GIRLS IN ICT DAY 2017 CARIBBEAN HACKATHON - Jamaica.Barbados.Trinidad

4/27/2017

The Americas, Jamaica, Jamaica

In celebration of Girls in ICT Day 2017, we will host a regional Hackathon event,on April 27, 2017, in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. 

The Girls in ICT Day Caribbean activity, is designed as a REGIONAL 1-DAY HACKATHON totake place across multiple countries. A Hackathon is an event, in which, manypeople meet to engage in collaborative computer programming, to solve a problem(s).

Importantly, women are pioneering new innovations in the region. Thiswas most recently evidenced in the mobile app development competition at PitchIt Caribbean, where all top spots were swept by women mobile techentrepreneurs. In 2016, a Jamaican woman owned, digital media company Listen MICaribbean, won the global startup award, securing investment at the US ledGlobal Entrepreneurship Summit. 

25 Teams will be comprised of 4-5 girls from High Schools, Colleges and Universities in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, supported by a team of mentors. Thementors will act as team leaders, providing technical guidance and mentorship,for the specific challenges being solved by the teams. 

The girls will use ICT to create, innovate and tackle a challenge using tech tools on multiple activities:Mobile app building, Animation, Robotics, Web development, Digital geolocation activities and Digital design (video production & digital art works). At the end of the day, each team will “pitch” their solution to the challenge to a panel of judges from the local/regional tech industry, who will select a winning team. All teams will receive a Certificate of Participation. 

The ‘Hackathon” led by a group of women consultants through a joint partnership between Cotton Tree Consulting and Change Makers Development Ltd., with Nicole Pitter Patterson, International Development Advisor, will take place simultaneously, in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. 

The event is supported Regionally by Platinum Sponsor, Scotiabank, Gold Sponsor LOOP, and the Inter-American Development Bank, and in partnership with the University of the West Indies. In Jamaica the event is also supported by Platinum Sponsor, National Commercial Bank Jamaica Ltd., Gold Sponsor Jamaica National Foundation, Silver Sponsor, Phase 3 Productions and FLOW Telecomms.  In Barbados the Gold Sponsor is Sagicor Life, and in Trinidad and Tobago the Gold Sponsor is the CARIRI Microsoft Innovation Centre for Enterprise Development (CARIRI-CED).  

The event will be livestreamed across all three locales, including a showcase of dynamic, local and international speakers from business and academia including Microsoft, Brocade Communications Systems, Samasource, NASA, Narrative, Facebook, MaleneB, CARIRI, Andela, Aries Technologies, Dalberg, Wentworth Institute of Technology, University of the West Indies and the University of Technology.