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| Ade-Onojobi Oluwadewalade Adebiyi |
In
the continuation of profiling emerging data scientists in Ibadan, Ade-Onojobi
Oluwadewalade Adebiyi speaks with Infoprations on how learning data
science skills and the scientists’ readiness to appropriate the skills for socioeconomic
development is changing many narratives about the city.
Ibadan has
been known as a civil servant city for years. With the recent developments, can
you say the narrative has changed?
Ibadan is widely known by many people
to be the civil servant city of Oyo state. However, in recent years, it has
become a haven for tech minds and enthusiasts to come together, share ideas,
work on projects with one another and create products beneficial to the country
and the world. Tech groups like GDG Ibadan, For Loop Ibadan, Machine learning
group Ibadan, Python Ibadan and many other tech communities holding meetups on
a regular basis. This gives tech enthusiasts, software engineers, data
scientist, web developers and computer students who reside in Ibadan a meeting
ground and a means to connect with one another. I can boldly say that Ibadan is
gradually becoming a centre for technology and innovation in Nigeria.
Apart from
other cities and towns that have institutions producing graduates in ICTs related courses and computer science, Ibadan has a significant number of
schools. How would you describe the contribution of the schools to data science
ecosystem development in the city?
As of now I'm not aware of any
universities offering data science as a degree course, but they offer
computer science which is a broad course when it comes to ICTs. Courses like
data science, Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence are not offered even
at the post graduate level. I believe this needs to change as it greatly
affects the amount of tech experts Ibadan can produce. Many individuals come to
the higher institutions to learn skills that should help them survive in the
real world and are often disappointed that what they learn is either inadequate
or not what they expected at all. However, there are some organisations where
data science can be learnt like AI Saturdays Ibadan and a few other
organisations that offer these for a reasonable price. The data science
ecosystem is steadily growing as these institutions are producing more data
scientists and increasing awareness of the people towards data science.
Has the
ecosystem developed to a stage that businesses and individuals do not need to
be in Lagos before getting data analytics and visualization solutions?
Ibadan has some startups in tech and
a few data science experts, but businesses still go to Lagos for data analytics
solutions. This is largely due to the fact that Ibadan does not have much data
science experts who can provide these solutions. However, the ecosystem is
growing and the tech communities in Ibadan are working hard to ensure that
these solutions can be found right here in Ibadan soon.
What has been
the support from the government, Oyo and individuals so far?
So far there has been support from
Data Science Nigeria with their AI invasion program earlier in April this year
where they introduced Ibadan citizens to Data science basics and practices in a
1-week boot-camp. There was a lot of positive feedback from the attendees. There
has been support from other individuals as well who host hackathons around the
city. A lot of organizations also reach out to secondary and primary schools in
Ibadan to educate the students about the importance of data science to the
community and encourage them to be a part of it. I urge the government,
individuals and organisations to support the growth of this city into a centre
of technology in this country.
How soon will
Ibadan export data scientists to other cities in the South West region?
Ibadan has a few places teaching data
science like AI Saturdays Ibadan which gives this knowledge out for free to
anyone who wants to learn and has a passion for it. A few organisations teach
it as well for a reasonable price around Ibadan alongside a lot of other
certifications they offer. With the citizens of Ibadan being made more aware of
data science and its possibilities and benefits, Ibadan will produce more data
scientists soon and I believe Ibadan will start exporting data scientists in
the near future.
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