By TOM CHIAHEMEN and CHRIS NWOKOCHA
At just 25, Dr. Faisal Adamu Hamman has joined a rare class of young scientists shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Fresh from earning a doctorate in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland, the Adamawa-born researcher is tackling one of the most urgent questions in modern technology: Can we trust AI?
Behind the global recognition, however, lies a deeply personal story that began far from American research laboratories, in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital territory, where Faisal lived with his parents until he left Nigeria for further studies. “We noticed his special gift early,” Faisal’s parents, Adamu Hamman and Aisha Adamu Hamman, both engineers, told this newspaper in an interview. “He consistently won awards in Mathematics, Further Mathematics and Physics in secondary school. As early as Primary Three, his teacher told us he was gifted. And by the time he was in senior secondary school, his excellence was undeniable.”
After Faisal graduated high school with nine distinctions (7A1s and two B2s) in the West African Examinations Council’s School Certificate exam in 2016, the family faced a pivotal decision. They wanted a stable academic environment that would stretch his abilities. That choice led them to send their teenage son thousands of miles away to Turkey for university studies, a tough sacrifice in both financial and emotional terms. “We reviewed his options carefully,” his father said. “We wanted the best environment for him.”
In Istanbul, he graduated summa cum laude in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, emerging as overall best graduating student with a near-perfect GPA. But his intellectual journey was only beginning. He would later move to the United States to pursue graduate studies at the University of Maryland, one of America’s leading engineering institutions.
For Dr. Hamman, the attraction to artificial intelligence was almost inevitable. “I have always enjoyed solving complex problems through mathematics and engineering,” he says. AI, he explains, felt like a natural extension of that passion, combining theory, data and computation to build systems that can reason and learn.
Yet as AI systems grow more powerful, generating text, assisting in medical diagnoses, screening loan applications and shaping financial markets, they also reveal troubling flaws. They can produce confident but incorrect answers. They may amplify bias. They can behave unpredictably when deployed in unfamiliar conditions. In high-stakes domains, such errors can be costly. That is the trust problem.
Dr. Hamman’s doctoral research focuses on what experts call “trustworthy and reliable machine learning.” In practical terms, he develops mathematical and computational tools to ensure AI systems remain accurate, transparent and capable of signaling uncertainty when unsure.
“Explainability is no longer optional,” he says. “As AI becomes embedded in daily life, it is essential for safety, accountability and public trust.”
His work strikes a careful balance between deep theoretical guarantees and practical deployment. From uncertainty quantification to fairness, robustness and large language models, he aims to build AI systems that remain consistent even as conditions shift, and that can reveal when they might be wrong.
During his PhD, he presented his research at some of the world’s most competitive AI conferences, including NeurIPS, ICML and ICLR. He also published at ACM FAccT and the IEEE ISIT – venues known for rigorous global peer review.
Presenting alongside researchers from leading AI laboratories such as OpenAI, Google and Meta was a defining experience. It affirmed that a young scholar from northern Nigeria was contributing to the global conversation on AI safety and alignment.
His academic excellence earned him multiple prestigious awards at Maryland, including the Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship, the Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship and the Clark School Doctoral Dean’s Research Award, honours reserved for a small number of top doctoral graduates. He also received awards for teaching excellence, reflecting a commitment not only to discovery but to mentorship.
When his parents learned that their son had earned a PhD at 25, the moment felt surreal. “It was a moment of deep pride and gratitude,” they say. “We remembered the sacrifices, prayers and years of effort. It was more than a degree. It showed the kind of person he had become.”
Did they ever imagine he would work at the forefront of artificial intelligence?
“Honestly, we did not,” they admit. “We hoped he would do well, but this exceeded our expectations. Sometimes it still feels like a dream. We remain very thankful to Allah.”
For their community in Gombi, Adamawa state, the achievement carries symbolic weight. “It brings hope,” says Faisal’s father. “It proves that background does not limit success. Our children can compete globally.”
That hope extends beyond symbolism. Africa’s digital transformation is accelerating. AI systems increasingly influence banking, public services, healthcare delivery and communication across the continent. Yet much of the foundational research still occurs elsewhere.
Scholars like Dr. Hamman demonstrate that African talent can help shape those foundations, not merely consume imported technologies, but influence how they are built, tested and governed. In regions where biased data, infrastructure gaps and regulatory challenges pose unique risks, trustworthy AI research is not a luxury; it is a necessity.
His parents offer simple advice to other Nigerian families raising gifted children: “Nurture your children’s gifts with patience and discipline. Support their curiosity. Create a home that values learning. Teach humility, resilience and good character. Talent grows best with strong moral grounding.”
At 25, Dr. Hamman stands at the threshold of a rapidly evolving field. He is exploring research and industry opportunities where his work on reliable and explainable AI can have real-world impact. The questions that drive him remain urgent: How do we measure reliability in systems that learn? How do we prevent AI from silently amplifying bias? How do we build systems that know when they do not know?
As artificial intelligence reshapes economies and societies worldwide, those questions will define the next era of technology.
For now, the young researcher from Adamawa represents both a personal triumph and a broader promise: that the future of artificial intelligence can be not only powerful, but principled, and that African minds will help define it.