Why spelling policy comes before data collection
When we started collecting text for Nigerian Pidgin, the hardest part was not the modelling. It was agreeing on how the language is written down…
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
Publications
All 24Career
Senior LecturerCurrent
University of Ibadan
Lecturer I
University of Ibadan
Research Fellow
Masakhane NLP
Projects
Principal investigator · University of Ibadan
A marking and feedback tool that works without a network connection, now used in three secondary schools.
Nigerian Pidgin news corpus
Co-lead · Masakhane
A shared corpus of news text with a written spelling policy.
Supervision
Transfer learning for Yoruba speech recognition
PhD · Main supervisor
An offline marking assistant for large classes
Master's · Main supervisor
Spelling variation in Nigerian Pidgin news text
Undergraduate · Co-supervisor
Patents
Certifications
Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
University of Ibadan
Machine Learning Specialisation
Coursera
Editorial and reviewing
Journal of African Language Technology
Associate editor
Computational Linguistics
Reviewer
TETFund research grants panel
Grant or funding panel
Teaching
Data Structures and Algorithms
2019 – Present
Core data structures, complexity analysis and practical problem solving in Python.
Natural Language Processing
2021 – 2024
From tokenisation to transformers, with a project on a Nigerian language.
Research Methods for Postgraduates
Grants
₦12,000,000
Offline-first assessment for large classes
Design and trial of an offline marking assistant in three universities.
US$18,000
Nigerian Pidgin news corpus
Books
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Teaching with Little: Digital Tools for Constrained Classrooms
A practical guide for lecturers who want to use technology without relying on a fast connection.
Buy this bookA Short Introduction to Language Technology
Lecture notes
Week 4: Balanced trees and hashing
Slides and a worked problem set covering AVL trees and open addressing.
Read the first two sections before the lecture and bring your laptop.
Introduction to tokenisation
Gallery
Field visit, Ibadan Keynote at the departmental retreat Field visit, Ibadan
Writing
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Notes from a week of offline classroom testing
When we started collecting text for Nigerian Pidgin, the hardest part was not the modelling. It was agreeing on how the language is written down…
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What our students taught us about assessment
When we started collecting text for Nigerian Pidgin, the hardest part was not the modelling. It was agreeing on how the language is written down…
Education
PhD, Computer Science
University of Cape Town
MSc, Computer Science
University of Ibadan
BSc, Computer Science
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Affiliations
Fellow
Association for Computational Linguistics
Member
Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria
Events
Keynote: Language technology that fits the classroom
Opening keynote at the national ICT in education conference.
Workshop on offline-first software
Awards
Best Paper Award
African NLP Workshop · 2023
Young Researcher Prize
Nigerian Computer Society · 2021
Teaching Excellence Commendation
University of Ibadan
Kind words
Morgan made a course I expected to dread the one I looked forward to every week.
A careful collaborator who keeps the people who will use the work in the room.
Consultation hours
- Monday10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- Wednesday2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
- Friday9:00 AM – 11:00 AM, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Find me online
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