Ìṣẹ̀dá (Yoruba) — Creation. The act of making something from nothing.
A solar-powered, AI-equipped mobile maker lab designed to travel between communities in Nigeria — bringing hands-on technology education to young people aged 11–18 who have been told, implicitly and explicitly, that the future does not belong to them.
Across sub-urban and rural communities in Nigeria, a generation of young people is quietly losing the belief that the future belongs to them. Without electricity, without pathways to meaningful careers, and without spaces that take their potential seriously — they stop dreaming. Not because they lack ability. Because no one has shown them what they are capable of building.
This is not a poverty problem. It is an imagination problem. And it is the root issue beneath unemployment, brain drain, and underutilised youth potential across the continent.
Unreliable power cuts communities off from digital learning infrastructure entirely.
Graduates face unemployment because their education was not designed for the economy that exists.
Fixed labs require infrastructure that sub-urban and rural communities simply do not have.
Young people have never seen someone who looks like them build something with technology.
Ìṣẹ̀dá comes to the community. Not the other way around. Every session follows five stages that mirror the SmartCT framework — a research-backed model developed through NSF-funded educational technology research.
The unit pulls into the community. No application. No travel. The arrival itself delivers the first message: your community matters.
Students name a problem they already know — from their farm, market, street, or clinic. Nothing hypothetical.
An AI guide asks probing questions — one at a time — helping students think more deeply about the problem they named.
Students construct a logic-based solution using visual block programming. No coding required.
They leave different. Something that felt impossible an hour ago now has a small, undeniable crack of light in it.
Every challenge is rooted in something a Nigerian teenager can point at from where they are standing — and connected to a solution that could matter globally.
Build a system that tells farmers when to water crops before it's too late.
Design a test families can run on their water source at home.
Help market sellers track price changes and find the best time to sell.
Help a household decide if solar energy is right for them and how to get started.
Build an AI assistant for a student with no access to extra lessons or tutors.
Turn neighbourhood waste into something useful — fertiliser, fuel, or income.
Help families know when food is going bad — especially homes with no refrigerator.
Design a way for people in a street or village to warn each other about flooding or fire.
Let riders and drivers report and avoid bad roads and flooded routes in real time.
Ìṣẹ̀dá is not just a product — it is a research instrument. Every session collects anonymous demographic data, pre and post belief surveys, session engagement metrics, and qualitative responses. The data tells the story funders need to see.
The platform is grounded in the Smart Computational Thinking (SmartCT) framework — developed through NSF-ITEST funded research — which bridges the gap between computational thinking and real-world computational action.
Pre and post survey measuring change in students' belief that they can build things with technology.
Session duration, exchange count, and AI conversation quality tracked automatically.
What problems students identify and what they want to build — revealing what matters most locally.
Data structure designed for academic reporting, grant evaluation, and peer-reviewed publication.
Explore the prototype below — select a challenge, move through the stages, and experience the session flow. Then request a live AI-powered demo to see the full experience.
What you see here is not a video or a wireframe — it is the actual Ìṣẹ̀dá software prototype, running live. Select any challenge and experience the session flow yourself.
"Young people are no longer dreaming because they don't see any need for it. Ìṣẹ̀dá is the structured encounter with their own capability that changes that."
— Timothy Okunoye, Founder
Ìṣẹ̀dá is currently in prototype stage, with user testing planned for communities in Oyo State, Nigeria. Your support directly funds device hardware, community sessions, and research documentation.
Covers one student's full Ìṣẹ̀dá session — AI costs, facilitation, and data collection.
Funds a group session for 5 students — a meaningful contribution from one person.
Funds a full community day — up to 20 students, facilitation, connectivity, and full data collection.
Funds one complete Ìṣẹ̀dá prototype unit — solar panel, core brain, sensor modules, and rugged enclosure.
Funds a full user testing cohort — 50+ students, 5 communities, complete research dataset and paper.
Ìṣẹ̀dá was not designed in a boardroom or a Silicon Valley office. It was designed by someone who grew up in a sub-urban Nigerian community, taught Religion and Human Values to teenagers there, and has spent years researching how to bridge the gap between computational thinking and real-world action.
Educational technology researcher, builder, and community insider. NSF-funded researcher. Creator of Overedge, StudivaHub, and NotebookLM-to-Zotero.
Help us show them that it does. Partner with Ìṣẹ̀dá and be part of restoring imagination in Nigerian communities.