A few years ago, any young person involved in technology and computers was considered a plaid shirt-wearing, socks-to-the-knees, crazy-haired geek. That's not the case these days though. At least not for three young technology buffs with nuff swag to get them the thumbs up from judges for a bess piece of technology they created for entry into an international competition. These three young university students, 23-year-old Raees Rahim, and friends, Jasmine Farley, and Donald Lee Modeste Jr, both 21 years old, formed team CODEC and created EduVaTec, to enter Microsoft Corporation's Imagine Cup, the annual premier international technology challenge for students. The local leg of the competition ran from October 2010 to May 2011 on university campuses across Trinidad and Tobago.
Being very in tune with the needs of their fellow students, they created EduVaTec, which is an SMS web and desktop application, to help increase positive student performance by closing the communication gap between students, parents and teachers. Now team CODEC is standing on the edge of glory (Lady Gaga style) after winning the local competition, waiting for their next move when they will travel to New York in July 2011 to compete in the Worldwide Finals against student technology developers and programmers from over 100 countries! And what is very interesting, is that team CODEC is the only team from Trinidad and Tobago, or from the Caribbean for that matter, to enter the finals in New York! Who say 'big up' to we region? And what's also exciting is that students and any other persons who like the team and their work, can vote online to help them win a People's Choice Award in the competition - just log onto www.imaginecup.com and get the details for the contest and how to vote.
"We are all extremely excited to have finally achieved what we've been dreaming of for two years," exclaimed Raees on behalf of the team. "We've failed many times coming up this path, but having learned from our experiences leaves us with the most important lesson that could be achieved - the feeling that making mistakes helps us become winners. As long as we were working on it, we continued to grow holistically, especially in terms of time management. We're eagerly looking forward to what the future has in store for us as a result." And of course, team CODEC is working like crazy for the future to include them being the Imagine Cup 2011 Software Design Winners. "We also look forward to the experience of a lifetime. All past competitors describe the Imagine Cup experience as a life changing one and we look forward to what it brings for us," Raees said.
During the six-day competition (July 8th to 13th) team CODEC will get the opportunity to win cash and prizes, and if they go all the way to glory, they will bring home the Cup, and have their technology help change the world. Use the link to the Imagine Cup website to have a look at what the competition is all about. You never know – you might be a participant next year. And oh, don't forget to vote for team CODEC!
Shahad Ali
Senior Press Pass
Correspondent
University of the West Indies