Students share crime-fighting formula at UWI

STUDENTS are thinking of innovative ways to help this country reduce its staggering crime rate.

This was displayed on Friday at the University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine campus JFK Auditorium, as students of Holy Faith Convent (HFC), Couva, shared their crime-fighting idea at the UWI's Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) 2019 Maths Fair.

Christianna Boodoo, Angelina Darsansingh and Alana Lutchmansingh, form two students of HFC, proudly displayed a poster which shared an innovative way of using crime-scene investigation (CSI) geometry to identify the fingerprints of criminal suspects.

Explaining the idea, which builds on CSI geometry technology, Boodoo said, "We think that as students of HFC, we can make a difference in TT's crime rate."

Their proposal intends to help investigators identify fingerprints even if only small sections are left behind. They hope this can reduce the time needed for other forms of DNA-identifying technology.

Using a pen and a paper to demonstrate, Boodoo said, "Some murderers leave invisible ink (their DNA) and they leave their prints on the scene, and nobody knows."

By calculating the angle between each line and curve in the piece of a fingerprint, Boodoo said these calculations can be used to construct an entire replica of even a fragment of a suspect's fingerprint left at a crime scene. This replica can then be traced to fingerprints stored on databases.

She said that the proposed maths formula can be used to help fight the country's increasing crime rate.

Linda Deonath , one of the event's organisers, explained its aims.

Deonath, a maths teacher at St Joseph's Convent, St Joseph, originally hosted a smaller version of the maths fair.

"I started the maths fair at our school, maybe around nine years ago, and we started to invite other schools to see how maths can be fun."

When the fair outgrew the school, she approached UWI, in 2018. In that year, the first edition of the maths fair in its current form was hosted, with all schools being invited.

"The objective of the maths fair is for students to come and see that mathematics can be fun and how it can be related to real life," said Deonath.

Asked about the response to the fair by other schools, Deonath said, "I think the response has been excellent and we even have two schools from Tobago (this year), which is amazing."

Deonath hopes it will help students to appreciate mathematics and the learning of maths.

Events at the maths fair included logic puzzles, logic mazes, kinetic sculpture displays and a "maths feud" between schools.

Aadam Abdool of ASJA Boys' College in San Fernando, said, "I chose to attend the maths fair today because I am enthusiastic about mathematics and wish to pursue mathematics in UWI."

Abdool plans to do a double major in maths and physics.

He added, "The most interesting part of the fair was observing how interested our nation's young people are in mathematics."