Abubakar Bala - Make sure you’re not crossing boundaries

Abubakar Bala is a research assistant at a university in Malaysia, where he has been working on artificial intelligence and machine prediction/predictive maintenance. He’s also trying to take the same model into healthcare to predict/classify diseases, specifically cancer. He lived and studied in Saudi Arabia before moving to Malaysia to continue his studies.

Stuff we talked about:

1.56 – Abubakar clarifies that he is not an old man. He’s on the “bright side of 30”

3.17 – Malaysia is a little more accommodating compared with the places he’s been/lived in

6.25 – The diversity in the country has been eye-opening. “When someone stretches, it’s hard to go back to how they were before”

13.30 – One challenge in the last year has been finding something new to contribute to the artificial intelligence community as part of his research

17.20 – Discovered a new hobby during the pandemic: writing novellas/short stories (you can find them on his LinkedIn profile here)

23.10 – Abubakar talks about his current project, machine prediction, and using a similar model in predicting and classifying diseases, especially cancer.

25.20 – Funny story about how, in the past, people sent messages between countries by recording their messages on cassette tapes (I didn’t even know that)

This episode of the Other Expats podcast was produced by Chukwudi Barrah. The intro soundtrack is by Big Mean Sound Machine, edited by Small Room Productions. Subscribe to the Other Expats podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Anchor, and sign up for our monthly newsletters at otherexpats.com/subscribe. You can also connect with us and let us know how you feel on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, or send us an email via hello @ otherexpats.com.