Telecommunications Regulatory Commission’s (NTRC) icode784 competition concluded on November 18, with the Union Island Secondary School (UISS) and Canouan Secondary School taking the ‘Secondary Idea’ and ‘Secondary Mobile Application’ categories respectively.
The ‘UISS GOP’, with team member Derissa James and Akeeliah Ashton beat out the other six finalists in the ‘Secondary Idea’ category teams with their idea ‘She-Alert’, and won themselves EC$2,500 and laptops compliments sponsors, King Computer Corporation.
“We put in the work and we get the results,” Natesha Alexander, mentor said.
“They (James and Ashton) have been consistent,” she continued, adding that the students remained enthusiastic throughout the competition.
Alexander said there was a special pride in the victory given that the Southern Grenadines are usually not able to participate in competitions because of their geographic location.
She lauded the NTRC for always putting in place provisions which allow them to participate.
Two teams from the St. Vincent Grammar School (SVGS), Team ‘Taze’ comprising Bradley Alexander, Josef Warren and Micah Glasgow and AM, Tech made up of Jonathan Wood, Matthew Wilson and Andre Quamina, were second and third respectively in this category.
Canouan Secondary School was especially outstanding, this being their debut year and in which they took top honours in the icode784 Secondary Mobile Application category.
The team, ‘Software Explorers’, comprising Shi-Ann King, Delicia King and Kiearage Antoine, got the judges nod with their presentation ‘Grenadines Books’ – an app to facilitate the online purchasing of schoolbooks for students from the Grenadines.
They won EC$5,000 and laptops courtesy the NTRC.
“We had to put aside some time after school or during class time…we sacrificed a lot and it is a great feeling,” said Zenika Peters, mentor of the Canouan Secondary School.
Once again, the SVGS took second and third positions with SVGS Tech Innovations (Nathan Warrick and Isiah Toney) and After School Boys (Matthew Wison and Andre Quamina) respectively.
Meanwhile, Team Lyric dominated the Open category taking the two top spots in the competition.
Isaac Cepeda, Cayla Morris, Luke Wilson and Runel Primus won their presentation Codex Text, a mobile application aimed at assisting students preparing for external examinations.
In the process, they walked away with the $5,000 grand prize for finishing first and $3,000 for finishing 2nd.
They were also awarded two tickets to the GMSA 4YFN Startup Event in Barcelona, Spain in 2023.
The team of Stanislaus Gomes and Luke Wilson, Astra 1 had to settle for the third spot and $2,000.
Twenty-four teams qualified for the finals following the preliminary round which was held between October 19 and 20, 2022.
Teams making it to the finals but not placing were awarded $300 each.
The Girls’ High School had the most entries and was awarded a special prize of $1,000.