For a young Remi Ojo Jr., a TV show unleashed a lifelong interest in science and technology.
“I can’t remember the name of the show,” he says with a laugh. “But I remember it got me interested in being an inventor. I didn’t really know what that meant, but it really spurred this idea of building things and solving problems and creating something novel.”
That idea would lead Ojo (Sc’12, MBA’19, MMA’21, MMAI’22) to Queen’s for not just an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering, but also an MBA, and two other Master of Management degrees — one in analytics, the other in artificial intelligence.
It was also what would eventually lead to a thriving career in analytics and AI. From Bell Canada to RBCx and now leading data operations at Autonomous Vehicle Organization, Ojo has been at the frontlines of digital engineering, and he loves it.
“It’s a very creative craft,” he says. “There are multiple different ways to get to an answer, and it’s always really cool to be able to create insights and try to make an impact by taking messy data and figuring out how to clean it up. That challenge is very interesting to me.”
Ojo’s life is not all about data and AI, though. Far from it.
Among a long list of passions, he is an avid traveller, fluent in French, who has visited 32 countries. He has also volunteered with over a dozen organizations, including Google Local Guides, the Special Olympics, and First Robotics Canada. He is an elite athlete: after graduating from Queen’s, he played with two of North America’s top Ultimate Frisbee teams (Toronto Rush and GOAT) and was a member of Team Canada’s senior ultimate team. And he’s a two-time winner on the Family Feud Canada television show.
All these interests have “brought balance” to his life, he says. “I like to be busy, and it can make for a full calendar, but I think being a well-rounded individual is a good thing, and I just like exploring all of these interests and sharing them.”
Ojo continued exploring his passions inside and outside the class when he arrived at Queen’s in 2008. He was part of a robotics team in high school and thought he would likely take the mechanical or mechatronics route. But the day before he had to declare his discipline in first year, he changed his mind and followed the family path of chemical engineering.
Although he hasn’t worked as a chemical engineer — yet — the value of his degree was invaluable, he says. “I loved the program. I enjoyed learning to think laterally and working through the process. And compared to other programs, engineering felt like a community, a team sport, which I had a big background in.”
After graduation and playing ultimate with Team Canada, Ojo completed the Graduate Diploma in Business at the Smith School of Business. He was then hired into a management role at Bell Canada, where he was introduced to analytics. A light bulb went off, and so he took a couple of night programs in analytics and data science and became even more curious. Then, when he returned to Queen’s to complete his MBA, he jumped at the chance to do a dual degree in analytics. A year later, he added a Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence from Queen’s to his résumé.
While still in grad school, Ojo worked as the director of operations engineering and transformation at Bond Brand Loyalty and later as the senior manager of venture analytics at RBCx.
Now he is leading data operations at Autonomous Vehicle Organization, a software company founded by a fellow Queen’s Engineering classmate, focused on the construction and mining industry. Although the company did build two autonomous vehicles, it has pivoted to helping construction and mining companies increase productivity through connectivity and data.
As for his future, Ojo is keeping it open. “I’m doing my best to continuously learn in such a rapidly evolving space,” he says. “It would be cool to maybe join all these passions together. Maybe that’s thought leadership, or maybe there’s an analytical chemistry role that might be interesting. I don’t know.”
But he does know this: how important it is to develop a wide range of passions.
“My advice for engineering students would be twofold,” he says. “One, get involved, explore, take as much out of the experience as you can. And two, find the things that ignite something in you, that make you feel like you’re part of a community.
“University is a great place to be curious, experimental, to ask lots of questions. You’re going to learn that there are so many different things to do within the school, so be open to it all.”
This article is relevant to the following Strategic Actions as defined in the Strategic Plan:
