Curriculum vitae |
|
|
Full Name | Frederick Brown Kamwaza |
Date of Birth | 28th July 1956 |
Place of Birth | Village: Kapalamula, T/A: Msamala, District: Machinga, MALAWI |
Nationality | Malawian, Passport No. 0673600 |
Marital Status | Married with 5 children |
Current Position: | Senior Lecturer |
Permanent Address | Village: Chona, T/A Phalula, District: Balaka, MALAWI. |
Contact Address | The Polytechnic, P/Bag 303, Chichiri, Blantyre 3, MALAWI Phone : (265) 670411 (o) | (265) 643204 (h) Fax: (265) 670578: E-Mail fred@sdnp.org.mw |
Dates | Institution | Qualification |
1983-85 | University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology Wales, UK | M.Sc.(Digital Electronics) (1985) |
1977-81 | University of Malawi Chancellor College Zomba. | B.Sc. (Pass with Credit) (1981) |
1973-77 | Soche Hill Secondary School Limbe, Malawi | MCE (1977) |
1964-73 | Mponda F.P. School Lirangwe, Malawi | PSLC (1973) |
July 1999-July 2000 | On sabbatical Leave |
Jan 1997-July 1999 | Vice Principal of the Malawi Polytechnic. |
1995-1998 | Head of department, Department of Mathematics and Computing. |
1991 | Promoted to Senior Lecturer in Mathematics & Computing. |
1989-94 | Head of department, Department of Technical Education |
1985-89 | Lecturer in Physics and Mathematics, Department of Mathematics and Science |
1983-85 | On Study Leave to the United Kingdom pursuing a masters degree in Digital Electronics |
1981-83 | Staff Associate in Physics, Department of Maths and Science, University of Malawi. |
Office of
the Vice Principal |
As Vice Principal of the college, my main task was to assist
the Principal. My work included general administrative duties and day-to-day running of
the institution. As Vice Principal, I was responsible for all academic matters
including examinations and maintenance of students academic records. Here is a list
of the responsibilities I held:
|
1995-97 |
College Representative to the University of Malawi SENATE. |
1989-93 |
Chairman, The Polytechnic Computer Management Team. |
1987-92 |
Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) |
1987-90 |
Faculty Representative to the University Research and Publications Committee. |
1987-90 |
Faculty Representatives to the University Academic and Administrative Staff Welfare Committee. |
1986-89 |
Head of Section, Physics laboratories, Department of Maths and Science |
1997-1999 | Running an Intranet for the Polytechnic. The Local Area Network (LAN) is also connected to an Internet Service Provider for Internet access and e-mail services. |
Design of LAN |
I designed and implemented a LAN at the Polytechnic connecting over 100 PCs and other peripherals. The system was connected to two servers, a Novel NetWare Server and a Windows NT Server with the other PCs as clients. |
Computer
|
I am responsible for day-to-day management of the LAN at the Polytechnic. I am responsible for both software and hardware maintenance, and development in-house software for keeping college records. |
Examinations |
Responsible for compiling examination results for the college. |
Timetables
|
Responsible for preparation of centralized classroom schedules for the college. |
SADC
Project |
I was directly responsible for the execution of the SADCC Manpower development Project at the Polytechnic. My duties included general management of the project funds, identifying and ordering of project equipment (and Consumable materials) and general personnel administration of the SADCC students. |
The Malawi Polytechnic Site Jan - May 2000 |
I have just completed developing a new student-tracking
system for the Polytechnic. This system takes advantage of the web technology to
publish students-progress records on the Internet. (Visit the URL: http://kachere.sdnp.org.mw to see the range of
information available) With relevant security authentication, students are now able to
read personal academic records, timetables and other useful information at this
site. The system is based on a database program I wrote in Visual Basic and
interfaced to the Malawi Polytechnic WWW Server. A Cds-isis database containing a list of local book-titles and articles at the Malawi Polytechnic Library is integrated to the site. This involved writing software for converting the format and linking to the search engine. |
Rule of Law Website Feb 2000 |
This site is part of a bigger project looking at eleven organizations in the country that are connected with the rule-of-law. The completed site can be accessed at http://www.sdnp.org.mw/~fred/law/index.html. This site looks at the Law Reform & Law Revision, The Law Commission Calendar, Law Commission Reports and Personnel. |
Phone Directory Jan 2000 |
I completed an Electronic Phone Directory for the Malawi
Government Section. This is based on the Blue-Pages of the newly released Malawi
Post and Telecomms (hardcopy) directory. This site was sponsored and mounted
by the Malawi SDNP. You may visit the site at the following URL: http://www.sdnp.org.mw/phone/gov/index.html.
At the moment I am working on the rest of the Phone Directory. This section will be running on an 'msql SQL database server' and will be accessed through Dynamic HTML pages using the MsqlPerl interface. A second version will be a compressed set of HTML pages that would fit on a single floppy. When decompressed, it would make the phone book accessed offline. |
Environmental Website December, 1999 |
Environmental Website: http://www.sdnp.org.mw/enviro/index.html. This is a site for the Ministry of Environmental Affairs. It covers the: |
Accounting System Aug-Sep 1999 |
I developed an accounting system for the Malawi SDNP Internet Service Provider. The system looks at the 'Cisco-Secure' accounting data logs for the Internet users and generates bills. It prints invoices and sends email to all users. |
Current
Research |
Low Cost Radio links for Computers: I am interested in the possibility of running Local Area Network using radio links. This would tackle the problem we have at the Polytechnic of scattered office accommodation. The project would look at the design of a small FM radio transmitter/receiver equipment and interface software to connect the computers through an Ethernet Card or a Modem. Preliminary studies show that this is feasible and could cover a range of 10 km radius or more. |
1990-91 |
The staff situation at the Polytechnic: This research looked at aspects affecting the quality of teaching at the Polytechnic. Student-staff ratios, motivation of staff and levels of expertise in each discipline of study. (RPC funded project, 1990). |
1988-91 | Computerized the College Examination Processing System.
Faculty reports, senate reports, and student notification letters were now generated from
the grades entered. Students 'Course Warning letters' and 'Serious Warning letters'
were also generated from the same information. Computerized the College Timetables System. The college used to waste a lot of resources in terms of classroom space and expertise. This system reported any clashes as the information was being entered. Making correction to the timetable was greatly simplified, and as a result, room allocation and even expertise allocation was optimized. We were now able to have a centralized timetable, sharing the scares room and human resources. |
1987-88 |
Instrumentation for the investigation of the micro-climate of Lake Malawi. I looked at the design of instrumentation for measuring temperature, humidity and pressure over the Lake by remote sensing techniques similar to those used by weather satellites. |
1984-85 | A Digital Communication through the Mains MODEM. This research looked at the possibility of transferring data between computers over the mains wiring already existing in buildings. (M.Sc. Thesis-Research Project). |
Training 1986-2000 |
I have organized and run a number of computer-based short
courses in the following areas:
|
Marketing
|
Marketing the B.Sc. Technical Education Programme: Visited Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa, Marketing the programme and following up on the progress of graduates who had gone through the in-service programme of the 'SADCC Technical Education Manpower Development Programme' at the Polytechnic. |
Survey |
A survey on the amount and nature of energy used in Small and Medium size industries in Malawi: This survey was conducted for INDEFUND Ltd. |
1999 |
Attended the First Node Operators Training Workshop, held at the Polytechnic, Blantyre, Malawi. |
1998 |
Attended the International Workshop on Internet at Livingstonia in Zimbabwe. |
1994 |
Attended the first Regional Programme for Trainers of Information Analysts in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. |
1992 |
Attended the Fifth International Workshop on the Use of Microcomputers in Science and Mathematics Education in Africa, held in Harare, Zimbabwe. |
1990 |
Attended an international conference on Technical teaching in the 1990s, Huddersfield, UK. |
1987 |
Attended a conference on Advanced Techniques in Computational physics, Trieste, ITALY. |
1998-2000 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Other
Computer Experiences 1994-1998 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
BTOS
Operating System 1986-95 |
Operating Systems: As a Systems Manager at the Polytechnic, I became quite conversant with the BTOS operating system and MS DOS. In the later years, as Windows and virus were creeping in, I became quite familiar with the operating environment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Hardware |
Worked for Burco Electronics, a computer dealing company, as a Computer Hardware Engineer for 3 month when the college was temporarily closed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Novel
NetWare |
Attended a course on Network Administration at the Polytechnic run by Accer Agencies from South Africa. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Pascal
and |
As part of my training at Masters Level, at University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, I was introduced to Pascal Programming, Assembly Language, VMS Operating System, BBC BASIC, MS DOS and various graphic packages. My main project required proficiency in Pascal and Assembly Language programming. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
BASIC
|
I did BASIC as part of my undergraduate training at the University of Malawi, Chancellor College. This was my first go at computers. |
12. REFEREES |
|
Dr. Paulos Nyirenda | The Malawi SDNP, Private Bag 303, Chichiri, Blantyre 3,
MALAWI Tel: (265) 674900; Email: Paulos@sdnp.org.mw |
|
Mr. H G Thembakako | Blantyre Hotels, P.O. Box 21, Blantrye, MALAWI Tel: (265) 620 147; Email: BlantyreHotels@sdnp.org.mw |
|
Mr. W J Sonkho | Malawi Posts Cooperation P.O. Box 5503, Limbe, Malawi Tel: (265) 640 860 |
Mr. M Mbendera | Mbendera-Chibambo & Associates P.O. Box 785, Blantyre, Malawi |