Al-Amin Bashir Bugaje: The Genius who broke ABU All-Time Record in 2017
In 2017, at the 40th convocation ceremony of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, a genius was unveiled to the world. His name is Al-Amin Bashir Bugaje.
The 23yrs old Bugaje didn’t just bag a First Class degree in Electrical Engineering, he smashed the University’s all-time record by amassing the highest Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.93 to emerge as the University’s overall best ever graduating student since its establishment.
This extraordinary accomplishment earned him an award of a full postgraduate scholarship, up to the Ph.D. level in any institution in the world, by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which was led at the time by another great ABU Alumnus, Dr. Maikanti Baru who knew what it meant to achieve such pinnacle in the prestigious institution.
According to Dr. Baru, himself a First-Class degree holder in Mechanical Engineering from the ABU, “This gesture was in line with NNPC’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of championing educational excellence nationwide. We equally want to encourage other students who are still in school to also aspire towards achieving excellence in their academic pursuits,”.
The Katsina State indigene was also awarded the best project work. The project which was on the development of a web-based real-time energy monitoring system, aimed at improving the efficiency in energy management, was a response solution to a sudden hike in electricity tariff in Ahmadu Bello University to about N86 million per month.
The project also won Al-Amin Bashir Bugaje a prize for innovation and entrepreneurship.
How did you attain this result? “It was a mixture of all the regular ‘study-well’ driven concepts with a touch of the magic recipe. Firstly, my mother and secondly, sleeping regularly. I take siestas every day if I can. The idea behind that is, without the blessings of your parents, all you do will be fruitless. And without proper rest, your mental efficiency is compromised,” he said.
Al-Amin Bashir Bugaje went on to complete his master’s in Future Power Networks and is currently making Abusites and ABU Zaria proud as a PhD student in the Control and Power group of Imperial College London, helping develop the 21st-century electrical power networks we need to keep people connected in a decarbonized world.
“As part of climate change fighting initiatives, there is a large-scale effort to integrate very large shares of renewable energies into the transmission grid. However, renewable energies are notorious for their intermittency and lack of inertia, which makes system operation using conventional approaches very difficult. My research leverages the availability of data and machine learning tools to draw insight from that data so that the system operator keeps the lights on.” He explains
Al-Amin Bashir Bugaje was set on his career path in primary school. “I had a maths teacher who sparked a curiosity and love for the sciences that ultimately lead to engineering.”
“The value of people cannot be overemphasized. The primary shaper in my ‘Engineering Journey’ has been the people I have met along the way.”
“Energy access is one of the pressing challenges plaguing my home country and sub-Saharan Africa at large. I did my postgraduate degree in Future Power Networks at Imperial where I met my mentor Dr. Cremer and my current supervisor Professor Strbac. They laid the foundation for my current path. The universe facilitates whatever goal you set through people, and hence my love for meeting new people.”
As PhD student rep Al-Amin is responsible for keeping students connected too — coordinating activities and fostering a sense of community. He is also vice-chair of Imperial’s Climate Entrepreneurs Club.
The Climate Entrepreneurs Club is a multidisciplinary team of Imperial students from different backgrounds who seek to address climate change with real impact. The aim is to unite and motivate each other to take entrepreneurial initiatives that can make a positive impact on global society.
“Sustaining these communities during Covid has been particularly challenging, with “Zoom fatigue” and lack of that human touch, but we are invested in furthering our cause,” he said
The Climate Entrepreneurs are planning to organize “innovation jam sessions” where students from different backgrounds and experiences can collaborate and develop their ideas. Al-Amin says the community is open to people with various levels of experience and interests. Find out more about the Climate Entrepreneurs.
If engineering was not his career Al-Amin might have been drawn to become an economist or a poet. “An economist because the issue of inequality is very close to my heart, a poet because, well, “shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Meaningful words are eternal, scorched on people’s hearts. Who wouldn’t want to be eternal !?”
Without access, we alienate. Without networking, mentorship is not possible. Without equipment, the best ideas die out in the fringes.”
Al-Amin Bashir Bugaje says his journey in engineering has been shaped by the access provided from scholarships and mentoring, and like many engineers, he agrees there is a real need to open up the opportunities.”
“I think there is a need for conscious posturing to increase diversity and representation in the talent pool. One approach universities and industry could take is to create specialized streams of entry that are deliberate in taking chances on people, mentoring them, and teaching transferable skills. Increased collaborations such as industry-sponsored hackathons could help to identify and recruit those talented people. There could also be an effort to create hubs in less privileged areas to encourage and groom talent.”
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