Mohajer, Arman (2019) Developing a model for sustainable IT infrastructure in a rural setting in Northern India. [USQ Project]
Abstract
The world is rapidly advancing towards an increasingly globalised society with technology seen as an indicator of growth and development. Efforts are being made on a global scale to address social inequities and to bridge the growing digital divide between rural and urban societies. Existing research has shown however, there is still a lot to be done as the divide continues to grow larger and social development projects aimed at providing access to better infrastructure, no matter how noble the intention, still seem unable to address the complex social challenges that affect communities around the world.
This raises the question, is it possible to provide access to technology that’s suitable and sustainable for rural communities, while also encouraging local empowerment and longterm social transformation? This dissertation aims to address the question by following a systems engineering process to develop a model that could be used for developing and deploying IT infrastructure in rural settings. The model takes the form of a Weighted Decision Matrix formed around distinct selection criteria. For the purpose of this dissertation, four system options are analysed through the model and the system with the highest score (thus greatest suitability) is tested in a rural setting in India to test the model’s accuracy in pre-determining deployment challenges.
The results show the model is able to foresee challenges with certain aspects of the system design that could be addressed in pre-deployment stages. Although this research is largely foundational and aims to provide a new conceptual framework within which computing systems could be developed for rural areas, the model does prove to have significant practical use and with more local collaboration it can be further tailored to suit more specific needs of diverse rural communities.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | USQ Project |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (1 Jul 2013 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Kist, Alexander |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Computer Systems) |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Aug 2021 06:21 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Jun 2023 22:55 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | digital divide, systems engineering, rural computing |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/43147 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
