The recently concluded UWI Five Islands AI Research Conference has become the leading AI event in the Caribbean region. We are once again joined by Dr Curtis Charles, one of the main drivers of the event, for a recap in which he shares, among other things: his overall thoughts on the conference; valuable learnings or takeaways from the event; possible reasons female attendance far exceeded males; and on a separate note, why he has been calling on the region to “creolise AI”.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.

In the last week of June, all roads led to Antigua and Barbuda for the second staging of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands AI Research Conference, which was held on 23rd to 24th June. The event, which was held under the theme Bridging Digital Frontiers: AI for Caribbean Sustainability, has been considered a resounding success. The event organisers initially anticipated around 250 attendees but had to quickly adjust their arrangements to accommodate over 700 participants from over 20 countries. This conference has thus firmly positioned itself as the leading AI event in the Caribbean region and the UWI Five Islands Campus as a global catalyst for AI in developing countries.

Having interviewed Dr Curtis Charles, a key architect of the UWI Five Islands AI Conference, on the then-upcoming event in mid-May, we now have him back for a post-conference debrief.

 

Introducing our guests

Dr Curtis Charles

Dr. Curtis B. Charles currently is the former Dean and Director of Academic Affairs at The University of the West Indies, Five Islands Campus, where he provided strategic leadership for the Schools of Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence; the Schools of Business and Management; the Schools of Humanities and Education; the Schools of Health and Behavioral Sciences the Center of Excellence for Oceanography and the Blue Economy; the Lifelong Learning Units; and Recruitment and Retention. He is also the visionary behind the creation of the Caribbean’s only School of Science Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

A dynamic force in shaping the Caribbean’s digital future, Dr. Charles is the architect for The UWI’s AI Research Conference and leads the university’s “Generative AI for Good” Research Cluster. Under his leadership, groundbreaking degree programmes in Generative Pharmacy (using AI to create new drugs and patient care), Data Science, Non-Communicable Disease Management, and AI have been launched, in collaboration with global institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

With over 25 years of experience spanning academia, government, and the corporate tech industry, Dr. Charles has held transformative roles—including University President, IBM Strategy and Change Executive Consultant, Microsoft Solutions Architect, and Vice President of Research and Development at a Department of Defense consulting firm—delivering high-impact solutions in AI, analytics, and cybersecurity across Asia, Europe, and the United States.

He holds degrees from MIT, Northwestern University, Howard University, and Morgan State University, and advanced certifications from Harvard and MIT in big data, performance assessment, education leadership, systems thinking, and machine learning.

Dr. Charles is a passionate advocate for regional transformation through AI, and an internationally respected thought leader bridging innovation, education, and public service.

 

Insights into our conversation

Without a doubt, Dr Charles is passionate about the UWI Five Islands AI Research Conference, the work he did at the UWI Five Islands and his achievements. Having said this, AI is huge and tends to dominate almost every conversation, so it is vital that Caribbean countries identify and ventilate the AI-related issues that are more meaningful for them.

As was discussed in our earlier interview with Dr Charles in May, AI can be a critical tool to accelerate the development of the region, whilst also helping us address the broad range of sustainability and inclusivity challenges that exist in virtually all areas of our societies. However, we need access to the knowledge, skills and people who can help us realise the vision that we have for our countries, for which events, such as the UWI Five Islands AI Research Conference, are invaluable.

  1. Please share your overall thoughts about the event with us.
  2. Which sessions did you receive the most positive feedback for?
  3. Which sessions did you find the most enriching personally?
  4. Are the any valuable learnings or takeaways from the conference?
  5. What is the plan for 2026 regarding the AI conference?
  6. More recently, you have been calling for the region to “Creolize AI”. What does that mean, and why is it important?
  7. You recently announced your retirement from UWI. What are your plans going forward?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise might be useful.

 

 

Images credit:  C Charles;  UWI Five Islands Campus;  Freepik;  Gerd Altmann (Pixabay) 

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez