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2023 Competition Honorees

Huma Ameer / 2023 Honoree

Current Research: Co-occurring disfluencies in Stuttered Speech – Classification via Deep Learning

Biography: I did my undergrad in computer sciences and developed a knack for data sciences at the end of my degree. My final year project was related to the stuttering assessment system, an application that would aid in the diagnosis of stuttering. Moreover, it was funded by IGNITE and I was able to explore this area of study. During my undergrad, I worked as an android developer internee for a startup. I am currently pursuing my master’s in Data Sciences, and my courses include; Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Mathematics for Data Sciences, Computer Vision, and Natural Language Processing. I am now in my research phase and have continued to work on the diagnosis of stuttering via deep learning.

How will your work assist those in underserved geographic regions?

In Pakistan, approximately 23 million people are suffering from communication disorders, and 17.6% of school children have articulation disorders. In a developing country like Pakistan, on average, either people cannot afford to take help from a therapist or they avoid going to psychologists because of the social norms. As they don’t take the required help, they tend develop other issues like low self-esteem, anxiety, stress etc.

​Ugwa Boniface / 2023 Honoree

Current Research:

Development of novel catalysts for biomass redox flow fuel cell.

Biography: I studied Chemical Engineering in Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) in Nigeria and graduated with Bachelor of Engineering.

In my 4th year of undergraduate studies, I had an internship training in Life Breweries Company Limited. After graduation, I proceeded for a National Youth Service Corps scheme in Yobe State, Nigeria, specifically providing pipe-borne water to the rural community in which I served. I was also part of the team that won research grant to carry out research on development of biosynthesized nanomaterials for the removal of emerging contaminants from industrial wastewater in Nigeria from National Research Fund, I have defended my research proposal on the development of multifunctional and hybrid catalysts for direct biomass redox flow fuel cell.

How will your work assist those in underserved geographic regions?

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and 7th in the world is still very far behind in attaining clean and affordable energy sufficiency for her teeming population of about 200 million people. Average energy consumption per day in Nigeria was reported to be 0.29 kWh as against 1 kWh required. Out of this population, less than 40% has access to energy.

Chiwetalu Nenechi

Current Research:

Bioremediation of Crude Oil Contaminated Water Bodies

Biography: I studied Applied Biochemistry as an undergraduate degree and graduated 2018, I went ahead to obtain a professional certification in HSE under Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (ISPONG) in 2020. I’m currently earning a Master’s degree in Bioenergy in Federal University of Technology Owerri.

How will your work assist those in underserved geographic regions?
Underserved geographic regions are those communities that gets hit most from crude oil spillage as a major source of their income is fishing and farming. Speaking from experience the crops are affected adversely regardless of how fertile the soil previously was and aquatic lives is lost leading to low income for the fishermen and women this automatically further declines the standard of living for such communities. If help comes for such underserved communities such as remediating their water bodies without causing significant harm to aquatic lives there, the standard of living would be revived as there would be a significant growth in their economy. This method can also be employed diversely in various other undeserved community around the world boosting rural economy.