Adeola Adesoba has always believed that data is the key to changing the world.
As a solutions architect at NVIDIA focused on cybersecurity AI, Adesoba works on end-to-end data science workflows and helps the company’s customers and partners adopt machine learning and AI solutions. Over the years, she’s explored how insights gleaned from data inform how people work, connect with each other and keep technology and its users safe.
“I’ve always wanted to solve challenging technical problems in a way that makes the world a better place, while combining my interests in cybersecurity, data science and AI,” she said.
Adesoba was making big moves even before she joined NVIDIA, as she and her husband left their hometown of Lagos, Nigeria, in 2017 to move to Johnson City, Tennessee, so her husband could attend graduate school. Leaving everything she knew behind, she had to figure out how to transfer her skills to a career path in the U.S. while navigating a new culture.
“This transition was one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever had to face — in a new country, I doubted if I would be good enough and knew I would have to work twice as hard to prove myself,” she said. “I needed to learn how to believe in myself and know that I have what it takes to make it here.”
After completing data science internships, participating in hackathons and finding supportive communities such as Women in Data Science and Women Who Code, Adesoba decided to pursue a master’s degree in information science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
It was there that she learned about NVIDIA through a Rewriting the Code event, where an NVIDIA speaker came to talk to the women in tech community about NVIDIA GeForce. One of Adesoba’s professors was also an NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) ambassador, and through the professor’s encouragement she participated in her first DLI training session while still a grad student.
In 2022, Adesoba joined NVIDIA’s new college graduate solutions architect rotation program, where she gained exposure to the company’s technologies and found herself most drawn to the cybersecurity and AI solution architect team. The mission of helping customers keep products secure through data governance resonated with her desire to make the world a better place.
“I’m able to be a part of impactful work that matters, and I get to do it with amazing teams that are all working together to push the boundaries of what’s possible,” she said.
Adesoba’s proudest moments include updating step-by-step instructions for how to use NVIDIA RAPIDS, supporting NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD customers integrating NVIDIA Run:ai into their platforms and helping develop one of the first customized NVIDIA AI Blueprint launchables with NVIDIA Brev.
“I feel a sense of joy and accomplishment when I’m able to see the work I’ve done with my team come to fruition,” she said. “Our team rallies together, and when our customers and partners succeed, we all succeed.”
Adesoba hopes to use her platform to help others achieve rewarding career paths. After playing soccer her whole life, including for the women’s team at University of Ilorin, Nigeria, she credits sports as the foundation that empowered her with life skills that have shaped her.
As an advisor to the Sports Integrity Global Alliance Youth Council and founder at Initiative for Development Through Sport, Adesoba advocates for education, health, wellbeing, peace and equality through sports and has spoken at events including the U.N. General Assembly, Commonwealth Sport Ministers Meetings and Sports Integrity Week.
“Sports gave me so much — teamwork, confidence and resilience. I want every young person to have this feeling,” she said. “Sports is a middle ground that brings us together. With this as a foundation, you can build the career that you want.”
And if you ask her, she has the data to back it up.
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