Oyelekan Ajiboye
2023 Parity Project Innovation Challenge Winner
Project: Odibo: An AI to Train and Pay Black People
Hi, Oyelekan! Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I’m the founder of Odibo and a PhD student in chemistry at The University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Tell us the pitch for your 2024 Parity Project Innovation Challenge submission.
Odibo is basically an AI platform that helps to train people with skills. So basically, the platform is connecting people with skilled workers, people who can train them. Then they learn by job shadowing.
Where did you get the idea for this project?
I’m from Nigeria. In Nigeria, there’s a tribe called the Igbo tribe.
The Igbo tribe, which happens to be a majority tribe, is kind of marginalized. But despite the marginalization in Nigeria, the Igbo people have been able to become entrepreneurs.
An Igbo person is wealthy even though society disfavors them. When I came to the US and saw the challenges faced by minorities, I thought that if we can equip more entrepreneurs, then we can help end economic disparity.
I believe that if Black people are equipped with technical skills, they can be more independent. So that was how I came up with the whole idea.
How does the platform work?
Odibo connects skilled people with those who want to learn and become apprentices. They sign up to get trained and they get connected to someone who can train them based on their geographical location.
Someone who needs a particular service signs up on the platform and can search for that service around their location.
For example, let’s say you are a person who needs a haircut. Sign up on the platform and search for a hairstylist, and then a hairstylist shows up. But, before a hairstylist can show up in their location, that hairstylist must have committed to training someone. Before skilled people can get gigs, they must have committed to training someone.
Once they get the gigs, they can take the apprentice along to the location so the apprentice can learn by job shadowing.
So the whole scenario is basically everybody wins. The skilled person gets paid and the apprentice gets trained, and even earns money in the process of being trained.
Why should someone do the Parity Project Innovation Challenge?
I think the PPIC is something that everyone should consider, especially if you have a desire for social change and to affect society with your ideas.
The Parity Project Innovation Challenge is going to help you to see yourself and see what you can do. It brings out the best in you.
What does parity mean to you?
To me, parity means equity in the sense that there is no segregation based on race, the amount of money you earn, your status, your abilities, or your ideas.
To me, if we have many white billionaires, I believe we should also have many Black billionaires.
Why is STEM important to you?
I believe STEM is the way we can affect change in our society. We are in the 21st century, and everything revolves around science and technology. If we can harness the power of science and technology, I think we can have more and we can achieve that parity.
This is no longer the time or age where we have to work with muscles and power. Now, it’s about working smart, and science and technology have given us that avenue. I believe when we leverage science and ideas and when we have more people of color or people of minority in STEM fields, they can be able to dream and to inspire.
For example, Odibo is just one of my ideas. Since starting my PhD program, I’ve been able to come up with several STEM-based ideas that I look forward to implementing in the near future. I wouldn’t have been able to even have those ideas had I not been exposed to what I’m currently exposed to in the PhD program. So I believe STEM is an avenue for you to brainstorm, see the deficiencies in society, and see how you can step in to correct them.
Who is a mentor or someone who inspires you?
One of the people that inspires me a lot is my pastor. He was a very brilliant young man and he chose to go into pastoring.
People criticized him. They asked, “How will you throw away your talent and go into pastoring and all that?” He’s over 80 years old now and he has accomplished a lot. He has been able to raise a lot of people who are now scientists. He put down his own ambition to become a great scientist, and he chose to become a pastor and then used his influence as a pastor to raise a lot of people who are now great scientists.
I would say I am one of those people right now who was inspired by him. And now I’m a scientist. I’m not a pastor, but I’m a scientist. I became a scientist because he inspired me to be a scientist, even though he was a pastor. So, I feel that’s integral to social change. Sometimes, it’s not about your success. It’s not about what you can achieve.
Social change is all about making sacrifices for the change that you want. So, by sacrificing his own ambition to be a great scientist, he chose to pursue something else for whatever reason he had, but then he still used that avenue to raise incredible scientists. And I find that so motivating and inspiring.