Chronixx Visits Jamcoders Algorithm Coding Camp In Kingston
Reggae/Dancehall superstar Chronixx visited the University of the West Indies Mona Campus in Kingston, which is hosting his free Jamcoders Algorithm Coding Camp that got underway last week Monday.
Jamcoders shared images of the Chronology artist during a site visit to the base of the programming residential camp, which targets Jamaican high schools and for which he has been the main donor.
“Thank you Chronixx for your support and for visiting JamCoders today. #jamcoders2022,” the caption read.
In May this year, Jamcoders broke the news that Chronixx had partnered with Founder of AddisCoders/JamCoders, Jelani Nelson to bring the ed tech programme to Jamaica. The summer camp which runs from July 4 to 29 will welcome 50 students from all over the island to learn coding and artificial intelligence from lecturers coming from Harvard and UC Berkeley.
At the virtual launch of the camp a few weeks ago, the Spanish Town Rockin’ singer had said that it was an official start to something he was hoping would have a “long-term and positive effect upon our youths as far as developing them for a significant role in global development and preparing them for the inevitable transformation of the landscape here in the Caribbean”.
“Hopefully we can have this every single year… and a more inclusive programme for the Caribbean at large and for other students within the West Indies. I am definitely overjoyed and a sense of hope and also a sense of direction for where this will take us and a revolution in technologies that can push our people forward; that is created by our people. So this is the beginning. So give thanks for the genesis heart of love,” Chronixx had said.
The Jamcoders syllabus is being heavily influenced by AddisCoder, which is a free intensive four-week summer camp focused on programming and algorithms in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The programme, according to Jamcoders officials, was made possible through the efforts of Chronixx’s charity organisation, the Caring Hands of Rastafari Foundation, which had “made a generous donation to make the summer camp a reality in Jamaica”. Other donors include the Survival and Flourishing Fund, and the D.E. Shaw Group.
The organisers also noted that Chronixx had conceptualised the idea of having the camp after learning about the AddisCoder programme in Ethiopia.
The programme is open to students from third to the fifth form and programming experience is necessary.
The fully-funded programme provides free dormitory rooms and meals for all student participants but targets students who have excelled academically in their schools, particularly in Mathematics and related subjects. So far, 50 students are enrolled with two-thirds staying on campus according to reports.
The Camp is being coordinated by senior lecturer in Computer Science in the Department of Computing in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the UWI Mona, Dr Daniel Fokum, and Professor Jelani Nelson, from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and founder of AddisCoder, Inc.
The JamCoders summer camp is aimed at enabling students who have never programmed before to learn how to. It consists of two hours-long sessions in the morning. For three hours in the afternoon, the students will be working on programming tasks.
Chronixx is no stranger to taking on educational projects. In November 2017, he announced that he was building a school in Ghana and participating in a major refurbishing project at our Haile Selassie High School in Kingston in collaboration with members of the Rastafarian community, including Bob Marley’s granddaughter Donisha Prendergast, to make it a reality by July 2018.
Chronixx had described the ventures as noble initiatives in which all people within the global Rastafari and cultural community should participate.