DECARTERET College (DC) walked away with top honours in the inaugural BlackBerry Developers Competition with an application or app, combining music with chemistry.

The competition — which climaxed at the University of the West Indies Friday — saw students from the primary to tertiary levels competing to create applications for BlackBerry smartphones and Playbook tablet computers.

The winning apps will be used by Digicel as a value-added service to BlackBerry customers in all its markets.

Judges of the competition were particularly impressed by the innovative application developed by the team of four sixth formers from the Mandeville-based institution.

Astley Fletcher, chemistry teacher at DC and the team’s coach, said a platform was developed on which several subjects can be mounted, with chemistry and music used as the pilot subjects.

“It allows the individual to both read and hear lessons from particular subjects. They can hear and play sounds, listen to musical pieces and learn to play them. For the chemistry section, the students developed the Periodic Table so that an element pops up with all the information about that element,” he explained to Sunday Observer.

DC also topped the secondary schools category, while Goshen All-Age in St Elizabeth and Northern Caribbean University (NCU), also in Manchester, were winners in the primary and tertiary categories respectively.

Prizes for the winning team and their coach include a trip to BlackBerry World in Orlando, USA in May next year; BlackBerry smartphones, and a 30-day internship with Digicel.

Campion College, located in St Andrew, and May Day High in Manchester were second and third among secondary schools, while in the tertiary group, the University of the West Indies placed second and the University of Technology, third.

Two teams from Villa Road Primary School in Manchester placed second and third among primary schools.

Meanwhile, Campion won the Central Information Technology Office (CITO) Challenge Trophy for creating the best overall application for the public sector. They designed an app to assist the police in quickly accessing the driver’s licence, registration and other particulars of motor vehicles they check on the roads.

CITO is the government’s information and communications technology arm.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the education ministry will provide the platform for Jamaican students to leverage their natural creativity in culture and in the development of technology.

He said the Government will pursue the creation of an application development community which is geared towards attracting investment.

“Once that community grows, who knows, BlackBerry, maybe some of your competitors may be looking at this growing community of developers and start investing in Jamaica. In doing that investment we create sustainable employment which will build families, which will then help to build communities and Jamaica,” the prime minister stated.

The Jamaica Observer was a primary sponsor of the competition, along with Digicel and Research In Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets.

Observer chief executive officer, Edward Khoury, in his remarks, congratulated the organisers for providing the opportunity for the youth to showcase their talent. He noted that the Observer was the first local newspaper to introduce an educational supplement to schools, the Study Centre.

Brian Benett-Easy, head of Digicel Business, encouraged the students to continue to take their studies seriously and to challenge themselves to find their own entrepreneurial spirit.

Digicel donated BlackBerry SmartPhones valuing over $1.2 million to the winning secondary and tertiary teams and their coaches.