Arba Minch University (AMU) has officially launched an in-house project to revolutionize its research and community outreach operations. The AMU Research and Outreach Management System (AMU-ROMS) aims to replace inefficient manual processes with a modern, integrated digital platform. The kickoff workshop gathered together key stakeholders to define the system's requirements. Click here to see more photos.
Tesfaye Habtemariam (PhD), AMU Research Director, stated the urgent need for change and outlined critical pain points plaguing the current system including widespread user dissatisfaction, compromised research quality, and severely limited data accessibility due to fragmented, paper-based processes. Dr. Tesefaye also emphasized that these administrative burdens are significant hurdles to the university's innovation and community engagement goals underscoring the need for strong management commitment and clear guidelines for the new system.
Mohammed Abebe (PhD), Project Manager from the FCSE, presented the comprehensive project plan which showed that the AMU-ROMS will be scalable, web-based platform built using a modern tech stack - Laravel (PHP), MySQL, and Bootstrap - and developed in phases using the Agile/Scrum methodology. The system's core modules will streamline the entire research lifecycle including the Research Management (from proposal to publication), Grant Project Management, the Community Engagement, and the Technology Transfer & University Industry Linkage. Automating key tasks to reduce administrative burdens, enhancing reporting for strategic decision-making, and providing valuable analytics are among the anticipated benefits, Dr. Mohammed listed. The development plan targets a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by late 2025 with a full system handover scheduled for April 2026, he noted.
In a strategic move, the university has chosen to develop the system internally. It enjoined the Vice President for Research & Cooperation, the Faculty of Computer and Software Engineering (FCSE), and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Directorate to harness AMU's own in-house expertise to ensure the final product perfectly tailored to the university's unique needs and guarantees complete data ownership, security and cost-effective long term management.
The workshop participants addressed vital issues of integrating gender data for inclusivity, ensuring robust data security protocols, and defining user access privileges. A key focus was on guaranteeing interconnectivity between all colleges, institutes, and departments to break down information silos. The AMU leadership present finally confirmed their commitment to supporting the initiative for a transparent and collaborative system.
With stakeholder input now guiding the requirement refinement process, the AMU-ROMS project moves into its next phases of consultative meetings, development, and testing. This strategic investment is poised to significantly elevate AMU's research excellence, operational efficiency, and impact on community engagement for years to come.
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Public and International Relations Executive
