Stimson Center, an American think tank, gets a project on border security in East Africa and Johan Bergenäs is assigned project leader.
2013:
June: The Kenyan government is asked to formulate a pilot project, and they assign the task to Kenya Wildlife Service, who suggests Ngulia.
October: Johan looks for a technology expert with security focus. At the same time, Fredrik looks for a plenary speaker to a national security conference and gets a tip about Johan’s project.
November: Johan and Fredrik publish a debate article in SvD, a major Swedish newspaper, the same morning as the security conference starts. They decide to start a collaboration.
2014:
January: Their first joint visit to Ngulia. They bring a production team to document the technical feasibility study in a short film
March: Fredrik starts a local initiative at Linköping University called Wildlife Security, connected to the strategic research environment Security Link.
June: The first drone tests take place in Kolmården.
September: KWS and Stimson with LiU as partner sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
September: Stimson center, with partners, is granted a one-year Commitment to Action by the Clinton Global Initiative
November: Vinnova grants a project proposal for Smart Savannahs based on a public private partnership model. About a dozen of companies are affiliated partners.
2015:
January: Two IT companies, iHub in Nairobi and HiQ in Linköping, start a collaboration to develop the software platform for the project.
March: a kick-off for the project Smart Savannahs takes place in Kolmården. The event is documented in a movie.
May: the first exhibition area for the project is inaugurated at Kolmården’s savannah lodge.
July: Modio represented by its CEO Take Anstoot installed completely new solar charging stations in nine blocks.
September: Linköping University, with partners, is granted a one-year Commitment to Action by the Clinton Global Initiative
September: The first version of the app is released, and about 50 smartphones are handed out to the rangers.
September: Namakula in Kolmården gets a foot mounted GPS from FollowIT, and a long series of tests starts.
2015 October: the first radar tests take place in Kolmården with equipment and personnel from Meteksan Savunma, Turkey.
2015 November: three remotely operated surveillance cameras are installed in the new stable for the savannah animals at Kolmården.
2015 December: a second workshop takes place at Kolmården, including many companies, personnel form the wildlife park, and where the Kenyan ambassador to Sweden participates.
2016:
May: the exhibition area at the savannah lodge gets a face lift.
June: Intensified training in Ngulia by iHub, HiQ and LiU.
June: a remotely operated pan tilt zoom (PTZ) camera is installed at the Kolmården savannah. Namakula gets a new foot-mounted GPS with improved housing. The PTZ camera is programmed to follow the GPS position, and the close up of Namakula is shown on a monitor in the lodge.
2017:
January: Kolmården Foundation increases its support to project Ngulia, and donates 25 new smartphones and co-funds the new version of the app.
March: version 2 of the app and Dashboard are presented to the rangers in Ngulia.
April: Norrköping’s fund for innovation and development grants a project where Kolmården and Linköping University will jointly develop new technology to communicate project Ngulia and educate the visitors.
June: the postcode foundation grants a project proposal to increase the training in Kenya and awareness of the project in Kolmården, with formal start date August 1.
2018:
May 1: During Kolmården’s opening VIP day, new big information signs for the project were placed around the park and in particular the savannah lodge. A GPS tracker from Followit was mounted on the rhino Namakula, an Axis pan tilt zoom camera was programmed to follow the GPS position, and then a close-up image of Namakula was shown at the exhibition monitor.
May 14th: Kolmården workshop for Swedish stakeholders that disseminated the outcome of the many new training and community initiatives made possible by the funding from the Postcode Foundation.
May 31st: Nairobi high-level workshop led by Gunilla Carlsson president of Kolmården foundation, for the management of KWS, Airtel and NOKIA.
July 2nd – 6th: Kifaru Fun Week
July 16th: MOU with KWS renewed for another three years to July 15th 2021
July 31st/August 1st: MKWC Deployment trip
Summer holidays: Kolmården increased the project visibility at the savannah area where educators presented the projects four hours per day.
28th Sep: Airtel Tanks launch
December: Agtech2030 was granted a ten year funding, where the lighthouse project Digital Platform has much in common with our project, enabling synergies for development of connected sensor systems.
2019:
May 1: During Kolmården’s opening VIP day, we released the BLE tag concept replacing the GPS tag at the rhino Namakula. The educators could then demonstrate the proximity warning and automatic detection and identification of rhinos for the visitors.
May: Demo week for MKWC and KWS of our sensor concepts and prototypes developed from Agtech2030 projects.
July: Airtel MOU renewed
July 20-22: solar powered 3G connected trail cameras sending images in real-time to our Dashboard were deployed in Mount Kenya
October: field station field tests begin in Kolmården
November/December: First field tests in Tsavo
2020:
Spring and summer: An intelligent trail camera was developed by Sara Olsson and Amanda Tyden. The goal is to develop machine learning on the edge, so the trail camera can classify humans from different animals.
Summer: virtual watchtower concept was deployed for Agtech applications, including LoRa sensors, robust field station and camera surveillance, all connected to our Dashboard.
December: Field visits to MKWC, Ngulia, IPZ, Tsavo East and Nairobi National Park. The purpose was to scale from Ngulia to four new sites, and to showcase our BLE tag and connected trail camera concepts.