FINAL year computer science undergraduate at the University of Technology (UTech) Gilroy Gordon, and Oneal Anguin, who graduated from the programme in 2010, have been awarded the inaugural Canadian Queen Elizabeth II (QES) Diamond Jubilee scholarship to pursue Masters degrees in Computing and Data Analytics (MCDA).

The scholarships are tenable at Saint Mary’s University (SMU) in Canada and are for the duration of the 15-month MCDA programme, beginning this September. The Jamaican scholars will participate in taught classes, applied research, local Canadian industry internships, and academic research. They will also be involved in public service activities as a part of planned cross-cultural and collaborative community engagements.

Both Gordon and Anguin expressed deep gratitude to UTech and SMU for the opportunity to further their academic and personal development aspirations.

The Canadian Queen Elizabeth II (QES) Diamond Jubilee scholarship is a partnership among (UTech), SMU, and GraceKennedy Jamaica Ltd. It provides internship opportunitites and academic scholarships for Canadian students at the undergraduate and graduate levels in other Commonwealth countries, while allowing for students in Commonwealth countries to attend a Canadian university to pursue master’s and doctoral studies which form part of their university’s and country’s development goals on pressing global issues.

Under the current grant award — CDN$272,745 over four years — these include such areas as development and marketing of new agro-food products and ICT-based business applications such as big data, mobile, cloud, distributed and social computing.

For its part, GraceKennedy, which has expressed a keen interest in leading the use of technology to enhance agro-business processes, will provide opportunities for internships for SMU students over the next four years.

Ambassador Burchell Whiteman, OJ, acting president of UTech thanked SMU and GraceKennedy for their engagement with UTech as part of the Commonwealth-wide scholarship programme with its “laudable aims for the development of young global leaders in the Commonwealth.”

He congratulated the students and expressed hope that the programme will strengthen innovation capacity in both Jamaica and Canada.

Maureen Woodhouse, acting director of International Activities at SMU said she looked forward to welcoming the Jamaican students and to using the project as a “springboard for further research and other forms of collaboration”. She expressed confidence that the internship with GraceKennedy for SMU students will enable them to enhance their intercultural, professional, research and technology transfer experiences.

Providing an overview of the scholarship selection process, Graduate Programme Director of the School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT) at UTech Dr Sean Thorpe reported that five candidates were shortlisted from a competitive pool of applicants. Applicants are required to show scholastic excellence, strong leadership, community engagement, cross-cultural awareness and demonstrate collaborative potential to lift the objectives of the QES programme to the next level.

Under the terms and conditions of the QES programme, on completion of their programme of study, scholars are obligated to return to Jamaica to serve in distinctive contributory leadership roles in national industry. The QES scholars are also required to return to serve as academic faculty at UTech’s School of Computing and Information Technology.

UTech previously signed a Memorandum of Understanding with both Saint Mary’s University and GraceKennedy Ltd. that will enable continued collaboration in research, faculty and student exchanges and ICT development.