2 minute read
Meet AI innovators Sam and Faith
Samuel Ninsiima and Abang Faith Timoh are two international students employed at ASU today. Both are part of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars program at ASU and enrolled in the Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence in Business at W P Carey School of Business the United States’ first AI graduate degree from a business school.
Since August 2024, they have been working with the AI Acceleration team at ASU Enterprise Technology with a shared purpose in using AI to solve real-world problems and make it more accessible.
Sam and Faith took very different paths to the same program, but their passion for impact has aligned them in meaningful ways. Faith’s business acumen and knack for user-focused solutions offered a sharp contrast to Sam’s technical depth in machine learning and data analysis.
Prior to starting at ASU, Sam worked for three years as a software engineer in his home country of Uganda. Joining the Data Science chapter of the team, Sam is able to combine his degree in statistics with his skills as an engineer.
Sam focuses on creating topic modeling tools to analyze unstructured feedback, helping the university identify recurring issues and act preemptively.
At the leadership level, making sense of textured data is usually a big problem, so we’re developing text models that can look at all this jargon in documents and share the main issues that have been reported.
Faith, who is from Cameroon and has a business administration background but no prior experience in AI, works with the team’s Programs and Design Chapter on creating tools to make AI more approachable for nontechnical users.
We have to educate more people to let them know about AI tools to reduce the fear that people may have about it.
Both students credit their experiences on the AI Acceleration team and the guidance of their mentors with shaping their growth. Working closely with team leads and industry professionals has given them insights into how large-scale AI projects are developed and deployed “The team’s support has been invaluable,” Faith said.
