Adigun Deborah Amos, young lady from the western part of Nigeria but bred in the middle belt (Plateau State), firmly believes AIMS was a springboard to navigating through her educational and life pursuit.
Prior to joining AIMS, she obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from the renowned University of Jos in northern Nigeria. Her Project involved determination of cut-off reference values of perirenal fat thickness (PRFT) measured by ultrasound for cardiovascular risk in adult Nigerian women – 60 adult women from age 18 – 65 excluding pregnant women. As a result of some data manipulations, it strategically broadened her drive and curiosity about data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, her desire to bring about technological advancement in the health care system was a push to apply to prestigious African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) where she majored in Data Science.
Despite coming from a physics background, particularly with Biophysics experience, AIMS gave her a befitting knowledge and skills to further dive into solving problems relating to health. She was taught courses related to data science and machine learning used to address real-world issues. This birthed the research area in her master thesis where she applied Machine Leaning to classify and predict Subclinical Atherosclerosis under the co-supervision of Ass. Prof. Woldegebriel Assefa (York University, Canada) and Dr. Anil Sirisena (Chief Medical Physicist from the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Nigeria).
Furthermore, at AIMS, she got full support from her classmates which encouraged her to step out of my comfort zone and embraced so many new opportunities, one of which was the honor to serve as the female Student Delegate. This gave her room to be involved in decision making as regards dealings with her cohort and gave her a sense of familyhood, servitude, togetherness and inclusion. “I learnt so much from everyone at AIMS. It was an experience I never wanted to end because love was in it.”, she says.
Presently, Deborah is pursing a Joint Master’s Degree in Photonics for Security Reliability and Safety(PSRS), an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship Program with France as her first mobility where she serves as her cohort representative.
In her own words, though the experience at AIMS was challenging, she must express that it was worth it; has groomed her and catapulted her into inestimable world experience. She goes even further and says: “To anyone who comes across this piece, I encourage you to take the step and courage to apply. You will be grateful and glad you did as the experience is rewarding”.