In Review: Huawei Telecom Seeds For The Future Program 2017 (Kenya, South Africa & Singapore)
Experience in Beijing and Shenzhen, the Silicon Valley of Electronics
[15 10 17]: Day I: Great Wall of China
Until you reach the Great Wall, you’re no hero
We spent our first day in Beijing visiting the most famous Great Wall of China. Beijing is one of the ancient and most strategic cities in the North. Many rulers have actively build this wall to defend their territory and it totals 573Km. The Ming Dynasty [1368–1644] were the last to be engaged in the wall construction.
The Wall showed us not only China’s culture of national pride, grand projects, and determined resistance, but also China’s extravagant architecture and creativity.
Chairman Mao Says: “Until you reach the Great Wall, you’re no hero.” Figuratively this has come to mean ‘to get over difficulties before reaching a goal’.
[16 10 17] — Day II: Training & Graduation — Chinese Language & Calligraphy
We started learning the basic Chinese through verbal conversation and reading at the Beijing Culture and Language University. We were also taught Chinese Calligraphy. This was very helpful as we were able to introduce ourselves, explain where we come from, quote prices and count numbers. We also did an exam about the same and successfully graduated.
In the second week, we travelled to Shenzhen to work with the Huawei team in their Global Headquarters, learning about Huawei’s international culture, strategy and values, and receiving technical training from some of the finest professionals in the industry.
[Shenzhen, China, 20 10 17] — Day VI: ICT & Culture (Splendid China Folk Village, Museum Art Shenzhen China)
The fusion of technology, culture and performances.
We visited the Splendid China — Folk Culture Villages where we experienced the fusion technology, culture and performances.
This is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive miniature park, reproducing nearly 100 famous tourist attractions in China and 25 full-scale ethnic villages. There, one can have a thorough lesson on the 5,000 years of Chinese history and appreciate beautiful landscapes from throughout the country in one day.
Performances
We also atended one of the performances. It highly condenses the essence of the Chinese traditional folk arts with a brand-new selection of folk legends, dancing, opera, and sport.
Japanese Aesthetics (Monono Aware & Wabi-Sabi)
High Ceiling and Low Coaches at the breakfast area
In Japan there is an idea called monono aware. It means the deep awareness of things. It celebrates the melancholy of the passing of life and sees the beauty of things in the fallen leaf than the one on the leaf. Things lead to their opposites just like the high ceilings and low coaches.
There is something going on here on Earth beyond just life, a job, family and career. There is another side of the coin. It is the same thing that causes some people to want to be poets instead of bankers. That same spirit can be put into products and those products can be manufactured and given to people and they can sense that spirit.
The Japanese tradition of Wabi-Sabi offers an inspiring new way to look at our home, and our life as a whole.
Engineering, Art & Beauty
Chinese Umbrella’s decorating some part of the ceiling at the Huawei University.
Most Chinese building and technology were fused with art and culture.
Although art and beauty may seem nonessential, they epitomize our search for pleasure and meaning in life.
Food
The Chinese eat everything with four legs, except tables, and everything that flies, except airplanes.
Chinese food includes a large variety of ingredients. We tried different food and they had different tastes. I tried to be as open minded as possible to eat anything that has a great taste.
Meat and Poultry
Chinese people basically eat all animals’ meat, such as pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, pigeon, as well as many others. Pork is the most commonly consumed meat, and it appears in almost every meal. It is so common that it can be used to mean both meat and pork.
Every part of the animal can be eaten, be it meat, skin, fat, blood, or entrails.
In Beijing, the Peking duck was the most famous dish. Peking duck is savored for its thin and crispy skin. It is a must-taste dish in Beijing!
I think I like the Beijing Perking Duck.
Frog meat is like Chicken, very sweet. — Anna our awesome Guide
“The Chinese eat everything with four legs, except tables, and everything that flies, except airplanes.” — Anon.
[23 10 17] — Day IX: Training — ICT & Huawei Technologies
Explore the Telecommunication Network (2G, 3G, and 4G)
We were taken though the Telecommunication Network Overview which included the Mobile network development and the fixed network development. We discussed the mobile evolution form the 1st generation to the 5th generation. We were also taught about the services in the mobile Network and fixed network.
Key Technologies of ICT
Cloud
We were also taken through the Key Technology of ICT. This include the concept of ROADs, key message of ROADS and Open ROADS to a better world. Were learnt about Cloud based Wireless Networks, Cloud Based Core Networks and Cloud Based Bearer Networks.
Connected Everything (IoT)
Were given an Introduction to IoT and the Cellular IoT Architecture. We were also taught the Huawei IoT Solution Architecture and use cases such as Smart Parking, Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, and Smart Home among others.
On the Road to 5G
We were given an introduction to 5G in the terms of why we need it, its requirements, and its key technologies and how we will get to it.
[25 10 17] — Day XI: Hands On — XinTianXia (Huawei Lab); Do it yourself!
Configuring our own 4G Base Station & Setting Traps for Colleagues
We actively applied what we learnt in class by configuring and testing 4G Base Station entirely on our own.
We later devised plans to disrupt each other’s 4G Network Configuration. Every team set traps for each other in their base stations. We logged into another teams 4G Base station and play with both the hardware and software of their station. We Changed the Radio Layout, Transport, Network and Physical Layers. This include doing things like:
1. Removing a cell sector from the 4G Basestation
2. Changing the Antenna Number
3. Blocking/ Deactivating a cell
4. Adding wrong band and Tr/Tx Modes
5. Setting the duplex mode and speed incorrectly
6. Adding wrong optical and electrical port attributes
On the Hardware part, we made some CPRI cables loose and added the BBU boards in the wrong slot.
With each of these steps, we made the stations go down and watched as they struggle to troubleshoot the possible problems. Once a team corrected their site, they wrote the problems encounter on a white board together with their solutions.
Shenzhen V. Konza City
All roads lead to Shenzhen for Hardware
When I got the news that I will be going to Shenzhen, as a maker and a hacker, I was extremely excited as I was going to be in the headquarters of the maker movement for a whole week. I have been giving talks about open source community and this was the time to have a first hand experience about the same.
Shenzhen is the ‘Silicon Valley of hardware & electronics. I wanted to see what Kenya and the maker mover movement in sub Saharan Africa can learn from China.
Shenzhen:
Shenzhen has a complete ecosystem that contains everything needed for all stages of electronics production all in one place. This has turned the city into a staging ground for large high-tech companies, rising startups, and independent innovators from all over the world looking to get their stuff made as efficiently as possible.
Hardly 35 years ago was the place nothing but a string villages and rice paddies, with 30,000 peasants peaking across the border at an economically rollicking Hong Kong. Now, it is a 12 million person megalopolis that can rival its more established neighbor in almost every way. No city in history has ever grown so large so quickly.
Maker Movement/ Ecosystem — ‘Created’ in China: Shenzhen is making hardware like Silicon Valley makes apps
Shenzhen is the heart of China’s electronics industry. In this particular city, everything revolves around electronics, tech and building Hardware.
It is said that 90 percent of the world’s electronics are made in Shenzhen. With tens of thousands of factories, 5,000 product integrators, and thousands of design houses, this city has become a one-stop-shop for anything consisting of circuits, chips, LEDs, and touchscreens. Shenzhen is also home to 20% of China’s P.h.Ds, has the country’s highest rate of business owners, and has produced more billionaires than anywhere else in China.
In 2014, The Economist declared Shenzhan to be the best place in the world for a hardware innovator to be.
Thanks to the networking potential of the internet, the physical products being made in Shenzhen are now starting to go viral on the web in the same way that Silicon Valley apps and popular YouTube videos do.
Open Source Community
Shenzhen is the home of Open Source Community where people share and learn from each other. In this City, there are trends that advocate for the freedom of studying, altering and sharing code and electronics. This specific culture is dedicated to four essential freedoms;
- Freedom to execute the program as one wishes, for any purpose;
- Freedom to study the program, and alter it as desired;
- Freedom to distribute copies in a collaborative manner;
- Freedom to share modified copies, giving everyone a chance to enjoy the benefits of the modifications you’ve made;
The innovation speed in Shenzhen is so fast that, before an idea can be copied, it was already surpassed by the developer. Innovation cycles in Shenzhen have reached such a fast pace that traditional protection of intellectual property becomes irrelevant. Most of the profit with an innovation is made before it can be copied. In some cases, an innovation developed is copied by another entrepreneur, improved, and then copied back by the original developer.
Growth & GDP
Between 1980 and 2016 Shenzhen’s GDP in real terms grew at an average annual rate of 22% and today stands at 2trn yuan. The city’s Nanshan district, home to about 125 listed firms with a combined market value of nearly $400bn, has a higher income per person than Hong Kong.
Shenzhen spends over 4% of its GDP on research and development (R&D), double the mainland average; in Nanshan the share is over 6%. Most of the money comes from private firms. Companies in Shenzhen file more international patents (which are mostly high quality, unlike many of the domestic Chinese ones) than those in France or Britain
Konza City:
Konza Techno City is the most expensive Government undertaking in the implementation of Kenya Vision 2030, and is planned to generate about 17,000 direct high-value jobs, and a further 68,000 indirect jobs once completed.
Konza will be a sustainable, world-class technology hub and a major economic driver for the nation, with a vibrant mix of businesses, workers, residents, and urban amenities.
Kenyans should be more aggressive about the city and take advantage of the project by positioning themselves to exploit any opportunities that will be presented by the techno city.
The city should have the manufacturing prowess, engineering talent and lightning-fast logistics that make it fertile ground for hardware startups to go from prototype to product.
In Shenzhen, legendary electronics markets and online retailers offer a feast of components on demand, allowing for the rapid tinkering and iterating that fuels innovation. We should have the same in Konza City.
The Government should heavily invest in infrastructure that enabled rapid growth.
The Great Firewall of China
Once we landed in China, the most popular social websites had one common thing; you cannot access them in China. When I got into my room, rule number 3 of surfing the internet confirmed the same.
SURF THE INTERNET INSTRUCTIONS
3. According to the regulations of the government, the overleaf websites (and apps) are restricted/blocked for access in Mainland China.
The Great Firewall blocks foreign websites, apps, social media, VPNs, emails, instant messages and other online resources deemed inappropriate or offensive by authorities.
A combination of technologies are used in combination by government-run internet service providers and domestic internet companies to censor content, including keyword filtering, IP address blacklists, DNS poisoning, packet inspection, and manual enforcement.
Effective Team Work
During classes, we were divided into teams and requested to work in them. We competed as a team and this proved efficient. More challenging problems could be tackled faster by drawing on the team’s collective skills, experience and knowledge.
Working effectively as part of a team is incredibly important for output quality, morale, and retention.
[26 10 17] — Day XII: Huawei Enterprise ICT Solutions Exhibition Hall
We were shown the latest and newest achievements and innovations from Huawei Enterprise Group.
The Hall explores the technologies, trends and ideas Huawei are building.
Leadership
I was selected to be leader of the Kenyan team and this greatly improved my leadership skills. I am used to leading a large group of people but this time I had a chance to lead a small team of 8 with diverse opinions. I frequently harmonized different opinions and suggestions to make a final decision for the team. It improved my skills on the ability to organize, to bring forth a shared vision, to solve problem and to make important decision for the team.
We also received a book from Mr. Ren Zhengfei, the Huawei’s CEO which talks about Huawei’s Leadership, Culture and Connectivity.
Conclusion
I am extremely grateful for this great opportunity as it enabled me to learn not only the Key ICT Technologies but also Chinese Culture. These concepts are very useful for my future and add more value to my education and my community. I hope to apply the same to improve lives of people in my community, country and beyond.
