{"id":70467,"date":"2021-02-09T15:24:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T20:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=70467"},"modified":"2021-02-17T08:40:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T13:40:36","slug":"faculty-focus-how-encouraging-words-helped-beatrice-ombuki-berman-break-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/02\/faculty-focus-how-encouraging-words-helped-beatrice-ombuki-berman-break-barriers\/","title":{"rendered":"FACULTY FOCUS: How encouraging words helped Beatrice Ombuki-Berman break barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: Faculty Focus is a monthly series that highlights faculty whose compelling passions, innovative ideas and various areas of expertise help weave together the fabric of Brock University\u2019s vibrant community. For more from the series,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Beatrice Ombuki-Berman has learned through her own life\u2019s journey that words have the power to shape destinies.<\/p>\n

People appeared at pivotal moments with key messages that propelled Ombuki-Berman from her humble beginnings in a small village in western Kenya to graduate school in Japan to Brock University, where she was one of the founding members of Brock\u2019s Master of Science Computer Science program.<\/p>\n

The seeds of Ombuki-Berman\u2019s career \u2014she\u2019s now Graduate Program Director and Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Brock\u2019s Department of Computer Science \u2014 were planted by her parents.<\/p>\n

She describes her mother, a homemaker, secretary and high school graduate, as \u201cone of the smartest women I know,\u201d who often emphasized how education would take her \u201cto a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother told me a few times that she wished she had gotten a university education, but she said I will finish that for her,\u201d Ombuki-Berman recalled.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her father, a well-known and respected mathematics teacher, frequently shared his passion for mathematics with his two daughters and five sons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever we came home with our report cards, he\u2019d only ask one thing: \u2018How did you do in math?\u2019,\u201d she said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

Ombuki-Berman inherited her father\u2019s love of mathematics, excelling in that and many other subjects in high school, as well as competing in track and field. She knew that she would go to university, but didn\u2019t have a clear vision of what she would do afterwards.<\/p>\n

Turning to her father for advice, he recommended graduate school, followed by a career in teaching. Ombuki-Berman wasn\u2019t sure she found teaching appealing, but her father\u2019s encouraging words about her potential motivated her to press on.<\/p>\n

She enrolled at Jomo Kenya University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). It was there where she first encountered a trend that still continues in computer science today: a dearth of women in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always found that I have that extra challenge of being in a male-dominated field,\u201d Ombuki-Berman said. \u201cI feel I have to prove myself more, because there\u2019s not enough women to make me feel like I belong, so, I try to work much, much harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ombuki-Berman found the challenge invigorating. She threw herself into her studies and began teaching herself Japanese in hopes of one day gaining a scholarship to study at a university in Japan. The dream was sparked by JKUAT\u2019s many partnerships with Japanese universities.<\/p>\n

After graduating with a double Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Statistics, Ombuki-Berman tried her hand in industry, but felt it wasn\u2019t the right fit. Frustrated, she dropped by the office of her former statistics professor for advice. He told Ombuki-Berman that she had been one of JKUAT\u2019s top students and asked if would like to apply for a teaching assistant position at the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly, I realized I wanted to be in the academy,\u201d Ombuki-Berman recalled, adding she filled out the job application that day. She got the position and taught at JKUAT for about a year.<\/p>\n

During that time, her dream of studying in Japan was re-ignited. She enrolled in Japanese language classes and applied for a scholarship, which she didn\u2019t get.<\/p>\n

Devastated, Ombuki-Berman decided to apply for a master\u2019s in mathematics. But a conversation with JKUAT\u2019s vice-chancellor changed her mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said to me, \u2018We could give you a scholarship to do a master\u2019s in mathematics, but the future is in computer science. Don\u2019t give up after just one round,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At the time, computer science studies were in their infancy; Ombuki-Berman would have to leave Kenya to pursue that field. She tried again, and, to her excitement, was awarded a scholarship.<\/p>\n

The first few months at Osaka University of Foreign Studies, where she underwent intensive Japanese language training, were a \u201cnightmare,\u201d she said. Suffering from severe culture shock, loneliness and being the only Black woman in her program, Ombuki-Berman almost gave up but instead remembered the words of her parents and stuck it out.<\/p>\n

Life eventually got better. She bonded well with her fellow students, made a few close friends and was highly successful with her studies. She graduated with a Master in Information Engineering and a PhD in Intelligent Systems from the University of the Ryukyus, in Okinawa, Japan.<\/p>\n

Ombuki-Berman initially planned to return to Kenya, but wanted to get some professional experience first. She knew of a distant relative studying at Western University and googled \u201cOntario\u201d to see the possibilities. Brock University was the second entry to pop up.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, there was a position open in the Department of Computer Science, which she successfully applied for.<\/p>\n

Her plan to return to Kenya eventually changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree\u00a0years after joining Brock, a chance meeting with Professor Michael Berman in the Department of Philosophy led to him giving a talk about artificial intelligence and philosophy in my class. That eventually led to a marriage proposal a year later and two beautiful daughters,\u201d Ombuki-Berman said.<\/p>\n

Ombuki-Berman is now involved in developing Brock\u2019s new Interdisciplinary PhD in Intelligent Systems and Data Science \u2014 a cutting area in computer science, statistics and mathematics.<\/p>\n

Her research uses computational intelligence \u2013 a branch of artificial intelligence that involves bio-inspired computing \u2013 to solve large-scale optimization problems.\u00a0Her work has been funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Centres of Excellence.<\/p>\n

Now, Ombuki-Berman is using encouraging words similar to what she received to propel her students forward. She is passionate about mentoring women and has recruited an all-female undergraduate research assistant team for this summer.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents always reinforced to my younger sister and I that there is nothing that our brothers can do that we can’t do,\u201d Ombuki-Berman said. \u201cDetermination, hard work and love for education can break through barriers and transform lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beatrice Ombuki-Berman has learned through her own life\u2019s journey that words have the power to shape destinies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":70468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,7,3319,55,41,1,4],"tags":[9065,4382,159,567,8634,348,91,3325,8672],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70469,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70467\/revisions\/70469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}