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Dr. Morgan EllisVerified · ui.edu.ng

Senior Lecturer · Department of Computer Science · University of Ibadan

Dr. Morgan Ellis

2016 – 2025 · 23 publications

Building language and learning tools that work where the power doesn't.

Explore my work
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Citations
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Publications

About

Dr. Morgan Ellis

Morgan Ellis is a senior lecturer in computer science with a research focus on language technology and learning systems for African classrooms. The work asks how tools built for well-resourced settings can be rebuilt for intermittent power, shared devices and low bandwidth.

Morgan leads a small group of postgraduate researchers and collaborates with teachers across southwest Nigeria. Current interests include:

  • Speech and text models for Nigerian languages
  • Offline-first educational software
  • Assessment design for large classes

Read more on the department page.

Research interests

  • Natural language processing
  • Federated learning
  • Educational technology
  • Low-resource languages
  • Speech recognition
  • Learning analytics
  • Offline-first software
  • Assessment design

Publications

View all 24 publications →
  1. 2025

    Federated learning for low-resource African languages: a benchmark study

    M. Ellis, T. Bello, C. Eze

    Journal of Educational Technology in Africa

  2. 2025

    Mobile-first assessment tools in Nigerian public universities

    M. Ellis, F. Adeyemi

    Proceedings of the African NLP Workshop

  3. 2025

    Cross-lingual transfer for Yoruba and Igbo text classification

    M. Ellis

    International Journal of Computer Applications

  4. 2024

    Teacher adoption of learning management systems under unreliable power supply

    N. Danjuma, M. Ellis, S. Lawal

    Nigerian Journal of Technological Research

  5. 2024

    A corpus of Nigerian Pidgin news text for sentiment analysis

    M. Ellis, K. Ibrahim, O. Balogun, M. Yusuf

    Computers & Education

  6. 2023

Career

  1. 2021 – Present

    Senior Lecturer

    University of Ibadan

  2. 2018 – 2021

    Lecturer I

    University of Ibadan

  3. 2016 – 2018

    Research Fellow

    Masakhane NLP

Education

  • 2014 – 2018

    PhD, Computer Science

    University of Cape Town

  • 2010 – 2012

    MSc, Computer Science

    University of Ibadan

  • 2005 – 2009

    BSc, Computer Science

    University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Projects

  • Offline classroom assistant

    Principal investigator · University of Ibadan

    2022 – Present

    A marking and feedback tool that works without a network connection, now used in three secondary schools.

  • Nigerian Pidgin news corpus

    Co-lead · Masakhane

    2020 – 2022

    A shared corpus of news text with a written spelling policy.

Supervision

  • Transfer learning for Yoruba speech recognition

    PhD · Main supervisor

    Ongoing · 2026

  • An offline marking assistant for large classes

    Master's · Main supervisor

    Completed · 2024

  • Spelling variation in Nigerian Pidgin news text

    Undergraduate · Co-supervisor

    Completed · 2022

Patents

Certifications

Editorial and reviewing

Affiliations

  • 2020 – Present

    Fellow

    Nigerian Computer Society

    Visit website

  • 2017 – Present

    Member

    Association for Computational Linguistics

  • Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria

Teaching

  • CSC 301

    Data Structures and Algorithms

    2019 – Present

    Core data structures, complexity analysis and practical problem solving in Python.

  • CSC 421

    Natural Language Processing

    2021 – 2024

    From tokenisation to transformers, with a project on a Nigerian language.

  • Research Methods for Postgraduates

Grants

  • Offline-first assessment for large classes

    ₦12,000,000

    TETFund · 2024

    Design and trial of an offline marking assistant in three universities.

  • Nigerian Pidgin news corpus

    US$18,000

    Masakhane Research Fund · 2022

Awards

  • Best Paper Award

    African NLP Workshop · 2023

  • Young Researcher Prize

    Nigerian Computer Society · 2021

  • Teaching Excellence Commendation

    University of Ibadan

Events

  • 14 Nov 2026

    Keynote: Language technology that fits the classroom

    Keynote speaker · Abuja

    Opening keynote at the national ICT in education conference.

  • 2 Mar 2026

    Workshop on offline-first software

    Organised · Ibadan

Lecture notes

  • CSC 301

    Week 4: Balanced trees and hashing

    300 Level · First semester · 2025/2026 · 3 units

    Slides and a worked problem set covering AVL trees and open addressing.

    Read the first two sections before the lecture and bring your laptop.

  • CSC 421

    Introduction to tokenisation

    400 Level · Second semester

    Testimonials

    • Morgan made a course I expected to dread the one I looked forward to every week.

      Tunde BelloFormer student, now software engineer

    • A careful collaborator who keeps the people who will use the work in the room.

      Prof. Nneka EzeCo-investigator

    Books

    • Cover of Teaching with Little: Digital Tools for Constrained Classrooms

      Teaching with Little: Digital Tools for Constrained Classrooms

      A practical guide for lecturers who want to use technology without relying on a fast connection.

      Where to buy

    • A Short Introduction to Language Technology

    Blog

    Consultation hours

    • Monday

      10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

    • Wednesday

      2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

    • Friday

      9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

      2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

    Contact

    • Office

    • Department secretary

    • WhatsApp number

    • Office

      Room 12, Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State

    • Office hours or how to reach me

      Weekdays 10:00 to 12:00, or by appointment

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