Now, at the recent Swedish Ugandan ICT conference: Dorothy Okello, the commnications officer at the College of Engineering, Design Art and Technology at Makerere University invited Ericsson to pitch camp on the campus and open up an innovations lab. She decried continued sidelining by Telecom giants to the university. From the turn of events, Ericsson’s top managers invited her for further talks on how the idea could be executed. Infact, it’s only Microsoft that set up a student’s and research hub at the College of Computing. Undeniably, universities are the fountains of innovations and advancements in academia. Private and public companies ought to tap into this potential lest it goes to waste. For example through mentoring, refresher courses, maker faires et al However, the Ericsson consumer lab located in Sweden is the laboratory from where the giant telecom equipment maker carry experiments and analyse reports, but this time around having the consumers as the focal point. The difference of the innovations lab from the consumer lab is that it would not only foster students with the much needed practical skills but also tout Ericsson’s brand as a corporate social one. Image via Telecoms.com
