Carnegie Mellon University Africa

Rwanda is located in the middle of Africa, just south of the equator. It is also called 1000 hilly country due to its mountainous geography. With its natural beauties, national parks, wildlife diversity and mountain gorillas in danger of extinction, the country attracts plenty of tourists. The traces of the bloody civil war 25 years ago, almost completely erased, extremely civilized and welcomes us as a clean country. The use of plastic bags in the country is completely prohibited. Even at the airport, officials prevent the entry of plastic bags into the country. The roads between the neighborhoods are still dirt except for the main asphalt roads. However it was still immaculate. People are friendly and courteous. On the last Saturday morning of each month, there is a compulsory social service called “umuganda”. Within the scope of this event, the public is performing a social service determined by the local authorities. This can sometimes be repaired and cleaned of roads and sometimes it can help to build a home of the needy. During this period, shops are closed and vehicles other than governmental and emergency vehicles are not allowed to enter the traffic.

Carnegie Mellon University, one of the best engineering universities in the world, set up a campus here in 2011 to teach intelligent and talented young people in the region. CMU-Africa, as a full-time faculty in Africa, is the only US research university to offer graduate degrees with instructor staff and course programs. Emerging from the partnership between CMU and the Rwandan Government, CMU-Africa aims to address the critical lack of high-quality engineering skills needed to accelerate development in Africa, which is home to the fastest-growing workforce in the world.

In August 2019, a new 15-hectare campus of CMU-Africa was launched in Kigali Innovation City. In this new campus, the main academic building with student cafes, recreation and study areas, as well as many new facilities for students such as bookstores, student activity centers, libraries and research centers. Students, teachers and staff will enjoy new offices and classrooms as well as an open-air theater to host graduation and social events.

Within the scope of the new campus classroom technologies project, three large classrooms, two small classrooms, a video conference classroom and a distance learning classroom were equipped with modern audio and video equipment. In particular, thanks to the distance learning lecture, professors at the University's Pittsburgh-US campus can teach students there. International academic meetings can be held using the video conference classroom. Thanks to the wireless presentation systems in the classrooms, instructors and students can easily access and use the projection systems.

System-wide Extron automation equipment enables easy management of systems with user-friendly interfaces. Extron loudspeakers and amplifiers are used in the large and small classrooms public address systems. The speakers of the video conference classroom and distance learning classroom are JBL and the amplifiers are Crown.

Wireless microphone systems of all classrooms were selected from the products of the Shure brand. The video conference classroom and distance learning classroom uses the latest technology with the MXA900 series ceiling type array microphone systems from the Shure brand. These microphones have been specially developed for video conferencing applications. They allow clear and intelligible voice communication. Extron DMP series processors are used as digital sound processors and Extron DTP series switchers are used as video selectors.

The projection screens selected from tensioned models of the Access series of the Drapper brand. Two 75 ”Philips monitors are used in the video conferencing classroom. In the distance learning classroom, three 65 ”Philips monitors are used as a confidence monitor on the rear wall of the classroom.

In all classroom, Extron Sharelink wireless presentation systems were preferred because of their operating system-independent operation and connection features that do not require additional hardware.

Material procurement and commissioning of the systems were completed in 2.5 months. Our technology partners in this project, Extron, Epson, Sony, Philips, Drapper, JBL, Crown and Shure brands have provided us with significant product supply and technical support when needed. As Ateksis, we were proud to be a part of this beautiful project.