May be I am among the few that see something different, or I am so poor at this such that I am fascinated by what they are trying to do.

forgive my mashinani thinking, I reckon when I see a laptop I see lots of brains that went into putting it up - lakini if village craftsmen can assemble a laptop and KIM graduates can sell the same then I think JKUAT are lost.

But from the little I have read, I know that even apple one of the most prestigious tech company in the world does very little in terms of parts development.

That said, almost all of the big universities in the world that teach medicine also have hospitals that offer treatment for kawaida ailments and through that they get real world experience and thus improve on their research.

I see nothing wrong with a university, especially in africa learning more about tech by assembling and researching on the products that they sell to the end users and get feedback from the same, akina dell or hp will not partner with local universities - so wafanye nini ?

But I think as a country we will move far ahead if we learn to appreciate the basics, if only our architects can start putting up simple family houses then maybe they will put their knowledge to good use and come up with better building technologies.

If only our universities could partner with local road side juakali artisans and actually have the engineer students take internships at such places, then maybe they could think more of more efficient solutions ...

The key aspect of selling a product is differentiation. How is this JKUAT thing different from kawaida Dell out there. Are the parts made for JKUAT at their specification or are they just generic compatibles? whats the input of JUKUAT to the entire laptop.

Usually if you open a HP laptop, you realize that the screen is Samsung, the Hard disk is made by someone else and the processor Intel. What big manufacturers do is they subcontract parts to specialized players and they claim ownership of the integrated product. Just like Boeing/Airbus which runs on Rolls-Royce/General Electric engines.

JKUAT as a pointer is OK but I believe that such a daunting task should be taken up by someone who can easily establish systems and channels to accomplish this.

Universities can still do a lot like lending out their specialized labs for industrial research, testing and development. But rolling-out a such a product successfully.....Not they wont last.

No, he can only hire.

IBM has partnered with Catholic University

hawa watu wa JKUAT wako wapi watueleze kinaga ubaga wanachofanya na wanacho lenga kuafikia...

I have no idea how their internal operations are, or what their objectives or goals are - but I have a feeling they are not doing this mainly as a business interest, I think they are trying to create a product that they can sell yes, but mostly benefitial to them when it comes to research on a working product in the market.

I don't think sending the assembly to CHina will expose them much to the nitty-gritty of assembly and parts development.

IBM has become more of a data company than a hardware company. To create/come up with software that can serve a purpose, you have to collect data and extrapolate it and come up with a software solution to solve a problem. We gather so much data using our phones cars etc which can be very interesting

Say manufacture manure, fertilizer is too complicated for them as yet.