How African athletes can use AI, others to excel – Experts
By Adesina Wahab
Experts in various aspects of sports development have enumerated how African athletes can use Artificial Intelligence, AI, and other techniques to excel in their sporting events.
They stated this during the Scientific Conference of the ongoing All African University Games, FASU, being co-hosted by the Lagos State University, LASU, and the University of Lagos, UNILAG.
At the conference, which held at LASU Main Campus, Ojo, the experts from different African universities, noted that the world has gone too far for African nations to still be marking time and not key into modern methods of doing things.
They also called for collaboration among universities on the continent and that they should also share experiences so as to learn from one another.
The experts included Prof. Vincent Onywera, Prof. A.R. Awopetu, Prof. Olawale Moronkola, Prof. Clement Fasan, Prof. Johnson Adewara, Dr Boluwaji Jayesinmi, Dr Babatunde Sawyerr, Dr Victor Ademola among others.
On the importance of Emotional Intelligence to the success of sports stars, they noted that many flourishing sporting careers had been truncated because the athletes involved were unable to put their emotions under control.
The issues that were discussed included the need to engage in research, localizing research, funding, and ethical issues in research and Artificial Intelligence.
Prof. Moronkola, the Director-General, National Institute for Sports (NIS) Surulere, Lagos, who anchored the panel on Sports and Research in Africa, spoke on the achievements of the conference.
“What we have been able to conclude is that there is need for collaboration by the various specialists in the field of sports. We have sports psychologists, those in health education, we have those in Exercise Physiology and then those in Sports Nutrition; and we hope the composite of their efforts will impact on the athletes.”
Prof. Onywera, a Professor of Exercise Recreation and Sport Science at Kenyatta University, Kenya, speaking on the Future of Sports and Artificial Intelligence (Changing the landscape of sports in Africa through Science and Technology), said, “The world is now talking about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, having moved from the First Industrial Revolution, which was largely mechanized using hydropower, and then moved to the Second Industrial revolution, when electricity came in, we saw mass production, and mechanization, then we went to the Third Industrial Revolution, the era of Computing, ICT, Automation, and we are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we are seeing Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Block Chain Technology, Big Data. All these movements have been backed up by research and Innovation, and sports is not an exception,.”
Onywera decried the poor performances of African athletes in the just concluded Summer Olympics in France where a country like Nigeria returned home without a medal.
The post How African athletes can use AI, others to excel – Experts appeared first on Vanguard News.
