Omdena’s Scholarship Recipient: Bethel From Ethiopia

For June 2021, We have allocated US $350 that the recipient is able to spend on educational purposes, including paying for courses or buying educational materials.

This month, we have Bethel Hall from Ethiopia.

Can you tell us who Bethel is?

I’m a software engineering undergraduate student at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Particularly interested in Computer Vision, Autonomous Systems, Formal Verification, and Cloud Computing. I have recently joined Omdena as a junior machine learning engineer after my role as an undergraduate research assistant at the University of Michigan. 

How did you end up in AI, Bethel?

Three years ago, I had the opportunity to work as a software engineering intern at iCog-Labs, where I was exposed to a variety of machine learning projects. Before joining the company, I had no idea what artificial intelligence was. To keep up with the project’s requirements, I had to take several online data science and machine learning courses. It seemed almost impossible at first, but with perseverance, hard work, mentorship, and self-belief, I was able to secure the opportunity to work on real-world computer vision projects. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with artificial intelligence because of its widespread impact on changing people’s lives.

How did you know about Omdena and how did it impact your journey?

During our discussion of various AI labs and companies around the world, a friend of mine suggested I join a company called Omdena. I then went home and conducted extensive research on Omdena before applying for the available project. I had the good fortune to be accepted for one of the most difficult AI projects I’d ever seen.

I had no idea it was possible to collaborate with more than 30 data scientists and developers on a single project. But Omdena demonstrated that it is possible! This is the most important lesson I take away from every project I work on at Omdena.

Life at Omdena has been exciting for me in terms of learning new technologies, meeting new people from all over the world, and applying cutting-edge techniques to real-world projects. Omdena has positively impacted my life by not only allowing me to work on AI projects but also by providing me with a roadmap for successfully delivering data science projects.

What are your goals and next steps?

My primary goal has always been to improve my problem-solving abilities in research, computer vision, and autonomous systems, and to be a part of a community where such skills are required and used to achieve scientific breakthroughs.

I also hope to improve the lives of my community members and increase their exposure to AI by matching them with work and educational opportunities. Even if it takes time and resources, I believe I can and will be one of the changemakers my community needs!

Get introduced to Omdena’s previous scholarships:

For April 2021, Madhu Charan from India. 

For May 2021, Marvin Odhiambo from Kenya and Ditiro Rampate from Botswana.