Dr. Adeola Olubamiji makes history as the first African person to graduate with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Dr. Adeola Olubamiji is a Nigerian Biomedical Engineer, and the lead Metallurgist/Material Engineer at Burloak Technologies, Canada's prime partner for highly engineered additive metal and plastic components for demanding applications.She is also the founder of the STEMHUB foundation, an initiative that showcases and teaches challenging STEM concepts through hands-on and fun-filled experimental activities. STEMHUB organises industrial tours for youth in Ontario’s black communities.

"Besides being a child hawker when I was about 10 years old and having two parents who had no education, life made me ‘THE LAST'”. I am the last of five children, and being last in a home with very little funding did not make me the "princess" like in other homes."

In June 2017, Adeola made history as the first African person to obtain a PhD in the field of Biomedical Engineering at 110-year-old University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

• What inspired you to pursue Biomedical Engineering? And why the switch to Material / Metallurgical Engineering?

"Several health impairments and issues of failed diagnosis that faced Nigeria and Nigerians were my motivation to pursue a degree in Biomedical Engineering. With a BSc in Physics with Electronics, several pathways were possible, including Biomedical Engineering. Some of the areas that I am currently experienced in are medical physics and imaging, clinical engineering, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, material science and engineering, material research, and e-health and telemedicine. I am a Biomedical Engineer by training with majors in Physics and Imaging, and Material Science. Physics is the most fundamental of all sciences and engineering principles. Therefore, obtaining a BSc in Physics offered me the fundamentals needed to diversify into any branch of engineering. My Physics and Imaging majors provided me with roots in non-destructive testing (specifically radiography and computed tomography), while my Material Science major enabled me to explore conventional and novel manufacturing techniques."

• Tell us about your current job. What does it feel like being a female in a largely male dominated profession?

"I am currently the Lead Metallurgist / Material Engineer at Burloak Technologies (the advanced Additive Manufacturing division of Samuel Sons & Co) in Ontario, Canada. I am also a consultant and the founder of 3D-Tech Centrix, Ontario, Canada: A consulting firm specialising in the development of 3D-printing technology and related manufacturing solutions for use in different industries.I was raised alongside my 3 brothers who happened to be my first mentors. Therefore, I was a “Tom boy” and competition was the way of life. How you see this issue is up to you, half full or half empty. For instance, sexism and racism are real, but you can decide to use these to your advantage. Being a visible minority (female, black and young) is one of my many advantages in life, especially in engineering. As a black female, if you know your onions, you will stand out, become a change agent, and you will thrive."

• You were the first African person to graduate with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. How has this experience, and the challenges you’ve gone through in your career path, shaped you as an individual?

"First, this has gone into the history books for my unborn children and I am thankful to be their worthy role model in life and in death. When you are a trailblazer of innovation, there is no blueprint and mentorship, and you must keep explaining yourself as everyone thinks you have gone insane. In my case, it was expected that I should focus on oil and gas related fields to land jobs. But I saw beyond this early in life. I had an opportunity to intern at an Oil and Gas servicing company in Lagos during my BSc, but I knew that that was not my future. I was sure that I must proceed to focus on Computer Science or Biomedical Engineering as my Physics degree opened the doors for both. Despite its capability to bring us closer to huge healthcare-related innovations and inventions, Biomedical Engineering is just gaining traction within the African continent, and 3D-printing is just recently being talked about, especially in West Africa. I was featured as the 5th out of 150 black women making Canada better through my contributions to 3D printing and Biomedical Engineering by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, during the Canada at 150 celebrations.This journey has so far made me realize the urgent need for STEM advocacy and to further educate African children about what is available to them in this millennium aside the usual. Since parents can only offer advice based on their level of understanding, I am pushing to join hands with these parents in raising these children. My aim is to provide African children with role models in STEM that look like them and educate them about the opportunities STEM can offer them. As a result, I have recently founded STEMHUB foundation, an initiative that provides hands-on experiments, excursions to companies, mentorship and scholarship opportunities for African youth in Ontario, Canada. I want to raise an army of young African girls and boys who will bring STEM innovation to life."

• In our current world, would you say organisations/industries are more receptive to women in STEM?

"There are organisations such as the Society of Women Engineers that provide support and enable the advancement of our careers as women. I also believe that several organisations mention inclusion and diversity as part of their mandates. Since you can’t be loved by everyone, we must give life a fight and always ignore the background noise."

• In a perfect world, you go to school, graduate and get a job. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, especially for most young people in Nigeria. What piece of advice do you have for people in this position?

"Let’s talk about skill acquisition / mentorship problems here. Unfortunately, it has become evident that there is a disconnect between what is acquired in African universities and what is required in the work-force to launch your career. Therefore, most students graduate with good grades but lack the right practical skills required to land them the jobs of their dreams.  Mentorship is a key solution to this problem and I encourage our youth to stop looking for older and successful mentors and stop paying the money they don’t have to attend seminars by wealthy personalities, but rather seek mentorship from young averagely successful folks who are in the next phase that they aspire to get to. These young mentors will be able to provide the needed guidance and very accurate and timely information about the skills that are required for that moment in time to break into the industry.Self-education is also a solution. It has also been clarified that the critical-thinking, problem-solving and business development skills required to become entrepreneurs are not acquired in the four walls of our universities. Therefore, despite being full of ideas, graduates do not have the right knowledge on how to develop a business case to sustain and scale-up their start-ups. Although I obtained two Biomedical Engineering degrees, I was able to break into the Aerospace manufacturing space through self-education.  If you aspire to go far in life, you must invest in yourself through skill acquisition. Through online platforms such as Coursera, EDx, Udemy or even by watching YouTube videos, you can acquire the skills that you need to be attractive to employers, or educate yourself about artificial intelligence, business development, topology optimisation or whatever skill you need. Quit whining and start self-educating yourself as information is power."[/spb_text_block]

Nigerian Electrical Engineer, Dr. Ozak Esu, named the IET Young Woman Engineer of 2017 in the UK

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Dr. Ozak Esu is an Electrical Engineer at Cundall, a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy in the UK. Her current role involves designing buildings’ electrical services.

"I grew up in Nigeria, the second of four children, and the first daughter of three. I would describe my upbringing as happy, disciplined and structured. It had to be, to keep my siblings and I engaged. Both of my parents worked full-time - my mum was an administrator in civil service, and my dad was a lecturer (Professor of Pedology). They both encouraged my siblings and I to excel and give our best in our education. Supplementary tutoring after school, and during school breaks were a common theme throughout each stage of our education."

Ozak completed her primary education at Hillcrest Junior Special Needs School, and secondary education at Access High Schools both in Calabar, Nigeria. She went on to complete her Accelerated Advanced Level examinations in Mathematics, Physics and Geography, at Oxbridge Tutorial College, Lagos, Nigeria. In 2008, she moved to the UK and completed her Bachelor’s degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering with First Class Honours from Loughborough University. Subsequently, she was awarded a Loughborough University Research Studentship worth £54, 000 for a three-year period to pursue her PhD in the same field.

"Aged 20, I began my PhD in October 2011, within the areas of advanced signal processing, and wind energy. In my research, I proposed an autonomous low-cost condition monitoring system for wind turbine blades, to reduce downtime, operations, maintenance, and capital costs associated with wind energy projects. I passed my PhD in October 2015, and graduated in July 2016."

In 2017, Ozak was named on the "The Telegraph’s Top 50 Women in Engineering under 35" list, and as The Institute of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year.

• Did you always know you would be interested in pursuing Electronic and Electrical Engineering?

"No, I did not always know that I was going to pursue a career in Electronic and Electrical Engineering. I went through phases in my childhood. There was the phase where I wanted to be a Professional Athlete and Footballer because I was good at it and it was fun. In my next phase, I wanted to become a Pilot, so that I could travel and explore the world. I moved on to the idea of becoming a Medical Doctor / Surgeon so that I could save lives and help people. However, my phobia for seeing blood in large quantities quickly dismissed this ambition. Also, I struggled in the sciences, especially Chemistry. I found Chemistry particularly difficult, and it was no further help that I disliked my Chemistry teacher. I loved Mathematics and excelled in it easily, so I knew I would end up in a career that was calculation based. It was frequent power cuts which I experienced that made me decide to take a keen interest in Physics, and led to my ultimate decision to study Electronic and Electrical Engineering. It is my ambition to work with other engineers to address this issue in Nigeria."

• What is the most important project you have worked on, and why?

"I work at Cundall, a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy within the built environment. I joined as a Graduate Engineer in 2015, while I was completing my PhD and I was promoted to Electrical Engineer in 2017. I have enjoyed every project I have been involved in and deem all thirty-eight of them to be important projects, so it is particularly difficult to choose the most important one. I design electrical services such as lighting, power, life safety systems, security and access control for new buildings, and I also survey existing buildings to ensure that the installed electrical services comply with regulations and standards. These buildings include schools, offices, apartments, retail outlets, leisure centres and data centres. I generally enjoy projects where I am the lead engineer, responsible for driving all aspects of the coordinated design. I also enjoy projects where the client is keen, and matches my level of enthusiasm for implementing sustainable practices such as reducing waste and energy consumption."

• What was it like finding industry experience after your PhD?

"As most international students will agree, it is extremely problematic to secure employment within the UK. It was very difficult for me back then in 2014 when I began applying and it still is for others, as international students require work permits / visa sponsorships to undertake employment in the UK. I kept hearing of, and reading about the huge demand for engineers which the UK was facing, so I found it frustrating that engineering companies were unwilling to give me an opportunity to demonstrate my competence, and enthusiasm to contribute to the industry solely because of the inconvenience of visa sponsorship. It also did not help matters that I was on the verge of completing a PhD without any industry experience. After a long trail of rejected and unsuccessful applications, I was given an opportunity by Cundall to demonstrate my competence at an assessment day, which I passed, and I was offered a position and visa sponsorship which I accepted."

• What do your family and friends think about your career? Are they supportive?

"My family and friends are overly supportive of my career as I am of theirs. 65% of my family and 90% of my friends are pursuing careers in STEM. My sister is a Chemical Engineer, and my brother and father are both scientists and researchers. I do know that they are all very proud of me and my achievements thus far in my career."

• What has been your greatest disappointment as an engineer? And what would you change about this?

"Fortunately, I have not experienced any personal disappointments in my career. It has been a fantastic journey so far which I am grateful for. However, I am disappointed that fewer young people are taking up engineering as a career, based on newly published statistics in the UK. I do what I can within my abilities to engage with pupils, through specially designed activities or by talking about the work I do with a view to inspire them to take an interest in STEM subjects, and hopefully pursue careers in engineering in the future. Another issue that disappoints me, is that there are not enough Returnship Programmes available for engineers who return from career breaks. With the accelerated pace, and advancements in technology within the industry, I sometimes worry about what it would be like for me in the future when I decide to take a career break. Would it be much easier than it is at present to get back into work, with the necessary support to update my skills?"

• As an engineer, what do you suggest can be done about Nigeria’s energy supply crisis?

"It is my opinion that the energy crisis in Nigeria is hampered by combinations of inadequate policies, financing strategies, infrastructure, and its management. The large population means that the demand for electricity significantly outweighs the supply, leading to low reliability. Financing within the sector is ambiguous, with generating and transmission companies selling electricity in US Dollars to distribution companies who then charge bills in Nigerian Naira. Forex (FX) fluctuations mean that the distribution companies are therefore always running at a loss. I believe over-dependence on crude oil needs to be scaled back, and there needs to be greater emphases and support for the uptake of renewable energy systems such as solar power, and energy from waste.The existing transmission infrastructure and grid systems need upgrading, and further investment. The government needs to increase its efforts towards decentralising energy within the country. This will encourage new entrants to the energy market, create good competition, and diversity, and will improve energy supply. There should also be incentives for private individuals willing to contribute electricity to the national grid."

• In 2017 you were named one of the top female UK engineers under 35, and as The Institution of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year. How did you make this happen? And what piece of advice would you give to young women aspiring to be engineers?

"I was nominated for The Telegraph’s Top 50 Women in Engineering under 35 lists and I put myself forward by applying for The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award. My application was followed by a stellar endorsement letter, which secured me an interview spot which I successfully passed, and led to my receipt of the award in December 2017.If you are a young woman aspiring to be an engineer, I think that’s fantastic. Work hard to achieve success in your studies and don’t be put off by failure. Learn from your failures where they occur, and try not to repeat them.  Seek work experience opportunities in engineering, and speak to professionals within the industry you are interested in. Make sure you have fun exploring your interests, and don’t be afraid to put yourself forward for opportunities."[/spb_text_block]