Engineer Bainomugisha

I am an Associate Professor of Computer Science and the Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Makerere University. My research focuses on Computer Science-driven solutions to the prevailing world challenges. I am also passionate about contributing to quality Computer Science education that is of sufficient breadth and depth, practical and fast enough. Currently, I lead several innovative and research initiatives that aim to create and apply computational methods and tools that can improve the quality of life especially in the developing world setting.

My current research projects include building and deploying distributed systems of miniature IoT/mobile devices to: measure and derive trends of air quality in over 50 urban centers in Uganda to tackle the growing air pollution challenge in developing countries; monitor soil conditions to help farms make smart decisions;  measure the quality of road infrastructure in Uganda to help municipalities and road users. Together with my team we are also building a multi-cloud solution that supports portability of apps and services between private and public clouds while taking into account unique African realities like bandwidth constraints, Internet and power outages.

Previously I investigated and developed programming languages and software tools to help programmers easily write highly adaptive and distributed mobile software without worrying about low-level concerns. My research in this area helped create iScheme and Flute programming languages.

I am  also the Principal Investigator for several research projects including “Probabilistic low-cost air pollution monitoring”; “Centre for Data Technology”; “Build Research Capacity for Innovative ICT4D”; and “African Virtual Cloud Initiative”;.

I received a Ph.D. (with Greatest Distinction - “Summa cum laude”) and MSc. (with Great Distinction) in Computer Science from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium in 2008 & 2012, respectively. I received a B.Sc. (First Class Honors) in Computer Science from Makerere University in 2006, where I also received the Best Science and Overall Best graduate award for that year. Prior to returning to Makerere University I worked as a pre-doctoral and postdoctoral researcher at the Software Languages Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Prior to that I worked in the Software Development industry and IT Management in Uganda.

News

• July 2019: We are organising the 3rd edition of the Bright Summer School on Software Engineering and IS at Makerere University Bright School at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, July, 2019.
  
  
• May 2019: We are organising the 2nd edition of the Software Engineering in Africa conference co-located with ICSE 2019 in Montreal Canada SEiA 2019, May, 2019.
  
  
• May 2019: We're among the Google AI Impact Challenge winners, May, 2019.
  
  
• February 2019 - Paper Accepted. M. Katarahweire, E. Bainomugisha and K. Mughal (2019) A Multi-Level Data Sensitivity Model for Mobile Health Data Collection Systems. In:  Rocha, Á. et al (eds)  Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCist). Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol__. Springer (to appear)
  
  
• February 2019 - Paper Accepted. J. Businge; M. Openja; D. Kavaler; E. Bainomugisha; F. Khomh; V. Filkov (2019)
  Study of Android App Popularity by Cross-Linking Github and Google Play Store. In IEEE 26th International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering (SANER), February 24-27, 2019, Hangzhou, China
  
  
• February 2019 - Paper Accepted.  J. Businge; S. Kawuma; M. Openja ; E. Bainomugisha; A. Serebrenik (2019) How Stable Are Eclipse Application Framework Internal Interfaces? In IEEE 26th International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering (SANER), February 24-27, 2019, Hangzhou, China
  
  
• November 2018: I will be attending KubeCon 2018 in Seattle, Washington, USA
  
  
• July 2018: Our paper (J. Businge, M. Openja, S. Nadi, E. Bainomugisha and T. Berger) entitled "Clone-Based Variability Management  in the Android Ecosystem" has been accepted for publication and presentation at the 34th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2018). Septmber 2018, Madrid, Spain.
  
  
• April-May 2018: The AirQo project, US Mission in Kampala and Kampala Capital Authority will organise an air quality awareness week
  
  
• May 2018: We are organising the 1st edition of the Software Engineering in Africa conference co-located with ICSE 2018 in Gothenburg Sweden SEiA 2018, May, 2018.
  
  
• April 2018: We are organising the 2nd edition of the Bright Summer School on Software Engineering and IS at Makerere University Bright School at Mbarara University, April, 2018.
  
  
• April 2018: We are organising an Air Quality Awareness Workshop at Makerere University Let us Talk Air Pollution workshop, 7, April, 2018.
  
  
• March 2018: Our SDG lab, The AirQo project, has been accepted for funding under the Seed beds labs Seed beds, May, 2018. Joel Ssematimba (Research staff) will be traveling for the conference to present the lab
  
  
• September 2017: We are organising the 1st edition of the Bright Summer School on Software Engineering and IS at Makerere University Bright School , September, 2017.
  
  
• July 2017: Our paper (J. Businge, S. Kawuma, E. Bainomugisha, F. Khomh and E. Nabaasa) entitled "Code Authorship and Fault-proneness of Open-Source Android Applications : An Empirical Study" has been accepted for publication and presentation at the the 13th International Conference on Predictive Models and Data  Analytics in Software Engineering (PROMISE 2017). November 8, 2017, Toronto, Canada.
  
  
• July 2017: Our paper (I. N. Oteyo, E. Bainomugisha) entitled "Volume of Signaling Traffic Reaching Cellular Networks from Mobile Phones" has been accepted for publication and presentation at the IEEE AFRICON 2017, Septmber 18-20 2017, Cape Town (South Africa).
  
  
• June 2017: I will be attending the official Launch of the Harvard University Center for African Studies Office & Science, Technology & Innovation Forum, May, 2017.
  
  
• May 2017: We will be hosting Internet Forum & Public Dialogue
  
  
• February 2017, I will be serving as a mentor on the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program at Makerere University.
  
  
• October 2016: Program Committee Member, Workshop on Live Adaptation of Software Systems at <Programming> 2017 - Brussels, Belgium – April 2017.
  
  

• September 15-16 2016: Panelist/Session Chair: 4th National Conference on Communications, Mbarara University of Science and Techology, Uganda.
  
  
• September 2016: An evaluation workshop of Participatory Road Infrastructure Monitoring in Kampala, Software Systems Centre, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
  
  
• September 2016: We are hiring 1 Ph.D student: Call for applications for One (1) PhD fellowship in Computer Science, Software Engineering or Informatics tenable at Makerere University
  
  
• September 2016: Our research project entitled "Participatory Air Quality  Monitoring" has been accepted for  funding by Development Impact Lab/USAID.
  
  
• August 22-26 2016: IEEE Unified Modeling Language Workshop, Software Systems Centre, Makerere University, Kampala.
  
  
• August 2016: Judge,  Digital Impact Awards Africa, July-August 2016 - Kampala, Uganda
  
  
• July 2016: Panelist/Speaker on "Data Science Training and Mentorship in Africa" at the Data Science Africa Regional Conference 2016, UN Pulse Lab, Kampala, Uganda.
  
  
• July 2016: Mentor, Higher Education Solutions Network TechCon 2016, USA
  
  
• June 2016: Our paper (S. Kawuma, J Businge and E. Bainomugisha)  entiled  “Can we find Stable Alternatives for Unstable Eclipse Interfaces?” has been accepted for publication at the 24th IEEE International Conference On Program Comprehension, Austin, Texas, USA.
  
  
• June 1-2 2016: Workshop on "Computing Research as a Development Driver in East Africa", Kampala, Uganda
  
  
• March 2016: We are hiring 5 Post-docs under the BRIGHT project: Call for applications for Five Post-doctoral Fellowships
  
  
• March 2016: Judge, Big Ideas@Berkeley, UC Berkeley, USA
  
  
• December 2015: We are hiring 10 Ph.D students: Call for applications to PhD programme in Software Engineering or Informatics
  
  
• November 2015: Judge, Technovation Challenge 2015 "Tech University Female Students Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Through Innovation", Kampala, Uganda
  
  
• November 2015: Program Committee Member, Workshop on Live Adaptation of Software Systems at Modularity 2016 - Malaga, Spain – March 2016.
  
  
• November 2015: Judge, Big Ideas@Berkeley, UC Berkeley, USA
  
  
• November 2015: Judge, MTN Innovation Awards, Kampala, Uganda. (Recording of the event available here)
  
  
• October 2015: I gave talk on "Research Proposal in Computing"at the Graduate Research Seminar, School of Computing and IT, Makerere University
  
  
• June 2015: Our research project entitled "Participatory Road Infrastructure Monitoring" has been accepted for seed funding by Development Impact Lab.
  
  
• May 2015: I will be attending the 1st East-African Workshop on the Internet Of Things, University of Rwanda, Kigali.
  
  
• May 2015: Judge, MTN App Challenge 2015, Kampala, Uganda.
  
  
• March 2015: Our project under the Linnaeus-Palme programme has been accepted for funding for  the academic year 2015-2016. This cooperation is between Applied IT, University of Gothenburg; Chalmers University and Makerere University.
  
  
• February 2015: I will be visiting Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda between 15th and 17th March 2015. I will give a talk entitled "From Mobile Software Language Engineering to Mobile for Social Good" (Slides)
  
  
• February 2015: Our research project entitled "Building Research Capacity in Innovative Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) for Sustainable Socio-economic Growth in Uganda" has been accepted for Sida funding 2015-2020. This project is a collaboration between Chalmers University of Sweden, University of Gothenburg of Sweden, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, and Makerere University. This project will support ten (10) PhD students and 5 postdocs.
  
  
• November 2014: Program Committee Member, Workshop on Live Adaptation of Software Systems at Modularity 2015 - March 16-19, 2015 - Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
  
  
• September 2014: A profile feature article in Uganda's Observer
  
  
• July 2014: Juror,  Digital Impact Awards Africa, July-August 2014 - Kampala, Uganda
  
  
• May 2014: Program Committee Member, The "Mobiles for Social Good" workshop at MobileHCI 2014 - September 23, 2014 - Toronto, Canada
  
  
• May 2014: My master's student (Bright Onapito) will be giving a talk and a demo on "Using Augmented Reality and Serious Gaming to Enhance Learning: The Case of Primary School Education in Uganda" (abstract) at the 2014 eLearning Africa conference in Kampala, May 28-30.
  
  
• April 2014: I have received a research grant from the Development Impact Lab of UC Berkely (part of USAID’s Higher Education Solutions Network) to explore the potential of mobile sensor technology for automatic detection and timely reporting of potholes and road damages in Kampala.
  
  
• April 2014: I have been invited with a grant by Microsoft to attend Microsoft Research Faculty Summit 2014 to be held in Redmond, Washington, USA in July 2014. According to Microsoft, this invitation-only event brings leading academic researchers and educators together with Microsoft researchers and engineers to share ideas and results that relate to some of today’s most exciting new directions.
  
  
• March 2014: I have been appointed member and elected chair of the task force to develop the National ICT Research and Innovation Master Plan/Strategy by The National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U).
  
  
• February 2014: I have been appointed member of the task force to establish the Pan African University Centre at Makerere University
  
  
• December 2013: Invited speaker/panelist to talk about the “Relevance of Doctoral Research to Socio- Economic Development in Uganda” at the Doctoral Network Uganda Inaugural Conference, Kampala, Uganda (Youtube video).
  
  
• September 2013: Appointed Ag. Chair, Department of Computer Science, Makerere University
  
  
• June 2013: I gave a talk about  Community-Centric Crime Mapping for a Safer Society in Uganda at Uganda Police (slides).
  
  
• February 2013: I gave an invited Talk at Pilot North South Research Data Workshop, Mombasa, Kenya about Mobile Computing and Research Data (slides).
  
  
• November 2012: I gave a knowledge transfer invited talk on “Developing for the iOS Platform” at the MobiCraNT steering committee meeting, Brussels, Belgium (slides).