Abubakar was born in Somalia to an Irish father[2] of Somali descent. He is an only child.[2] He moved to Ireland in May 2005,[2] joining Synge Street CBS in central Dublin.[1] He first entered the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition alongside two fellow students who invited him along and taught him to research and solve properly.[2] They won an award for mathematics at the event.[2] He was mentored by Jim Cooke.
Abubakar then re-entered the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition for the 2007 event as a third-year student at Synge Street CBS.[1] His project at the exhibition was titled "An Extension of Wiener's Attack on RSA".[3] His project was based on the topic of cryptography.[1]
Abubakar won the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS, Dublin, on 12 January 2007.[1] He defeated runner-up Beara Community School in County Cork's Ciara Murphy and her study on hearing loss in teenagers.[3] He admitted afterwards that he had never used a computer before coming to Ireland twenty months earlier.[2]
An interview with Abubakar in Xclusive Magazine called him "the hottest name in Ireland right now" and said the achievement was "obviously a landmark in science" after his win.[2] He appeared on the front cover of that edition of the magazine, under the headline "GENIUS! How Abdusalam Abubakar, a sixteen-year-old Somali, broke a 13-year-old Irish record".[2] Abubakar appeared on Dustin's Daily News on 19 January 2007.[4]
He went on to represent Ireland at the 19th European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Valencia, Spain, in September 2007, claiming first prize in the field of mathematics for Ireland.[5]
Abubakar studied financial mathematics at Dublin City University.[6]