 overseasbased guyanese tech mogul invests in university of guyana and local ict sector overseasbased guyanese tech mogul invests in university of guyana and local ict sector overseasbased guyanese tech mogul invests in university of guyana and local ict sector webmaster sun 6172018 1031 impressed by the talents that exist within the local information and communications technology ict sector one overseas based guyanese who has demonstrated prowess on the world stage has committed his efforts toward the development of the sector locally dr jason mars cofounder and chief executive officer of clinc a company that is said to have created the world s most sophisticated and comprehensive conversational artificial intelligence ai platform for enterprises has embarked on the establishment of a scholarship programme that would afford computer science majors at the university of guyana ug an opportunity to pursue phd studies at the university of michigan added to that he has also began networking with local tech companies an interaction that has led to individuals being invited to train and work on a project for the ford motor company in a recent interview with sunday stabroek dr mars born to guyanese parents joan and perry mars explained that though he was born in jamaica he spent several years in guyana before migrating to the us at the age of eight it was during his schooling in the us that his interest in computer science was sparked and later manifested into what it is right now with a phd in computer science from university of virginia the 35yearold was recognized as one of the ten most innovative ceos in banking by bank innovation he is also a professor of computer science at the university of michigan where he directs clarity lab one of the best places in the world to be trained in ai and system design prior to the university of michigan dr mars was a professor at the university of california san diego he also worked at google intel and ibm dr mars work building the world s first opensource platform for constructing largescale ai and deep learningbased intelligent personal assistants ipas has been recognised globally and continues to have a significant impact on industry and academia clinc began as a research group at the university of michigan under the name clarity labs inc a name which was later shortened to clinc the company was launched in july 2015 with a mission to redefine experiences through conversational ai and presently has 100 plus employees having doubled its staff only three months ago for those who may not be entirely familiar with the term conversational ai it is simply software that allows interaction through conversation such as is the case with the popular siri alexa and google assistant however the technology developed by clinc is said to be much more sophisticated according to the ceo the clinc team has spent a lot of time building and growing the company and has offices in michigan san francisco and london clinc also has customers on four continents mostly with large enterprises in america canada the united kingdom turkey and singapore its success as a company thus far is mirrored in the works it has done for enterprises such as barclays bank in the uk wells fargo ford and other large companies according to dr mars while they would have placed a lot of focus on development of conversational ai for financial institutions they have since branched off this decision has led to plans to relaunch the company later this year as they are able to support a number of different fields through the development of conversational ai for all experiences deepening ties but even with all of this going on dr mars says he is still very much interested in deepening ties with the local tech sector the ceo explained that though he left guyana at a young age he still sees guyana as home and as such he visits often and is willing to assist in whatever ways he can to help with the economic development of the tech sector here he explained that during his last visit to guyana in may he met with the vicechancellor of the university of guyana and was able to select two computer science majors for the scholarship programme the beautiful thing about guyana is that it has intellectual and energetic young people with fires in their belly to do good work dr mars said while expressing the belief that there needs to be more work in educational development in order for persons to be able to compete globally i saw an opportunity to bring them to do studies at a top university in america the ceo said he also expressed the hope of being able to make the initiative an annual occurrence meanwhile sunday stabroek was told that while the initial plan was to select only one person because he was truly impressed by the talent he came across a decision was made by dr mars to select two persons they are christopher clarke and roland daynauth dr mars explained that while daynauth is expected to start later this year clarke will be applying at the end of summer and is expected to start early next year regarding the networking with local tech companies dr mars spoke highly of version 75 solutions v75 a social impact focused software company in guyana according to dr mars he connected with eldon marks ceo and founder of version 75 solutions after asking around to meet leaders in the local tech sector dr mars said he found particular interest in a v75 social impact project for which clinc has since offered funding it was further explained that because dr mars was so impressed with the talent he saw he invited marks and two of v75 s team members to ann arbor michigan to undergo competency engineer training on his company s ai platform according to dr mars the duo has since been assigned tasks on a project undertaken by clinc for the ford motor company something different for his part marks told sunday stabroek that dr mars and his company bring something different to the table he explained that while his company would have been contacted in the past by foreign companies he found that they were more or less looking for cheap labour this however is not the case with clinc as they have shown that they not only value the work of the local tech community but are also genuinely interested in giving back through exposure and opportunities marks also confirmed that v75 team members asa brouet and shemar lindie have been assigned tasks in the completion of a project for ford undertaken by clinc and he added that the men are thrilled to be working on the project while adding that he continues to receive excellent feedback from dr mars and his team there is so much that can be done and it s really sad to see that the talent does not have the ability to create value for the entire world i saw an opportunity to create an avenue for those doing computer science so those resources can be funneled into guyana dr mars said i will contribute to sparking and building the tech sector in guyana we are just getting started we are excited about what we are doing and i am committed to investing in guyana and helping to contribute to the economic development of the tech sector so stay tuned he added jason mars eldon marks department of computer science version75 clinc inc 