Artificial IntelliTools

My first academic conference shattered a myth, and I finally understood why representation isn’t just a buzzword.  The Wake-Up Call I recently attended the IEEE/ACM CHASE 2025 conference on connected health. As someone from Africa, I used to imagine presenters at these events as superhuman geniuses – aliens operating on a level I could never reach. Their papers seemed like cryptic manuscripts; their presence felt untouchable. But after three days immersed in this world, my naivety was peeled away like old paint. The Revelation The room was filled with brilliant minds – 80% Asian, 20% White, and a scattering of others. Including me, there were nine Black attendees among 140 participants. As I listened to presentations, something struck me:  Their work was identical to what I’d done in my graduate classes.  The same formula: Pick a topic  (like we do for projects). Find a dataset  (hello, Kaggle!). Identify a problem  (standard research 101). Propose a soluti...

We're not courageous, we're fearful We fear for our future generations' being We fear for our children's future We're fearful of incompetent dictators We are fearful of the systems that failed us We're fearful of the leaders we elected who take advantage We fear the lack of education and ignorance that looms among us We are fearful of the mediocrity that drives us We are fearful of the insanity we have normalized We are fearful of environments where wrong is right, Where right is seen as wrong We are fearful for our future wives We are fearful of our futures, period We fear for our lives And I, personally, was fearful of never becoming All I could be