Informing innovation through experience

Growing up in Nigeria, a country that suffers from chronic power outages and unreliable infrastructure, Oreoluwa Albert Ajayi, BEng17, MASc 21 — who goes by the name Ore — was surrounded by people living in poverty. He understood early in life that he was fortunate to be part of a well-educated, middle-class family.

“My late father was a professor and my mother was a computer scientist; she ran an NGO and worked with the Catholic Church on social-justice initiatives,” Ajayi says about his upbringing.

That environment, combined with his desire to find purpose and a determination to succeed, compelled him to leave Nigeria for Canada in 2012 to study electrical engineering at Concordia. “It felt like an environment conducive to learning,” Ajayi says.

Seven years later, he was a Concordia valedictorian, exhorting the class of 2017 to “soar above all obstacles.” Another reason Ajayi, who is currently pursuing his PhD at Concordia, chose electrical engineering goes back to a car accident when he was four years old.

At the time, Nigerian highways were stretched and overpopulated with trucks carrying goods because the railways and riverways were so poorly maintained. A transport truck veered from the opposite lane of the highway, forcing the car Ajayi, his mother and two other people were travelling in, to swerve into a ditch. One person was killed.

The experience inspired an interest in safer alternatives to truck transportation, especially by air. “I’m researching the applications of rule-based machine learning to complex transportation and energy systems,” he explains. “My objective is to contribute to the growing body of knowledge that will be vital to a clean-energy economy.”

The recipient of a Hydro-Québec Doctoral Scholarship, Ajayi has used the award to pursue his graduate-level studies during the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to take a class on equity, diversity and inclusion.

“It was motivating to have support, and this alleviated a significant burden on my mental and physical state,” he says. “I consider myself extremely privileged as a Canadian permanent resident to be afforded such opportunities.”

Ajayi, who launched Neuralvol, a deep-tech company he runs with a group of fellow Concordia alumni, hopes to help diminish the disproportionate socioeconomic consequences of climate change on underserved communities.

He also plans to provide mentoring and tutoring to international and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs at Concordia and other Canadian universities.