Daniel Okafor
AI Curriculum Developer & Instructor
Manchester, United Kingdom
Summary
Educator and practitioner who builds AI curricula that people finish. 9 years teaching technical subjects, 4 designing AI and machine-learning programmes for university students and working professionals. Author of a 12-week applied AI course delivered at three institutions; 600+ learners trained at a 91% completion rate.
Experience
AI Curriculum Developer & Lead Instructor · Pennine Institute of Technology
Aug 2023 – Present
- Designed and lead a 12-week applied AI programme covering ML foundations, prompt engineering and responsible deployment; 600+ learners at 91% completion.
- Rebuilt assessment around portfolio projects rather than exams, lifting employer-reported readiness from 3.1 to 4.4 out of 5.
- Partner with four regional employers to source real datasets, so every cohort ships work against a live brief.
- Rewrote the generative-AI module twice in eighteen months to keep pace with tooling, without lengthening the course.
Associate Lecturer, Data Science · University of Salford
Sep 2021 – Jul 2023
- Taught undergraduate machine learning and statistics to cohorts of 120+, with top-quartile evaluation scores.
- Converted the ML module to a flipped-classroom format, raising seminar attendance from 54% to 82%.
- Supervised 18 final-year projects, four presented at a national student research conference.
Data Scientist · Halcyon Analytics
Feb 2017 – Aug 2021
- Built and deployed forecasting and classification models end to end for retail and logistics clients.
- Ran the internal programme that upskilled 40 analysts in Python and applied statistics.
Education
MSc Computer Science (Machine Learning), Distinction
University of Manchester · 2015 – 2016
BSc Mathematics, First Class
University of Leeds · 2012 – 2015
Certifications
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- PGCE — Post-Compulsory Education
Skills
Curriculum & Instruction: Curriculum Design · Instructional Design · Assessment Design · Flipped Classroom · Teacher Training
AI & ML: Machine Learning · Deep Learning · Prompt Engineering · Python · PyTorch · scikit-learn
Responsible AI: AI Ethics · Bias & Fairness · Model Evaluation · AI Literacy