Cameroon has commissioned its first center for research in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) – the first-ever in the central African sub-region.
The center named the Terry and Linda Byrd Research Center, is hosted by a privately-owned ICT University based in the capital, Yaounde.
According to Terry and Linda Byrd, who are both renowned researchers with the ICT University in the United States of America, the center has been launched lead efforts in the domain of ICT research not only in Cameroon, the other five countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, CEMAC, but also sub Saharan Africa as a whole. Its main drive will be developmental and applied research.
The ICT center was officially unveiled on 16 July via videoconferencing and brought together more than 120 ICT experts from different parts of the world.
One of the blocks of the ICT University campus in Yaounde which will host the new ICT research Center.
According to promoters of the Center, the facility will be offering opportunities to members of the general public and ICT enthusiasts in particular who are keen on carrying out findings that can stir and “influence the transformation of sub-Saharan Africa’s economies through exponential technologies to dramatically improve the business, health, education, and general welfare of people of this very important region of the world.”
Specifically, the Center, which has been described as being of world standards, will seek to “examine, analyze, survey, assess, grade and understand technologies” and the way they are used in advancing business and other aspects of human development in Africa.
Terry and Linda Byrd in a statement said,“Exponential technologies are technologies that are advancing at an exponential rate and have the potential to thoroughly and entirely change the trajectory of human development. These technologies of interest include rapidly growing technologies such as 3-D printing, blockchain technology, material science and nanotechnology, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics, DNA sequencing, renewable energy and food fabrication.”
