UTech, Jamaica Computing students prepare to present research papers in Paris this Summer

A group of third year students from the School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT), Jamaica are now preparing to present their research papers at the prestigious 10th International Conference on Computer and Information Science and Technology in Paris this Summer. The students are Giselle Smalling, Kristen Braham, Lamar Haye, Briana Palmer, Katoni Sheilds, Jamie-Lee Foreman, Tahjaye Edwards, Lilly Whyte, Shaquille Ford, Khavar Facey and Tian McFarlane.

 

The students' invitation to present their research stems from their enrolment in the core module Computer Research Methods (CRM), taught by Mr.  Ian McGowan, Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Technology, UTech, Jamaica. As part of their coursework, they were tasked with conducting comprehensive and critical literature reviews on carefully curated research topics. Impressed by the quality of their work, Mr. McGowan submitted four papers for review, all of which were accepted for the conference.

 

During a meeting with Dr. Kevin Brown, President, University of Technology, Jamaica which was also attended by the student researchers on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at the institution’s Papine Campus, Mr. McGowan explained that while he has always challenged the students to delve deep into their research and to produce strong papers, they exceeded his expectations this time around so much that he was compelled to have them share their work with an international audience. 

 

“From the CRM module, we got some papers written by the students in groups.  The papers were submitted for the conference and fortunately they accepted all four papers as being at a really good level, so they want to hear from these students there in Paris” Mr. McGowan shared. “I am really glad that they took the module seriously along with my guidance of writing at a high level and that they chose topics that are relevant, not just for the conference, but for the research community,” he added.

Dr. Kevin Brown congratulated the students on their achievement, noting the university’s commitment to academic excellence. “You are at the birthplace of greatness, and we do push you students to excel. Over the years we have been producing students who have really done some great work whether through international competitions or after they graduate, they excel in their career, so I am not surprised we are here,” he stated.

 

Encouraging the students to continue their research beyond the conference, Dr. Brown, added “We desperately need more students to stay back and do research., “I wonder how many of you will now pursue a master’s or PhD and continue to be a curious scientist…there is so much more you can do”, he stated.

 

The four papers accepted for presentation at the conference are:

1. Performance Benchmarking of File Systems: Addressing the Challenges of Growing Data and Metadata Complexity - Lilly Whyte,   

    Tahjaye Edwards, Jamie-Lee Foreman and Kristen Barham.

2. Detecting Injection Attacks in RESTful APIs: A Literature Review - Khavar Facey, Tian McFarlane, Shaquille Ford, Nicholas Henlon and  

    Katoni  Shields.

3. Evaluating the Impact of Metadata Structures on File System Performance and User Accessibility in Modern Data Environments - 

    Serena Morris, Lamar Haye and Giselle Smalling.

4. An Infrastructure Design Strategy to Optimize Data Transmission in Property Security IoT Devices - Briana Palmer.

 

Tahjay Edwards, who co-authored the paper on Addressing the Challenges of Growing Data and Metadata Complexity, was quick to share that his team wanted to uncover ways in which to manage Metadata files (data which gives information on other sets of data) as the data gets larger and more complex. No stranger to research and innovation, Edwards who was also a formidable contender in the 2023 Microsoft Day computer Hackathon Challenge, developing a the SafeDrive technology to protect lives and property shared, “I can easily attribute this research to a fortune five hundred company such as Google and Microsoft that process terabytes of data per second.  If they get even a miniscule improvement it’s going to cost them hundreds of millions, but for Jamaica, there aren’t many file systems like those in these fortune five companies and so we would have to develop our own.” The SCIT student added that, “For our Jamaican data providers and data processors my group’s research would be a useful tool in guiding them on how to save on the amount of data that they need to be transmitted.”

 

Briana Palmer, the sole representative for the paper on Infrastructure Design Strategy to Optimize Data Transmission in Property Security IoT Devices expressed her excitement about presenting to a global audience at the Paris conference. “It feels good to be a part of a team enhancing research at UTech, Jamaica.  I am especially looking forward to the networking opportunities and building on my public speaking skills,” she shared.

 

Mr. McGowan noted that further discussions are being held with Professor Sean Thorpe, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Computing to secure sponsorship for the students so that they can travel comfortably and make the most of this prestigious opportunity.