People
Faculty
Emmanuel Olamijuwon
Emmanuel Olamijuwon is a Lecturer in the School of Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews, UK. His research interest lies at the intersection of technology, sexuality, & population health in low-and-middle-income countries. His recent projects combine data from traditional data sources (such as the DHS), with digital traces (Facebook and Twitter) and Online surveys to illuminate the complexity of a number of social and health issues such as knowledge inequality, suicide ideation, as well as sexual and reproductive health.
Fidelia Dake
Fidelia Dake is a Senior Lecturer at the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), University of Ghana. Her research focuses broadly on population health and international development. Her research interests include nutrition and physical activity, obesity and non-communicable diseases, socio-environmental determinants of health, urban health, health statistics, health-financing and population ageing. She is also interested in using methods in computational social science to study health and lifestyle behaviours including dietary practices, physical activity and travel behaviours.
Lateef Amusa
Lateef Amusa is a Statistician and Data Scientist with a PhD in Applied Statistics from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. He is a faculty member in the Department of Statistics, University of Ilorin, and currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Centre for Applied Data Science at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Lateef is a tech enthusiast and is mainly interested in big data analytics and machine learning. He attended the second SICSS held at the Unversity of Capetown in 2019.
Speakers
Ayaga Bawah
Prof. Ayaga A. Bawah is an Associate Professor of Population Studies, and Director, Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, and a Research Affiliate of the Population Studies Center (PSC), University of Pennsylvania. He has expertise in population and health research in Africa, particularly in research methodology, longitudinal data analysis and modelling of demographic processes, and evaluation of health interventions, including maternal and child health, fertility, reproductive health, including family planning programmes. He is a member of Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority’s Technical Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials (TAC-CT), the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), the Union for African Population Studies (UAPS), and the Population Association of America. He has published widely in several top-tier peer-reviewed journals and contributed several book chapters in the fields of population and health.
Sibukele Gumbo
Sibukele Gumbo is the Director of the NEMISA Eastern Cape eSkills CoLab, based at Walter Sisulu University in South Africa. With nearly 15 years of experience, she passionately advocates for information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education and rural development. Currently pursuing a DPhil in Applied Data Science at the University of Johannesburg, Ms. Gumbo holds a BSc in Computer Science (Honours) and an MSc in Computer Science, both cum laude, from the University of Fort Hare. Recognized for her exceptional contributions, she has received numerous awards, including the 2013 Eastern Cape Women in ICT Award, 2019 Walter Sisulu University Vice Chancellor award for Support Services- Exemplary Achievement and Performance, and 2020 Walter Sisulu University Vice Chancellor award for Community Engagement - Outreach and Community Service, reflecting her unwavering dedication and excellence in the field.
Blessing Ogbuokiri
Dr. Blessing Ogbuokiri is a postdoc and instructor at York University's African-Canada Artificial and Data Innovation Consortium Lab in Toronto, Canada. His work focuses on the intersection of AI and health, helping communities and governments tackle infectious diseases. His recent project involves using data from unconventional sources like social media to create early warning systems for disease outbreaks. He collaborates with researchers from various fields and is currently leading NeurIPS 2023 Affinity workshops and organizing the Black in AI workshop. This shows his commitment to making AI inclusive and sharing knowledge in the community. Through his efforts, he is using AI to address real health issues effectively.
Danielle Jade Roberts
Dr Roberts is a senior lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and holds a PhD in Applied Statistics. She has vast experience in teaching and developing undergraduate and postgraduate Statistics and Data Science modules and has been involved in the supervision of several Statistics and Data Science Masters students. She has also been a reviewer for international ISI journals. Her research interests lie in taking a data-driven approach to solve real-world problems using applied statistics and machine learning. Her focus has been on public health and societal issues in Africa, where resources are limited.Teaching Assistants
Participants
Amr Abdelwahed
Amr Abdelwahed is an assistant professor of the Population and Migration Research Pillar in the Faculty of Graduate Studies for Statistical Research (FGSSR) at Cairo University. Amr Abdelwahed completed his PhD in Social Statistics and Demography at the Asian Demographic Research Institute (ADRI), Shanghai University, in 2021. His research focuses on international migration aspects. His current research involves migration and social cohesion in destinations, migration impacts and their underlying mechanism, and their related theoretical and policy implications in both Egypt and the international context.
Alex Adegboye
Alex Adegboye is a PhD candidate and faculty at Covenant University, Nigeria. He has some peer-reviewed articles indexed on ABS, SCOPUS, Web of Science and ABDC. Recently, he interned with UNU-WIDER, Helsinki as a Visiting PhD Fellow. He has research affiliations with reputable organizations such as CEPDeR Nigeria, EXCAS Belgium, ICTD UK, UNU-WIDER Finland etc. His research areas include Sustainable Development, Taxation, Governance, Knowledge economy and Impact Evaluation Research.
Ayodele Akinyele
Ayodele Akinyele is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology (Demography and population studies unit), University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her dissertation focuses on maternal tetanus immunization and neonatal health status in Ibadan urban slums. She is very much interested in data and computational studies and how this can shape social demographic studies. She is also a teaching assistant at the Center for General Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.Charles Asabere
Charles Asabere is a doctoral candidate at the University of Ghana's Regional Institute for Population Studies. He investigates how social inequalities impact demographic trends. His research examines death registration coverage, mortality variation, and causes of death across space. He aims to utilize nontraditional data sources to answer pertinent demographic questions.
Jude Ewemade
Jude Ewemade is an early career demographer specializing in migration patterns, migrant integration, and reproductive behaviours. With a keen interest in computational social sciences, Jude aims to tackle complex demographic and social challenges in Africa through innovative research methods and data-driven solutions.Amos Langat
Amos Kipkorir Langat is a PhD candidate in Mathematics at the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences Technology and Innovation. He has a Master of Science in Applied Statistics and has numerous research publications. His current research interests are statistical modelling in infectious diseases and agriculture.
Lerato Makuapane
Lerato Makuapane is a Ph.D. student at the University of the Witwatersrand, studying the role of household members in adolescent girls' termination of pregnancy decisions. With a Masters in Health Demography, she is an aspiring computation social scientist focused on sexual and reproductive health data. She has four years of experience as a Wits Analytics and Institutional Research Unit project coordinator.
Chukwuedo Oburota
Chukwuedo Oburota is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Calabar, Nigeria. She is also affiliated with the Health Policy and Training Research Program (HPTRP) at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria where she is a research fellow. Her research interests are focused on addressing inequalities in access to income and opportunities.
Michael Arthur Ofori
Michael Arthur Ofori is currently a PhD. Candidate at the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation. He holds Master of Philosophy in Statistics from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. His research interest includes maternal and child health and health statistics.
Tosin Oni
Tosin Oni (PhD in Demography and Social Statistics, 2023) is a Research Associate at the Central Office of Research, Obafemi Awolowo University. Using computational methods, he integrates data from established sources (e.g. DHS) with public APIs (e.g. Twitter) and primary surveys to harness evidence for advancing sexual and reproductive health.
Onyinyechi Ossai
Onyinyechi Ossai, a University of Nigeria doctoral student, holds a BSc (Geography) and an MSc (Urban Geography) from the same university. Her Ph.D. research focuses on employing integrated multidimensional indicators to assess housing quality among low-income households in an African city. Her interests include settlement geography, urban-rural disparities, and their interconnections.