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Multi-hop wireless networking in smart homes for the elderly
No full textCapstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, May 2022With the advent of the Internet of Things, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have played an important role in monitoring, tracking and sensing different environmental activities. A variety of MSNs have been used to conduct environmental monitoring. Some of these have failed, often due to the prototype nature of the projects. In agriculture, wireless sensor networks are used to regulate the temperature and humidity within commercial greenhouses. WSNs are iherently unreliable, resource-constrained nodes, and have dynamic topologies. This leads to transmission problems, node problems, link problems, route breakdowns, and congested nodes. However, the capability of the wireless device used limites the coverage area of wireless communication. In this project, a multi-hope wireless sensor network is implemented to control smart home devices while reducing the distance between source and destination nodes to improve energy efficiency.Ashesi Universit
A low-cost plant monitoring system and smart irrigation
Full text linkCapstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, May 2022During the dry season, there is little or no rainfall, and plant life suffers as a result. Water is available during the rainy season, thus plants will thrive but may perish if swamped. There must be a system in place that can harvest the limited water available then use it as needed. Ghanaian farmers in rural areas want a system that delivers real-time data on their crops. Safer, faster, and more effective means of such operations have emerged. Most traditional activities have evolved as a result of the internet's penetration. An Internet of Things (IoT) system could help enhance the effectiveness of a standard surface watering system. The system is equipped with sensors that can detect changes in temperature, pH, soil moisture, and humidity, among other things, and can send this information to a smart device via the Internet. Ghana needs to adopt new technologies in order to compete with the rest of the world. Plant monitoring is an important aspect of agriculture and horticulture. The majority of people are fixated on seeing the farm physically and performing the majority of farm tasks manually, which affects efficiency and productivity. In this project, the development of a plant monitoring system and smart irrigation operated using sensors and a web-based platform is explored for the monitoring of water consumption, with the help of Internet of Things (IoT).Ashesi Universit
Exploring the impact of team-building strategies on social loafing in Ashesi University student teams
Full text linkUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2022Despite the importance of developing team-based competencies, students in
higher education institutions engage in social loafing during their academic teamwork
experiences. Various researchers have proposed team-building strategies as a remedy.
However, these strategies' effectiveness has been debatable, with little insight into the
why behind the conclusions. Therefore, this study sought to qualitatively explore the
phenomenon as it occurs in Ashesi University using Tuckman's Stages of Group Formation as the guiding theoretical framework. The study employed semi-structured
interviews to gather in-depth information from twenty-five participants comprising
twenty students and five faculty of Ashesi University. The interviews addressed: (1) faculty and students' perception of social leafing in student teams,
(2) the strategies
they initiate during each team-formation stage, and (3) the strategies' impact. Through
a thematic analysis, the study found that the strategies employed in Ashesi University
student teams are role clarification, feedback systems, and interpersonal relationship-building.
However, the central insight from this study was that these strategies are more
effective when they are executed in sequence to provide a mutual reinforcement than when they are executed individually. Thus, the study recommended that higher
education institutions shift the focus to sequential strategy execution instead of
individual strategy execution.Ashesi Universit
A Low-Cost Kneading Machine for Shea Butter Processing
Full text linkCapstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, May 2022This paper focusses on the design and fabrication of a low- cost kneading machine as an alternative to traditional kneading process, which can be manually, or motor powered. Using conceptual designs with related reviewed literature, a final concept model was developed for the project using 3D CAD software. The kneading mechanism to determine the torque and critical stress areas within the system. Fundamental design analysis, calculations
and the application CAE from mechanical machine design, fluid mechanics and mechanics of materials were conducted to select the best geometry, size, and materials for the project. The machine consisted of a table-like support structure, a 20kg shea paste container, a gear box consisting of miter gears power transmission, two shafts and 3mm thick steel mixing blades. Fabrication included various manufacturing processes. The machine had a power transmission efficiency of approximately 87% comparing the input and output torque generated. The machine had an oil yield increase of 18.6%, however when manually powered, the time of kneading was the same but required less energy as compared to hand kneading. The tests proved that the hybrid kneading machine is an efficient alternative to the traditional kneading process.Ashesi Universit
Developing a Data Visualisation Tool for The Canvas Gradebook
Full text linkApplied project submitted to the Department of Computer Science, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, May 2022This work encapsulates the stages involved in developing a data visualiser web application,
CanSea. It focuses on providing a platform that would aid in an easier way to interpret data. For
the development of the proposed system, requirements were gathered to ensure that user needs
would be met, and that the system was achieving a purpose. Data visualisation has become an
important part of human lives because, from different research papers, it is being used by
different fields, including education to cut down time and increase productivity by making data
easier to understand.
This system was designed to be used by the Ashesi University lecturers and faculty interns,
where they can upload csv files exported from Canvas, a learning management system used by
the school. The results from this project suggest that the system is feasible and would make it
easier to interpret raw data.Ashesi Universit
Investigating The Socio-Economic Challenges Faced by Female Migrant Hawkers at The Kasoa Toll booth
Full text linkUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi
University. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the
Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration.Ghana, like many developing countries, experiences a high rate of internal
migration (rural-urban migration). This type of mobility is many times performed by
people moving from rural dwellings to urban centers in search of economic
opportunities. Over the years, women's participation in Ghana's rural-urban migration
streams has seen a rise and street hawking is one of the popular informal economic
opportunities taken up by female migrants in Ghana’s urban spaces. Despite its
opportunity for financial freedom, the job is characterized by harsh working conditions,
insecurity and the risk of physical harm and abuse.
The objective of this study is to recommend solutions for sustainable, long-term
positive impact in the lives of female migrant street hawkers by focusing on those who
work near the Kasoa Tollbooth. To achieve this, the research asked questions concerned
with why the females migrated and what socio-economic challenges they faced. The
study also looked at whether the females still believe that the decision to migrate was
the correct one, given different factors. The research was analyzed using the qualitative
phenomenological approach which is advantageous in its ability to capture the
experiences and essence of a phenomenon from the perspective of participants. Primary
data was collected on the street hawkers at the Kasoa Tollbooth in the form of in-depth
interviews and focus group discussions. From the research, it was found that the female
migrant hawkers at the Kasoa Tollbooth face many socio-economic challenges
including injuries, illnesses, harassment by officials and theft. According to the
respondents, the best way to help them achieve their long-term goals involves financial
assistance either to open a shop, further one’s education or pursue a career with an
existing skillAshesi Universit
Can the Female Glass Ceiling Be Shattered in Private Corporate Ghana?
Full text linkUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2022Underrepresentation, inequity, and career development in senior leadership roles continue to be barriers for Ghanaian women in the private corporate sector, stifling their performance. This qualitative descriptive phenomenological study aims to investigate and comprehend the female glass ceiling in the workplace. The glass ceiling is a figurative social barrier that prevents women from rising through the ranks of management and senior roles in a company or industry. Many studies in this field have focused on perceived hurdles to women s advancement into leadership roles and the lived experiences of women who have succeeded, without emphasising the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the female glass ceiling. This research was undertaken to fill this gap in the existing literature. The study was conducted using interviews and surveys from a sample of four women in the auditing and banking sector to capture their views on this problem and find a way forward. These findings revealed that Ghanaian women leaders are still underrepresented in organisations and face challenges in pursuing professional careers due to a lack of support from policymakers and human resource employees. The findings may help policymakers, and human resource professionals reassess and change organisational policies by encouraging women to pursue the same career advancement chances as males through inclusion, corporate assistance, and education. This knowledge may influence organisational performance by promoting good social change across all organisations.Ashesi Universit
TrustHop: Building a Social Trust Network
Full text linkUndergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems, May 2022In recent online social networks, each user can often assign a value to their immediate friends level of trustworthiness. Understanding a social trust value between any two nodes in an online social network is beneficial in a range of applications, like online marketing and
recommendation systems. However, assessing social trust between two members in an online social network is difficult and time-consuming. This is because existing work either created handcrafted rules based on specialized domain knowledge or required a large number of
computational resources, limiting its scalability. Graph-based techniques have recently been proved to be effective at learning from graph data. Even though social trust may be represented as graph data, its advantages have a lot of potential for trust evaluation. Therefore, we begin by reviewing the characteristics of online social networks and the properties of trust. After which the two types of graph-simplification and graph-analogy methodologies would be compared and contrasted as well as their respective problems and obstacles. We then conduct a quick examination of its pre- and post-processes to present an integrated view of trust evaluation. Finally, we discuss some unresolved issues that all trust models face.Ashesi Universit
My Scholarship Info Consultancy management system: Technology meets the challenge
Full text linkApplied project submitted to the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, May 2022Over the years, both the government and the private sector have made several efforts to
increase the number of educated youths in sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, many students,
especially from underprivileged backgrounds, lack access to higher education. My
Scholarship Info (MSI) is a higher education consultancy that seeks to tackle this problem
by identifying, admitting, and providing students from sub-Saharan Africa with higher
educational opportunities. This startup, however, needs a system to help automate its
processes. A series of literature reviews showed that the current consultancy systems
available are standalone and expensive to integrate for a startup. After a careful requirement
analysis through interviews, observations, and surveys, the developer discovered that My
Scholarship Info needs an efficient system to automate recruiting students, customer service,
payments, and more. Thus, this capstone project was undertaken successfully to develop the
said system known as the MSI Higher Education Consultancy Management System
(HECMS). The HECMS has an application portal, a payment system, an AI chatbot, and
two dashboards for admins and students. The HECMS will assist MSI in connecting high
school students from sub-Saharan Africa, especially those from underserved backgrounds,
to higher educational opportunities, thus contributing to SDGs 4 and 10.Ashesi Universit
Building a team-management and improved peer review platform for Ashesi University
No full textApplied project submitted to the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, May 2022PEGAR is a platform designed to streamline team interactions in Ashesi, improve the
authenticity of peer reviews and strengthen the credibility of team dynamic grading. The
system development methodology used was the SCRUM method as the team dynamic and user
input was a continuous iterative process. Regarding this project's scope, PEGAR is a team
management and peer review platform intended for the use and progressive exploration within
the Ashesi University academic scene. It complements educational team projects by focusing
on the team element of the project and not the submissions and direct project grading. The core
functionalities include but are not limited to an object team selection algorithm, team task
management and a peer review section that generates tailored reviews according to the user
and user type. This project resulted in an 80% user acceptance rate for the platform and the
revised peer review format. Considering that the primary users are both Ashesi students and
teaching faculty, this high acceptance rate is indicative of future development and integration
into the Ashesi curriculum.Ashesi Universit