Ben Eguzozie
Nigeria will soon have an institute dedicated to studying robotics and artificial intelligence, according to a team of scientists and engineers led by Bart Nnaji, a professor of engineering and director of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence laboratory at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Nnaji is the founder and chairman of the Geometric Power Group, by far Nigeria’s first private power generation and distribution company, providing electricity to nine out of 17 local government areas of Abia State.
Nnaji, a former Nigerian minister of science and technology who later served as the minister of power, informed while speaking at the centenary celebration of Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu, said the establishment of the Robotics and AI institute will be in Nigeria national interest to have such an advanced technology driven facility.
Nnaji said the objectives of the institute include: “to engage in the learning and study of computer sciences that teach the technology of intelligent machines and robots and issue certificates to students; to train and issue certification in the design of hardware that does some autonomous tasks repeatedly; and to carry out research studies in the development and analysis of algorithms that learn and perform intelligent behaviour with minimal human intervention”.
Nnaji did his postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Artificial Intelligence before becoming a Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Director of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and then moved to the University of Pittsburgh to lead a consortium of universities on a research programme funded by the United States National Science Foundation.
He informed that the Federal Government has successfully scrutinised the proposed institute through the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Nnaji had sent in application for the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence institute in 2017. He lamented that it took the government four years to approve its establishment, stressing that “it is in the national interest to have such an advanced facility.”
Nnaji did not state when the institute would commence operations, the location or structure. He asked that “all Nigerians and the government should support this farsighted institute to help galvanize Nigerians into the AI race that has begun to define development in the 21st century”.
Dike Ejike, a mechanical engineer, power and business consultant in Abuja who attended the Bigard Seminary centenary, explained that “it is remarkable that far-reaching steps were taken to establish the institute in Nigeria long before generative artificial intelligence took the world by storm since November 30 2022 when Sam Altman and his group at OpenA1 launched ChatGTP in the United States which has radically changed the way the world learns, conducts research and does business”.
Nnaji also informed that Bells University of Technology at Otta in Ogun State, where he serves as the chairman of the governing council, has just approved the establishment of an Artificial Intelligence centre.
He called on the Nigerian government to prioritize teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Engineering (STEM) subjects for Nigeria to leapfrog in developmental terms, citing the example of Vietnam which now produces 90,000 STEM talents annually, still, the pool is grossly inadequate for leading technology companies like Invidia and Apple which are competing for greater operations in the country.
“Nvidia was established in 1993 by a team led by 30-year-old Jansen Huan, originally from Taiwan, and it made a stupendous $15.3 billion profit last quarter alone whereas Nigeria, a country of over 200m people, makes not more than $25 billion from crude oil sales annually,” Nnaji noted.
He counselled that world-class economics and management programmes be introduced in the country to enhance Nigeria’s competitiveness, adding that even leading scientific institutions like NASA need excellent managers to remain well-run and business leaders need a basic knowledge of global economics to do well.
