Contact
Prince Steven Annor
Engineer | Instructor | Researcher
New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE
prince.annor@nyu.edu
live:princeannor_7
Skills
Tools & Technologies
Linux Administration
Embedded Systems
Software Development
Machine Learning
ROS
Computer Vision
Processing
Professional Digital Photography
Audio Visual Systems
Smart Home control and automation
Lighting show programming (DMX)
Operating systems
Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8 , 8.1, 10, 11)
Linux (Raspbian, Kali, Ubuntu, Mint)
macOS (Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina)
Soft and Miscellaneous
Intercultural Collaboration
Project Management
Creativity
Leadership
Problem solving
Research
Languages
English
Twi
French
Arabic
Recent Awards
Campus Life Leadership Award for Creative Leadership
May 2020
I was awarded the Campus Life Leadership Award for Creative Leadership by NYUAD Campus Life. This award recognizes a student who has demonstrated exceptional levels of creativity, innovation, or entrepreneurship in their campus leadership activities.
Processing Foundation Fellowship 2019
Feb 2019
I was awarded the Processing Foundation Fellowship by the Processing Foundation to develop, launch and administer SuaCode Africa in 2019.
UAE Space Hackathon - 1st Place
Feb 2018
My team was awarded first place at the UAE Space Hackathon by Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai.
Publications
IoT Enhancements for an In-house Calm Computing Environment
SuaCode Africa: Teaching Coding Online to Africans using Smartphones
AutoGrad: Automated Grading Software for Mobile Game Assignments in SuaCode Courses
The Role of Haptics in Digital Archaeology and Heritage Recording Processes
Keep Calm and Code on Your Phone: A Pilot of SuaCode, an Online Smartphone-Based Coding Course
Press Releases
Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn
Teaching Africans How To Code With Smartphones, Not Computers
Prince Steven Annor – Inspiring Story
MBZFutureGen - Self-care and creativity
Interview with 2019 Fellow Prince Steven Annor
NYUAD Students Win UAE Space Hackathon
Meet Prince Steven Annor - Project iSWEST 2014 - Nsesa Foundation
Recent Projects
Singing Buddy that uses computer vision and and vocal audio to make a musical instrument that allows the user to sing.
Smart room project that uses IoT, Raspberry PI, Flask/Flask-Ask, Android, ngrok, Web development, Alexa SDK, DMX and socket programming to facilitate home automation and control.
Automatic grading system for SuaCode developed with Processing and Python with Google Apps API.
Emotions Melodizer 2.0 detects facial expression and measures typing speed and keystroke duration to determine whether a user is sad or happy and plays a note in a musical scale with a color scheme that matches their emotions.
Autonomous robot designed and programmed with Arduino, Raspberry pi, two dc motors, lidar, line follower sensor and two color sensors.
Certifications
Cloud Digital Leader Certification – Google Cloud
Technician Class Radio Operator License – FCC
C for Embedded Applications – LinkedIn
Arabic4Skills - Starter Level – Eton Institute
C++: Advanced Topics – LinkedIn
Software Design: Modeling with UML – LinkedIn
Processing: Interactive Data Visualization – LinkedIn
About
Prince Steven Annor is an Associate Instructor of Engineering at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), a school of New York University in the United Arab Emirates. He completed his BSc in Computer Engineering after studying and working in Abu Dhabi, New York, Shanghai, Accra, Karnataka, Mumbai, and Manila during his undergraduate years at NYUAD.
His journey with computer programming started in 2014 at an innovation boot camp, where he led his team to win the pitch day. Prince has since worked on various projects that connect people to services that improve productivity like the Mobile Print Project in 2016 which provided over 500 students with mobile printing capability. In 2018, he and two colleagues won the UAE Space Hackathon in Dubai. He also placed second in the HackNYU competition at NYUAD.
In research, Prince developed a haptic-enabled virtual reality museum and co-authored an IEEE publication titled 'The Role of Haptics in Digital Archaeology and Heritage Recording Processes' in 2018. He also built a computer vision and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping system in 2019 that was applied to collaborative drone swarms for relative localization.
In education, Prince has shared his passion for coding by teaching and mentoring over 100 students at several coding workshops in Accra and in Abu Dhabi. In 2019, he was awarded the Processing Foundation fellowship, where he developed an automatic grading system and launched a mobile-based coding learning platform to over 700 students in Africa and the diaspora. He also co-authored 8th Computer Science Education Research Conference paper (CSERC), ‘Keep Calm and Code on Your Phone: A Pilot of SuaCode, an Online Smartphone-Based Coding Course’, 10th CSERC paper – ‘AutoGrad: Automated Grading Software for Mobile Game Assignments in SuaCode Courses’ and 10th CSERC paper – ‘SuaCode Africa: Teaching Coding Online to Africans using Smartphones’: all three published by ACM.
Prince is also a multimedia engineer/hobbyist, and he loves to work on social Internet of Things, Robotics and AI-enabled creative projects. He is currently developing a calm computing system with the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Control Group at NYUAD. The Internet of Things section of the system incorporates various sensors, actuators, communication protocols, and mobile and watch applications with Google Assistant for effective control and automation in calm computing applications. The system is managed by an unmanned ground vehicle that runs the various control software services and uses Hector SLAM for real-time optimal geodesic trajectory planning. The first paper – 8th International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Applications paper ‘IoT Enhancements for an In-house Calm Computing Environment’ has been published by IEEE in 2022. His research interests are in Computer Science Education, Internet of Things, and Embedded Systems.
Education
New York University. Abu Dhabi, UAE
May 2020
Bachelor of Science, Computer Engineering
New York University. New York, USA
Spring 2019
Semester abroad at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and NYU Tisch School of Arts (Interactive Media Arts)
New York University. Shanghai, CHN
January Term, 2018
Term abroad at NYU Shanghai (Core Interactive Media)
Current Experience
Associate Instructor of Engineering - New York University Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Sept 2022 - Present
Researcher - Robotics and Intelligent Systems Control. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Feb 2020 - Present
- Design and develop an IoT system that incorporates various sensors, actuators, communication protocols, and mobile and watch applications with Google Assistant for effective control and automation in calm computing applications.
- Develop a calm computing system that uses Hector SLAM for real-time optimal geodesic trajectory planning with TurtleBot3 and RP Lidar in ROS (Python and C++).
- Design and conduct experiments to validate the results from the real-time optimal geodesic trajectory planning system and in-house smart calm computing environment.
- Collate results, perform analyses, and write and publish findings to MEEE 2022 and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.
Research Experience
Researcher - Robotics Laboratory. Abu Dhabi, UAE
May 2019 - July 2019
- Developed localization of fiducial markers using visual servoing with the Open Manipulator robot and the oCAM.
- Conducted experiments to validate the results from the Computer Vision system using a Vicon system.
Researcher - Applied Interactive Multimedia (AIM) Research Group. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Dec 2017 - Nov 2018
- Co-authored IEEE International Symposium on Haptic Audio-Visual Environments and Games 2018 paper, 'The Role of Haptics in Digital Archaeology and Heritage Recording Processes'.
- Developed virtual reality museum exhibition in the Chai3D framework with haptic feedback and automated photogrammetry setup for digitally capturing 3D archeological artifacts.
Work Experience
Assistant Instructor of Engineering - New York University Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Sept 2020 - Sept 2022
Processing Fellow - Processing Foundation. New York, USA
Mar 2019 - Jul 2019
- Received the Processing Foundation Fellowship 2019 award, developed AutoGrad - an automated grading system for giving students feedback on submissions in Processing, and led a development team.
- Launched and administered SuaCode Africa, Africa's first smartphone-based online coding course, to hundreds of students across Africa and the diaspora.
Developer/technology services support - NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. New York, USA
Feb 2019 - Jun 2019
- Designed website and assets and provided technology services support.
Teaching and Mentoring Experience
Executive - Nsesa Foundation, Project Lead. Accra, GHA
Sep 2017 - Sep 2019
- Co-authored 8th Computer Science Education Research Conference 2019 paper, ‘Keep Calm and Code on Your Phone: A Pilot of SuaCode, an Online Smartphone-Based Coding Course’.
- Integrated Processing via smartphones and developed Processing sketches and curriculum to teach core programming concepts interactively to hundreds of students in triannual cohorts across the African continent.
- Facilitated the execution of the teaching sessions and taught the fundamentals of software programming with Processing.
Workshop organizer - Women In STEM High School conference. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Nov 2017 - Mar 2018
- Organized workshop to teach 18 high school girls the fundamentals of computer programming with Processing.
- Trained seven facilitators and deployed the Android servers used for teaching at the conference.
E-coach Tutor - E-Coach Solutions. Accra, GHA
Sep 2015 - Aug 2016
- Trained Ghana International High School students in programming with JavaScript.
- Taught students Further Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at Golden Sunbeam International College of Science and Technology.
Community Involvement & Leadership
IEEE Student Branch mentor and Team Proctor for NYU Abu Dhabi at IEEEXtreme. Virtual/USA
May 2021 - Present
Chair, Engineering Representative - Staff Council Academic Staff Committee. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Sept 2022 - Feb 2023
NYU Distinguished Teaching Award (NYUAD subcommittee member) - Office of the Provost. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Feb 2022
Vice Chair, Engineering Representative - Staff Council Academic Staff Committee. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Jan 2021 - Sept 2022
Residential Assistant - Residential Education. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Aug 2019 - July 2020
- Fostered a residential atmosphere of learning, growth, and accountability through goal-oriented programs, floor meetings and personal conversations among 30 residents and the larger university community.
- Filmed, edited and distributed engaging and insightful videos for the First Year Residential College Experience residents and other stakeholders.
Student Life Facilities Assistant - Campus Life. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Nov 2016 - May 2020
- Set up multimedia equipment, mixed live sound, programmed lighting fixtures, and mixed visuals for on-campus events of hundreds of attendees.
- Trained sixteen interns on Audio/Visual setup, sound mixing, lighting fixtures programming, video jockeying, facilities management and troubleshooting.
- Managed inventory of lighting, sound and computing equipment, and debugged and maintained facilities of Student Life.
Knowledge Infrastructure Transition W.G. Member - Office of the Vice Chancellor. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Sep 2019 - Jan 2020
Mobile Print Developer and Administrator - Mobile Print Project. Abu Dhabi, UAE
Sep 2016 - May 2019
- Developed cloud printing setup and automatic printer sharing to provide over 500 NYUAD students with smartphone printing capability in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.
- Developed Linux back-end, mail delivery system, Mobile Print Bot and trained two interns to manage the system.
Mars mission researcher and OBC software developer - Team NYUAD. Dubai, UAE
Jan 2018 - Feb 2018
- Developed C++ OBC code for surveying atmospheric density and dust profiles on Mars and won the UAE Space Hackathon 2018.
- Co-authored the research proposal for a nanosat experiment surveying atmospheric density and dust profiles in the lower atmosphere of Mars.
Researcher | Student Lead, Engineers for Social Impact - Habitat for Humanity India. Karnataka, IND
Mar 2017
Volunteer - EducationUSA. Accra, GHA
June 2015 - Aug 2016
- Provided college application support and mentorship to students applying to American tertiary institutions.
- Presented on cloud tools and social media for effective college applications at annual boot camp week.