By Hussaini Garba Mohammed, in Heidelberg, Germany
Relocating is a common experience for many young scientists. Researchers can broaden their scientific expertise, discuss new ideas, and create meaningful relationships and collaborations by moving abroad, or staying in their own country to contribute more for the scientific ideas, tracking the movement of early-stage of young researchers around the world would create a complex network joining the most diverse places, connecting the researchers to the old laureate.
Can you please introduce yourself and how you where been selected among the young researchers to be at this wonderful event HLF 2022 to us?
My name is Samba Jallow. I am studying Physics and Mathematics at the University of The Gambia, am also the first student from the University of The Gambia to participate at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) so this is not only a win for me but also a win for my university.
I was absolutely excited when I received a congratulatory email message, indeed it was a dream coming true, I was always in anticipation before the application results were announced, so it is hard to describe the excitement after knowing am finally selected to attend the 9th HLF, it was absolutely massive for me. It’s still strange to me how all this episode come to passed, as no one refer me to the 9th HLF 2022 application link, I was scrolling one early morning through my LinkedIn account and I come across the link, I went straight and read the eligibility criteria then I gave it a shot, I shared this story because I want my fellow students and anyone reading this to realise the importance of using social media for the right purpose.
Could you tell me about your area of expertise and your recent research activities in your country and abroad?
Being a Mathematician, I took it upon myself to be someone who is very open minded, observant and one who question and ponder over things, my research was on application of Number Theory in cryptosystems, it is quite fascinating to see that natural numbers or integers has a lot to play in everyday life other than just using them to determine the quantity of an entity. Take for instance two or more integers 1,3 or 1,3,8,2 and arrange them in ascending, descending and in random order and take their product in each case, in the first case it is 13 and 1×3=3, then 31 and 3×1=3, in the second case it is 1238 and 1×2×3×8=48, then 8321 and 8×3×2×2=48, there are many ways to arrange this number in random order and still obtained the same product, here it is observed that no matter the arrangement the product is the same, let the product be the private key or the user’s key and let the arrangement be the public key, that is the key the user’s shared with others to access the same data, we observed that the lesser the integers, the easier it will be to guess the arrangement and vice versa, this can be made more complicated using complex algebraic algorithms and computation.
My next research will be on statistical research using artificial intelligence at community level, in Sub- Sahara African countries, lies many problems hindering national development, be it health problems, social problems, problems of agricultural progress etc. How can artificial intelligence help in obtaining factual and accurate statistical data from these issues? Is also an interesting part to look into, this will help tremendously to confront these problems and burst national development plans.
The benefits that comes with being a young researcher cannot be overemphasised, when I say this I mean there is a lot more time to spend and seek answers to questions that has being lingering around for ages, also at a young age when the brain is focused towards a common goal the end results are always mind boggling. We live in a digital where scarcity of resources has being a thing of the past, so literally minds in the research field have infinitely many options to explore and obtain incredible answers.
What are the benefits of performing research at the younger age? What did you not expect?
I was not expecting by the research fraternity when I wrote to them about my selection to attend the 9th HLF, it was absolutely shocking, I shared my experience because I might not be the only victim in this regard there is a likelihood that someone had had the same experience in my neighbouring countries or Africa to be precise, I believe as a continent a lot in research, but we can do a lot more if we empower young researchers and give them the necessary support they needed, their results might be beneficial beyond expectation.
How many on-going projects you are working on that will help you to a higher level?
So far as a starter, I have only the two research projects I have already talked about but every single day since after attending the 9 HLF 2022 am exploring more research topics to work on, so literally the 9th HLF is quite consequential to my research career, I also discussed with Vinton Gray Cerf (father of the Internet) on ways to improve the Internet connectivity in The Gambia which will be invaluable to research’s and communication progress.
As a computational scientist or Mathematicians you are not tied to a physical location to carry out your research. Do you find working alone like this challenging?
Working alone comes with its own challenges but also rewarding, rewarding in the sense that you can multi-task research work with daily life routines which is quite impossible otherwise, it also comes with disadvantage given that you might likely spend an ample of time in a single research project with lesser resources, so as you can see it is challenging and rewarding at the same time.
How many countries have you travel to carry out your research or attended an international conference in in the last 5 years?
Most of my works apart from participating in the 9th HLF in Germany have been home base, am still new in the research field but like I said am looking forward to many of this kind so the future is bright. And hope to travel to different countries.
Do you have any tip for those who are now thinking about a career in scientific research?
My tip for those thinking about a career in scientific research is that let them stay focused and believe in what they are up to, the environment might not be conducive but with early preparations and passion they can push beyond the limits.
What advice do you have for other students who want to study mathematics like you?
My advice would be to read advance math textbooks, online lecture notes and any accessible papers so that they can discover their research interest, the earlier you start learning and mastering the basics and the relatively easier research will come, relatively easier because research in mathematics can be quite challenging even for experts in the field.
