On Monday 15 August, The Cropper Foundation (TCF) completed the pilot “CSO Data Science and Technology Acceleration Programme” which ran for 6 months between March-August 2022.
In a statement the group said the Accelerator Programme, implemented through the TCF Development Data Lab, seeks to increase the capacity of Civil Society Organizations in Trinidad and Tobago to understand key topics and themes in Data Science/Computer Science; to encourage the adoption of such technologies within civil society organizations, thereby facilitating the improvement of business operations, and to stimulate the generation of data-driven ideas and solutions that will allow civil society organizations to further reorganize their business operations.
The group said that after a rigorous selection process, 10 CSOs were selected for the Accelerator Program: Shqeme Gardens Community Council, Trinidad and Tobago Central Cooperative Financial Society, Freely Give Foundation, Global Network for the Advancement of Single Mothers, Ifa Foundation Caribbean Organization , KIND (Kids in Need of Direction), Andrea Project, Maraval Rotary Club, Turtle Village Trust, Trinidad and Tobago Youth Business.
The Cropper Foundation said that after three months of workshops and brainstorming sessions on topics such as artificial intelligence, big data and cyber security, the 10 participating CSOs were joined by interns from the University of the West Indies, Department of Informatics at the St. Augustine and Information Technology.
“Over six weeks from June to July 2022, interns and CSOs worked together to solve a discrete problem facing the CSO through the application of data science and technology.
“The solutions that were created included: AI chatbots, a web scraper program, a text classification model, Microsoft Power BI applications, databases, an intranet system and customer relationship management systems.”
The organization said the CSO’s Data Science and Acceleration Program was supported by Microsoft Caribbean, Intelligent Applications Company Limited and funded by the Network Information Center of Trinidad and Tobago. T
The Data for Development Lab is an initiative developed by the Cropper Foundation in collaboration with TTLAB, which aims to bring together civil society organizations, students and industry professionals to create a ‘Think and Do’ culture to help civil society organizations in using data-driven methodologies in their day-to-day operations.
For more information on the Development Data Lab, please email [email protected].
