Invitation to Participate – Panel Discussion on Artificial Intelligence & Africa’s Future

Stakeholders of Africa’s higher education are invited to participate in a panel discussion focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Africa’s Future. A distinguished panelist, consisting of the following high-level personalities, will be engaging with the discussion topic and sharing their expertise: Dr. Conrad Tucker, Dr. Moses Asom, Dr. Faye Briggs, Dr. Omowunmi Sadik, and Dr. John Kamara.  Further details are provided below:

Date: Sunday, March 2, 2025

Time: 5 PM Nigeria / 7 PM Kenya /10 AM Austin/ 11 AM New Jersey

Register to Participate via this link: https://www.tfinterviews.com/post/AI-Africa

Join Via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83778660235

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@tfinterviews/live

Professor Sadik Omowunmi will be joining the Panel Discussion on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Africa’s Future, holding on March 2, 2025. Professor Sadik Omowunmi “Wunmi” Sadik is a Distinguished Professor and Vice Provost for Academic Faculty Affairs at the New Jersey Institutes of Technology (NJIT). She is the Director of NJIT’s BioSMART Center. Sadik joined NJIT in 2019 after more than two decades at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, where her exceptional research innovation and teaching performance saw her progress to full professorship and served as Director of the Center for Research in Advanced Sensing Technologies & Environmental Sustainability (CREATES). She received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wollongong, Australia, and did her postdoctoral research at the US Environmental Protection Agency. Sadik has held appointments at Harvard University, Cornell University, and the Naval Research Laboratory.

Sadik holds five US patents and has been recognized for research innovation in biosensors and sustainable nanotechnology. Her group focuses on the understanding of interfaces, in particular, electrochemical interfaces, and how to use this knowledge to pursue innovative bio (analytical) sensing technologies for improving human health and the environment. She has led her team in translating basic biosensor research into a portable, fully autonomous, and remotely operated sensing device known as an Ultra-Sensitive Portable Capillary Sensor, or U-PAC. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Science Foundation, her group has developed sensors for the blue-green mold Penicillium italicum, among the most problematic post-harvest plant infections limiting the integrity of citrus and other crops. Sadik’s inventions have helped drive changes in many areas, including nanotechnology, pain management, and counter-terrorism.

Professor Sadik has published over 220 peer-reviewed publications and has given over 450 invited lectures and conference contributions worldwide. Her works have appeared in journals such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, NanoLetters, ACS Sensors, Analytical Chemistry, ACS Catalysis, Chemical Communications, and Biosensors & Bioelectronics. Sadik has secured over $9 million in research grants and contracts from government agencies and private sector institutions such as the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Naval Research Laboratory, and by private and non-profit sectors such as Procter & Gamble and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Sadik is a fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS), The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the National Academy of Inventors. She receives the Jefferson Science Fellowship, the National Institute of Health Outstanding Scientific Achievement & WALS Lectureship, the SUNY’s Award for Outstanding Inventor, the Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities, and NSF’s Discovery Corps Senior Fellowship. In 2024, she won the Wallace Coulter Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pittcon Conference of Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy. Sadik was the fourth woman and the first female scientist to be honored with the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award and the first Nigerian American awarded the distinguished Harvard University Radcliffe Fellowship. As the Co-Founder and inaugural past president of the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization (www.susnano.org), Sadik continues to build support for science while promoting the understanding of its broader relevance to society. She has channeled her experiences into inspiring and mentoring the next generation of scientists. At NJIT’s BioSMART Center, Sadik and her team are developing a portable biomarker sensor and artificial intelligence coupled with the patient’s self-assessment of perceived pain. This point-of-care technology will not require highly trained staff but will allow cheap and minimally intrusive measures of pain-related biomarkers.