When I got to South Africa in 2006 for my master’s degree, I came up with a Project idea. The project topic I wanted to research was “Implementation of a Library Management System”. That topic sounded vague to my supervisor (May his blessed soul rest in peace).
He asked me which programming language I intended to use, and I said Visual Basic. He said Naa. Visual Basic is not a Computer Science Programming Language. He said it’s used in the Faculty of Commerce.
What would I do now? I asked myself. And I told him I only knew Visual Basic, Pascal, Delphi, and some C++. He said Delphi is done in High School. He said Pascal was used by old programmers of those days.
Oh my gosh, what would I do now? I immediately felt worthless.
Then Gary said, if you want to work with me, you must learn Java, and we would have to change your topic. That topic is an honours student project. It doesn’t fit into master’s work. He said, Go and think of another topic and let’s meet next week.
I returned to my supervisor in 3 months, equipped with Java; I was using Java. I was super confident that I now knew Java. I told him I thought I knew Java. He asked me if I had any research topic. Guess what? I was bereft of ideas.
Gary laughed and said Samuel, don’t worry, you will get something soon. He then asked me to go and learn J2ME. J2ME is a Java framework used to develop Mobile applications before Android, iOS, etc., came on board. Off I go. I went to learn J2ME. In another three months, I will start developing some mobile applications. However, six months had passed without a research direction.
After nine months, and it looked like I was hopeless, with no money or research ideas, I went back to Gary to ask if he could suggest a topic for me. He asked me to come back after another week. And without telling me, Gary went on a three-month Sabbatical Leave.
I was left hopeless. There is no way to see Gary other than communicating via email. He could see my frustration in the tone of my email to him. I told him I didn’t have the money to pay my school fees next year. And now, a year is almost gone, and I haven’t done anything. He asked me to calm down. He gave me some random mobile projects to develop. He arranged some Nokia and Samsung Phones for me to test. He asked me to record my observations as l deployed the apps on real devices. Indeed, I made some observations. The significant observation was the one I made.
He came back in December. At that time, Google was planning to launch Android in 2007.
Then, in February 2007, we met again. I narrated some of the observations I made to him. The observation he wanted me to make was that when you develop a J2ME application, the application will not work the same on different phones, like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sagem, etc. The time it took to make the app work and fit different phones’ screens is way more than it took to develop the app.
As I narrate this observation to him, he cuts in. He said, “Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, that’s it. That’s the frustration mobile developers are facing today worldwide. Now, we need to find a way to support mobile developers to ensure that one code base will work on many phones when they write the application.
I said to myself, How would I do this. God, you need to come and save me now.
That was how I came up with my Master’s Research topic, “SUPPORTING MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPERS THROUGH A JAVA IDE”. NetBeans was the IDE of choice that I worked on then. A copy of my Master’s Thesis can be accessed openly at this link here.
Unknown to me, Gary had gone to Google’s office in London to secure funding for the project I would be doing. One of the significant challenges I had in my early days in South Africa was finances.
Boom, in the second year of my Master’s, I got a scholarship to work on my Master’s project. I had no hope of paying my school fees. I had no hope of surviving in SA as we advanced. In the same year, the international fees I paid last year, which took all my money, were waived, and the money was refunded to me.
I have been living the life of a beggar in South Africa. I worked as a Cybercafe attendant, earning R5 per hour for 4 hours daily. And that was the beginning of my change story in South Africa.
Moral of the story: Sometimes, delay is not denial. And sometimes, the delay comes your way because God is probably setting you up for the big stage. A dog gives birth in 63 days, but an elephant carries greatness for 22 months. Success takes time – be patient, your moment is coming. It will definitely come.
I went on to Present the result of my research in 3 countries, America being number 1, Germany being number 2, and the UK being Number 3. The result of the research was hugely accepted, and that was how I started my career as a mobile application developer.
I have metamorphosed in my career and become a Manager in various organisations in South Africa. Today, I am a Lecturer and AI Researcher in one of South Africa’s prestigious universities, the University of Mpumalanga, where I double as the Program Leader, looking after the Bachelor of ICT program and Postgraduate Diploma in ICT program in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences. Also, I am the Research Chair for the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences.
I developed the first Mobile Application Curriculum Content to teach the Mobile Application Module in South Africa.
Bio
My name is Olalekan Samuel Ogunleye. I am focused more on AI, Robotics, Cybersecurity, and high-performance computing, all with Python as the underpinning technology.
