I was born in the Northern part of Togo, Kara where I grew up mixing farming life and school. However, I finally completed my high school degree in Sokodé in central part of Togo. From there my adventure started.
I visited couple of West African countries such as Benin and Niger, and then was awarded a merit scholarship by both Togolese and Moroccan governments.
In my first years of university, I took classes to prepare myself for chemical engineering school. But quickly after a few chemistry labs, I was caught back to my passion for the nature and outdoor activities. I therefore switched to forest engineering school. The beauty of the school stems from its combination of military education and a scientific career. I spent a great amount of time in the school since it was a boarding school style, which helped me highly improve myself. I learned leadership, responsibility, and discipline, qualities that I proudly brandish.
I graduated from the school with a forest engineering degree and years later I deepened my knowledge by getting a specialized engineering/MSc degree in Geo-information (Geomatics) of Natural Resources Management. Upon my graduation I worked for a local company operating in GIS and Remote sensing. I worked on assessing natural risks (floods, earthquakes, fires, avalanches, etc.) of Arab countries. The work lead to an executive summary appearing on UNISDR website. After 8 months of work I went back to Togo where I worked for a local company that specializes in selling ESRI products in Togo. Although the job has the benefit of being up-to-date on the latest technology of ESRI products, it lacked the technical aspect I was looking for, and solely focused on marketing and transfer of competence.
I was awarded a fellowship by the European Union, Erasmus Mundus to pursue a master program in Multi-objectives decision support systems. I enhanced my knowledge on mathematical modelling known as Research Operations at University of Lisbon (Instituto Superior do Agronomia) . And for the second year of my master program I went to University of Tuscia in Italy. I wrote my master thesis there on the use of drones - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), to assess forest and biodiversity parameters. I obtained my master degree with the maximum points awarded by the Italian system 110/110 e lode , which means with honors.
This master opened doors for PhD possibilities, motivating my application and admission at the University of Washington, a prestigious university
I co-founded an NGO operating in the environment in my home country, and at University of Washington I sit on an IT committee board as a grad student representative
Here is a map of my world so far