Guyanese Webby winners hope to inspire local tech shift

A group of Guyanese this year won a Webby Award, the leading international award honouring excellence on the internet, and they are hoping it will inspire greater Guyanese participation in the science and technology field.

“The award is a great centerpiece; but more than it being a great centerpiece is what it means. 

“It means that my team has been seen, a Guyanese person has been seen at an international stage, a competition 150 teams signed up for – and we won,” said Shomari Williams, a member of team FramePerfect, which won the Webby 2022 5G For Change Hackathon. 

FramePerfect pitched a proposal to tackle illegal logging in Guyana’s rainforests through a comprehensive monitoring system that streams audio to dispatch drones to see what is happening in the forest. 

Williams explained that when people think of technology, Guyana is not a country which is on the forefront of their minds. He, however, believes that the award can change this. 

“What we want to do is show the world that Guyanese have the potential to do great things in the technological field,” Williams said.

He hopes that the award would show the Guyanese public that they can do great things and inspire youths to undertake similar ventures.

Williams also pleaded for support, especially government support, to help to develop the technology and science fields.

The other members of the University of Guyana’s FramePerfect are: Malik Williams, Andrew Garnett and Jun Leung.