At just 17 years old, Okezue Bell has a CV that would be impressive for a person twice his age. He’s conducted research at Harvard Medical School, the Boston Children’s Hospital and MIT. He’s invented an inexpensive prosthetic arm that’s been tested by amputees and is being built and piloted around the world, including in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s founded an organization that serves as one of the largest civil-society groups mobilizing for responsible use of technology. Through this, an accessible digital-identification platform has been built for the poorest communities in the world.
And, as he heads off to study an undergraduate degree encompassing maths, computer science, and electrical engineering at Stanford University, having completed one of the world’s most selective pre-university entry programmes, Bell is serving as a Sustainable Development Goals ambassador for the United Nations Association of the United States.
Bell traces his love of inventing things to his childhood in Pennsylvania, where Raspberry Pis (cheap minicomputers) and Arduinos (soldering kits) were always around to play with. “Both of my parents are electrical engineers, so I was exposed to it quite early,” says Bell. “I think being surrounded by engineering tech makes it a lot easier for you to break into the field once you’re older, especially as a youth of colour, where you don’t typically see as much representation in these types of fields.”
By middle school (years 6–8) Bell’s love for learning prompted him to explore a range of interests, including brain-computer interfaces – devices that translate brain signals into commands for computer programs. He taught himself to code by frequenting GitHub, a collaborative code repository, and Stack Overflow, a popular forum for coders. “I think the biggest thing was just learning by doing,” he says. “I found so many amazing online resources.”
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Bell took advantage of the opportunity to go deep into his online learning. “It gave me a lot of time to push myself in ways that I wasn’t able to when school was in-person,” he says.
It also gave him time to think about extracurricular experience. He began doing “cold outreach”, emailing companies and labs to see if they would give him an opportunity. “Everything was online, so my ability to code became even more important, because I could work remotely at a lab and do a lot of their programming or computational work,” says Bell. “This served dividends in being able to connect with labs at Harvard Medical School, which ironically was one of the first labs that responded to me – not my local lab.”
A head start
What did that email look like, that had the principal investigator of a Harvard lab on a Zoom call with a highschooler?
“I sent them this really long email about how I was young and had accelerated in maths and biology. I had pretty solid foundational knowledge regarding calculus and neuroscience,” says Bell. “I said I felt like I could really add value to your lab from the perspective as a young person who’s very fresh to research – maybe I’ll have some unique contributions to make.”
For Bell, it was about getting experience coordinating with a lab and working on some projects – he was happy to assist with more menial tasks.
First, he had to complete the spectral analysis curricula, a programme that gets Harvard Medical School students up to standard before they do brain-signal analysis. Bell started assisting with some projects before being given the opportunity to lead his own. “Dr Patrick Purdon [who runs a lab at Massachusetts General Hospital] really took a chance on me and said, ‘You know what, let’s just see what this high-school student can do.’ It was an amazing experience and opportunity,” says Bell.
In Purdon’s lab, Bell analysed brain signals of people under anaesthesia. This research, combined with his work as a youth ambassador for a disability inclusion collective called Billion Strong, laid the foundations for his invention of a low-cost, below-the-elbow prosthetic arm. He learned how to use Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software, which is used by designers, engineers and architects to create two- and three-dimensional designs. It was important to him to design a prosthetic arm that would be accessible to patients who didn’t have a lot of money.
“Prosthetic arms are usually really expensive, they require a tonne of rehabilitation, and often they’re not feasible for a majority of the amputee population,” says Bell. “Essentially, I came up with the end-to-end solution, meaning I did the design part, the development part and putting it all together. It was really just like a bioengineering exercise.”
Called the WeArm, Bell’s device can be built for less than US$1,000. There is a closed-source version that he is patenting and an open-source version that is being built and disseminated in conflict zones, such as Ukraine and Afghanistan. “One of the most important things I’ve learned is that it’s really important that you’re building for the population that’s affected by the solutions that you’re deploying,” says Bell.
He recalls how thrilled one WeArm user was when he realised that he could strum a guitar again. “It was heart-warming. I think that human connection of the research was something that I had never been exposed to,” he says. “It was exciting, because often research just goes back into the field or the lab, but getting it to see it built and sent into the real world was super.”
A leg up
Wise beyond his years, it can be easy to forget that Bell is still a teenager, especially when he talks about the work of Fidutam, the organisation he founded when he was 15, and the work it does in reaching out to marginalised people from around the world.
“In doing all of this research, I saw a distinct lack of representation across every single field that I was involved in,” he says. “It came down to historic discrimination and systemic barriers that a lot of people have difficulty surmounting.” As technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to proliferate, Bell wanted to make sure that no one was excluded.
Bell developed an internet-free application, called Fidutam, which gives “unbanked” people – those who do not use or have access to traditional financial services, such as savings accounts and credit cards – digital identification that allows them to open bank accounts and apply for micro-loans of $50 to 100.
“We have around 1,100 active users across four continents,” says Bell. “One amazing person we met from the Bronx, New York used Fidutam micro-loans to sell combat boots to her community. She was able to make a $5,000 profit off $50 microloans. We’ve had women in Uganda use the application to increase their monthly income, because by having the digital ID, it opens them up to so many more business opportunities. People are buying and purchasing homes or small plots of land in Nicaragua and are using the microloans to help them sublet or lease out their homes in a style similar to an Airbnb.”
Okezue and the Fidutam team hope that the application can serve as a proof-of-concept for how marginalized groups can receive social safety nets and universal protections in the age of automation. AI will create and displace jobs, but many underserved groups might not be able to afford or receive upskilling to work with new technologies. “It’s imperative that we make concessions to these populations to ensure that their financial needs can be met,” says Bell.
Beyond the application and broader development work, the Fidutam team collaborates with governments, such as those in the United States, UK and sub-Saharan Africa, on key technology policy issues, with their main focus being AI and digital platforms. Through its campaigns, 1,500-strong global membership, and student workshops, Fidutam has reached more than 81,000 young people around the world. The goal to build safe, equitable, and responsible technology, says Bell, is “higher stakes than we may realise”.
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Story by Kylie Ahern
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