Omi Iyamu’s Green Room with Brandon Middleton

In the Green Room series Brandon Middleton has been inviting black and brown leaders in tech to speak on their experiences, offer advice and wisdom gained from they journeys, and to continue to democratize education. Omi Iyamu joined to speak on his career in AI and ML as well as the causes and projects he is passionately supporting outside his daily job.

Omi’s Background

Omi grew up in Nigeria where education is highly prioritized and travelled frequently as an international student. When speaking on Nigerian culture surrounding the importance of education Omi laughed and claimed that there are “Four options as a kid: Engineer, Dr., Lawyer, or disgrace to the family.” Omi continues to build a prolific career in tech including stints as a Program Manager at Microsoft and currently as Lead Product Manager at Google. At Google Omi led a team on a research project called “Magenta” that explored the role that AI can play in creative spaces using generative models. Omi is a serial entrepreneur and gives back to the startup community through advising young startups and leading webinars and coaching founders on their go to market strategy.

Key Takeaways

• On his mission to build a computer science in his hometown in Nigeria:“At the core of computer science is problem solving. We are working to solve everyday human problems. If we give people from developing better tools they will be able to take their problem solving skills to the next level.”
• On creating solutions in developing countries: “Solutions should be developed from within as these solutions will be more accepted and appreciated by the citizens of these countries.”
• On breaking down Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for those with little to no previous knowledge: “AI and ML are not new, we have been studying these for a relatively long time in technology. Machine learning is at the core of AI and essentially is a set of algorithms that use data to make certain determinations to build a model.”
• On mentoring high school students from underprivileged neighborhoods: “It is important for young adults to see a successful black man, someone who looks like them and shows them that it can be done.”
• On his drive to continue learning and to help others learn: “There is always something to learn. There is always so much to learn.”