Promise Owa Innovates for a Better World

by Rebecca Moon Ruark

“I thought it was just a topic I love—how to make math education more fun for kids, especially the underserved—but I was happy to have people interested in it,” said Promise Owa of her experience at the 2025 IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Connecting the Unconnected North America Regional Summit. It was at this Washington, D.C., conference where the former teacher gained the connections—and confidence—to then present her paper, “Personalizing Mathematics Education for K–12 Students in Nigeria,” at IEEE’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa Regional Summit, which joined stakeholders to address digital inclusion challenges in Owa’s home country of Nigeria and across Africa.  

Created as a project for CS 50001, Intensive Foundations of Computer Science, Owa first developed her paper to be submitted at the campus’ yearly poster presentation event. With mentorship from Huihui Wang, teaching professor and director of computing programs, Owa was drawn to research that bridged computer science and education, drawing on her own teaching experience. “Every week, we’d submit to our professor a literature review, in addition to our computer programming work. The research was rigorous,” she said. “But I was excited.”

A signature approach, Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern in Arlington integrates project-based learning into courses, so students have both the technical foundations and the chance to apply what they learn to their lives. “I want to bring real-world problems into my courses and tailor them based on students’ backgrounds,” Wang said, “to generate the next generation of computing professionals for social good.”

The payoff of Owa’s hard work? A successful research project she is passionate about—and one that has the potential to change the lives of underserved students.

Mining the Personal

What started as a research problem become a personal mission. Owa’s K-12 education project took her down a rabbit hole of findings, some startling: In Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country with more than 230 million people, children from birth to 15 years old make up a higher percentage than that of any other age group. Of that critical subset, which covers pre-K, elementary, and secondary education (in Nigeria, students graduate at 16), more than 80 percent are not in school.

“The world is moving really fast, especially with AI and other advances to help leaders feed their people, treat diseases, and make their countries better,” Owa said. “To find out that the future leaders of Nigeria are not in school—that was very alarming to me.”

The answer? An educational tool that makes math learning fun. Owa’s research led her to Tux Math Scrabble, an existing math game based on the classic word game. In consultation with the designer, she has in mind a similar game fashioned into a compact handheld tool that can help students learn simple math expressions through play. However, serving the underserved means ensuring that the educational tool can be used by students in and out of the classroom. If the tool is digital it will need to be solar-powered with no data connection or payment required, said Owa. Otherwise, it will need to be analog. Still in the exploratory phase, the budding researcher was excited to get positive reactions to her research problem and potential solutions. “At the Washington, D.C., conference, someone from the government approached me and said, ‘When you have it more developed I’d love to talk about how we could use it not only in Nigeria but in D.C.’,” Owa said. “That’s what made me realize my research is actually pretty solid.”

With AI and machine learning requiring higher math skills, the subject is only increasing in importance. “Math was hard for me, so I know it’s hard for kids out there,” she said. “I just want to pique their interest, unlock their curiosity about math—the subject that opens doors to AI, to engineering, to whatever your community needs.”

Building a Foundation

After earning her undergraduate degree in teaching from Delta State University in Nigeria and working for five years as a teacher, Owa decided she wanted to earn a master’s degree. “While I was teaching, I knew I loved it. You’re not just teaching, you’re caring for little humans,” she said, describing her experience as a pre-K teacher in Nigeria. “But I also knew that I’m good at computers and ‘techie’ stuff, and I wanted to pursue that passion as well.”

Owa taught herself coding languages including JavaScript, HTML, and CSS and learned how to develop websites and web applications, which she coded from scratch. She worked as a web developer. She participated in an online programming bootcamp for women in developing countries. But she still didn’t think she had the knowledge needed to break into tech. She found what she was looking for in Northeastern’s Align program, which gives students without a background in computer science a direct path to a standard curriculum Master of Science in their chosen technical field. Bringing together creative thinkers from many disciplines, the program allows Owa to explore both of her passions: teaching and the future of computing, including machine learning and AI.

The transition from teacher to master’s student wasn’t without its challenges. “I was reintroducing myself to higher education—and entering an entirely new educational system here in the U.S.,” she said. “Trying to juggle assignments and projects, while working to catch up, especially in math, meant I had to study more than I ever had before.”

Owa persisted. She utilized office hours. She visited her student adviser for study tips. (Particularly helpful to Owa: put your phone away while studying to eliminate the distraction of social media.) She watched YouTube videos when she needed extra practice to master a concept. She prevailed, and her professors took note. Now in her second year of the program, she feels comfortable and confident. In addition to her coursework, Owa serves as vice president of Northeastern in Arlington’s ACM-W (Association for Computing Machinery – Women) student chapter, the first in the National Capital Region. She also serves on the Khoury Graduate Students Advisory Board.

Becoming Future-Ready

As for Owa’s education, with her intense love of research, she is considering pursuing a doctorate degree related to AI and machine learning—and the technology’s impact on education.

As for her project, the next step would be field research: to work with teachers and friends in Nigeria to see how students and teachers will interact with the educational tool she develops to determine the user experience. This future plan makes Owa hopeful, as has joining with researchers across the world on a shared mission. “As a nation, Nigeria has a long way to go,” she said. “But I saw a lot of Nigerians around the world finding ways, through different research interests, to utilize tech to serve underserved communities and make the country better.”