The group photo of Officials and participants.

The International Training Workshop on Big Data for Developing Countries took place from 23-27 September 2019 at The University of West Indies (UWI), Saint Augustine Campus, Trinidad & Tobago. The workshop was organised by CARISCIENCE in collaboration with the International Knowledge Center for Engineering Science and Technology under the auspices of UNESCO (IKCEST) and the International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre for South-South Cooperation under the auspices of UNESCO (ISTIC).

The opening speech was delivered by Prof. Emeritus Harold Ramkissoon, President Emeritus of CARISCIENCE while Dr. Liu Chang, Director of Division of International Cooperation from IKCEST and Mr. Mohd Azim Noor, Programme Manager from ISTIC also spoke at the opening session.

41 selected participants from the Caribbean countries including Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago participated in this workshop.  

Prof. Emeritus Harold Ramkissoon, President Emeritus of CARISCIENCE delivering his  opening speech

Dr. Liu Chang, Director of Division of International Cooperation, IKCEST making her welcome remarks

Mr. Mohd Azim Noor, representing ISTIC speaks during the opening ceremony

The training workshop was aimed at helping developing countries cultivate talent and build capacity in the field of information technology and improving the data aggregating, processing, mining, analyzing capabilities of professionals to better support sustainable development. The mode of delivery consisted of lectures, hands-on and discussions.

During the first session after the opening ceremony, the participants introduced themselves and gave a simple briefing on their organizations.

Each day started with 30 minute presentations, special lectures from local speakers which gave some insights on Big Data Applications based on  Regional Experience. Topics covered are as follows.

• Collaborations in Data Science and Operations Research
• Data Science Initiatives within Massy Group of Companies
• Data Analytics in Jamaica – Implications for the Caribbean Countries
• Data Governance in a Big Data and Advanced Analytics Environment.

The special lecture from Mr. Ian John, Chief Executive Officer, Massy Technologies.

The main lectures of the workshop comprised the following topics:

• Introduction to Big Data and Machine Learning
• Data Analysis: Organizing, Visualizing and Modeling
• Big Data Analysis (software: Scala, Hadoop, R, Eclipse, etc.)
• Big Data and Machine Learning Techniques: Theories and Applications in Smart Cities (1): Theory
• Big data and Machine Learning Techniques: Theories and Applications in Smart Cities (2): Practice
• Privacy, Security, Confidentiality, Trust and Other Issues in Big Data
• Natural Language Processing: Concepts and Tasks
• Advanced Natural Language Processing in Biomedicine
• Large Scale Knowledge Graph Construction
• Deep Learning for Task-Oriented Conversational AI

The lectures were given by IKCEST selected experts from China who are engaged in research and development in their respective fields as well as by the local speakers.

Dr. Permanand Mohan, one of the local speakers from the University of the West Indies (UWI) presenting his lecture

Prof. Hui Yongchang, one of the professors from China giving his lecture

Workshop in session

During the closing session, a representative of the participants spoke on lessons learned and some evaluation on the training workshop. Mr. Mohd Azim Noor, representing ISTIC and also Prof. Tang Siliang representing IKCEST also gave their remarks, while Prof. Emeritus Harold Ramkissoon gave the closing address. Prof. Emeritus Harold Ramkissoon and Prof. Tang Siliang then presented the certificates to all participants. Also present during the closing was Ms. Debra Lalloo, Secretary General of National Commission of Trinidad and Tobago for UNESCO.

Ms. Janelle Alexander, ICT Director of the Ministry of Health, the representative of participants making her remarks during the closing session

Prof. Tang Siliang representing IKCEST giving his remark during the closing

Prof. Emeritus Harold Ramkissoon presenting the certificate to a participant from Jamaica.

The group photo of Participants and officials after the closing ceremony