Santa Clara, CA: April 29, 2016 – The Palisadoes Foundation today announced the 8 student awardees to participate in the first annual Calico Challenge.
The Calico Challenge is a summer work study program for computer science students in Jamaica. Each selected student works on enhancing open source software used internationally under the guidance of a Jamaican mentor. Students receive a US$500 stipend for their participation which is incrementally paid upon the achievement of specified milestones. Calico is also a feeder program for the similar Google Summer of Code.
Calico was conceived by The Palisadoes Foundation in conjunction with the Jamaica Diaspora Technology Task Force. Over the past year there has been close technical collaboration between the Foundation; the Department of Computing, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona; the UWI (Mona) Computing Society; and the University of Technology IEEE Students Branch. Work included the identification of open source projects, student sub-projects and mentors.
The Calico Challenge students will be working on adding software features to MaterialUI, that makes it easier to create mobile and web apps; HarvestAPI, aimed at helping farmers optimize their yields; and Infoset, that provides status reports on the operations of computer equipment connected to the Internet.
The Calico Challenge awardees are:
- Kimberly Simmonds
- Luke Chen Shui
- Brandon Hinds
- Javon Davis
- JeVaughn Ferguson
- Christopher Lee Murray
- Alexander Nicholson
- Jerene Ricketts
“The proud achievement of this milestone is important to Jamaica’s growing role in the international IT community”, said Peter Harrison, President of the Palisadoes Foundation, “The collaboration of so many diverse stakeholders, including academia, students, and businesses in both Jamaica and overseas is truly remarkable in getting us this far. I look forward to the future.”
“This is yet another milestone in a string of successes by our hardworking and capable students. These achievements of our students truly make us extremely proud. Keep up the good work! Your Department is solidly behind you.” Dr. Ezra K. Mugisa, Head of Department, UWI Department of Computing, UWI (Mona).
More information can be found on the Palisadoes Foundation website: http://www.palisadoes.org
About the UWI Department of Computing
The Department of Computing is home to 589 undergraduate students and 76 postgraduate students. As of 2015 the department had produced over 1145 Bachelor’s degree holders and over 186 graduates with MSc, MPhil and PhD degrees.
About the Palisadoes Foundation
The Palisadoes Foundation aims to provide new avenues to promote Jamaica’s technology businesses and talent using a series of programs aimed at creating increased awareness of the island’s abilities in the global marketplace.
About the Jamaica Diaspora Technology Task Force
The Jamaica Diaspora Technology Task Force is a group of expatriate Jamaicans interested in assisting in the continued development of new and existing technologies in Jamaica. It is a member of the Jamaica Diaspora Movement.