Doctoral Researcher · Dalhousie University

Building the science
behind trustworthy AI & socially sustainable software.

I research how software teams can embed equity, inclusion, and human wellbeing into the products they build, and develop the tools and frameworks to make that possible.

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8+
Publications
5+
Awards & Grants
300+
CS Students Taught
4+
Years of Research
Bimpe Ayoola
Open to Collaboration Halifax, Canada

Empirical Research

I design rigorous empirical studies that generate evidence about how software developers and AI systems make decisions, and how those decisions can be improved

Responsible AI & Social Sustainability

I develop methods that help software and AI systems better respect human values such as fairness, wellbeing, inclusion, privacy, and safety through measurable, evidence based interventions

AI Safety & Human AI Collaboration

I study how people and AI systems work together in high stakes settings, developing methods for AI evaluation, alignment research, and trustworthy human AI collaboration.

Education & Mentorship

I teach and mentor students - from undergraduates learning software engineering to youth discovering coding for the first time - committed to making computer science accessible and inclusive.

About Me

Researcher, educator,
and community builder

I study how software engineers make decisions that affect people, and I design ways to make those decisions better.

My research program sits at the intersection of social sustainability, responsible AI, and empirical software engineering. I build and evaluate interventions that change how developers reason about fairness, safety, and inclusion in the systems they build. I bring the same rigor to a harder, faster moving problem: AI safety. There I develop methodological standards for uplift evaluation, build evaluation pipelines, run adversarial safety testing, and design human centred AI assisted systems.

Before academia, I spent nearly a decade as a software engineer and technical project manager building enterprise systems — giving me a practitioner's eye for what research actually needs to solve.

5+
ICSE, FSE Publications (top SE conference)
4.6
Avg. teaching rating out of 5.0
9yrs+
Industry experience before academia
60+
Universities represented by her advocacy
Scholarly Work

Featured Publications

Peer-reviewed work published at top software engineering venues, with more under review.

ICML TAIGR 2026 · Technical AI Governance Research

Principles and Guidelines for Randomized Controlled Trials in AI Evaluation

Kelly, C., Chowdhury, A., Campili, A., Ayoola, B., et al.

AI Safety · Accepted
FSE 2026 · Montreal · Accepted

Advancing Evidence-Based Social Sustainability in Software Engineering: A Research Roadmap

Ayoola, B., Andrade, A., Santos, R. S., & Ralph, P.

Accepted
FSE 2026 · IntersectionalitySE Workshop

Team Diversity Promotes Software Fairness: An Experiment on Fairness-Aware Requirements Prioritization

Magalhães, C., Santos, R. S., Ayoola, B., et al. · arXiv:2603.12406

Accepted
ICSE 2025 · Ottawa

User Personas Improve Social Sustainability by Encouraging Software Developers to Deprioritize Antisocial Features

Ayoola, B., Kuutila, M., Wehbe, R. R., & Ralph, P. · pp. 833–845

Published
ICSE 2026 · Rio, Brazil

The Software Infrastructure Attitude Scale (SIAS): Measuring Professionals' Attitudes Toward Technical & Sociotechnical Infrastructure

Kuutila, M., et al. (including Ayoola, B.)

Accepted
ICSE 2023 · Melbourne

Sustainability is Stratified: Toward a Better Theory of Sustainable Software Engineering

McGuire, S., Schultz, E., Ayoola, B., & Ralph, P. · pp. 1996–2008

Published
Background

Where I've worked & what I've built

May 2022 – Present Dalhousie Software Engineering Lab

Doctoral Researcher

Co-led a multi-year empirical research program on social sustainability in software engineering — from scoping reviews to full randomized controlled trials. Coordinated an industry-academic partnership that produced evidence that user personas improve socially sustainable software design.

Empirical Research Mixed Methods Industry Partnership
Sep 2025 – Present SPAR — Supervised Program for Alignment Research

AI Safety Research Fellow

Researching methodological standards for evaluating risks in advanced AI systems. Analyzing design flaws in AI RCT studies. Developing recommendations to improve the rigor, transparency, and social impact of AI capability assessments for responsible deployment in high-stakes domains.

AI Safety RCT Design Uplift Standards Responsible AI
Jan 2026 – Present University of Calgary · Remote

Research Associate — Black Epistemologies Project

Contributing to a multi-institutional project advancing racial equity for Black students in postsecondary STEM. Collecting and analyzing data in Nova Scotia examining anti-Black norms and practices in STEM education, using culturally responsive methodologies alongside an interdisciplinary research team.

Racial Equity STEM Education Community Research
May 2023 – Present Imhotep's Legacy Academy · Dalhousie

Research Associate — RBC Securing Black Futures Project

Designed mixed-methods research instruments examining systemic barriers to STEM careers among Black youth in Nova Scotia. Findings are informing policy interventions and will be published in three book chapters.

Equity Research Policy STEM Access
2023 – 2024 · Dalhousie University Faculty of Computer Science

Sessional Instructor

Taught software project courses (CSCI 2691/3691/4691) to ~120 students per semester and an intro programming course (CSCI 2202) to ~60 students. Earned average student ratings of 4.47 and 4.59 out of 5.0. Introduced weekly demo format and a standardized evaluation rubric.

Agile Python Curriculum Design
Jun 2014 – Mar 2025 Longbridge Technologies · Code Garage Africa · Wellviser

Technical Project Manager & Software Engineer

Built the backend for Wellvis, a mobile health platform, delivering a working MVP in three weeks that attracted 200+ users at launch. Led Agile transformation that improved team turnaround by 30%. Worked across enterprise systems, fintech, and digital health.

Java Spring Boot Agile / Scrum Digital Health
Education

Academic Foundation

2022 – Expected 2026

Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science

Dalhousie University · Halifax, Canada
Thesis on social sustainability in software engineering. Advisor: Prof. Paul Ralph.
Killam Doctoral Award
2021 – 2022

MSc in Computer Science

Dalhousie University · Halifax, Canada
Coursework in HCI, Software Engineering, Research Methods, and Data Analysis. Transitioned into PhD program.
2010 – 2015

BTech in Computer Science

Federal University of Technology Akure · Nigeria
Dean's List. Thesis on Finger-Authentication for E-examinations.
Best Graduating Student · CS Dept.
Expertise

Skills & Tools

Research Methods
Randomized Controlled Trials AI Safety Evaluation Mixed Methods Survey Instruments Experimental Design Qualitative Analysis Participatory Methods Research Ethics
Domains
Responsible AI AI Safety Social Sustainability in SE AI Ethics & Governance Empirical Software Engineering Fairness & Accountability Socio-technical systems
Communication
Research Writing Policy Communication Public Speaking Stakeholder Engagement Science Communication
Languages & Tools
🐍Python
🛡️Inspect AI
⚔️PyRIT
🤗HuggingFace
🐳Docker
☕Java
📊R
🔀Git
📝LaTeX
📋Qualtrics
🔍NVivo
📈Leximancer
Recognition

Awards & Grants

🏆

Killam Doctoral Award

Prestigious award recognizing academic excellence — given to only the top PhD students across five Canadian universities. 2023 – Present.

🎓

Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship

Provincial award for academic excellence at the doctoral level. 2022 – Present.

💡

OpenThink Scholarship

Selected as one of 16 university-wide doctoral scholars for Dalhousie's 2024 cohort focused on public engagement and science communication.

🎙️

ComSciCon-Flagship Award

Selected for the 2024 National Science Communication Fellowship in Boston, MA, USA — fully funded.

⚡

Ada Byron Award

Dalhousie Faculty of Computer Science — recognized for academic excellence and significant contributions promoting women in computing. 2023.

📄

ACM SIGSOFT CAPS Grant

Conference support grants awarded for ICSE 2025 and ICSE 2026.

🏅

Halifax Innovation Challenge Winner

IBM + RBC, 2021.

🎖️

First Bank Cash Award

Best graduating student in the Department of Computer Science, FUTA.

Leadership & Outreach

Giving back to the community

Service work across research, advocacy, and outreach — from program committees at top venues to hands-on work with young people in STEM.

🌍

Women's Representative, CS-Can | Info-Can

Elected to represent women in computing across 60+ Canadian universities on the Student & Postdoc Advisory Committee, contributing to policy and inclusivity.

Jan 2022 – Present
📣

Program Committee, ICSE 2026 & 2027

Serving on the Program Committee for the Software Engineering in Society track at ICSE 2026, the premier conference in software engineering.

ICSE 2026
💻

Coding Mentor, Imhotep's Legacy Academy

Teaching Python and HTML to African Nova Scotian youth (ages 10–17), creating accessible materials to foster confidence in STEM.

Sep 2021 – Present
🎓

Director of Science & CS

Served as the Director of Science and Computer Science at the Dalhousie Organization of Graduate Students, advocating for graduate student interests.

June 2024 – Jan 2026
🖥️

Workshop Leader, Digital Discovery Camp

Invited by Digital Nova Scotia to lead a hands-on Python and chatbot development workshop at the Discovery Centre, Halifax. Featured in a Digital Nova Scotia LinkedIn spotlight.

August 2025
🔬

Judge, Canadian Black Scientist Network

Judged and mentored student projects in the technology category at the annual Science Fair — three consecutive years.

2022, 2023, 2024
🤖

Hackathon Participant — Black Youth in AI

Participated in the Tribe Network Black Youth in AI hackathon, building an AI assisted healthcare companion app for caregviers.

2026
Let's Connect

Have an idea?
Let's talk.

Whether it's a research collaboration, speaking invitation, mentorship, or just a conversation about building software that works equitably for people, I'd love to hear from you.

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