Deadline to register for Chronixx-founded JamCoders Camp is today
Published:Monday | March 6, 2023 | 1:35 AMStephanie Lyew/Gleaner Writer
With the tremendous success of its inaugural staging, the JamCoders Camp will return to The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona in July. The programme which was founded by Jamar ‘Chronixx’ McNaughton, originally announced a January 25 deadline to register on its Website, but extended it to February 28 and again to today, March 6.
Organised in collaboration with the UWI Department of Computing, JamCoders is modelled on AddisCoder, a programme that Professor Jelani Nelson founded in Ethiopia. Last year, the camp saw 50 students from high schools across 12 parishes graduating following an intensive, four-week algorithm coding lectures and lab sessions.
Chronixx, who through his CHOR Foundation, made a donation to support the creation of the summer camp, revealed in his interview with The Gleaner that when he began exploring digital distribution for music, he sensed a lacking in the kind of talent that could provide solutions for creatives in our region who are looking to maximize on music distribution and diversify our means of transferring value”.
“Interacting with JamCoders youths has brought me to a place of confirmation and optimism. In exposing the need for a national support system for computer science in our region. It also uncovered the potential for a progressive hub for young tech innovators in the Caribbean,” Chronixx shared.
He said that the demand and need for innovators of algorithms and in computer science is shared across every industry, from education to national security and from agriculture to culture, on a global level. The Likes singer-songwriter has engaged schools outside of Jamaica for other projects and is no stranger to creating opportunities for students to exercise their talents. In 2020, he engaged Berklee Valencia students from the Global Entertainment and Music Business programme, to design marketing strategies for the Dela Splash album which was initially slated for release in the summer of that year.
Chronixx is on a mission to pull resources to the UWI Faculty of Computer Science, “and our efforts have been positively welcomed, given that this faculty, to my knowledge is more in need of support than any other at the university. It will help to complete the ecosystem of higher learning in Jamaica and the region consequently”.
He added, “It’s a blessing to see that we are supporting our youths who represent the future of the fastest-growing sector in our region. Everybody needs coders; without them we can’t have YouTube and Spotify, without them telecom is a lost cause, without coders national security is just a bluff, online fraud and identity fraud will forever have free reign, without coders, money and the value thereof, which HIM Haile Selassie I characterised as the life blood of a society is stagnated and the transfer of value is slowed below the rate required for an economy to thrive.”
A computer science background is not a requirement for the residential programme that will have its second staging from July 2 - 28. Jamaican students from third to fifth form are eligible to apply at jamcoders.org.jm and receive a certificate of participation at the time of completion.
According to Nelson, some of the previous participants of JamCoders have reportedly established information and communications technology clubs at their schools, while other alums have gone on to pursue, and win coding contests, with the mentorship of former teaching assistants.
JamCoders credits its success to local and international partnerships from overseas universities and members of the Caribbean diaspora.
Head of computing at UWIm Dr Gunjan Mansingh, said the programme gives emphasis to the deep understanding of algorithms so students can increase their problem-solving skills.
“Getting students exposed and excited, and helping them ask the right questions early on is very important. We seek to foster capable ICT citizens who can live, work, and play in the fourth Industrial Revolution. JamCoders has taken an innovative approach to knowledge sharing, by allowing high-schoolers to exchange knowledge with local and overseas university students and professors,” he offered.