(A column highlighting scientific, technological, engineering and design innovation in Africa)
Created by Ugandan tech expert Charles Muhhindo, BrainShare is an education application that allows students from primary through university levels to access and share class notes, ebooks and exam questions, and to interact with tutors and teachers in real time online.
The app has a cheaper USSD version whereby subscribers to Orange Telkom (Uganda) can receive BrainShare content by text messages on simple 2G phones. The USSD version allows students who have no or low Internet connectivity to access the BrainShare service.
USSD, which stands for “unstructured supplementary service data, is a protocol that allows cell phones to connect with a service provider’s computers.
BrainShare users pay for each text message received via USSD, for each content download from the BrainShare website, and for each subscription to a tutor or teacher. Payment is made through airtime billing and mobile money, or by Visa card. Users also can purchase BrainShare scratch cards containing download cords.
Muhindo says he created BrainShare to help level the education playing field by linking students from less privileged schools to reading and revision materials and teachers from schools that are far better endowed, all in a fun and engaging way. “At the end of the day, all these students sit for the same exams, they compete for the same scholarships, and they compete for the same jobs. But the question is, ‘is the competition ground level?’ No, it is not. That’s why BrainShare is here,” he says.
Muhindo graduated from Makerere University in Uganda with a bachelor’s degree in computer engneering. He is the founder and CEO of Code Vision Ltd., a 2011 startup in Uganda that develops desktop, mobile and web applications, as well as offers bulkSMS, USSD, short code, Linux-based virtual private servers (VPS), Cpanel hosting, domain registration and web development services.
Code Vision rolled out BrainShare in 2012 and BrainShare smartphone apps in 2013.
Global Initiative for Science and Technology (GIST) named Muhindo among the top 40 African entrepreneurs in 2013, and CNN featured his BrainShare app among top African startups to watch both in 2013 and 2014. BrainShare was voted the No. 1 academic website and startup in Uganda in 2013, and was one of 24 semifinalists in the global VentureOut Challenge for mobile applications in 2013 as well.
Muhindo is looking to expand globally and has already made inroads into Kenya. “We depend solely on finding out the best teachers; it’s those best teachers that are kown to the students that will attract the students to the system,” he says.
