation analysis through visits and consultation with users in
university.
2. Diffusing the innovation thinking and introducing the right technologies and best
practices regarding innovation and creative thinking.
3. Ensuring that the overall innovation and research activity is in alignment with the
strategy of the university and in harmony with the ongoing business; it manages the noise
and the risk of (internal) disruption coming from ambitious innovation activities.
4. Developing a work plan and approach to the situation analysis in consultation with the
research and project Academies of Dambi Dollo University for undertaking the
assignment.
5. Concluding on ICT capacity, conclude on installation and submit synthesis report for
review
6. Supporting and initiating creative and innovative ideas and activities raised from the
faculty or students.
7. Identifying and providing the right enabling technologies to facilitate day-to-day
innovation activities and also to speed up the adoption of the innovation culture. For
instance, the team needs to select, adapt, and provide ideation, innovation management,
and brainstorming tools, platforms to set up programming and ideation challenges, ideas
processing pipelines, information sharing applications, etc.
2. The Research and Training team
Focused on the provision of Computer programming and entrepreneurship training and practice,
and making such opportunities available to all students, faculty and staff, the center will support
teaching the skills needed across disciplines to create CoE and incubation of in our university.
The team would provide experiential training as a key component of the staff and student
experience. This is composed of department committees such as community service, and
Research committee. This team also works for the Development of entrepreneurship programs:
entrepreneurial thinking and ideas working within corporate entities, partnering with corporate
relations to engage companies and businesses to develop priorities of TIRC.

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2.4 Core functions, partners and levels of TIRC

Three following core functions would give the Center its identity, mission, and direction:

 Training and support

 Software and other ERP Systems‟ development,
 ICT Consulting, Training and Support,
 Web Services,
 System Maintenance, Integration and monitoring
 Promoting innovative and creative staff members and students

These core functions would be operationalized with each of the populations that comprise the
partners in the center:

 College/Staff
 Students
 Other DaDU Community
 Partnership companies (if any)

And each of these core functions would be operationalized across three distinct yet inter-related
levels:

1. DaDU
2. Other universities
3. National / International

2.5 Support Activities

The Center‟s operations will also include the following four categories of support activity,
discussed briefly below:
1. Partnership Development: The Center will establish and grow relationships with community
members and organizations locally and state-wide, building a solid network of community
partners. Working together, Center staff, community members, and other units on campus might
identify thematic tracks of particular relevance to campus and community, organizing for
partnership development within them, and create structures for community members to interact
with the Center in a variety of intensity levels, depending on their needs and interests.

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2. Instructional Technology: The Center will build a strong capacity to support its work and
that of affiliated faculty and programs through distance learning technologies, including, as
examples, faculty use of course management systems and electronic portfolios, online tutorials as
a component of faculty development (e.g., for curricular integration of service-learning / syllabus
design) and of student training (e.g., for orientation to community partnership processes), and
communications networks for students, faculty, and community partners engaged in projects and
researches state-wide and for intra- and inter-institutional Faculty Learning Communities.
3. Publications: In support of its scholarly orientation, its resource development activities, and
its partnership development processes, the Center might include a small publishing arm,
producing, for example electronic newsletters, a Guidebook series, and a journal for
dissemination of student, faculty, and community partner work. The Center will also establish a
close working relationship with one or more publishing houses interested in technology and
innovation as a niche; potentially through an arrangement to generate edited volumes, the Center
will provide continual opportunities for affiliated faculty to publish their work.

2.6 Conclusions
We proposed Technology innovation and research CoE. This will allow DaDU to leverage an
existing knowledge base, using existing resource and experts wisely, reducing development time
and providing a platform for further innovation and research. The concept behind building a
TIRC is typically based on a technology, an ERP application, or even a critical research on the
grounds of team spirit. It will focus on how to consistently innovate, conduct research and train,
it enhances the staff and students experience throughout the engagement lifecycle. Optimally, a
TIRC can contribute to a university‟s Tech image and digitalization, increasing its competitive
advantage.

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