Dr. Omofolakunmi (Fola) Olagbemi
Assistant Professor of Computer ScienceDr. Fola Olagbemi joined the Department of Computer Science at Hope College in July 2020. Prior to that, she was a part-time instructor at Western Michigan University (WMU) while completing her doctoral program in computer science. She graduated with her doctoral degree in the fall 2019 semester. In her time at WMU, she taught advanced Java classes (which included an introduction to data structures), the lab sections of the introduction to Java class and an introductory course in web technologies. She also taught the equivalent of the advanced Java class in Python.
Prior to embarking on her Ph.D. program, Fola worked in the banking industry and also as an assistant consultant and a senior associate in the advisory and assurance energy business units respectively at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Nigeria. Since joining Hope, Fola has taught or is currently teaching Software Design and Implementation, Data Structures and Software Design (both in Java), and Introduction to Programming with Python.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Fola’s research areas include high performance computing, applying GPUs and CUDA to scientific computations including the estimation of multivariate numerical integrals from diverse fields such as Bayesian Statistics and High Energy Physics. More recently, she has developed an interest in machine learning and hopes to conduct research in related fields including recommender systems.
EDUCATION
- Ph.D., computer science, Western Michigan University, 2019
- M.S., computer science, University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2004
- B.Sc., computer science, University of Lagos, Nigeria, 1996
AWARDS
- Computer Science (CS) Department Teaching Effectiveness Award (April 2018) from the Western Michigan University (WMU) Computer Science Department
- Computer Science Department Graduate Teaching Effectiveness Award (WMU, April 2016) from the Graduate College
- Computer Science (CS) Department Teaching Effectiveness Award (April 2016) from the WMU Computer Science Department
- Computer Science Research Award (April 2016) from WMU CS Department
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- “,” with E. de Doncker, F. Yuasa and T. Ishikawa, in Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2020, Gervasi O. et al. (eds), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 12253, 2020
- “,” Ph.D. Thesis, Western Michigan University, 2019
- “,” with E. de Doncker, Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI), 2019
- “,” with E. de Doncker, F. Yuasa, K. Kato, T. Ishikawa and J. Kapenga, Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS), 2017
- “” with E. de Doncker, F. Yuasa, T. Ishikawa, J. Kapenga and Fola Olagbemi (presenting), Procedia Computer Science, 2016
View full list of publications
OUTSIDE THE COLLEGE
Fola and her husband have two children. She enjoys reading and playing the piano. She is a member of The Rock Kalamazoo and has served for several years on the Worship and Creative Arts team, playing the keyboard.
616.395.7146
olagbemi@hope.eduVanderWerf Hall Room 232 27 Graves Place Holland, MI 49423