Blog by Our Nigerian Team Members
Sharing Our experience Training in Wolfram Programming Language Mathematica
June 2022
Prepared by Ibrahim Muhammad
My name is Ibrahim Muhammad, I grew-up from an extended family in Jos, Plateau State Northern Nigeria. I have a degree in Engineering and currently I work in First Bank of Nigeria plc as a service executive.
I obtained my first school leaving certificate from Gospel Tenderfoot Private School, SSCE from Government Secondary School Township Jos. I received my Degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, were I studied B.Eng. Electrical Engineering.
I am happily married and blessed with two children Abubakar and Khadija.
How I got to know about this amazing organization (LOSS OF GENERALITY) is through my wife Hussaina. Since before our marriage, whenever I visited her, I found her busy learning Wolfram Programming Language. As an inquisitive person I asked her about the organization and she explained a lot about LoG.
From there I developed interest to be part of the organization. After our wedding, I told Hussaina to ask Madam Lucia (CEO) if couples can work in the organization. I was warmly welcomed into the organization and I started my training immediately.
The processes of training and skills acquisition from LoG are unique and contemporary with modern world technology. I first learned MTH 141 and MTH 142. Once I completed those math courses, the training proceeded to elementary introduction to Wolfram Programming Language and I also joined the senior team in Vuejs training and game development. But as a junior intern, I focus more on learning Wolfram programming language.
One of the good things about LoG training, is that, the training is carried out remotely and all the necessary assistance are always available.
The major challenges I faced in my training are electricity, in the place where I am working, which is about 70Km from my town, it has been without electricity for almost two years and the second challenge is poor network. The network is always fluctuating but I am using three different networks to minimize this effect because if one fail others will work.
I believe that we will overcome these challenges one day if we continue to have organizations like LoG who will train Nigerians in advanced technology
Abdulwahab Maryam
My name is Abdulwahab Maryam. I was born and brought up in Kaduna state of Nigeria. I am married and presently living in Lagos, Nigeria.
I have a diploma in medical statistics from Shehu Idris College of Health Science and Technology Makarfi, which I graduated with distinction. I later furthered my education in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, where I obtained a B.Sc. in Statistics and I graduated with second class upper.
I love mathematics even though that was not the initial course I intended to study but I ended up studying statistics, which I am happy and proud of it. Being a Statistician gives me a lot of joy because I love calculations.
I heard about Loss of Generality when I was in school from my colleagues in the engineering department. II developed an interest and researched on it through Google and a link (LinkedIn), which give me passion to join the team.
I started my training in LoG with Math 141 and Math 142 which I found interesting and I thought it will be easy but my guess was wrong. The courses were challenging to me, but I put in my best and learned them.
I proceed with elementary introduction to Wolfram Programming Language which is also interesting and challenging, because remote learning is not easy. Most times remote learning required a need to study even harder with a lot of practice.
I sincerely appreciate Madam Lucia (the CEO of LoG) for giving me this great opportunity to be part of the organization and for her caring and support. I will also want to appreciate the team members, most especially the Nigerian team which has been very supportive to me.
I believe being in Loss of Generality will help me build my career and fulfil my dream in learning programming
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Zara Muhammad
It is no secret that many girls from northern Nigeria grew up exposed to fewer opportunities compared to their male counterparts, yet demonstrate so much potential. I was very privileged to be one of the few that had a very different story.
I have always had a curious mind, constantly evaluating problems around me figuring out system faults at computers at home whilst fixing them. I have loved mathematics since high school and have consistently performed well. This is what led me to study engineering.
Learning without a goal is one of the worse things because you will not see the value of it. Motivation is what keeps you moving toward your goals. I develop a passion to learn programming. I started out with YouTube, asking friends for guides, reading pdfs, and textbooks. Along the way, my passion started diminishing, because it was self-learning, as I had no idea how to go about mastering it, basically no structured road map for learning, no clues on what to read next. The structured learning courses are paid courses, and the fees were high at that time. These are some of the things that hindered me from taking online courses then. A structured way of learning is good but having a person that I can refer to when I have issues or that monitors me would have helped. Actually, the two combined makes it way better.
I have never heard of the Wolfram Programming Language until I joined Loss of Generality (LoG). LoG is a non-profit organization that centers around making an impact that matters and provides easy access to young people to learn advanced programming. After taking some math courses, I was introduced to Wolfram Programming language. Wolfram is not popular in my region, but after getting to know about it, is actually a very powerful and unique programming language. It is knowledge-based (that means that it already knows a lot), so you have to tell it much less to get it to do things you want. You can make things that are visual, textual, interactive, or whatever. Furthermore, you can do analyses or figure things out, and you can also create apps, programs and websites, interesting right?
I easily got adjusted to the online learning, because I have taken a few courses online before, its actually quite different with LoG virtual learning. LoG virtual learning is self-learning whereby you are being monitored and guided on what to do, unlike the other online courses that I took and I like the method. Madam Lucia and the team have been very supportive and they encourage and guide me to do achieve more.
However, there are quite a few challenges I encountered during the course of my virtual learning. Power outage is one of the major issues, we have been experiencing epileptic power supply and a hike in fuel prices in Nigeria, so this is making it difficult to use the other alternative, which is the usage of generator.
Poor internet connection is also an issue. Internet speed in Nigeria is generally poor and it also depends on your location (your network provider might not have good coverage in your area) and time; at times it gets really fast in the later hours of the night. The speed is highly unstable.
That has not discouraged me from learning because of my passion. With all these issues caused by lack of electricity and poor network for instance not attending meetings, replying emails or not doing a given task as a result of lack of electricity and coupled with bad network, I found out Madam Lucia to be a very understanding person and she keeps on motivating me. I have learned what working remotely is like and I appreciate it. It is actually very flexible, but you have to be fully committed. Through this learning journey, I wish to delve deeper into this domain and explore its fullest potential
I plan to help Borno, my hometown in re/growing by bridging the ICT gap and transforming the state and its people into entrepreneurial approach. All these narrow down to making an impact that matters, I believe when we strive for change and we start with ourselves, you will see the difference!
