Above: Team ‘Bits Please’ pose with their prize flanked by Sponsor representatives: Barton Clark- Executive Director-CARDI; Learie Roberts- Marketing Manager- Massy Technologies InfoCom; Kevin Khelawan COO- Teleios Systems; Juma Bannister- Relate Studios. Photo by Relate Studios, courtesy Teleios.
The Teleios Code Jam (TCJ) programme celebrated 10 years of operations this year at their awards ceremony, which took place on Thursday 8th November. The event was held at the Microsoft Trinidad & Tobago Offices in Mucurapo where three (3) teams from the University of the West indies (UWI) were rewarded with cash prizes of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for their software solutions.
The Caribbean Research and Development Institute (CARDI) partnered with the TCJ to become its first ever diamond sponsor, and provided this year’s theme, “Innovating the Coconut industry” for which the participants created solutions. Platinum sponsors Massy Technologies InfoCom, FLOW and Relate Studios also participated in this year’s programme.
The University of the West Indies made a clean sweep of the top prize. Team ‘Bits Please’ comprising Stephen Seenath, Aaron Meighoo, Joseph James, Alexandra Samaroo, and Seenath Gooding, created a solution that provides an online registry for stakeholders in the regional coconut industry.
The second team – ‘CodeCodeNut’ (Caleb Beard, Avidesh Bissoon, Daniel Gladstone, Daniel Gordon & Fawwaz Hosein) created Coconut Drop, a marketplace to revolutionize the Coconut Industry by connecting coconut producers and buyers.
The third team taking home $10,00 dollars was ‘Compass’ made up of Darien Jardine, Jonathan Herbert, Reshawn Ramjattan and Nirvan Sharma, who created an app utilizing block-chain technology to provide immutable and transparent “farm-to-fork” trace-ability for everyone on the supply chain from farmer to consumer.
At the awards ceremony Irwin Williams, Head of the TCJ Build Team, stated that “finding students of technology who are willing to create solutions in the coconut industry proved to be a worthwhile ‘nut to crack’, as students reported a much deeper understanding of the issues the industry faces, and how well-poised they are to provide solutions, even as students”.
Barton Clarke, Executive Director of CARDI, remarked that he saw the engagement with the TCJ as the beginning of the “ICTVising” of CARDI, and future innovations in the agriculture sector of the Caribbean region. He declared his appreciation for initiatives like Teleios Code Jam and looks forward to facilitating partnerships between technology firms and other stakeholders in the Caribbean.
Chief Operating Officer of Teleios Systems, Kevin Khelawan celebrated the ten-year journey of Teleios Code Jam, and encouraged the participants to remember the lessons learned from engaging with CARDI this year. He emphasized that software is written for people and should positively impact their lives.
Winners of the three TCJ Challenge events were also awarded at the ceremony. These winners are Teams OJ, CodeCodeNut, and Compass.
