Chidiebere Njoku of Staines is one of 100 people named in the Foundever AI 100 UK 2026, picked from 500+ entries, and made the People's Choice top three.
A Staines resident who works as a senior data scientist in government has been named on a national list of 100 people shaping artificial intelligence in the UK, and finished in the top three of its People’s Choice award.
Chidiebere Njoku was selected for the Foundever AI 100 UK 2026, run by Digital Leaders in partnership with Foundever. The list was announced at an event at the House of Lords on 16 October.
The People’s Choice award was decided by a public vote of the Digital Leaders community.
Picked from more than 500 entries
In a letter dated 22 October, Louise Westcott, Head of Awards and Content at Digital Leaders, confirmed that Mr Njoku was selected for the Foundever AI 100 UK 2026 and publicly recognised as a Senior Data Scientist, and that he was placed in the top three of the People’s Choice award.
The 2026 programme drew more than 500 entries and nominations, from which 100 people were chosen. The letter says an expert judging panel then reviewed the 100 and decided the category winners, “considering their contribution, leadership and impact within the UK’s AI and digital technology ecosystem”.
Alongside the judging, Digital Leaders asked its wider community to vote for the People’s Choice award. “Chidiebere’s Top 3 placement reflects strong recognition of his work from peers and the wider sector,” the letter says.
The cohort, according to Digital Leaders, includes “senior academics, research leaders and heads of AI within major organisations”. Mr Njoku says he was also recognised in the list’s Public Sector category.
His work
In his message to Staines Online, Mr Njoku described his day job as working “with data science, analytics and AI in government to support evidence-informed decision-making at the national level”. He is a GORS-badged member.
Outside work, he describes himself as “an AI researcher, open-source developer, technical writer and regular speaker at AI, data, and technology events”.
He built ModelBrief, a free, open-source Python tool that he says is “designed to make machine-learning evaluation and reporting more accessible to students, researchers, and practitioners”. Its GitHub page describes a library that produces structured reports on how a trained machine learning model performs. He says it has been downloaded almost 2,000 times; the project had 353 stars on GitHub when we checked on 26 October.
Mentoring
He also gives his time through “mentoring, judging, research peer review and knowledge-sharing”, supporting people trying to get into technology or move up in it. His mentoring, he says, has covered “AI, data science, career transitions, GitHub portfolios and interview preparation”.
He summed up why he got in touch: “a Staines resident working at the forefront of data and AI, receiving national recognition while continuing to contribute to the local and wider technology community through mentoring, open-source development and knowledge-sharing.”
What it means for you
If you are in Spelthorne and want to learn data science or AI, ModelBrief’s code and instructions are free to read on GitHub. The full Foundever AI 100 UK 2026 list, with the top five in each sector, is on the Digital Leaders awards site.
Do you know someone in Staines, Ashford, Sunbury, Shepperton or Stanwell who has won an award? Email the newsdesk and tell us about them.
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