Hello! I hope you're doing well. My name is Rosas, currently doing a bachelor's in computer science, specializing in AI. This is the first time I've written such a long text without the help of ChatGPT or Gemini in 2-3 years π. It's also the first time I'm writing on this blog and publicly sharing my thoughts and adventures. In short, it's several "firsts" at once. So please be indulgent with me!
Why start with a 2025 recap? This blog had to come to life somehow, and what better way than to lend it a bit of my story to give it momentum.
Enjoy the read!
January 2025
At the start of a new year, tradition has us making promises: changing habits, reaching goals, learning this or that, etc. Well, I didn't miss the opportunity to do so either π
- Learn deep learning
- Grow my faith
- Learn badminton
- Change certain behaviors
- Be disciplined
- β¦
I tried to get into it, but well, it didn't last long. The price to pay was too "high" for the lazy person that I am.
January was mostly a continuation of 2024. I worked on:
- Optiplan: An applied research project in optimization aimed at creating new models for automatic scheduling of thesis defenses in Benin universities.
- Robocup: The RoboCup 2D Simulation Soccer League is the oldest of the RoboCup simulation soccer leagues. Our ambition was to participate in the 2026 edition.
- MLScratch: A project started in 2024 where I reimplement the most well-known machine learning algorithms in Python using only Numpy.
I launched the CMP (Classmate Mentoring Program), a program to help my classmates strengthen their theoretical knowledge and practical skills, but also to bridge the gap between the 80% of the class who seemed lost and the 20% who had already found their way. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of being in a class where technical exchanges were limited to a handful of people. We held a few sessions over two months...
Even though the CMP didn't last long, it had the merit of awakening a few people. Maybe I should relaunch it for the current second-year class? We'll see π. In short, it was my first real "community" initiative and it was a great experience.
On a personal note, I was coming out of a four-month depression. I spent most of my time outside: at school or at the French Institute. I made an effort to stay in public a lot, talk to new people, smile and laugh more often. I also bought myself a new pair of glasses because in the meantime, I had to zoom to 185% to read on my computer.
In short! January went well :)
February 2025
Nothing special this month π. I joined FRIARE, continued working on the projects started in January, exposing myself more in public and trying to live better.
March 2025
This is the month when you realize that 2025 is moving forward and you still haven't started your year's TODO list π.
During March, I mainly worked on school projects:
- Sokoban
- Ifri-mini-ml-lib
I learned a lot about machine learning, Python programming and Github.
I had my first demonstration of the power of networking. On recommendation, I was called to work on a government project. As soon as they told me about it, I accepted because the impact was significant and especially the compensation very attractive⦠but I later explained that I couldn't continue and withdrew. The reason? I accepted out of fear of missing the opportunity (FOMO) when in truth, I wasn't ready.
After that, I got lost and fell back into depression, but I quickly recovered haha.
Thus ends the first quarter of my year. Joy, good mood, mini-depression, contribution... all of that punctuated these three months.
What do I take away from it?
I can do anything I set my mind to.
Agbaza Ι nyΓ gan Η.
(The body is not made of iron)
April & May 2025
Friendly advice: have hobbies in your lives... it keeps you from doing things like falling in love.
The second quarter starts well. I enroll in an English course... I meet new people and life is beautiful.
Nothing new, I continue working on school projects and learning about topics that interest me (AI ethics, Deep learning, Neuroscience).
June 2025
June 1st, 2025, I start an academic internship at Etihuku, a South African company specialized in AI and Data solutions. I'm assigned to the Data department and given a client project to start with. I can tell you that the whole month, I understood nothing of what was expected of me. I spent the month juggling between courses and this project. I was asked to develop a complete system:
- Data scraping: Retrieve user comments on different services through multiple sources.
- Natural language processing: Analyze sentiments, extract emotions and themes from comments.
- Automation: API, Apacheβ¦
I understood nothing π.
June 5th, I celebrate my 18th birthday. Far from family, but that's without counting on my friends who threw me a great party.
Meanwhile, I was selected to represent my school at the Tekbot Robotics Challenge.
July 2025
Summer vacation!
We continue with the internship, I'm starting to see things more clearly π. And I make a lot of progress on the project during the month.
In parallel, we launch THE LAB with colleagues. The idea is to deconstruct myths, raise awareness and inspire vocations among young people for a better future around artificial intelligence. We land in Ouidah for our first session. It was an exceptional experience and we left with the conviction that we must repeat these sessions as much as possible.
August 2025
This is the month I went out the most.
I worked on Fluxy, an application that automates the extraction of information from banking documents intended for accounting firms. I worked with a colleague on the project. I was responsible for the software part and he for the business part, but the project ultimately didn't come to fruition. First due to a lack of maturity on both sides, then due to personal constraints.
I had an interview for an AI developer position at a company. Everything went well and I was selected, but I ultimately declined to focus on my studies and personal projects.
September 2025
Internship completed. Project delivered. Boss happy.
Well-deserved break. π
I participated in the ASIN AI Hackathon which focused on intelligent land management. Three days of competition! We may not have won first place, but I must say we gave it our all :) and I'm proud of that.
Classes resume shortly after. It's third year :)
October 2025
This month, I focused much more on the Tekbot competition. I alternated between classes and hours in the lab. Each day I learned more and failed a lot.
November 2025
I continue with Tekbot, the specialization courses at school (Optimization, NLP) are very interesting and most importantly, I gave my first official public presentation.
During BWAI (Benin Workshop on Artificial Intelligence), a seminar bringing together researchers, students and AI enthusiasts, I was able to give a presentation on evolutionary algorithms: "Evolutionary Algorithms: Principles, Variants and Applications".
After that, I attended IndabaX Benin.
December 2025
December was a fairly calm month, a month of rest and also a month of gratification. I developed an interest in the world of scientific research and apparently, it shows. My professor then integrated me into the Institute's laboratory. God willing, in the coming months I'll be working with him on themes as interesting as each other.
May God keep us!
Thanks for reading this far. If you want to chat or just say hello, don't hesitate to contact me via email or on LinkedIn.