The group which comprises of Philip Lapozo, Madalitso Mulera, Chisomo Chinkondenji, Yohane Mweta and Arnold Kandiyero worked on this design as a class project.

 In this module, they are required to identify a problem and find a solution to it.

 One of the group members Philip Lapozo explained that there is no proper documentation of private hostels around the college. Therefore, this is one of the drawbacks for students who are not familiar with the places around campus to find locations.

“Initially we thought of producing paper map which we planned to post on the college noticeboard, but then we thought that it would not reach a lot people. That is when we opted for a web based map through Google maps,” he said.

He added that they did research about the name of the hostel, rentals per month, gender of those accommodated and the number of bed spaces available. Areas visited were Chitawira, Mount Pleasant, Chichiri and Mandala.

“Despite meeting challenges like lack of finances, in adequate time and tough landlords, we still managed to collect data and finished the project,” Lapozo said.

This map is accessible on the Polytechnic website which can be logged in everywhere in the country through a smartphone or computer.

According to the Land Surveying lecturer Mr. Ritchie Muheya, the project is one of the core modules for the award of the Bsc in Land surveying. He further highlighted that students are required to employ the techniques, cartography, photogrammetry in the surveying and mapping module (SMP).

“To come up with this project, they managed most of the required modules in SMP,” he added.

Polytechnic Student Union (PSU) Publicity Secretary, Joseph Kaluzi observed that, this is a good initiative as it is going to ease problems of accessing places to rent as it has been a struggle especially for first year students.

“This map will also assist the PSU to monitor where the students are accommodated and the conditions they live in,” Kaluzi explained.