After the long overdue industrial inaction by ASUU in 2013, I bounced into the great citadel of learning, the Federal University of Technology Akure with great happiness and enthusiasm. Fast forward to school activities, running from CCE to 2 in I LT, moving MEE boards around, etc., like every other newly admitted student, my primary aim is to be the top student in my class. I was fortunate to have met a young man with a passion for transforming the world through technology. Dara Oladapo showed me possibilities through technology and I embraced and lived it.
Of course there are several challenges, from learning how to code with onscreen keyboard to not having a PC at a certain point. I never let it get into my way because I’m on a journey to fulfill my passion. Getting selected as Intel Student Ambassador, Firefox Student Ambassador, and IBM BlueMix Student Ambassador all served as catalysts for the achievement of my goal. With my new assumed roles, coupled with my academics I coordinated the activities of not less than 80% of student developers in FUTA. I failed real fast as well as learned real fast, I met friends, males and females alike who turned into family. I will be ever grateful to every unique individual that has aided me in my journey so far.
Survival is an important aspect of learning, so I set out to make money for my upkeep, had experience with good and bad clients, or any other qualifications to describe them. It is quite unbelievable that a young man from FUTA could build and maintain the second largest political party in India website (One of my best gigs so far).
Due to the passion I have for solving problems through technology, my projects won laurels at the Lagos Lab IoT Hackathon by Access Bank, Cisco IoT Hackathon by Cisco Networking Academy, Best Undergraduate project in SouthWest by Committee of Deans of Engineering(CODET), Akure Tech Hub startup challenge by Emerging Communities Africa, Fbstart accelerator by Facebook and CcHub. I also became LEAP Africa social innovator fellow and Microsoft Imagine Cup by Microsoft, just to mention a few.
In my quest to get solutions, I met Taofeek Olalekan, a young man who is passionate about connectivity influencing the future of Africa. We rub minds, share ideas, work, and have fun together. We have co-founded TREP LABS, a hardware lab designed to provide and build low-cost hardware solutions to health problems in Africa. The lab believes that connectivity can shift health care from curing the sickness to enabling wellness.
The 5 years journey at the university is over but the future still lies ahead, I started the journey with the aim of being the top student in my class, although I didn't graduate with the highest CGPA (not even close) but I can proudly say that I'm fulfilled as the top student in my class, as everyone that has access to the 29th and 30th convocation magazine of the Federal University of Technology Akure reads about me in the front cover page of the magazine and was specially recognized by the Vice-Chancellor during the official convocation lecture. All these I achieved to the special grace of Almighty God before reaching 21 years of age.
phase 2 of the journey have started, please wish my team and myself good luck. Thanks and God bless you all.