Minister of Education Daryl Matthew has challenged The University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus (The UWI FIC) to support more data-driven decision-making in Antigua and Barbuda through its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
The challenge came during the annual UWI FIC Council meeting last week, where campus officials reported on progress in AI education and research.
“I would like to issue a challenge to Dr [Curtis] Charles and your team in the School of Computing and AI specifically in supporting us with more data-driven decision making,” Minister Matthew said.
“A lot of times in these islands, particularly in developing countries like Antigua and Barbuda, we tend to make decisions based on what we feel or what the public sentiment may be as opposed to actually collecting and doing the analysis and hard data,” Matthew added.
He said that AI presented an excellent opportunity to capture and analyse data in ways that were not previously available.
Campus Principal Professor Justin Robinson identified AI as one of the key areas of focus in the university’s strategic plan as “a child of the digital age”.
“Other campuses were really created during the age of analogue. But Five Islands is a baby of the digital age and therefore is expected to provide the leadership into the digital artificial intelligence economy and society,” the principal remarked.
Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles reinforced the importance of The UWI FIC taking a leadership role in digital transformation.
“By circumstances of its birth, it has to own its own time, and it has to behave like a child of the present in respect of moving to the future,” Sir Hilary said.
Director of Academic Affairs Dr Curtis Charles, meanwhile, reported that the faculty at The UWI FIC has developed several AI-focused programmes since the conference last year.
“Since the conference, faculty have gone on to develop undergraduate programmes in generative AI, developing a whole new pharmaceutical industry in this region by using artificial intelligence and machine learning to create new drugs and new patient care,” Dr Charles said.
He also highlighted faculty efforts to develop a BSc in Financial Technology (Fintech), undergraduate programming in learning analytics and educational technology, master’s degree programs in AI and cybersecurity, as well as an MBA in artificial intelligence for executive decision making.
Dr Ilenius Ildephonce, Head of the School of Science Computing and Artificial Intelligence, reported that his school contributed at least six research papers to the AI conference last year.
Ildephonce noted that students from the campus have had significant international engagement, including participation in the International Collegiate Programming Contest (IPC), which he described as “the Olympics of coding”.
The students qualified to represent both UWI and Antigua and Barbuda in regional finals held in Mexico last year.
The school is now working to expand its curriculum, particularly focusing on developing programmes that “attract and retain females” in technology fields, addressing a recognized gap in female participation in the technology revolution.
In response to the tragic death of Chantel Crump, Dr Ildephonce said that the faculty is already engaging students to develop an app that can trigger alerts in emergency situations.
