Fingers Cramped Codes Way to Victory At Intellibus AI Hackathon
By: , March 17, 2026
Photo: MARK BELL
Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister responsible for Efficiency, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Hon. Ambassador Audrey Marks (right), and Founder of Intellibus, Ed Watal (left), present a cheque valued at US$5,000 to the winners of the Intellibus Artificial Intelligence (Al) Hackathon, Fingers Cramped. The team members are (from second left) Bhavesh Sharma; Christian Douglas; Shamar Malcolm; Dayna Clare; and Vedang Kevlani. The awards ceremony was held at the National Arena in Kingston, on Sunday (March 15).The Full Story
After 24 gruelling hours of coding, testing and refining their idea, a team of young developers emerged from the Intellibus Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hackathon not only exhausted but victorious.
They claimed the top prize of US$5,000 with a solution designed to help locate missing and wanted people.
Team Fingers Cramped, comprising Vedang Kevlani, Bhavesh Sharma, Christian Douglas, Shamar Malcolm and Dayna Clare, captured the judges’ attention at the event, held at the National Arena on Sunday (March 15), with their innovative project, ARGUS (Automated Recognition and Geo-tracking Unified System).
Ranging in age from 18 to 24, the group brought more than technical skills to the competition. They share an existing bond, having been coding together since October 2025.
Their familiarity with each other, combined with experience from a previous hackathon, gave them an edge.
“We just had a great chemistry and we went along well,” team captain, Vedang Kevlani, told JIS News.
ARGUS functions as a person of interest identifier, using camera feeds and facial recognition technology to detect and match individuals in real time.
The team demonstrated how the system works, using a mobile phone as an input camera and a laptop as the output display, simulating real-world applications such as body cameras.
Once a face is detected, the system attempts to match it with existing data, displaying a name and a confidence level.
ARGUS also addresses one of the biggest challenges in missing persons cases, which is changes in appearance over time.
The system can generate projections of how a person’s face may evolve over two, five or even 10 years, improving the chances of identification.
It is also capable of detecting individuals within crowded environments, even when they are not the main focus of the image.
Mr. Kevlani explained that the idea was inspired by the emotional impact of seeing missing person alerts circulate in Jamaica.
“If you look on WhatsApp you might see missing people from time to time and even if you don’t know them, that feeling resonates with you. So, we wanted to create something that not only helps families get justice but also helps the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Jamaica Defence Force and any security agency to better track these people and resolve the cases,” he shared.
Despite their strong showing, the team admitted they did not expect to win.
“We never really expected it. We were all really exhausted and we’re just happy to come this far. We just wanted to do our best. I feel like it’s going to sink in later,” he told JIS News.
Looking ahead, Mr. Kevlani believes initiatives like the Intellibus Hackathon can help position Jamaica as a serious player in AI.
He pointed out that while AI is often associated with countries like the United States and Canada, much of the talent originates from places like Jamaica.
“I really want to see Jamaica as one of the forefronts of AI in national development,” he said.
