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Kobi Abayomi Interviewed in The Whistle
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When Kobi Abayomi [assistant professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering] set foot on Georgia Tech’s campus as an
undergraduate, he was thinking about how to land a job that involved cars —
not about becoming a statistician.
Abayomi
started off as a physics major but soon realized that the curriculum wasn’t for
him. After visiting an optometrist who had a really nice car, Abayomi decided
to try his hand at optometry. “Statistics was a prerequisite for the program,
and I loved it,” he added.
Over
the years, Abayomi’s interest in statistics continued to grow, and he now
holds a master’s, master’s of philosophy, and a Ph.D. in Probability and
Statistics from Columbia University. Abayomi
has also held positions as a visiting professor at Duke University and as a
visiting fellow at Stanford University. These days, he is an assistant
professor in the statistics group at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial
and Systems Engineering.
Recently,
The Whistle sat down with Abayomi for
a conversation about research, teaching, and his favorite lunch spot. Here’s
what he shared:
Explain
your research in statistics in one sentence.
I work with data
that doesn’t match the bell curve and focus on a lot of sustainability-related
issues.
Tell
me about your current research.
I’m
analyzing data related to environmental hazards and what areas of the world are
most vulnerable. I’m
also collaborating with people at Georgia State University’s Law School and the
Georgia Innocence Project to determine factors that can identify the wrongfully
convicted.
What
is your greatest challenge when it comes to teaching, and how have you dealt
with it?
I
feel like I want to teach to the student that I was. But, I’ve realized that
everyone doesn’t learn the same way, and everyone doesn’t have the same goals
as I did (i.e., they don’t want to go to graduate school).
A
few things I’ve done to address this issue is I’ve tried to slow down how
quickly I go through the course material. I also try to be very clear about
what information will be covered on tests, so students know what they should be
studying.
Who
are your teaching mentors?
Maria
Montessori because she wrote about student self-determination, and Andrew
Gelman because he taught me a few tricks for teaching statistics.
What
is your teaching philosophy?
I
wouldn’t assign grades if I didn’t have to. The whole point of grading and
testing is to get students to engage themselves in study. The best classes
occur after tests when everyone has spent time learning the material.
What
is one thing all faculty and staff should do while working at Tech?
Swim
in the Olympic Pool at the Campus Recreation Center and the pool at the Georgia
Tech Hotel and Conference Center. They’re both impressive.
Where’s
the best place to grab lunch (on or off campus), and what do you order?
Spoon.
I like to order tofu pad king.
Tell
us something unusual about yourself.
I
have Siberian huskies named “Sasha” and “Trooper” that I rescued using the
website www.petfinder.com.
If
you weren’t in your current line of work, what would you be doing?
I’d
be living in Encinitas, California, and I’d have a performance shop where I would
change automatic transmissions to manual
Amelia Pavlik, new editor for The Whistle,
authored this article, which appeared in the October 25, 2010 issue.
Status
- Workflow Status: Published
- Created By: Edie Cohen
- Created: 10/27/2010
- Modified By: Fletcher Moore
- Modified: 10/07/2016
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