Unique to the Rwandan audience, a group of Mount Kigali University (MKU) students has taken innovation to a whole new level. They have developed a system to automate key features and appliances in modern houses, aiming to add their mark to the history books of technology.
The idea to build the system, dubbed ‘Smart Homes,’ was conceptualised in December 2023, by six students who are pursuing a degree program in Business and Communication Technology.
They are Mugisha Emmanuel Junior and Eric Ruzima Nzigiye (civil and electronics engineers, respectively); Felix Prince Mubera and Jessica Kavira (back-end developers); and Urbain Ukwishaka and Pascal Herve Gumiriza (both front-end developers responsible for designing the user interface of the mobile application).
All the students are in their final year, except for Mugisha, who is in his third year.

This technology involves the use of a specially designed mobile application that interprets voice commands to open or close windows and doors, turn lights on or off, control the Air conditioners and many other home appliances.
Since the system heavily relies on Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the students decided to merge knowledge in electrical, civil and software engineering. Mugisha says that after completing his first bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, he enrolled in an IT program at MKU, where he later teamed up with his colleagues.
Once the full team was established, the actual development of the project began in January 2024.
During a recent visit to MKU Main Campus in Kicukiro district, Mugisha revealed that the plan is to extend the project further to include control of all possible home appliances, such as fridges and other electronics.
This, Mugisha said, helps to conserve energy when the items are not in use and this is unique compared to similar systems developed in other parts of the world.
“We had seen many developed countries living in a world where houses can be controlled from anywhere. We thought, why don’t we do this for our country, Rwanda,” he said.
Rwanda is a rapidly developing country and having automated houses is a good step in the right direction of contributing to an even smarter Rwanda.
“Our goal is conserving energy. You will be using only the appliances that are needed, and when they are not in use, they will be turned off to save energy,” Mugisha explained.
Since security is key in any technology development today, the system has been designed to uniquely identify voice commands and prevent unauthorized access to homes by intruders.
The students are open to partnering with other like-minded innovators and investors to incorporate more features and take the project to a whole new level.
“This is a big project, and we really need funds from anyone who would want to partner with us. We would be pleased and happy to have them on our team and be part of our initiative to make Rwanda smart,” Mugisha concluded.
Eric Nyasani, an IoT and Electronics lecturer at MKU, said he is very proud of the students and encouraged them to incorporate more features.
The lecturer emphasized the need to support such brilliant students in bringing their ideas to life.
“Our learners have brilliant ideas, but partly because they lack funding and some of these things require a lot of resources, they strain a lot to source for funds to make these things work. Therefore, if we can have some element of funding to support such innovative ideas, we can push the country to the next level,” Nyasani stated.
YOUR OPINION ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
RULES AND REGULATIONS
Do not post comments that are defamatory, divisive and blasphemous.If you wish to receive a quick response to your opinion/comments, please provide your email address in the space provided. Your comments will appear after moderation from IGIHE.com.
In case the above regulations are not observed, your comments might not appear or will be deleted. Thank you!