As much as this picture above tries to capture this beautiful entrance, unfortunately even the high resolutions of Samsung 10 (no offense) will not produce the visual representation of my eyes on 27th of August 2017.
Before I continue to narrate my experience, I will tell you what AIMS is. AIMS stands for AFRICAN INSTITUTE for MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES, it has 6 centers of excellence in South Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania, Senegal and Rwanda. They build up African Leaders in Science by strengthening their skills in Mathematical Sciences and Community Engagement. (read more)
We were selected 47 from 18 African countries to live, study and grow under one roof. In order to reinforce PANAFRICANISM, we had shared rooms. Each person had to learn their roommates culture and respect their differences. My roommate, Mayar Shaheen from Egypt; a brilliant physicist and a hardworking team player. We were different in many things like; skin colour, religion, educational background etc but we were surprisingly similar in aspects like; loved sleeping, reserved, watched lots movies... This pairing in rooms formed the best of friends and in the worse cases: acquaintances (they will behave like friends in some years to come).
The environment provided a 24/7 learning environment which we took advantage of. The library was one of the best rooms to spend the night even though it had no bed, then it resonated in us that AIMS could also mean African Institute for Minimal Sleep. Weekly quizzes are a key learning factor of AIMS education, this ensured we were always prepared and ready for the lectures. The best part of learning; group work and presentations, every course ended with group presentation. The fun part of it is: teams are build randomly and the possibility to be in the same team with someone more than 3 times is rare (given we have 11 courses in 10 months). Team work could be wonderful (when all or almost all members are friends or they are all hardworking) or just 'work' (when the opposite occurs). I can proudly say I have experienced all sorts of team works and it has made me who I am today.
We had other activities such as community outreach through teaching secondary schools, ICT trainings to government officials. We visited universities in other parts of Cameroon like; Buea, Yaounde and Dschang. Industry experience is part of the training for cooperative studies, so we visited many local companies such as CDC, ENEO and Group One holdings.
From the third picture you can see a prominent French Scientist and Parliamentarian: Cédric Villani (Fields Medalist 2010) visited AIMS 2018 and It was an honor to listen to his "Mathematics of the Bat" lecture.
10 months came so fast (Structural Master's student returned to their various countries) and the cooperative master's students were to continue with 6 months internship. I worked with 3 others at Group One holdings on a fuel pilferage problem in telecommunication tower sites. We were 11, we could make better group decisions and celebrate each others birthdays.
Our graduation was documented being the first cohort of Cooperative Master's in Industrial Mathematics. Our friendship continues on in any virtual space like WhatsApp, Gmails and many other social media, till we meet for anyone's wedding.
The memories of AIMS lives on in my heart and the exceptional joy I experienced being the head of the Health club. Being able to care and part take in healthcare activities which is one of the domains I am passionate about in Science. I look forward doing remarkable work in 'AI for Energy.