Cosmopolitan Varsity Honours Winners Of AI Competition

The management of Cosmopolitan University, Abuja has honoured some secondary school students who excelled in its first artificial intelligence (AI) competition.

The ‘create with AI competition’ tested secondary school students on creativity, evaluation, and referencing.

Speaking during the presentation of awards to the winners in Abuja on Thursday, Professor Carl Adams, vice-chancellor of the university, noted that the institution has been at the forefront of promoting and using AI for educational purposes.

The vice-chancellor said the university has been collaborating with institutions within and outside Nigeria to promote the use of AI, noting that the competition was an extension of that effort.

“It is the future of education, nursing, business, and many organisations. We are collaborating with other universities within and outside Nigeria,” he said.

“This AI competition is an extension of that. AI is embedded in many activities of many organisations and we will continue to grow. This competition is one of many to come in the future.”

The university’s registrar, Dr Ibrahim Mani, said the institution needed to take the lead in promoting AI among secondary school students through the competition.

“We aim to make this grow in the coming years. Hopefully, we want to make it a national event, and gradually, it will become an international event,” Mani said.

“This is the trajectory that we are going down. Why are we pushing for AI? AI will determine almost everything that will happen tomorrow. AI will crisscross and transverse every human endeavour.

“If you look at it, we are seeing an incremental presence of AI in our everyday lives. It would be best if you weren’t left behind, and that informed the need for this competition—for you to be exposed to this disruptive technology that will shape the future.

More importantly, we are happy that Cosmopolitan University is coming to be at the forefront of promoting the utilisation of AI among secondary school students in Nigeria. We are happy with the response that we received from the participants.”

Coordinator of the Create with AI competition team, Dr Juliet Okpo,said the university seeks to promote responsible AI practices among the students because AI is sweeping across all spheres of life.

Okpo noted that students at the university are exposed to AI technology through teaching and learning, which adequately prepares them for life after school.

Some of the students from Roberto Secondary School, Bristol Academy, and Starville Secondary School who participated in the competition won awards.

Khalid Alao of Roberto won gold in the creativity and referencing categories, while Ifeoluwa Bankole-Ladipo of Starville School won gold in the evaluation category.