MSc (Elec Eng) – Eric Beda is the SACIDS Foundation Regional ICT Specialist

A systems expert with over 8 years experience and a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering with a broad knowledge of IP security frameworks, Software Engineering, Finance and Statistical Techniques. Core expertise focused on web (LAMP) and mobile programming (Android, Kannel), Server management, system integrations, ICT solutions consultancy and design

He is spearheading all technical aspects for the Mobile Technologies for disease surveillance project. This is an inter-ministry project aimed at enhancing the capture and submission of disease occurrence in rural and hard to reach areas. Technically involves design, programming and deployment of mobile phones (androids) equipped with epiCollect that are used to collect surveillance data in the field. The data is later synchronized to a central server located at SACIDS and may be viewed at different levels in the governance framework

From 2006 up to 2010 he worked at the University Computing Centre (UCC) Ltd where he managed the University of Dar-es-salaam ICT infrastructure. Main duties included preparing and analyzing proposals for new services and future expansions of the University of Dar-es-Salaam ICT infrastructure. Preparing and planning budget estimates in retrospect to human and technical resources and overseeing all system related projects. Other duties include leading a group of university wide system administrators, ensuring systems conformance to set standards, managing warranties and service level agreements. Enjoyed a productive working relationship with suppliers, vendors and customers and was engaged in government tender evaluations.

Technically he was tasked with Server administration and management of University of Dar-es-salaam Servers, servicing over 10000 people. He designed, managed, deployed, configured and implemented mail exchange servers (Antivirus, Spamcheck, greylisting), Proxy servers, Domain name server (Authoritative ac.tz and go.tz server) and mail servers which are currently operational. All implementations were done using open source technology – a mixture of Redhat, Centos, FreeBSD operating systems. During this period he harvested extensive knowledge and experience in integrating open source technologies ranging from CMS systems, ERP, VoIP, database (MySQL) etc.