Resume

Executive Summary

Education

• University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa [2016 — 2020]

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science

Thesis: Generation of Similar Images Using Bag Context Shape Grammars [Link]

Area: Formal Language Theory, Machine Learning, Image Processing

• University of Nigeria, Nsukka Enugu, Nigeria [2012 — 2014]

Degree: Master of Science, Computer Science

Dissertation: A Platform for the implementation of Mobile Cloud Computing in Nigeria

Area: Cloud Computing, Software Engineering

• University of Nigeria, Nsukka Enugu, Nigeria [2006 — 2010]

Degree: Bachelor of Science, Computer Science

Project: SMS Result Checking System

Area: Programming, Software Engineering

• Abia State Polytechnic Aba, Nigeria [2003 — 2005]

Degree: National Diploma, Computer Science (Distinction)

Mini Project: Simulation of Automated Teller Machine

Area: Software Engineering, Simulation

Work Experience

• York University, Toronto, Canada [September 2021 — Till date]

Postdoctoral fellow/Instructor in Mathematics and Statistics

- Postdoctoral Fellow

+ Conducts research on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy hotspots in Africa and pandemic preparedness

+ Weekly presentations of research updates

+ Creation of data visualisers using Google data studio and ArcGIS

- Instructor

+ Manage TAs.

+ Facilitate teaching/lecturing, and assessment for undergraduate students on MATH1190 A - Introduction to Sets and Logic (Fall 2021 - 2022) and MATH1090 - Introduction to Logic for Computer Science (Summer 2022).

+ Referring students to library sources, explaining theories, providing answers to student inquiries, helping with assignments, and recommending learning methods.

+ Preparation of notes and additional study materials

+ Generate discussion questions to stimulate topic conversations between students.

• University of Johannesburg Auckland Park Campus [February 2021 — June 2021]

Visiting Lecturer

- Lecture undergraduate students on IT Management.

- Conduct advanced research training.

- Supervision/mentoring of undergraduate students.

- Engage in research, and publish research results as accredited outputs.

• Pearson Institute of Higher Education Bedfordview, South Africa [April 2018 — August 2021]

IT Lecturer

- Facilitation of learning, lecturing, tutoring, assessment, and research.

- Conduct all related marking for the module(s).

- Preparation of notes and additional study material.

- Quality assurance of learning material.

- General academic administration.

- Contribute and implement innovative teaching and learning strategies, including technology-enhancing learning methodologies.

- Student consult sessions.

- Invigilation (proctor)

• University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa [January 2018 — December 2018]

SAKAI Support at ICT Department

- Perform help desk duties to staff and students using the SAKAI E-learning tool by

- Creating course sites

- Creating tests and assignment

- Uploading of lecture resources and announcements.

- Managing Turnitin tool.

- Add/remove members from course sites

• University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa [July 2016 — December 2017]

Internship at Center for Learning, Teaching and Development

- Perform help desk duties to staff and students using the SAKAI E-learning tool by

- Creating course sites

- Creating tests and assignment

- Uploading of lecture resources and announcements.

- Managing of Turnitin tool

- Add/remove members from course sites

- Organise workshops and Meetings

• University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa [April 2016 — December 2017]

Teaching Assistant (Tutor) in Computer Science

- Instruct students outside the classroom and often help them prepare for examinations and tests.

- Referring students to library sources, explaining the theory, providing answers to student inquiries, helping with assignments, and recommending learning methods.

- Generate discussion questions to stimulate topic conversations between students.

• University of Nigeria Enugu, Nigeria [May 2013 — April 2016]

Lecturer in Computer Science

- Develop my own teaching materials, methods and approaches considering established practices where necessary.

- Supervise students' projects, provide advice on study skills and help them with learning problems.

- Set and mark assignments, and examinations as well as assess the progress of students by referencing defined criteria and providing constructive feedback to students.

- Seek ways of improving performance by reflecting on teaching design, delivery, and obtaining and analysing feedback.

- Final year students project supervision.

- Carry out research and produce publications, or other research outputs, in line with personal objectives agreed in the Staff review process.

• Interlinks Technologies and Management Systems Port Harcourt, Nigeria [September 2011 — April 2013]

Programmer/Trainer

- Create and maintain existing software for existing clients.

- Design, develop and deploy software projects for new clients.

- Design, develop and deploy web projects for clients.

- Evaluate and recommend new database technologies.

- Assist in delivering courses to students who come to learn IT in the company.

• Harris Consult Limited Enugu, Nigeria [November 2008 — December 2010]

Software Developer

- Development of standalone and online applications.

- Deployment of application software.

- Training of staff.

- Routine maintenance of software.

• Intercontinental Bank Plc Aba, Nigeria [June 2005 — December 2006]

IT Support Staff

- Cash deposit reception from customers,

- Management of cash in and out of vault,

- Balance cash book,

- Fund transfer management and

- Customer service duties.

• Demac & Company Nigeria Aba, Nigeria [January 1998 — December 2002]

Operations Manager

- Plan daily operations and execution

- Inspection of sales and services.

Research Experience

• Senior Research Fellow [June 2021 — Date]

Africa-Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Consortium (ACADIC), York University

- Conduct research on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy hotspots in Africa

- Presentation of weekly updates

- Dashboard creation

- Research paper writing

• Programmer & Data Management Specialist [2011 — Date]

High Performance and Intelligence Computing, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

- Machine learning datasets modelling and prediction

- Dataset cleaning and labelling

- Data sharing to Kaggle

- Research paper and grant application writing

• Doctoral Researcher [April 2016 — July 2020]

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

- Conducted research on formal language theory and image processing

- Investigated the human perception of images generated by the grammar

- Developed a model for the automatic generation of similar images using grammar

- Data analysis activities, article publishing and presentation of academic papers at workshops and conferences

• Article Review [December 2017 — Date]

Academic Conferences and Workshops,

I have reviewed the following journals and conference workshops

- Recent Patent on Computer Science Journal

- Data Technologies & Applications

- Information Development

- Black in AI workshop

- Area chair at Wits Postgraduate Symposium 2019

Research Interests

I am interested in the following research domains:

• Machine Learning/AI

• Data Science for social good

• Theoretical Computing

• Software Engineering

• Social Media Computing

Outreach Activities and Community Support

• Mentor – Black Mathematics Group, York University, Toronto.

• Mentor – Writing a research proposal, Deep Learning Indaba.

• Mentor – University of Johannesburg, Technopreneurship Centre.

• Mentor – Data Collection and Annotation for Open Science workshop, HiPIC Research Lab.

Postgraduate Project Supervision

• I have supervised 20+ honours projects from December 2013 to date.

Postgraduate External Examinations

• MIT (Masters of Information Technology) final research mini-dissertation of Retshidisitswe Lehata – Application of Deep Learning in Speech Emotion Recognition, Department of Computer Science, University of Pretoria, January 2022.

• MIT (Masters of Information Technology) final research mini-dissertation of Liketso Pius Nthimo – Call Centre Shift Schedule Optimisation using Local Search Heuristics, Department of Computer Science, University of Pretoria, May 2021.

• MIT (Masters of Information Technology) final research mini-dissertation of Nkosana Guga – Detection of Online Transaction Fraud Using Unsupervised Machine Learning, Department of Computer Science, University of Pretoria, May 2021.

Courses Taught at University Level

York University

• MATH1090: Introduction to Logic for Computer Science (Summer 2022)

• MATH1190A: Introduction to Set and Logic (Fall 2021 – 2022)

University of Johannesburg

• ITM12A2: IT Management 2A

Pearson Institute of Higher Education

• ITCO111: Computer Systems

• ITSC311: Social Practices and Security

• ITOO121: Object Oriented Programming

• ITDS221: Data Structures and Algorithms

• ITJA321: Java and Distributed Systems

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

• COMS2002: Database Fundamentals II

• COMS2014: Computer Networks II

• COMS3005: Advanced Analysis of Algorithms

• COMS3008: Parallel Computing III

University of Nigeria, Nsukka

• COS 101: Introduction to Computer Science

• COS 201: Introduction to Computer Programming (Java and C++)

• COS 301: Introduction to Database Management (MySql and SQL Server)

• COS 331: Compiler Construction

• COS 334: Computer Applications

• COS 336: Automata Theorem

• COS 421: Computer Graphics

Course Materials Developed

I developed the following course materials at Pearson Institute of Higher Education (now Eduvos), South Africa.

• ITPCA2 – Programming in C#

• ITGDA4 – Computer Graphics and Game Development

• ITDPA4 – Digital Image Processing

Technical and Personal skills

• Libraries Skills: Proficient in data science libraries (Numpy, Scipy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, statannot), machine learning algorithms (SVM, Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Naive Bayes, LSTM), machine learning libraries (Scikit-learn, TensorFlow) and NLP libraries (NLTK, spaCy, Gensim, TextBlob, text2emotion, VADER, LDA).

• Programming Languages: Proficient in Python, C++, C#, Visual Basic.net, Matlab, R, Java, PHP, TeX, also basic ability with Assembly Language.

• Industry Software Skills: MySQL and Microsoft SQL (Advanced), Graphics (intermediate) Matlab and SAP (Basic), Most MS Office and spreadsheet (Advanced), Networking and troubleshooting (intermediate)

• General Business Skills: Good presentation skills, excellent team player.

• Other: Ability to use Zoom or Microsoft Teams for online classes, efficient in using learning management systems like Module or Blackboard, can write well organised and structured reports.

Professional Trainings

• Deep Learning Indaba, Stellenbosch University - 2018

- Machine Learning Basics - Hands on Practical

- Mathematics for Machine Learning

- Deep Learning Fundamentals

- Deep Feedforward Models - Hands on Practical

- Convolutional Models

- Convolutional Networks - Hands on Practical

- Probabilistic Thinking

- Recurrent Neural Networks

- Recurrent Models - Hands on Practical

- Reinforcement Learning

- TensorFlow and Real Life Machine Learning

- AI Ethics and Policy

• IBM Data Science Acceleration Engagement Workshop, Wits University - 2018.

• Paper Writing Workshop (WITS) 2017.

• Ethics in Research Workshop (WITS) 2017

• Cloud computing and advanced networking – 2014

• Project Management, E-commerce and Total quality management - 2014

• Assessment of Core Competence for Employability in the Service Sector (ACCESS Nigeria) World Bank Sponsored – 2012

• Project Management (DexNova Schools) - 2011

• Database Administrator (MTN Foundation) – 2010

Research/Society Membership

Member – Africa-Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Consortium (ACADIC), Canadian Black Scientist Network (CBSN), Black in AI, Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA), International Association of Engineers (IAENG), Machine Intelligence Research Labs (MIR Labs), Washington, USA, High Performance and Intelligence Computing (HiPIC), University of Nigeria, Nsukka, South African Institute for Computer Scientists and Information Technologists (SAICSIT), Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), and Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LIAM), Toronto Canada.

Copyright @ Blessing Ogbuokiri, 2022.

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