Photo caption: Left to right: Dr. Claudine Allen (Lecturer, Department of Computing) and Mr. Grady Booch (IBM Fellow and Chief Research Scientist for Software Engineering at IBM)

The 2nd staging of the Annual Mini-Conference on Software Engineering was hosted on December 1, 2021 by the Department of Computing in the Faculty of Science and Technology, The UWI Mona. The Mini-Conference was conceptualised, organised and chaired by Dr. Claudine Allen (Lecturer, Department of Computing) with three goals in mind.  Firstly, to enable MSc Computer Science students doing Object Oriented Software Design to write and present research papers in a formal conference setting. Secondly, to expose the students to Caribbean Software Engineering researchers, their work and possible research opportunities. This year Dr. Phillipa Bennett and Mr. Matthew Ormsby from Mona, Dr. Michelle Gittens from Cave Hill and Dr. Rochelle Elva from Rollins College in Florida (originally from St. Lucia) delivered presentations in their respective areas of specialization. The final goal was to provide students with the opportunity to hear from an internationally known speaker in the field of Software Engineering. The highlight of the event was a keynote from Grady Booch, IBM Fellow and Chief Research Scientist for Software Engineering at IBM. His work is a staple in the diet of every true Software Engineer trained in the last two decades. He is also a renowned author, creator, contributor, and influencer of many of the books, papers, tools, processes, and theories that support the development of today's high-quality software today.

The Mini-Conference was well attended by staff and students from all The UWI campuses and The University of Technology, Jamaica. The feedback from participants included words and phrases like “awesome”, “phenomenal” and “we need to do this again”. The Department of Computing and The Faculty thank all partners involved in the staging. We are already looking forward to the 3rd staging.