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Dr. Morgan Ellis
Dr. Morgan Ellis

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Dr. Morgan Ellis

Senior LecturerDepartment of Computer Science

University of Ibadan

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

Citations
847
h-index
12
Publications
24

About

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

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

    M. Ellis, T. Bello, C. Eze

    Journal article · Journal of Educational Technology in Africa · 2025

  2. Mobile-first assessment tools in Nigerian public universities

    M. Ellis, F. Adeyemi

    Journal article · Proceedings of the African NLP Workshop · 2025

  3. Cross-lingual transfer for Yoruba and Igbo text classification

    M. Ellis

    Conference paper · International Journal of Computer Applications · 2025

  4. Teacher adoption of learning management systems under unreliable power supply

    N. Danjuma, M. Ellis, S. Lawal

    Journal article · Nigerian Journal of Technological Research · 2024

  5. A corpus of Nigerian Pidgin news text for sentiment analysis

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

    Book chapter · Computers & Education · 2024

  6. Offline-capable educational software: design lessons from rural deployments

    M. Ellis, T. Bello, C. Eze

    Journal article · AfricaNLP at ICLR · 2023

Showing 6 of 24 publications

View all publications

Blog

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

Career

  1. Senior Lecturer

    University of Ibadan

    Current2021 – Present

  2. Lecturer I

    University of Ibadan

    2018 – 2021

  3. Research Fellow

    Masakhane NLP

    2016 – 2018

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

  • Nigerian Computer Society

    Fellow

    2020 – Present

  • Association for Computational Linguistics

    Member

    2017 – Present

  • 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

  • 2023

    Best Paper Award — African NLP Workshop

  • 2021

    Young Researcher Prize — Nigerian Computer Society

  • Teaching Excellence Commendation — University of Ibadan

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

Events

  • Keynote: Language technology that fits the classroom

    Opening keynote at the national ICT in education conference.

    Keynote speaker · Abuja · 14 Nov 2026

  • Workshop on offline-first software

    Organised · Ibadan · 2 Mar 2026

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

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.

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

  • CSC 421 Introduction to tokenisation

    400 Level · Second semester

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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