Three Jamaicans who are competing for US$15,000 ($1.6 million) are semi-finalists in the Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) Tech-I competition.

They are among a field of 67 contestants.

Jermaine Henry, Dmitri Dawkins and Sheldon Duncombe hope to change Jamaica’s economic landscape by creating efficiencies and reducing operation costs in various sectors.

Dawkins is pitching a technology, research and development firm which practises lean start-up methodology to create solutions for businesses and government entities in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

The 27-year-old hopes to revise and revamp each company’s business strategies, using technological applications to create more efficient and competitive entities.

“I will constantly review the products and processes, while measuring how effective they really are,” Dawkins said.

Through his platform, he hopes to first create a smart- farm solution for small farmers, boosting competition through reduced operating costs and consumer prices.

“Jamaica has a lot of small farms and they are using very inefficient methods to grow crops,” he said.

The entrepreneur is already converting two small farms into ‘smart farms’ in the areas of St Elizabeth and rural St Andrew.

On completion, the young entrepreneur will be venturing into the areas of financial technology, medical sciences and technology.

Henry, a student at the University of Technology (UTech) hopes to create a digital agricultural clearing house dubbed Agrocentral. The business will use web technology to short message service (SMS) and SMS to web functions to connect small farmers and businesses across the globe.

The SMS web technology will be connected to an open database that will allow trade and commerce between buyers and suppliers, according to Henry.

“You can post your available produce to the website using text messages and also receive requests for your produce via text messages from the website,” he said. Henry is toying with the idea of first launching his product in Jamaica, and eventually taking his business into the wider market.

Duncombe, on the another to hand, is looking to introduce a Type 1 diabetes correction device in the healthcare sector.

“The correction device will replace the insulin pump and will help to avoid major surgery like pancreas transplantation,” Duncombe told Sunday Finance.

The glucose centre attached to the body will test the patient’s blood every 15 minutes to a transmitter that is connected to the centre. This information will be sent to a watch which will store the information for doctors.

The device can store up to one week’s worth of information and can also be transferred to a computer. The correction device also has a separate diet plan watch for the diabetics, he said.

“I will still be working on my project even if I don’t win the competition because I believe it is something that will be successful.”

All finalists will receive up to three months’ mentoring following the finals.

GIST Tech-I — an annual science and technology entrepreneurship competition in the areas of agriculture, energy, health, and ICT, this year accepted over 500 entries from 86 countries including Eurasia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle-East and Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The competition, which started in July, sees individual projects being reviewed by a panel of judges who then determines who goes forward. This follows a voting period by the public from September 1 to 30.

Finalists selected by the public, will attend the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. During this event, the up-and-coming scientists and entrepreneurs will receive intensive skills training, mentorship, and networking access to global leaders in their fields.

The funding from the event will aid the start-up of the winning project, after which the entrepreneur will seek additional funding.