iSTEP: Technology Field Research in Developing Communities (15-302 A3)

Course Details

Semester:	Spring 2012 (1st mini)
Venue:	Baker Hall A53 | CMU-Q Room 1006
Day/Time:	Mondays and Wednesdays 8:00AM - 9:20AM Pittsburgh time | 4:00PM - 5:20PM Doha time
Units:	6

Course Description

The ultimate goal of this course is to teach students practical skills necessary to conduct field research in the area of ICTD (information and communication technologies for development) and to show them that computing technology can have a positive impact on the lives of people in developing communities. A secondary practical goal of this course is to prepare iSTEP internship participants for their upcoming summer internship experience. The course will focus on Ghana this year, the selected community for iSTEP 2012. Students will be given an overview of the field of ICTD, introduced to real partners in Ghana, work within a multidisciplinary team to understand specific challenges in that community and design relevant technology solutions to those challenges. The outcomes of this course will be deployed in Ghana this summer through the iSTEP internship.