News Releases

UWI students win Code Jam SMS software development contest

For Release Upon Receipt - March 19, 2010

St. Augustine


Three final-year students from The University of the West Indies (UWI) developed an application for gathering and managing feedback on social equity issues and won a recent software development contest. Participating teams were asked to design creative, novel and useful SMS-based (Short Messaging Service) applications that addressed an assigned category from the Ministry of Public Administration’s National Information Communication Technology Plan goals.

Yudhistre Jonas, Craig Ramlal and Gyasi Ambrose won the $8,000 first prize in Code Jam, a team-based programming competition, now in its second year, which aims to promote software development in Trinidad and Tobago. Code Jam focuses on the creation of SMS-based applications using the Teleios Message Central mobile messaging service delivery platform, which was opened to facilitate the competition. This year, the four-hour contest took place on March 11th at Lecture Theatre Two, Faculty of Engineering, UWI St Augustine, and sponsored by software firm Teleios Systems, in collaboration with Microsoft, bmobile and the Ministry of Public Administration.

A team of first-year UWI students—Ramone Graham, Vincent Ramoutar, Darryl Grant and Azeem Mohammed—built an SMS Job Application service, and copped the $6000 second-place prize. The University of the Southern Caribbean rounded out the winners, receiving third place with a bus ticketing service designed by Alana Henry, Bryn Blake, Devon Wade, Dwayne McMillan.

Eight teams presented submissions, and event organiser, Teleios Systems, fielded a guest team. Submissions addressed a range of issues, including economic growth, improving education and improvements in public sector agencies. Submissions were reviewed for creativity by a panel of judges consisting of Nigel Sammy, Manager of Hosted Services at Teleios, Roger Peters, Services Sales Manager at Microsoft, and Nigel Forde, Senior Product Developer Advisor at bmobile.

              

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About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

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