4
UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 14 JULY 2019
SUNDAY 14 JULY 2019 – UWI TODAY
5
CAMPUS NEWS
CAMPUS NEWS
YouTube, Android, Gmail, Chrome, Google Play Store,
and Google Maps
are Google’s biggest products with more
than one billion users. This makes the tech giant one of the
world’s largest companies. Now they are recruiting inTrinidad
and Tobago.
“I’m looking forward to many more resumes fromUWI
inTrinidadandTobago,” saidValentineFontama,AI (Artificial
Intelligence) andMachine Learning Practice Lead at Google’s
Professional Services. Fontama added, “20 years ago when I
was doingmy PhD research onAI, I couldn’t imagine I would
live to see the day when AI and machine learning are being
applied in the mainstream.”
On Thursday, June 6, representatives from the company
came toUWI StAugustinecampus toparticipate inaworkshop
on Google Cloud’s AI solutions, to speak about Google’s
products and employment opportunities.
An eager and interested audience filled LectureTheatre 1
in the Faculty of Engineering’s (FoE) Max Richards Building
to get a glimpse of life working for Google and to hear about
the work they are doing with machine learning.
“This is the largest lecture theatre in the faculty and it is
very comforting to see this lecture theatre verywell populated,
particularly when the semester is not in session,” Dr Sanjay
Bahadoorsingh, FoE’sDeputyDeanofEnterpriseDevelopment
andOutreach said. “It is clear that there is a keen interest in the
applicationofmachine learning. It is alsoanacknowledgement
of the potential opportunities for new jobs that exist in today’s
world.”
Landing a jobwith a tech giant likeGooglemay seem like
nothing more than a dream but for two UWI alumni, Arthur
Thompson and Stefan Hosein, this dream became a reality.
Thompson recalled that while in his undergraduate and
postgraduate studies at UWI he was always trying to build
projects of his own. He is now a developer programmes
engineer at Google. Thompson said, “I still consider myself
very much a UWI boy.”
Inhis timeatGoogle,ThompsonworkedonRecyclerView
forAndroiddevices and currentlyworks onFirebase, Google’s
mobile app development platform. Thompson demonstrated
some applications he created using Firebase. One had a local
touch. He made a machine learning model to identify the
presence of mangos in photographs.
Thompson said, “I decided I would do a doubles ML
model to identifydoublesbecause I lovedoubles.” Heexplained
that the model did not work because he uploaded too few
images of the doubles, 50 instead of the recommended 100.
By the time Thompson recognised this error he had already
eaten his doubles so decided to switch tomangos instead.The
application was successfully able to identify the presence of a
mango in an image.
Marc Kanneh is a final year strategic communications student from the Florida Institute of Technology interning at the
Marketing and Communications Office at The UWI St Augustine Campus. His interests include running and cooking.
Trinidadian, UWI graduate, and Google Developer Programmes
Engineer Arthur Thompson gives his engrossing presentation to
the attendees at the Google Clouds AI Solutions Workshop.
PHOTOS: ANEEL KARIM
Hosein, a machine learning cloud engineer, began by
clearingupwhat artificial intelligence is, and isn’t.He separated
fact fromscience fictionand explainedhowmachine learning,
a type of artificial intelligence, worked.
Using Gmail as an example, Hosein explained how
Google uses machine learning to filter spam emails. He said
the advantage of this is that the AI can learn from every piece
of spammail collected therebybeing able tobetter differentiate
between spam and not spam.
Hosein covered some of Google’s applications that use
machine learning,for example Google Photos, which saves
photos in the cloud and allows users to search their images.
“You can just type puppy in, and youwill get all of the pictures
of your puppy,” Hosein said.
For peoplewanting to try their hand atmachine learning,
HoseinrecommendedColaboratory,anonlinenotebookwhere
you can write and execute code.
Technology was king that day and Fontama, Rachael
Deacon-Smith, andBrandonMcCutchen joined theworkshop
via Google Meet, a video conferencing application.
Deacon-Smith, adata strategiccloudengineer, pointedout
that at Google, “there is somuch to learn, it’s always changing,
it’s changing everyweek.There is noway you’re going to know
everything.”
She spoke about how she came to work at Google and
her experience as a female of colour in an industry that can
sometimes be dominated by “white males”.
Deacon-Smith stressed taking advantageof opportunities
when they present themselves as the may lead to even greater
opportunities. She explained that when she applied to
Google, she did not have much experience with interviews
and applications and that she met her current supervisor at a
networking event.
McCutchen, a Google University programme specialist,
spoke about some of the jobs offered at the company and
described the application and interview process.
HedescribedwhatGoogle recruiters look forwhenhiring
people fresh out of school looking for jobs or internships, and
alsopeoplewhohavebeenorarecurrentlyemployedelsewhere.
He gave resume tips suchas having thefile inPDFand the type
of words to use in the resume and described what one could
expect in the lengthy interview process.
From July 5 to 8, 2019,
The UWI Regional Headquarters in Jamaica
hosted the first-ever meeting of universities across the Commonwealth
to collaborate on climate challenges and resilience in their countries.
The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), made up
of an estimated 500 institutions from over 50 countries, convened the
first meeting of its Commonwealth Climate Resilience Network (CCRN)
at UWI’s Regional HQ. The meeting provided a structured opportunity
to share good practices and explore potential for collaboration among
universities.
On July 5, Coordinator of The UWI’s Institute for Sustainable
Development (ISD) and Director of the Centre for Environmental
Management (CEM), Dr David Smith, along with disaster resilience
consultant Mr Jeremy Collymore, delivered the opening remarks. The
agenda over the four days included evaluation of CCRN’s progress to
date.
The meeting also included field visits to Discovery Bay Marine and
Field Laboratory as well as Blue Mountains. On July 8, Vice-Chancellor
of The UWI and President of the ACU, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles
delivered the feature address, which was followed by closing hearings
on the CCRN’s programme of future activities.
The UWI’s hosting of this meeting is a demonstration of its
commitment to climate action as part of its Triple A Strategy (Strategic
Plan 2017-2022), which includes the promotion of greater activism and
public advocacy, as well as increasing the impact of its research and
innovation. Earlier this year, the International Association of Universities
(IAU) selected The UWI as its global leader in the mobilisation of
research and advocacy for the achievement of a climate-smart world.The
IAU designated this charge in recognition of the University’s decades of
outstanding research on climate change and sustainable development.
This critical collaboration on climate resilience supports the UN’s
Sustainable Goal on climate action, was reviewed in New York on July
10 through 12 at the High-Level Political Forum2019 under the auspices
of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The UWI was
represented in a number of events during the Forum.
UWI HOSTS
COMMONWEALTH
UNIVERSITIES’
CLIMATE MEETING
Chief Executive Officer of Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd, Mr Roger Wiggins (left) and Pro Vice-
Chancellor and Campus Principal of The UWI St Augustine, Professor Brian Copeland sign a licence agreement
in June 2019 to commercialise two asphalt-based products developed on the campus – “UWI Plastic Cement”
and “UWI Primer”. The agreement furthers UWI’s strategic goal of creating an entrepreneurial university with a
diversified revenue base. Looking on areDr Richard Fairman, Head of theDepartment of Chemistry, andMr Stephen
Mc Clashie, Director of Lake Asphalt. The licence agreement follows a memorandum of understanding (MOU)
signed betweenThe UWI and Lake Asphalt in 2015 to collaborate on research, development and commercialisation
of asphalt and asphalt-based products.
GOOGLE
ON CAMPUS
B Y M A R C K A N N E H
SIGNING
Ceremony
