By Hussaini Garba Mohammed, who was 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?
I am Dr. Emmanuel Johnson, currently a computing innovation fellow at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. I graduated summa cum laude from North Carolina A&T, holds a masters in Robotics from the University of Birmingham in England and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. I was the recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, the USC Order of Arete, a Fulbright Fellow and was recently inducted into the New Brunswick High School Hall of Distinguished Alumni. I was born in Liberia but immigrated to America at the age of 8 and.
Could you tell me about your area of expertise and your recent research activities in your country and abroad?
My research focuses on building AI systems that can be used to teach interpersonal skills. I build artificial agents that can interact socially with humans, and also be able to assess how well users follow social norms and how best to provide feedback once they’ve violated those norms. To do this, I build computation model of social situations and leverage those models to drive the agent behaviors as well as provide feedback on how well a student followed established principles in a given filed.
What are the benefits of performing research at the younger age? What did you not expect?
It exposes you to how knowledge is created and positions you to help shape the future of a field as well as become a contributor to the progression of society. The earlier the exposure, the longer you have to make an impact.
How many on-going projects you are working on that will help you to a higher level?
Currently I have one main research project going on. I am working on building artificial intelligent systems that can serve as a personalized tutor for students who want to learn various skills.
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? I think it can become challenging but not being tied to a physical location does not mean you cannot carryout good research and connect with colleagues from other parts of the world.
How many countries have you travel to carry out your research or attended an international conference in in the last 5 years?
6 countries
Do you have any tip for those who are now thinking about a career in scientific research?
Be curious and ultilize the problems in your community as a motivation to keep going when things get tough. The journey may be difficult, but it is not impossible. The difficulties are way shapes you into the researcher you are. Pursue a career in scientific research because the world needs you to make it a better place and Africa needs you to be great as it once was.
