NASA Scientist Dr Trebi-Ollenu Addresses Ghana Academy of Sciences on the Importance of Space Technology

Ghana's Dr Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu from NASA-JPL will be presenting a lecture at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on the topic “Space Technology Unleashing A Wave of Disruptive New Technologies – To Post-Scarcity Economy”. Going by this title, the lecture promises to unveil deep insights that would be relevant to young people, businesses and policy makers.

The lecture will focus on current and future trends in information technology, explain the exponential growth in technology and present ways that the youth of Ghana can participate in this life-changing disruptive technologies — self-driving cars, genetic editing and artificial intelligence.

Dr Trebi-Ollenu would also address the difficult challenges facing governments today. Special emphasis would be placed on how to enable and channel the 'transformative forces of technological innovation' to maximize the benefits to current and future generations. Suggestions would be made as to how governments can reform institutional structures to be a lot more open to self-disruption as relative power shifts from centralized forces to the unprecedented empowerment of individuals due to the exponential growth of information enabled technologies.

It is refreshing that Dr Trebi-Ollenu is championing this critical discourse at this particular point in time. Advances in modern technology is gradually lowering barriers to entry in various spheres of science and technology research and innovation. This empowers individuals, small organisations, and communities to be able to access tools to be able to solve everyday problems and create businesses, resulting in significant socio-economic gains across board. 

Ghanaian Scientist Part of Curiosity Mars Exploration Team?

Human's continuous quest to unravel the secrets of the universe is running full throttle with the successful landing of the space rover, Curiosity on Mars. Curiosity's mission is simple, to see whether the red planet has ever supported life, even microbial forms. The news of its landing generated great excitement all over the web, challenging the popularity of even the olympic games. CNN asks whether Curiosity will finally open up martian frontier.

One of the first images captured by Curiosity. Source: CNN.com

What was most interesting to note, however are reports that among the many NASA engineers and scientists, was a Ghanaian,  Dr Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu. 

Dr Trebi-Ollenu Source: http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov

• Place of Birth: Accra, Ghana
• Education: B.Eng. in Avionics, University of London, 1991; Ph.D. in Control Systems Engineering, Cranfield University, U.K., 1996.
• Profession: Multi-disciplinary Engineer
• Research Interests: Planetary Rovers, Adjustable Autonomy, Mechatronics, System of Systems, Manipulation. Planetary Rover Operations, Multiple Mobile Robots, Reconfigurable Robots, Man-machine Interaction.
• Other activities: Motivational Talks, Robotics Workshops

A look at Dr Trebi-Ollenu's page at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) website reveals his membership of the Mars Exploration Rover Operations Team. He was a member of both Spirit and Opportunity teams. What is not clear as of now is his direct involvement in Curiosity. This news is very inspiring, to say the least. Dr Trebi-Ollenu's is a great example for young Ghanaian science students. Another notable Ghanaian scientist doing great work with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is Dr Ave Kludze.