UTech, Jamaica Students Triumph with Visionary Solution at Intellibus AI Hackathon

The winning UTech, Jamaica team proudly displays their first-place prize, a cheque valued at $5,000 USD at the Intellibus AI Hackathon on Sunday, March 16, 2025, at the AC Hotel in Kingston. Pictured (from left) are the beaming UTech, Jamaica team members: Shevanise Givans, Shanoya Gordon, Omarion Dunkley, and Tevin Benjamin, with Dr. David White, Head, School of Computing and Information Technology, UTech, Jamaica, offering his support at the event.

In a thrilling victory, students from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Jamaica) School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT) took home the top prize at the highly competitive Intellibus AI Hackathon 2025, securing a $5,000 USD first-place reward. The event, which brought together over 600 participants from local and international universities, was held at the AC Hotel in Kingston March 15-16, 2025.

Intellibus is an international platform engineering and IT consulting firm based in the United States of America that is dedicated to creating intelligent business platforms. The competition, which offered over $15,000 USD in prizes, challenged participants to create innovative real-time solutions using cutting-edge technology to solve real world problems within just 24 hours.

The UTech, Ja. SCIT team impressed the judges with an innovative application aimed at transforming the lives of visually impaired users by helping them to navigate their environment. The app was designed to identify objects within a one-meter radius of the user, inform users of their locations, and guide them on how to navigate through the environment.

Tevin Benjamin, SCIT student and member of the winning team, shared, “We didn’t know we were going to win. We came here to get the experience, and it was amazing.”

UTech, Jamaica was invited to participate in the competition following discussions with Professor Sean Thorpe, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Computing, along with Dr. David White, Head, SCIT, and Mr. Ed Watal, Founder and Principal of Intellibus. Mr. Christopher Reckord, Chairman of the National AI Task Force, played a key role in facilitating this connection between Intellibus and UTech, Jamaica. The Faculty members from UTech, Jamaica expressed their heartfelt congratulations to the team, joining in the celebration of the outstanding achievement that highlights the innovation and talent emerging from the university. Professor Thorpe stated, "This victory is a testament to the innovation and dedication of our students. It underscores UTech, Jamaica's commitment to fostering technological excellence and preparing our students for real-world challenges."

Career-Boosting Opportunities

The Champion Team also received fast-track job interviews and access to the Intellibus Academy, while the Runner-up Team and Third Place Team earned fast-track job interviews, along with Academy access. Additionally, the Best Faculty Coach and Best Faculty Mentor were each awarded $2,000 USD.

The judging criteria for the Intellibus AI Hackathon evaluated Technical Implementation, Scalability & Performance, Security & Authentication, Innovation & Use Case Fit, Deployment & Cloud Readiness, and User Experience, evaluating how well the solution functions, scales, protects data, addresses the problem, and offers an intuitive experience.

In addition to the significant prizes, the Intellibus AI Hackathon 2025 provided career-advancing opportunities for participants. The top 20 participants were selected for fast-track job opportunities at Intellibus bypassing initial screening rounds and moving directly to advanced stages of our hiring process.

The next 20 participants were awarded a free 3-month scholarships to the Intellibus Academy, where they will be provided with advanced training in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science, guided by industry experts and researchers from Intellibus. The next 60 participants received Fast-Track Admissions to the Intellibus Academy.

Daryn Brown, who was awarded a fast-track job opportunity at Intellibus, reflecting on his Hackathon experience, shared, “I feel great, and I feel like I learnt a lot during this Hackathon because I had to take on a lot of technical challenges that were new to me within a short period of time. It pushed me past my limits, especially since it’s a technology I’ve never used before in a school or work environment, but I was still able to deploy it by the end, which made me feel more confident in my skills.” Enoch Omoregie, selected for the upcoming Intellibus AI Academy cohorts, added, “It was cool to try and build something in 24 hours. I got to experiment with new things I learnt before the hackathon and actually see them work out in a project.”

Jamar Plummer, also joining the Intellibus AI Academy, shared that his brother encouraged him to study at UTech, Jamaica, noting that, “The programme is a lot more practical, and you get a lot more experience. Apply to UTech!” Reflecting on his hackathon experience, Jamar said, “I really learnt a lot more about software development, more about how to build apps and the whole process of making something that’s useful. I found my shortfalls and I’m trying to figure out ways that I can build from that experience,” the student beamed.