Professor Olugbara graduated from the University of Ilorin in 1991, achieving a first class Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Mathematics. He was thereafter retained by the University of Ilorin to work as a junior research fellow in 1992, after completing the national youth service corps. As a junior research fellow, he registered for a Master’s Degree in Mathematics with specialization in Computer Science at the University of Ilorin and completed the degree in 1995. He holds a PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Zululand in South Africa. Being a retained junior research fellow at the University of Ilorin marked the commencement of his academic career.
He was promoted to the position of Assistant Lecturer in 1995, Lecturer II in 1996 and Lecturer I in 1998. He was appointed Lecturer I in 2002 at Covenant University in Nigeria and promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer in the same University in 2005. In 2010, he was appointed as an Associate Professor of Information Technology at the Durban University of Technology in South Africa and he became a full professor in 2011. He was appointed Visiting Professor of Computer Science in 2015 by the Covenant University in Nigeria.
His PhD thesis is an original idea – a shape based approach for image retrieval in healthcare information infrastructure. In the work, he investigated active contour and machine learning methods to develop an improved algorithmic solution to the open problem of retrieving similar images from image databases. His solution was tested on the database of brain magnetic resonance images to demonstrate its characterization and suitability for image retrieval and classification in e-healthcare information infrastructure. Inspired by his PhD work, he has a special inclination towards scientific computational methods in the specialised areas of machine intelligence, mobile computing, image processing and smart city technologies. He is deeply committed to the use of scientific methods to create relevant, insightful and effective solutions to critical problems facing the society.
He has engrossed himself in conducting applied research in his chosen areas of specializations, guiding Masters/PhD projects and stimulating students to acquire computing skills at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has successfully graduated over 250 Undergraduate degree students, 18 Master’s degree students and 8 Doctorates in Computer Science and Information Technology. He has published more than 120 research papers in national and international journals, book and book chapters as well as conference proceeding articles. He has also attended many international conferences and workshops throughout the world and has chaired some technical sessions.
He is the holder of academic awards and scholarships, including the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP)TC2 sponsored by Microsoft Research Cambridge in 2007 and meritorious research paper award at International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Analysis, organized by the IAENG International Association of Engineers, San Francisco, USA in 2012. He is a University Scholar at the University of Ilorin, Member of Marquis Whos’ Who in the World (USA), Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM, USA), Member of Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA) and other academic associations. He was awarded honorary referee of the Maejo International Journal of Science and Technology, Thailand in 2007- 2010 and 2011. In December 2015, he was awarded an outstanding scientist by the Center for Advanced Research and Design of Venus International Foundation, India.
He has examined a number of postgraduate theses, dissertations and assessed research publications for professorial appointments both nationally and internationally. He is the reviewer for many reputable Journals, including Journal of Computers in Biology and Medicine (Science Direct), Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Journal (Springer), Journal of Applied Mathematics (Hindawi), Agronomy for Sustainable Development (Springer),IT Professional (IEEE Computer Society), South African Computer Journal, African Journal of Information Systems (Digital Commons) and Behaviour and Information Technology (Taylor and Francis).He is the member of the Editorial Board of Signal and Image Processing: An International Journal (SIPIJ). An Editorial Board member of Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, he was invited in 2014 and 2015 by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) to serve as a reviewer and is still currently serving in this capacity.