Domesticate Knowledge of Artificial Intelligence for the Nation’s Development – University Don

 

…As College of SET Holds Annual Lecture in honour of Pioneer Provost

Experts have recommended the domestication of the knowledge of Artificial Intelligence in Nigeria for the nation to meet up with first-world countries.

The experts explained that Government, Academia, Community and the Private sector (the Quadruple Helix) must come together to rejuvenate Artificial Intelligence knowledge in the nation. They echoed this during the annual lecture of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology of Osun State University, themed “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Nation Building: The Role of Private Partnership in Higher Education and Research”, which was held in honour of its pioneer Provost, Professor Oladiiran Famurewa, at the institution’s Auditorium in Osogbo, on Thursday, 21st July, 2022.

The Guest Lecturer, a Professor of Mechatronics, and Vice-Chancellor of Summit University in Offa, Professor Abiodun Musa Aibinu, while delivering his paper titled “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Nation Building Using Quadruple Helix”, stated that Nigerian universities must not only generate money, but they must generate knowledge to solve community problems and needs as students must learn to solve community problems.

The Guest Lecturer, who is also an expert in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics explained that Nigeria needs to e evolve from user to developer and rejuvenate artificial intelligence by looking into curriculum and implementation.

According to him, Lecturers who are to implement the curriculum should get themselves ready for the job to build problem-solving graduates.

“Some years ago, you needed to go to computer school or training before you know how to operate a computer, but now, you can make use of computers without going to any school. We need to go beyond user to developer, we need to rejuvenate, and look into our curriculum and the way we implement it.”

Also speaking through Zoom, the Director, Craobh Technology Consulting, and Lecturer, Department of Computing, Atlantic Technological University, Ireland, Dr. Ruth Lennon, in the course of unraveling her paper titled “Public/Private Partnership: Meeting Industry DevOps and Cloud Skill Requirements in Tertiary Education”, urged domain experts (lecturers) to help students in research to get to the level where they can make significant change in society.

In the same vein, the Head of Information Technology, National Institute of Occupational Health, Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Olalekan Samuel Ogunleye noted that harnessing the power of AI would transform Nigeria into a smart nation. He stressed the importance of developing a data dam in the country and encouraged the adoption of a multi-stakeholder approach.

Earlier in his remarks, the Provost, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Professor Amos Popoola said the lecture is an annual ritual with the aim to bring experts to educate the public on how to improve the nation.

In his words, “We have gone through societal problems, therefore, we realise that in nation building, we need to deploy artificial intelligence. As a college and community of scholars, we decided to annually bring experts to the college lecture to educate the public on ways to improve our nation.”