Age has never been a limitation and will not at any point start to be, and investment in knowledge always pays the best dividend. Tominsin Ogunnubi is another proof of these statements.
Tominsin is a 16-year-old computer science student at Imperial College, London. About 4years ago, at 12years, she showed interest in technology as well as diversity and inclusivity within the field. She pursued this interest and cultivated skills in web and mobile development. She has since worked with several languages and frameworks including Javascript, Java, and Python. She has also ventured a little into the fields of machine learning, design and animation at some point.
As her mantra is, she is inspired by her own experiences with the aim to foster gender and ethnic diversity in computer science and endeavors to engage on the topic through personal interactions and media opportunities. As one of the steps taken in the right direction, she developed a genius android application in 2016 that helps lost children find their way back home.
At the time of developing this app, Tominsin was a high school student of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls in Lagos, Nigeria. The android application, My Locator, uses Google Maps to track users as they move from one location to the next which means the user(s) must have their location on always, to be effective. Users also have the unique advantage to add numbers that will receive their location in the event of an emergency.
According to Tomisin, “My Locator has a functionality where you click on an alert button. It sends a text message and makes a phone call, that’s if you’ve enabled it in your settings, to a particular number that you’ve designated to it.”
“It could be an emergency number or it could be a family member’s number. It’s your choice. So in case of an emergency, when you need an urgent response, it sends your current address to that number so somebody can easily locate where you are.”
A source has it that, one of the things that were instrumental to the success of the development was that, Tomisin’s school has an Information and Communications Technology (ICT)partnership with New Horizons Computer Learning Centre. She was able to get started building the app she had always envisioned.
The source added that the app has a ‘current location‘ setting which helps the child know where they are and the neighboring streets around them. If that setting doesn’t work, the app allows the kids to save a location – like their house or school – and will direct them on how to get from wherever they are to that saved location.
In addition, the app also has an ‘alert‘ button that is connected to the Lagos State Emergency Service number (767). Immediately the button is pressed, the emergency number is called and a message showing the child’s current location will be sent to them for help.
In total, the app is divided into three sections: Current Location, Remembered Location, and Alert Button. As explained above, the current location automatically shows your current location while the view on the map button shows the current location and the neighboring streets.
According to the Android play store, save your current location saves your current location, and remember it for future reference while the ‘Remembered place’ section of the app displays the saved location and its GPS. It also has the show direction from current to remembered section, so that if you move to another location, this button goes to google map and shows the route from your location to your remembered place.
As at the time of launch to present, the application has over 1000 downloads on Playstore.
In a competition tagged the $1billion Rise Initiative, Tominsin represented herself and of course, Nigeria and competed with 49,900 other sound technology-inclined youngsters from 170countries of the world and beat them to emerge one of the 100 Global Winners in the $1billion Rise Initiative. That, no doubt, was an impressive win for Nigeria. This and many more intriguing achievements are why we are celebrating Tominsin Ogunnubi.
This grand feat has opened Tominsin up to scholarships, mentorships, career development opportunities, and funding for a lifetime. It has also attracted many technology companies to her, meanwhile, she currently works as a Software Engineer at Cascade, United Kingdom.
