ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
The Big Picture: A system to improve the current cinema experience in Ghana

The cinema is a place of entertainment which allows viewers to experience scenarios through motion visuals. It is part of the entertainment industry which is utilized for amusement as well as de-stressing purposes. Cinemas in Ghana tend to have long queues, no options for customers to pay online, no local ratings as well as no options for clients to select their own seats. Cinema management systems are also being used in the western world to help make the cinema experience easier. This project dubbed “The Big Picture” is aimed at tackling the issues of long queues, no digital payment, no seat choosing and no local ratings in the cinema and improving the current cinema experience in Ghana. This project is not only intended to compete with the western world in cinema management systems but surpassing the systems with additional features.

Source: Ashesi
The city branding of Accra

No abstract. What follows is the Introduction: Accra became the administrative capital of Ghana in 1877 when the British colonial authority transferred the seat of government from Cape Coast. Accra was declared a city on 29 June 1961 by Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah. Accra has been one of the fastest growing cities in Africa since the pre-colonial era. Central to the development of Accra was the building of three European forts as trading posts in the 17th century. The first of these was Fort Crevecouer, built by the Dutch in 1650, which was later renamed Fort Ussher. In 1661, the Danes built the second, Christianbourg Castle. The British then followed in 1673 with Fort James. The choice of Accra as a location for castles was attributed to the presence of a rocky shoreline and natural harbor. By the 1850s, the British had taken over the interests of other European nations in Accra and defined the Gold Coast (now Ghana) as a geographical entity. In 1877 the British colonial administration was moved to Christianbourg Castle.

Source: Ashesi
The Correlates of Proximity to Central Business Districts and Living Conditions of Residents in Accra

This study examines the relationship between proximity to Central Business Districts (CBDs) and the living conditions of residents in Accra. It explores how distance from the citye tter neighborhood satisfaction, improved access to recreational amenities, and less exposure to environmental disruption, despite facing limitations in public services and employment diversity. The study concludes that proximity to the CBD does not linearly suggest improved living conditions. Instead, urban well-being in Accra is shaped by interplay of spatial, economic, and infrastructural factors. The findings underscore the need for decentralization, inclusive planning, and targeted infrastructure development to ensure equitable living standards across the city.

Source: Ashesi
The design & fabrication of an epileptic seizure detection watch

This paper describes the design and fabrication of an epileptic seizure detection watch for the timely detection of Generalized Tonic-Clonic (GTC) seizures; using skin conductance (SC) signals. The watch’s circuit was designed in EasyEDA and implemented on a Breadboard to showcase the dispatch of a seizure event alert to a phone via a Bluetooth module; in the event of an ongoing seizure and vice versa. Due to the unavailability of SC signal databases, Electroencephalography (EEG) signals, acquired from a physiological database known as PhysioNet were used in showcasing the signal processing of incoming SC signals, temporal and spectral feature extraction of these signals, and the classification of these signals using a trained machine learning algorithm. Twenty-five machine learning algorithms provided by the MATLAB Classification Learner App were trained using 80 EEG signals (both seizure and non-seizure) and only two algorithms, namely the Medium Tree and Linear Support Vector Machine (SVM) had the highest training prediction accuracy. However, in determining their prediction accuracy with two different data sets, the Medium Tree model had the highest cumulative prediction accuracy of 76.7%; as compared to the Linear SVM model which had a cumulative prediction accuracy of 73.3%. Based on these results, the Medium Tree model was recommended as a good seizure detection algorithm to prevent fatal and non-fatal injuries; and even Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP).

Source: Ashesi
The design and implementation of an electronic voting system on smartphones

Voting is key in maintaining the structure of society. Voting aids in making a choice in situations where there are multiple options pertaining to a decision being made. The most popular form of voting is the paper-ballot system where voters cast their votes by imprinting their fingerprints on special ballot papers. However, with the rise in technology which seeks to make life better, there have been various attempts to automate the voting process to reduce time spent on casting votes and counting results to determine the winner. This project seeks to build a voting application on smartphones using Ashesi University College as a case study. This application makes use of certain functionalities such as registering and verifying users. The application also makes use of security features that prevent users from voting more than once. This application will cater for general and special elections that go on during the school year where the manual process falls short.

Source: Ashesi
The design and fabrication of a pedal powered washing machine

Performing daily activities such as laundry are influenced by available resources which vary concerning demographics and geography. An estimated 14% of the global population live off-grid; a fraction of which live off-grid by choice and the majority do so due to the limited to no electricity supply. The provision of electricity to meet the rate of demand is essential to improve the standard of living; however, our energy and resource consumption habits increase carbon emissions. Large scale laundry habits have been identified as a contributor to climate change with studies concerned by the considerable carbon emissions released by automatic washing machines. However, the alternative handwashing is considered time consuming and labour intensive. These alternative perspectives establish the trade-off faced between labour-intensive and energy-intensive habits or technologies. In the era of accelerated climate change, it is essential for understanding how technological inefficiencies and energy-intensive technologies affect climate change and sustainability. Motivated by addressing the trade-off, this project aimed to design and simulate an alternative powered washing machine. The alternative concept originated from the sustainability initiative of Environmentally Optimized Laundry, which intends to satisfy the need for a less labour-intensive laundry practice specifically communities and households living off-grid and also encourage a less energy-intensive laundry practice for the majority of the population. This project t, therefore, offers an unconventional yet more effective alternative to handwashing by mimicking some characteristics of a modern electrically powered washing machine. The outcomes of this project demonstrate the possibility and the benefits of rotating a washing drum with the capacity of 6.5kg using purely mechanical rotational input.

Source: Ashesi
The design and fabrication of hand cranked washing machine

Doing laundry is one of the activities that many households do every day. Washing is done either by our hands or by powered machines. While electric washing machines requires electricity, the rural electrification rate is about 70 percent globally but less than 15 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana in particular currently has an electrification rate of 84%, and the average electricity consumption is increasing by 5% annually. Despite this, Ghana's electricity supply shortages have led to a recurring electricity crisis, load shedding, and power outages. Besides, 42% of Ghana's population lives in rural areas where it is impossible to use electric washing machines, mainly due to the lack of electricity or the machine itself due to the high cost of buying a new machine. This project aims to provide an alternative method of cleaning clothes by designing and fabricating a hand cranked washing machine free of CO2 emissions and allows proper clothes cleaning without fatigue.

Source: Ashesi
The design of a low-cost automatic ground vehicle for a warehouse stock management.

In this project the design of an automatic ground vehicle for use in warehouses is explained. Ecommerce has been growing rapidly across the globe because of the spread of the internet and due to the introduction and acceptance of secure digital payment systems. Volumes of products handled by online stores has been increasing exponentially because of increased demand. This has resulted in a need for online shops to automate some of their processes in order to make logistics more efficient. Automatic ground vehicles have been developed however they remain very expensive for small and medium businesses SMEs. In this project a low-cost automatic ground vehicle is developed to meet the needs of SMEs.

Source: Ashesi
The design of a low-cost electrocardiogram (ECG)

Healthcare is most often unaffordable to the average salary earner. Due to this, individuals do not see the required yearly medical examination as a priority. These check-ups would keep people informed of developments in their health as they age and help prevent some avoidable health conditions, especially cardiovascular diseases. With this knowledge, there is a need for an accessible and affordable way for people to regularly check their heart function and make informed decisions that can help evade critical circumstances. The medical sector in Africa still has a great deal to provide optimum health care to individuals. Many factors, such as long wait times, non-affordable medical insurance and misdiagnosis, keep people further away from visiting hospitals until an emergency arises. In this project, a low-cost heart monitoring system using an electrocardiogram (ECG) is designed. Individuals or community clinics can check the heartbeat/rhythm of patients with possible heart problems while saving time and cost spent at hospitals. The device was designed with an analog circuit for amplification and filtering the signal and post-processing on MATLAB. During testing, the signal was gotten and routed through the microphone jack of a PC to MATLAB for digital filtering. The system will be further developed to include sound indicators for the visually impaired.

Source: Ashesi
The design of a low-cost pulse sensor for remote healthcare

Ghana has a low doctor to patient ratio, and to help ease pressure from the health care sector, interest in remote healthcare is growing. This paper explores design options for low-cost pulse monitors for use by patients who require access to healthcare but do not have the means to visit regularly for consultation. The product measures their heart rate and sends the data to a remote database using a mobile app implemented with flutter as a gateway. Patients can view their health trends in the app, and health professionals can monitor their patients using the app. The circuit for this pulse sensor was designed in Eagle and implemented on a breadboard to show that the non-invasive technique of acquiring heart rate using infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) could be used favorably on persons with darker skin tones. The research project designed an algorithm for the task and compared this with an existing algorithm using PPG and ECG datasets from medical databases as well as PPG signals generated from the pulse sensor. Heart rates detected ranged from 30-300 beats/minute. 5 datasets from the device were statistically compared to PPG signals from a medical database to ascertain their reliability.

Source: Ashesi
The design of a lowcost remote health monitoring system

Accessing remote health care from public hospitals in Ghana has become more difficult and expensive recently due to the increasing number of patients that surpass the low number of doctors in the country. Many people have lost their lives waiting in long vital checking lines just to take their vitals in some hospitals. However, with the help of the Internet of Things (IoT), this report provides a design of a low-cost remote health monitoring system for patients with chronic diseases who need frequent health monitoring. This system was designed and fabricated using a Wi-Fi module on a microcontroller, a temperature sensor, and a web application. It provides a more convenient and cost-effective remote transmission of health vitals to public hospital administrators. During testing, a patient logged on to the web application and took the vitals using the system’s temperature sensor. The new temperature readings were received by the hospital administrator successfully at very low costs with total convenience which made the system fully functional as intended. The system will be further developed by adding more medical sensors to make it able to capture other more vitals. As better technologies will be integrated into the proceeding versions of this system, in the long run, it will improve on the quality of remote health care provided in the country

Source: Ashesi
The Disparities Between Accounting Education Outcomes and Workplace Demands Among Recent Accounting Graduates in Ghana

The transition from academic training to professional practice often reveals a disconnect between the expectations of recent graduates and the realities they face in the workplace. In Ghana's accounting industry, this expectation-performance gap is evident as recent graduates frequently encounter challenges in meeting employer demands due to limited practical experience, insufficient technological training, and underdeveloped soft skills (Gyekye & Amo, 2024; Anakwa, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has further compounded these challenges by reshaping workplace expectations and emphasising the need for adaptability, digital proficiency, and real-world problem-solving abilities. This study explored the extent and nature of these gaps in Ghanaa alytics, which were not adequately taught during their academic training. Graduates from private universities were generally more confident in their soft skills and career readiness due to structured career development and internship opportunities, unlike their public university counterparts. While the pandemic introduced stress and learning challenges, it also cultivated resilience and adaptability, traits highly valued in today

Source: Ashesi
The Drone tour guide

This paper examines the implementation of a navigation and tour planner module using a drone as a tour guide. The project is a buildup on a subsequent project during a robotics class project at Ashesi University College. This was to aid the admissions team reduce pressure on Student Ambassadors and to also have tour guides available at all times. This paper describes the implementation of the navigation and tour planning modules. Planning a tour is formulated by the Wavefront Algorithm. Also described in this paper, is how Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm is applied in conjunction with permutations to develop a tour planning module. Proper testing and evaluation were done to check the validity of the system.

Source: Ashesi
The effect of soiling on the efficiency of solar panels In West Africa

Solar energy has experienced accelerated interest worldwide, including in Africa, due to pressure from environmental organizations and international institutions to decarbonize the energy supply system. To maximize the power output from solar panels and increase their efficiency, there is a need to understand how photovoltaic systems are affected by external factors such as dust particles in different geographical locations. Soiling is a problem that can severely affect the viability of PV systems resulting in substantial economic losses. This research project investigates the effect of the accumulation of dust particles on the efficiency of PV modules at one location in the Eastern region of Ghana. This is accomplished by setting up an experiment with a power tracking device that can measure panel performance and elicit its relationship with key environmental conditions. The data obtained from the setup is then analyzed and compared against similar experiments done in other parts of the world, especially the one done by Coello and Boyle in the US. If the data obtained from our research does not obey the models developed by Coello and Boyle, it is then used to model the relationship between dust accumulation on the panel and the drop in efficiency of solar panels.

Source: Ashesi
The Equine vision model: Sensing & data acquisition

Over the decades, crime rate has exponentially increased in major countries due to factors such as unemployment, economic hardship, greed and gang retaliation. Every year, 1 in 5 people are affected by crime, which is equivalent to 10 million people. Also, 1 in 10 children has been victims of crime in the last year which caused severe depression and Post-traumatic stress disorder in our youth today. Furthermore, the metrics used in measuring crime rate tend to be inaccurate due to the number of underreporting cases. This, therefore, places risk on countries who believe their security infrastructure to be mostly efficient and effective. In Africa today, the current rise in private security firms and security innovations have become commonly known and preferred by residents after a major backlash against the police services. However, the cost of most security services and systems put low-earned income residents at a disadvantage which increases their risk of experiencing burglary attacks. Though some systems may be affordable, the connecting link that helps these firms capture user experience is not formed or is ignored which results in poor feedback channels. In this applied project, I designed and implemented a cost-effective security model that broadens the ecosystem of security for residents living in an African country, as well as evaluate some underlying assumptions relating to security in Africa.

Source: Ashesi
The formation and evaluation of teams in institutions of education

The introduction of technology in any aspect of an institution’s operation improves efficiency and limits the misuse of resources as technology has proven to be one of the most efficient ways to execute tasks. The use of technology in institutions of education for team formation has greatly impact team formation techniques for learning. Team formation can be a challenging task for both students and lecturers. It becomes even more tedious when there is a need to keep track of history of who have previously worked together in a team or when a variety of criteria must be considered in the team formation process. To achieve the formation of teams based on the different criteria, research and discussions had to be conducted around the topic for a dipper understanding of the concepts. The different criteria were chosen based on the manner in which groups are formed in various institutions of education and the ones that yield better results were outlined to be employed in the project. Furthermore, the ability to evaluate or assign grades to teams and team members can be time consuming and inefficient if done on paper or in cases of multiple evaluators. Therefore, the essence of this project is to develop a smart team maker application. This application puts into account all these factors to change the concept and experience of team formation and evaluation in institutions of education.

Source: Ashesi
The global and the local: Programs that predict critical thinking and cultural appreciation development in students

Increasingly, colleges and u niversities across the U nited States are encouraging students to study abroad , citing enhanced cultural appreciation and critical thinking skills as intended outcomes. However, on every campus , there are students who cannot participate in learning -abroad opportunities because of visa, financial, familial, or other personal reasons. At the same time, some students are more drawn to opportunities for engagement in their own communities than outside the United States. This article discusses a study that focused on student outcomes for alumni of domestic and international programs designed to be cross -cultural and experiential in nature. The findings suggest that U .S.-based service - learning opportunities that are inten tionally experiential and contain cross -cultural elements may be just as effective in developing students ’ cultural appreciation and critical thinking skills as international experiences . Results also indicate that programmatic elements may be as strong of a predictor of student outcomes as location.

Source: Ashesi
The impact of digital forensics on cybercrime in Ghana

Ghana lost a whopping $229.9million to recorded cybercrime cases between 2016 and August 2018 [2]. The victims being individuals, groups and corporate bodies especially banks. The increase in cybercrime is unfortunately not being addressed by the Ghana Police service nor the Criminal Investigative department due to a lack of resources and expertise to investigate these white-collar crimes. A report from Daniel Enin on the study of cybercrime offenders in Ghana indicates that the lack of confidence in the police and their inability to investigate these crimes has boosted the confidence of cybercriminals to commit these crimes [31]. This research paper seeks to find the answer to the question, ‘what opportunity does digital forensics provide in combating cybercrime in Ghana”. Digital forensics refers to the uncovering and examination of evidence located on all things electronic with digital storage, including computers, cell phones, and networks[11]. A pretest-posttest experiment was used in testing the “hypothesis that the learning of digital forensics which includes crime investigation and incidence reporting can help combat cybercrime in Ghana”. This research paper should provide insight into cybercrime, some related works in this domain, application development and some recommendations that will enable future researchers in this field to conduct their research in this domain.

Source: Ashesi
The impact of ESG performance on the financial performance of banks in Ghana: Moderated by social and cultural ties

This study investigates the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on financial performance in Ghanaian financial institutions, assessing whether board characteristics, specifically social and cultural ties, moderate this relationship. Employing a quantitative correlational design, it analyzes secondary data from 17 firms (10 listed, 7 unlisted) from 2018 to 2023. ESG performance is measured using the Global Reporting Initiative framework, with financial performance evaluated through Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). Statistical analyses, conducted via STATA, include correlation and multiple regression with random effects models. Findings reveal ESG performance enhances financial outcomes, with listed firms showing improved ROE due to investor appeal and unlisted firms exhibiting higher ROA through operational efficiencies. Social and cultural ties, such as board members’ education, profession, and nationality, do not significantly moderate this relationship, possibly due to unmeasured factors like ethnic or political affiliations. However, robust governance significantly elevates ROA and ROE, highlighting its critical role. The study recommends that firms adopt ESG strategies tailored to their listing status and strengthen governance frameworks. Policymakers should promote ESG adoption and enforce governance regulations to foster sustainable finance. Future research is advised to explore deeper social dimensions, such as ethnic ties, and extend analyses to other sectors to enhance understanding of ESG dynamics in emerging markets like Ghana.

Source: Ashesi