‘As a kid they used to call me ‘prof’

“I did a bachelor’s in electrical engineering but I was focused on power and power systems. Then I got a job at a solar power company which was in line with what I thought I wanted to do at the time. There was a small embedded systems department, which is more about working with chips, and I spent a lot of time there because I thought it was interesting. Then I started applying to schools in Europe to do a master’s in embedded systems which is how I ended up here at TU Delft. During my master’s there was this one course on scheduling algorithms and it came quite naturally to me. The professor noticed that I really got it and suggested I do my thesis on the topic, and that’s how I ended up doing a PhD in algorithmics and scheduling.

It’s not surprising to anybody who knows me that this is what I’m doing with my life. As a kid they used to call me ‘prof’ because everybody assumed I would end up in academia. My plan was to study embedded systems, get some experience and go back home to work. But a lot of things changed during the master’s. I graduated right in the middle of the first Covid lockdown. It was a weird time and a lot of my plans changed, which kind of influenced me to stay on for a PhD.

I work with the algorithmics research group which is developing algorithms for a variety of applications in different fields. Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are really hot right now so a big part of the group is doing AI related research. I do more planning and scheduling, so I’m trying to figure out new, faster or more intelligent scheduling algorithms for manufacturing systems.

‘I definitely see myself going back home to Nigeria at some point’

The world of manufacturing is getting more and more complex. Factories are producing billions and billions of products. Sometimes you have one factory or plant doing multiple things. We want to be able to control the flow of products in a way that makes the factory more productive without changing the physical layout. It’s putting some intelligence behind how you organise items that go through these factories. We find that it’s a much cheaper alternative to tweak the software than to reorganise the plant or buy a new machine. We have seen a lot of gains from more intelligent scheduling, for example you can more than double the productivity of a plant. That is the type of outcome we are trying to achieve, big results with relatively small effort.

I’m not really clear about what I want to do when I finish but I don’t think I want to stay in academia. Academic work is really impactful, but sometimes it’s a long-term impact. I would prefer to do something that has direct, quick, short-term impact on people’s lives now. I want to find a way to apply the knowledge I’m learning and put it to work in industry or maybe even start my own thing. I think that would be most fulfilling for me. I definitely see myself going back home to Nigeria at some point. I can gain a lot of skills and experience here and then take them back.

I would like to see a lot more women in scientific fields. Back home there were very few but I always assumed that in Europe the society would be further away from typical gender roles or norms. Of course, you have a lot more female classmates here, but the ratio is almost the same as back home. I’m curious about how we can encourage more girls to join, especially when it comes to algorithmics. I think if you do your best work and put yourself out there you can be an example for others.”

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Heather Montague / Freelance writer