abejide.org

Building machines with minds ...

  • Résumé (Summary)
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Education

  • University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (2013 - 2015).
         Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science (Awarded in April 2016) 

  • Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria (2009 - 2011).
         Master's in Computer Science - Distinction in research

  • Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria (2003 - 2007).
         Bachelor of Science Honours in Theoretical & Applied Computer Science (B.Sc. Hons) - First Class Honours (Distinction) 

Distinctions, Awards, Scholarships & Grants

  • Innovation Fund, Awarded the sum of R280,000.00 in Innovation Funds by the Technology Transfer Office of the UJ to create a marker-research version of the Learn and Earn App in January 2020.
  • R&D Funds, Secured R40,000.00 for research travels from Bridge Labs Co. in January 2020.
  • GPU ws, Secured a GPU Workstation(for research) worth R30,000.00 from Wealth Associates, South Africa January, 2020.
  • Innovation Fund, Awarded the sum of R90,948.00 to create an Intellectual Property (Sentiment Analysis Software) for the UJ Institute for Intelligent Systems(IIS).
  • VR Station, Secured two 2xHTC Vive Pro VR Headset Combo( Vive Controller/Tracker/Base) Station (for research) worth R56,000.00 from EPIC Research and Development, South Africa in December 2019.
  • Noteworthy, Invited by the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr Martin Schafer, to discuss the German-EU-South African collaboration on Fourth Industrial Revolution on 3rd December, 2019.
  • NLSA Travel Grant, Received a Full Travel Grant from the National Library of South Africa(NLSA) to attend and give an Invited Talk on the fourth industrial revolution and the future of libraries at the South African Libraries ICT Workshop in East London, Eastern Cape on 29th November 2019.
  • Winner, My presentation and the presentation of my PhD, George Obaido, each won one of the Best Presentations at the International Conference on Soft Computing and Machine Intelligence(ISCMI 2019) on the 20th November 2019.
  • Winner, Won the Resourcefulness Award for the most resourceful academic in the School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems at the University of Johannesburg on 20th November 2019.
  • Winner, Won the Excellence in Teaching Award for being the Best Lecturer across three departments in the School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems at UJ on 20th November 2019.
  • Winner, Won the Vice-Chancellor's Innovation of the Year Award for 2019 at the University of Johannesburg on 14th November 2019. This was valued at R500,000.00.
  • Winner, Won the SITA ICT Public Service Award at GovTech Conference 2019 on 27th October, 2019.
  • Winner, Won the Overall Best Innovation(with my team five students) for the Local Government Category of the SITA NDP 2030 Hackathon in Durban from 24th to 26th October, 2019. This came with a Prize of R100, 000.00.
  • Runner up, Won the 3rd place(with my team of five students) for the Regional Government Category of the SITA NDP 2030 Hackathon in Durban from 24th to 26th October, 2019. This came with a Prize of R30,000.00.
  • Winner, Mentored Post-doctral Research Fellow, Dr Chinedu Okonkwo, won an A10 6-axis Drone during at the SITA NDP 2030 Hackathon on 25th October, 2019.
  • Winner, Won the first and second stages of the SITA NDP 2030 Hackathon(with three of my teams of 15 students) and an all expenses paid trip from the South African government to compete at the finals in a 3-day Hackathon, held in Durban from 24th to 26th October, 2019.
  • Profiled, Profiled in the Nigerian Media as a Young Professor(possibly the youngest black professor in Africa in the year 2019)
  • Winner, Won the Black in Artificial Intelligence Travel Grant in September 2019(full grant for all expenses) to attend the Third Black in AI Workshop(co-located with NeurIPS 2019) at the Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver, Canada.
  • Nominee, Special Award of recognition for the University Faculty who has made the most significant contribution in advancing the National
    Agenda for Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (August 2019). Nominated by Caro Buitendag (UJ TTO).
  • R&I Fund, secured a Research and Innovation Fund of R250, 000.00 to research into technological tools for Functional Medicine from the South African Database for Functional Medicine (SADFM), Cape Town (July 2019?)
  • Runner up, Completed at the Hack4TK- Thyssenkrupp Hackathon (with a team of four) July 3 to 4, 2019. This took place in Essen,Germany.
  • Winner, Won the Overall Best Innovation Award of the Living 4IR Hackathon (with my team of four students) on 28 June 2019.
  • Innovation Fund, Secured an Innovation Fund of R180, 880.00 to carryout the development of a Mobile App for the DSA of South Africa, in collaboration with the Department of Marketing at the University of Johannesburg (April to June, 2019). 
  • Winner, Mentored student (Mbali Xulu) won the first and second rounds of the EDHE Entrepreneurship Inter-varsity Competition in May 2019; and will represent UJ at the National Finals.
  • NRF Grant, Won the Research Grant of R50, 000.00 for NRF-Rated Researchers in 2019 (Grant Number: 119041). 
  • CSIR Grant, Secured R130, 000.00 in CSIR-DST Inter-Program Bursary Scholarship for mentored student (George Obaido) towards PhD study for 2019 academic year.
  • Research Fund, Secured R40, 000.00 research funding (two conferences @ R15, 000.00 each) from Bridge Labs Co, Sandton, Johannesburg
  •  Hackathon sponsorship R10, 000.00 from Bridge Labs Co, Sandton, Johannesburg 
  • ACM Fund, Conference funding of R15, 000.00 for PhD Student for the ACM FAT Doctoral Consortium, USA. 
  • Fund, Secured R26, 000.00 Abeced Internship Fund for eight (8) students at the University of Johannesburg, via the Technopreneurship Centre in March      2019. 
  • Winner, Won the Dean’s Award for the Top Senior Lecturer in the CBE, of the University of Johannesburg on 26th February 2019. This award came with a prize of R20, 000.00.
  • NRF Rating, Rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa as a Y2 Researcher in January 2019.
  • Winner, Won R18, 400.00, awarded by the Dean towards Technopreneurship Award from UJ CBE Dean’s Reserve Fund, November 2018.
  • Second Place, Won the Second Prize (R30, 000.00) at the National DPSA Hackathon (Ignite Hack) with my team of students on the 30th of September, 2018.
  • Top 10, Secured two teams into the top 10 of the DPSA Hackathon (Ignite Hack). There were 45 teams (and over 400 hackers) in total.
  • Awardee, One of my mentored student won the Best Presentation of the National DPSA Hackathon (Ignite Hack).
  • eNCA, Top Digital Innovators (Hackathon) in South Africa. A media interview on eNCA News, 2nd October 2018.
  • Nominee, Nominated for the Best Senior Lecturer Award in the College of Business and Management of the University of Johannesburg in October 2018.
  • Nominee, Nominated and appointed as the Representative of the SCiiS on the Research Committee Board of the CBE .
  • RUEX, Nominated as the Master of Ceremony for the Russian Export Mission to South Africa in October 2017.
  • Deputy HoD, Appointed as the Deputy Head of the AIS Department  at the University of Johannesburg in May 2017.
  • Nominee, Nominated and appointed as the Chair of the ICICIS 2017.
  • Awardee, SG Abbott: UJ’s Supervisor-Linked Bursary , 2017 (R6, 600.00).
  • Awardee,  MJ Ayawei: UJ’s Supervisor-Linked Bursary , 2017 (R13, 200.00).
  • Noteworthy, Honours research of mentored student accepted as full paper in SACLA 2017. This paper made CCIS 730 Springer Collection.
  • Awardee, WITS School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Local Conference Grant for SAICSIT 2016 (R3,800.00)
  • WITS School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Research Grant 2016 (R12,000.00)
  • Awardee, WITS Faculty Research Fund 2015 (R24,000.00)
  • Awardee, NRF Research Travel Grant 2015 (R32,525.50)
  • Awardee, CoE MaSS Research Travel Grant 2015 (R10,000.00)
  • Awardee, NRF-DST Innovation Doctoral Scholarship Award 2015 (Grant: R110,000.00)
  • Awardee, WITS University Postgraduate Merit Award 2015 (Grant: R29,130.00)
  • Awardee, Vodacom Scholarship Award 2014 (R26,525.00) 
  • Awardee, Postgraduate Student with the Highest Achievement in 2014 
  • Awardee, Local Publications Award 2014
  • Awardee, International Publications Award 2014
  • Awardee, Center of Excellence (CoE) Conference Award 2014 (for SAICSIT and ICSG)
  • Reviewer & Member, PRASA/IEEE Program Committee 2014
  • Awardee, WITS PG Travel Grant 2014
  • Fellow, 1830 TEDxJohannesburg 2014
  • Reviewer & Member, SAICSIT/ACM Program Committee 2014
  • Rating, Top 20 Young Scientists in South Africa (Mail & Guardian Newspaper) 2014
  • Runner-up, Standard Bank IT Challenge 2014 (As Mentor)
  • Finalist, British Council International Fame Lab Competition Finals 2014
  • Winner, First & Second Heat, British Council International Fame Lab Competition 2014
  • Awardee, Masterclass Science Communication Training Sponsorship (British Council) 2014
  • Awardee, The Prestigious WITS University Postgraduate Merit Award (PMA) 2014
  • Awardee, Microsoft (USA) Local and International Publications Award 2013
  • Awardee, WITS University Computer Science Best PhD Tutor of the Year 2013
  • Awardee, WITS University Merit Research Grant (JC Carstens Fund) 2013
  • Finalist, German International Falling-walls Lab Competition 2013
  • Nominee, Commonwealth Scholarship for PhD in the United Kingdom 2012
  • Awardee, Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Scholarship Award 2011
  • Awardee, Novel Research Award in Computer Science 2011
  • Awardee, Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Scholarship Award 2010
  • Recognition, First Corp Member to Present a Research Paper at the NEC 2008
  • Runner-up, Nigerian Universities Computer Programming Competition Finals 2007
  • Awardee, University Overall Best Graduating Student 2007
  • Awardee, Faculty of Science Best Graduating Student 2007
  • Awardee, Mathematical Sciences Best Graduating Student 2007
  • Awardee, Computer Science Best Graduating Student 2007
  • Awardee, First Class Honours in Computer Science 2007
  • Awardee, Mathematical Sciences Overall Best Student in First Year 2003 (Awarded in 2004)

Research Interest Areas

  • Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Computational Mathematics.

Previous Employment

  • Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg (2019 - Now)
  • Senior Lecturer, University of Johannesburg (2016 - 2019)
  • Educational Technology Specialist, Sifiso Learning Group (2016)
  • Visiting Researcher, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SA (2015-2016)
  • Consultant, Formal Models of Computation, Isazi Consulting Limited, Sandton Johannesburg, SA (2016)
  • Mid Controller, Valuations Control Group, Barclays Africa, Sandton, Johannesburg, SA (2015)
  • Sessional Lecturer,  University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SA (2014)
  • Software Consultant, ABECED Project, Johannesburg, SA (2013-2014)
  • Teaching Assistant, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SA (2013) 
  • Lecturer, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti Nigeria (2012-2013)
  • Lecturer, Nasarawa State University, Keffi Nigeria (2012)
  • Software Consultant, Financial Datanet House Limited, Lagos Nigeria (2012) 
  • Software Consultant, Lightmen Synergy, Abuja Nigeria (2012) 
  • Information Technology Associate, Financial Datanet House Limited, Lagos Nigeria (2011-2012)
  • Financial Software Developer, Simplex Business Systems, Lagos Nigeria (2009-2010)
  • Web Applications Developer, OB-Links Systems Limited, Lokoja Nigeria (2009) 
  • Teaching Assistant, Federal Polytechnic, Idah Nigeria (2008-2009)
  • Programmer Intern, SIWES Programme, Nasarawa State University (2006)

Proprietary Software Designs

  • JD-ORM: an ORM generator for automatic programming of web applications
  • Blindfolder: directory encryption system
  • CivilContra: an educational game of mathematics
  • RegexParser: a regular expression evaluation tool for teaching at WITS University

Competitions (Academia & Others)

  • SITA NDP 2030 Hackathon, 24th to 26th October, 2019, at Durban ICC - Winner, Overall Innovation Award: Local Government Category, and 3rd Place Winner: Regional Government Category.
  • Thyssenkrupp Hackathon (#Hack4TK) 3rd to 4th July 2019,Essen, Germany
  • South African DCDT Hackathon on Forth-Industrial Revolution(#Living4IRHack) 2019, (Winner of the Overall Innovation Award)
  • DPSA National Hackathon (#ignitehack) 2018 (Second Place Winner), Johannesburg. 
  • British Council International Fame Lab Competition 2014 (Double-Heats Winner), Johannesburg.
  • Standard Bank IT Challenge (Team Mentor) 2014, Johannesburg.
  • German Falling-walls Research Lab Contender 2013 (South African Finalist).
  • Nigerian Universities Computer Programming Contest 2007 (Finalist).
  • Nigerian University Games- Taekwondo Firm Weight Challenger 2004.