Voices Magazine Vol3 Issue 5

VOICES Bi-Monthly Magazine of the University of Technology, Jamaica | May – August 2020 18 T he University, through its School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT), has received a community service grant from Utah- based geospatial technology firm Novotx for development of initiatives in location security intelligence. Professor Sean Thorpe, Head, SCIT, who sought the grant, indicated that the partnership would see Novotx providing funding to investigate the development of Location Intelligent Tracking Digital Applications which he noted will prove useful in assimilating physical crowded hotspots for suspected COVID19 cases. The proof of concept is to design a data visualization dashboard connected to Raspberry PI 4 Wi-Fi sensors with temperature modules to detect changes in ambient body temperature within the physical environment. Professor Thorpe noted that “we can use software tools like ArcGIS to support the visualization of the COVID19 suspected hotspots,” adding that “location Intelligence is a major Cyber-security sub-domain in the field of computing which leverages the skillsets in Geo-spatial technology and cyber –physical security. Our students and staff are already heavily engaged in this community project initiative and hence the grant will be used directly to mobilize well needed resources to complete the effort,” he said. Professor Thorpe noted further that this initiative augurs well for the School in demonstrating UTech, Jamaica’s capacity to support positive efforts on how applied Information Security can be used to solve important community related problems. Mr. Raj Patil, Director of Strategic Alliances and International Business, Novotx, noted that his organization is quite happy to provide this grant to support projects of this kind. “I believe this is a wonderful way to support continuing education communities in designing these types of use cases for the wider public good. Secondly as an Esri-partnered Geospatial Asset Infrastructure Management and Community Development Solutions business, Novotx believes that an initiative like this is timely to support industry–academic initiatives in logistics, facility management and locational intelligence.” UTech, Ja Receives Grant from Novotx for Development of Initiatives in Location Security Intelligence Professor Sean Thorpe Head, School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT) Mr. Raj Patil Director of Strategic Alliances and international Business, Novotx