Ibadan and Emerging Data Scientists: The Story of Owojori Ernest Tolulope

Owojori Ernest Tolulope

Owojori Ernest Tolulope is another emerging Data Scientist for the continuation of our Ibadan and Emerging Data Scientists Series. He is a student at the University of Ibadan, studying Statistics and member of various Data Science Groups in Nigeria. He always wants to solve problems. He speaks with Infoprations on how he acquired the data science skills and knowledge from Ibadan AISaturdays that have helped him to solve numerous problems. 

Apart from other cities and towns that have institutions producing graduates in ICT 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?

To answer the impact of higher institutions in Ibadan on ICT related courses, I'd like to share my little experience. About 3 years ago, I got admitted to study Statistics at the Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Apata, Ibadan. There, I got interested with Statistics and especially the use of computer software to analyse data in which I got motivated to learn beyond our curriculum. This knowledge of statistical computing really gave me an edge in the statistical world. I could write R code, I could use STATA, SPSS, MINITAB and beyond just because my little college introduced me to some of possibilities in the packages.

Afterwards, I got opportunity to attend AI+ Invasion by Data Science Nigeria in Ibadan in partnership with University of Ibadan around April this year. This remarkable event got me started with my long-awaited career of being a Data Scientist. Also, as a follow up of the events of DSN in Ibadan, I joined AI Saturdays Ibadan (weekly AI classes in holding in UI Computer Science Department) to take my learning to the next step.

The summary of my story is that, FCAH&PT and UI have indirectly created an enabling environment for me to meet with great people that inspire, although there are several series of self-thoughts, but without the inspirations, I might not have been where I am today. As we all know, there is more our institutions in Ibadan can do, we have talents here that needs to be inspired!

What are the problems you have solved using the skills and knowledge of data science?

It is very vital for me to enumerate what have been able to acquire with these skills. I could remember our mentors at AI Saturdays talking to us how our presence on Twitter as Data Scientists (or Techie in general) is vital. These words of his made me revive my abandoned Twitter handle and seriously, it paid off in a short while.

Initially, I was making use of a less functional laptop (No backup) for my learning, which discourages most of the time. On that faithful day on Twitter, I came across an opportunity for developers that does not have a laptop for them to get one and not only that get courses and mentorship in their respective track.  I did apply and fortunately, I got selected out of about 5,000 applicants (22 selected). Another journey of growth began and I tell you it was a life changing experience. DevCareer popularly known as #Laptop4Developers on Twitter gave me the right direction of a techie. At DevCareer, I got quality mentorship and opportunity to build some amazing projects.

At DevCareer, I was able Build a Machine Learning Algorithm that predict Fraud using Xente Fraud Detection data on Zindi, Africa. I did Exploratory Data Analysis of Supermarket Sales Data available on kaggle.com I also built Staff promotion Algorithm as released on kaggle.com Data Science qualification challenge in which I got selected and attended the life changing bootcamp

I also cannot forget that I performed a Loan prediction too. Lastly, I was able to secure the 29th position out of 213 participants of the Insurance Prediction Hackathon (24 hrs.) hosted by Data Science Nigeria at AI Bootcamp 2019.

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?

The truth of the matter is that Ibadan guys have what it takes to offer solutions to problems. All we need is a playing ground for us to display what we can do. Unavailability of such avenue has been making our talents migrate to other cities. In the aspect of data analytics and visualization, we are proficient. This has been proven on several occasions when we are summoned for competitions. Remember, "Ibadan people no dey carry last".

What has been the support from the government, Oyo and individuals so far?

For now, the government has not been involved. We hope they do so soon as their intervention will greatly improve our ecosystem here in Ibadan.

How soon will Ibadan export Data Scientists to other cities in the South West region?

How soon will Ibadan export Data Scientist? It has started and the pace is increasing. Very soon we'd be everywhere.