Dr. Yetunde Folajimi
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Dr. Yetunde Folajimi is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was a postdoctoral research associate / Visiting Fellow at Northeastern University College of Arts Media and Design from 2015 to 2019 and the leader of University of Ibadan Intelligent Systems from 2008 to 2015. With specialization in Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Folajimi’s research is predominantly directed at Serious Games and E-Learning with a special interest in their applications for health and safety education, adult education, Child Education, youth empowerment and women empowerment.
Dr. Folajimi is a recipient of many international awards including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Award (2009), the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship award (2012), the Institute of International Education (IIE) Women Enhancing Technology (WeTech) Award (twice in 2014), the WeTech Leadership Council Award (2015), the Schlumberger Fellowship Award (2015, 2016) and the Presidential Epic Mini-Grant Award (2020). She has been a Research Fellow at University of British Columbia, Canada (2009), University of Pittsburgh USA (2010), De Montfort University UK (2012) and Northeastern University USA (2015-2016) and has delivered papers at various conferences/workshops and events; having over 30 referred publications to her credit. She is a Fellow of British Computer Society (BCS), the Chair of Ibadan Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Chapter and belongs to many national and international Organizations including Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) - past Executive Council Member, Computing Professionals Reg. Council of Nigeria (CPN), Association for Learning Technology (ALT)- Membership Services Committee member, IEEE Computer Society etc. By leveraging on her international experience and global network, Dr Folajimi uses novel perspectives in Computer Science and Game Artificial Intelligence to solve prevailing challenges among vulnerable groups in Nigeria, especially the youth, women and children. Driven by a special passion to give back to the society, what she herself benefited through mentoring, she regularly impacts the new generation of girls and women whom she mentors through events like regular summer camps, hackathons, training programs and mentoring by engaging them in activities that enable them practice and create projects of their own, thereby addressing the low self-confidence which is a critical factor that discourage women and girls from being part of ICT professions. In order to realize her goals, Dr Folajimi co-founded the Global Centre for Information Technology Empowerment and Education, a platform through which she coordinates the Nigeria Geek Girls Camp, and Nigeria Girls and Women Hackathon for Social Change and Empowerment. So far, she has been a source of inspiration to thousands of vulnerable groups, especially youths, girls, women and children annually, |