CIS Team Wins EduVision 2011 Competition

On December 1^st and 2^nd a delegation from the Department of Computer & Information Sciences of Northern Caribbean University (NCU) attended the bi-annual EduVision conference, held at the Jamaica Conference Center in Kingston. EduVision is Jamaica's premier conference highlighting the use of technology for advancing educational objectives.

 
This conference is organized by the Ministry of Education in partnership with the Institute of Education at the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Jamaica Teachers' Association, e-Learning Jamaica, ICT4D Jamaica and the Department of Information and Communication in the Office of the Prime Minister. The theme for this year was “Sustainable Innovations: New Opportunities for Education and Business Collaboration.” Emphasis was placed on the role of technology in human resource development and entrepreneurship.

This year’s conference saw the addition of an exciting component, aptly called, “Mission Impossible: Possible”, where students were given a challenge to solve in approximately 1 ½ days or 27 hours. The details of the challenge were presented at approximately 8:40am, where all students were simultaneously charged to develop a Library Management System (LMS) to address the needs of colleges in Jamaica. A team comprising Terrence Sterling, Rhodrey Shaw, Ricardo Thompson, Romario Hall, and supervised by Damion Mitchell, entered and competed against other teams from tertiary institutions across Jamaica. These teams included Knox Community College, and two others from the University of Technology.

 All competitors were placed in a “boiler room”, where they worked tirelessly and passionately on the given challenge. The team proved the concept of TEAM-Together Everyone Achieves Much, as each person used their skillsets to realize a working prototype of the given challenge. On the final day, team NCU presented to a panel of four judges, and was drilled extensively on the practicality of the system, and also the prospect for future growth. The team expertly handled the questions, and gave a good account of themselves, which once again demonstrated the virtues of the holistic educational approach adopted by NCU. At the end of the presentation, it was announced that team NCU outdid their competitors, and was crowned champions. This challenge certainly exposed the competitors’ technical skills as well as their team work and ability to work under pressure – all valuable competencies for successful techpreneurship. The team showed that what is impossible, with hard work and determination can be made possible. Once again, this is another great achievement that highlights the Department of Computer & Information Sciences’ standing in the Information Technology sphere in the region. Congratulations again to team NCU.

by Damion Mitchell
Assistant Professor

Department of Computer Information Sciences

by Damion Mitchell
Assistant Professor

Department of Computer Information Sciences