History is made!! Team TTO Overall CCCAN Champions!!
1st English Speaking country to win these games
Team Awards:
1st place Waterpolo
2nd place Swimming
5th place Open Water
4th Place Diving

A farmer aged 70 from Trinidad is graduating from Edinburgh Napier University with a Masters of Business Administration.
Ramgopaul Roop achieved academic success even though his parents Poyah and Roop Bataw could not read or write.
Ramgopaul – who had seen his three children study to degree level and beyond – fulfilled his ambition by combining full-time work on his smallholder farm then studying often all night. His dedication paid off when he was awarded an MBA with Distinction.He said: “This being the last chance on the last train, the only option was to sit tight and hold on.”
He added: “The past 32 months have been very challenging but stimulating. It shows there is no age limit to academic achievement and personal professional development.”​Ramgopaul – who is regional administrator of the Caribbean Agribusiness Association – studied online at Edinburgh Napier, one module per trimester.
He was supported by his wife Beena, who read and re-read drafts, and family dog, Coco, who had a special bed made up in Ramgopaul’s study to sit by him as he worked.
The farmer completed his studies last autumn but was unable to travel from the West Indies to Edinburgh for the ceremony as it clashed with his commitments at the Caribbean Week of Agriculture in the Cayman Islands, so he is receiving his degree at this summer’s graduations instead. In the intervening months, he has used research from his MBA dissertation to help develop a policy framework for the cassava industry – a 21st century multi-purpose crop thought to have the potential to transform the economy of the Caribbean.
Soil and water management techniques on his farm which can pave the way for intensive vegetable and tree crops production were also praised as “a diversification dream” in his submission to the 2017 Global Contest on Sound Solution in Farming for Biodiversity.
Ramgopaul said: “The skills acquired in writing assignments and my dissertation are now being applied in my everyday activities.”
Ramgopaul had been introduced to the work of the university by Southpoint Education International, which supports online, distance degrees offered by Edinburgh Napier.
Mammed Bagher, Director of MBA Programmes at Edinburgh Napier, said: “Ramgopaul’s achievement is testament to our ethos of education for all, regardless of age or social background.”
He added: “Our global online suite of MBA programmes is suitable for learners who are unable to take part in the traditional classroom environment. We are continuously investing in our online staff and student community so all our learners feel very much part of the wider university network without physically being present.”

​Neblett strikes double International Taekwondo gold
Sunday, June 25 2017

​TRINIDAD and Tobago's Sinead Jack collected the most prestigious individual award that a player from the English-speaking Caribbean has ever received in the sport of volleyball.
After helping her team finish a best-ever ninth place in the Women's Pan American Cup, the Trinidad and Tobago Volleyball Federation's Player of the Year 2015 was voted Best Middle Blocker during the closing ceremony on Saturday night in Peru.
Turkey-based Jack, who first played in this tournament six years ago as a 17-year-old, had actually been the recipient of the previous most treasured individual prize when she captured the same title (Best Middle Blocker) in the NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) Championship in 2013.
Fellow 23-year-old teammate Channon Thompson, the game's leading scorer three times in the tournament, including the straight-set victory over Chile last Wednesday, and Brandon Legall are the only other players from this country to pick up NORCECA individual awards, but both prizes came at junior level.
In a battle of four-time champions for the gold medal on Saturday night, the United States dethroned Dominican Republic 25-19, 19-25-20, 25-23 to become the most successful nation in the tournament with five titles.
The North Americans had also beaten the Caribbean women for their first crown in the second edition in 2003, but their other four titles have come in the last six years.
Dominican Republic finished on top in the other two years during this period (‘14 and last year) after previously being crowned in ‘08 and ‘10.
However they are way out front in the silver-medal department, finishing runners-up on as many as eight occasions.
Cuba have also captured the title four times, but the victories occurred during the first six editions and it has been ten years since their players stood at the top of the podium.
The Central Americans ended up fifth on this occasion with a 25-19, 23-25, 25-17, 25-22 triumph over Canada, while the Puerto Ricans, who had stunned the United States in the semifinals last year and pushed the Dominican Republic to five games in the final, defeated Peru 25-22, 13-25, 27-25, 25-15 for the bronze medal.
Colombia had beaten Argentina in five sets for seventh place first up on Saturday, the day after T&T had taken down Venezuela in four to finish one place higher than they did last year.
Mexico avoided the cellar 12th spot with a straight-set victory over Chile.
The top six countries from NORCECA — United, States, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada and T&T — and the top three from South America — Peru, Colombia and Argentina — qualified for next year's World Grand Prix.
Last year T&T had become the first country from the English-speaking Caribbean to book a place in the most prestigious tournament after the Olympic Games and World Championships and they will make their Grand Prix debut in ten days in Mexico.
The six-time champions will go after their sixth consecutive title in the biennial Caribbean Championships late next month in Jamaica.
Source:  Daily Express, June 27, 2017.

Most of the damage seems to have been in central and southern Trinidad - pictured here Reform Village, Guaracara River, and lower Barackpore.  

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States’ (OECS) Commission has partnered with Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, NASA space scientist and Founder of the Brightest Stars Foundation, to inspire girls in the OECS region to achieve against all odds.
Trinidad-born NASA aerospace engineer and role model, Dr. Alleyne will use her own journey and Caribbean success story, paired with the positive message of the film “Hidden Figures,” to motivate, inspire and empower 10,000 girls throughout the region to reach their full potential. Her message to them is to dream big dreams and to know that there is no limit to what they can achieve with hard work, determination, focus and a belief in themselves.
“When you empower and inspire youth to believe in themselves and their capacity for greatness, they embrace their power to be the leaders of tomorrow – leaders who will create positive and lasting change in their communities and our world,” Dr. Alleyne said.
“Hidden Figures” is the untold true story of the brilliant African-American women mathematicians who NASA hired in the late 1950’s. These women were instrumental in calculating the flight trajectories that made the mission of the first American to orbit the Earth – John Glenn – successful. Dr Alleyne hopes to use the narrative of “Hidden Figures” to inspire and motivate young Caribbean women to see their potential for greatness.
​The Eastern Caribbean leg of the 10,000 Girls Tour aims to host 1,500 girls in each island, with a particular focus on underserved rural and urban communities. Dr Alleyne and her team plan to visit at least ten Caribbean islands by the end of the year.
The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion led by Dr. Alleyne and that includes a highly accomplished local female STEM model and a female university scholar.
Director General of the OECS, Dr. Didacus Jules commended the initiative saying that “the OECS Education Strategy is committed to gender equality and that the promotion of science, technology, engineering and maths was an important element in the educational formation of young Caribbean women.
“We commend and support this initiative by Dr. Alleyne who is a leading Caribbean Scientist employed in NASA’s Space Program and we are hopeful that this will ignite a passion for the sciences among our girls”.
The 10,000 Girls tour was launched in Trinidad on March 15th 2017, under RBC Caribbean Limited’s Young Leaders Programme and boasted over 340 girls from all across the country.
The Brightest Stars Foundation is a non-governmental organisation that is dedicated to educating, empowering and inspiring young women to be future leaders in the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Founded in 2007 by Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, the Brightest Stars Foundation has inspired and empowered over 3000 young people, globally, to see their potential and to strive for excellence in their academic pursuits.
Source:  The Caribbean Current

And she is a former student of St. Joseph's Convent, Port of Spain.

When Professor Rhonda McEwen began her academic career in the late 1990s, little did she know she would be at the forefront of the boom in new media that has secured her place as an expert in the field of mobile technology. Since then, she has established herself as a trailblazer in exploring how devices affect the human experience and the way that people with disabilities communicate, and she has just been named the Canada Research Chair in Tactile Interfaces, Communication and Cognition.
It is an “honour to be recognized for [my] work and be given this massive endorsement by the federal government,” says McEwen, of UTM’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology. She will be undertaking three interrelated projects that involve technology such as tablets and smartphones, but also wearable technology and virtual-reality platforms.
“My PhD work focused on young people – and by young people I meant people who were transitioning from high schools into universities – and my interest was in the roles mobile phones played in social support,” says McEwen. “This was in 2006, so this was in the old days – this was pre-smartphones, so people were still on their BlackBerrys or on flip phones – still I could see a shift in social interactions surrounding these new media and I wanted to investigate what was happening for users who were also in transition.”
“Even back then you could see the huge influence that these devices were having and I was really fascinated both from a technological aspect, but also from a social aspect. What are the social consequences of embedding these technologies in our lives?”
In a similar trajectory, she currently researches the communicative interactions that arise when users engage with new media technologies, focusing on the cognitive effects of using touch-input devices.  Her new book, Understanding Tablets from Early Childhood to Adulthood: Encounters with Touch Technology, co-authored with McGill's Adam Dubé, takes a critical look at what is commonly considered to be the intuitive nature of tablets.
“I am interested in what this new, tactile technology means for how we make sense of the world,” says McEwen. “By way of example, people may have read about the ‘quantified self’ where we are tracking data about ourselves, for example ‘how far did you walk today? How much sleep did you get?’”
“These are the devices that are taking data inputs off of our bodies and giving us outputs through our bodies, driven by necessity and creativity by the user, and we have to figure out how to slot this information into our everyday life. This is a new consideration.”
Something that is also new and a somewhat unanticipated for McEwen is watching a Muppet she helped to shape come to life on the small screen: she is an advisor for the long-running, beloved children’s program Sesame Street, and her research informed the creation of Julia, the show’s first character with autism, introduced in April 2017. McEwen, who has been on the advisory board for autism programming for the Sesame Street Workshop since 2013, says it was a great privilege to be involved in this collaborative endeavour.
“Muppets are also media. Julia is a girl-Muppet with a mission to demystify autism for children and the broader society,” says McEwen.  “I was approached by the program coordinators of the Sesame Workshop because of my research on mobile applications (apps) for children on the Autism Spectrum and I worked with some of the finest researchers in the world to provide evidence as content and feedback on design for Julia’s stories and for the accompanying assistive technology apps.” To read a more comprehensive article about Julia, visit the CBC website.
McEwen is extremely enthusiastic about pursuing the CRC projects and the various collaborations she has ongoing with other researchers. She is also proud of her group of dedicated students on the Mississauga campus.
“I have two undergraduate students here through the Research Opportunity Program [ROP] at UTM, and they are working with me on 360-video and virtual-reality project where we are investigating visually-induced motion sickness,” says McEwen. “A completely separate project involves another set of three UTM undergraduate students and looks specifically at children with Rett syndrome, which is a rare genetic disorder that impedes the ability to speak and affects mainly girls, and examines the efficacy of using of eye-tracking on screens as an effective form of communication.”
“I do a lot of work with my undergraduates and I am really proud of that. At UTM we have excellent undergraduate students and my team of researchers here are so curious and engaged. Before this grant came along they volunteered their time, and I paid them when I could from other grants, but now that I have this CRC funding, I’m delighted to have the ability to compensate them for the hard work that they put in.”
Source:  news.utm@utoronto.ca