Hampton Wins Scotiabank/Junior Achievement Jamaica Innovation Camp
Hampton High School’s Scoshi Virtual Assistant came out on top at the recently held Scotiabank/Jamaica Junior Achievement Innovation Camp.
Competing against teams from schools such as Newell High; Mount Alvernia High; Iona High; St Georges College and Norman Manley High, Hampton’s prototype that incorporated the use of biometrics to as a means to verify banking information, was selected.
Team member Kyla King explained that, “the Scoshi Virtual Assistant is a new age technological type of banking that uses retina, fingerprint and DNA recognition to make banking more secure….meaning no one else can access your banking profile and history”.
Other members of the winning team were Lacque Dixon, Aseemia Powell, Ashley Onfroy, and Diedra Grey.
This is the second year of the competition, which pulls on the creative skills of the students who must come up with ideas and create the most influential presentations within a short period. Organided into teams of five, each worked on their innovative proposals in response to the question “How do you envision the ultimate bank of the future?” Groups were to incorporate creative elements in their presentation utilising skits, videos and prototypes.
Second place winner, Newell High, cornered the elderly and disabled markets with their idea of the ScotiaJenny which is an enhancement of the already existing Scotia App, modified to include retina scans and facial recognition. Mount Alvernia, the 2007 winners, took the third place position with the development of their model Holographic Teller Machine (HTM).
The participants were all part of a broader programme, ‘Road to Success’, organised by the Junior Achievement in association with Scotiabank, and trained by Scotia Volunteers. Road to Success raises the awareness among youth about the importance of managing their finances, and encourages them to have clear professional goals, interests and values. The Innovation Camp is one element of the Road to Success project.