Teaching & Supervision

I teach courses at Imperial College London, Bayero University Kano (BUK), and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS). My teaching focuses on applied machine learning, natural language processing, and AI for Social Good, with an emphasis on low-resource, and culturally grounded applications.

Current Courses

Introduction to Python for Data Science
Arewa Data Science Academy

Introductory programming, data manipulation, and visualisation using Python, NumPy, and Pandas.
Course Materials

Introduction to Machine Learning
Arewa Data Science Academy

Foundations of machine learning, including supervised and unsupervised learning, model evaluation, and basic deployment.
Course Materials

Natural Language Processing & Large Language Models
AIMS South Africa & AIMS Cameroon

Graduate-level course covering classical NLP, neural methods, and recent advances in large language models, with a focus on African languages.
Course Materials

Machine Learning
Imperial College London · Teaching Assistant

Support for lectures, tutorials, and labs on core topics such as linear models, kernel methods, and deep learning.

Supervision

I supervise and mentor students at all levels, from undergraduate projects to PhD dissertations. My supervision focuses on NLP for low-resource languages, responsible AI, and cross-cultural language technologies.

I contribute to strengthening research capacity across Africa through Arewa Data Science Academy and HausaNLP, which I co-founded, where I mentor early-career researchers and nurture collaborative research communities. I am also an active member and mentor in the MasakhaneNLP community.

Current Supervision:

• 4 PhD Students
• 2 MSc Students
• 40+ Research Interns

PhD Students

Hafiz Imam — Bayero University Kano · Co-supervisor
Automatic Speech Recognition for African Languages

Murja Gadanya — Bayero University Kano · Co-supervisor
Emotion Recognition in Low-Resource Languages

Saminu Aliyu — Modibbo Adama University of Technology · Co-supervisor
Hate Speech Detection in Low-Resource Languages

Musa Adam — Bayero University Kano · Co-supervisor
LLM Adaptation for African Languages

MSc Students

I have supervised and mentored over 40 MSc students across Africa. Below are selected examples.

Maryam Usman — Bayero University Kano · Supervisor
Sentiment Analysis for Hausa Social Media Texts

Abdulrahman Nuhu — AIMS South Africa · Visiting Supervisor
Evaluating Large Language Models for African Dialogue Systems

Alumni Impact

Over the years, I have mentored 40+ students and interns across Africa. Alumni have progressed to:

PhD Programs**
Doctoral programs at institutions across Africa, Europe, and North America, advancing research in AI and NLP.

Research Positions
Research roles at universities, research institutes, and AI labs, contributing to cutting-edge projects.

Industry Careers
Data scientists, ML engineers, and AI researchers at leading tech companies and startups globally.

Community Leadership
Mentoring others, leading local tech communities, and driving AI adoption across Africa.