The fundamental bedrock of any physical development is mapping. It is of much importance that without it, the human environment would become inhabitable. Being aware of this information, I choose to make a career in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a multidisciplinary branch of Geoinformatics. It is multidisciplinary because it cuts across virtually all professions from geo-information to military purposes, health to energy sectors, environmental management to crime control, agriculture to disaster management.

Throughout history, the power of development has always played a major role in moving societies forward. This concept brought a lot of dynamics into the human race as they settled from one age to another, and one generation to another. There arose a need for proper arrangement of structures which lead to surveying. Today, with the advent of satellites (which Nigeria now has two in orbit), computer technology, and advancement in digital electronics, surveying has moved to GIS using a combination of spatial and attribute data through remote sensing.

Hence as a graduate researcher, I intend to conduct a research in the application of GIS to solving the problems facing humanity, particularly in Africa. In researching GIS, I want to explore any of the following;
(i) The management of HIV/AIDS in Africa
(ii) Urban renewal and re-generation of slums in Africa
(iii) The management of water pollution
What captured my interest is that in most prevalent health diseases in Africa, such as Malaria, Tuberculosis, e.t.c… it is realized that they could be spatially referenced. They are dependent on the environment in their mode of transmission. So the application of GIS is easily achieved because infected areas can be delineated for treatment without difficulty. However, the case of HIV/AIDS is more of a social issue which leaves much to be studied, researched, and analyzed. To this end, the application of GIS to HIV/AIDS has only been achieved in mapping population density with the rate of infection. I would love to research linking spatial features with the rate of infection. Furthermore, a lot of African settlements are slums when viewed from satellite imagery as compared with other places in the world. Through research; perhaps is there an excellent way of renewal of these slums to a well organized environment, properly fit for human existence?

In my quest for global knowledge and experience, I am currently undergoing an Undergraduate Research Experience (URE 2008) at the Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), NC in GIS and programming related courses. My research is on "The use of remote sensing to monitor beach erosion", using Duck beach, Duck town, NC as a case study under the mentorship of Mr. Ernest Wilson. I am an undergraduate of Surveying & Geoinformatics at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, a First Class hopeful. I have also earned, a Diploma with Distinction in Surveying & Geoinformatics from Federal Polytechnic Ado, Ekiti State, Nigeria. To further enhance my knowledge base and capacity, I intend to be an Oracle Certified Database Administrator (DBA), which is a necessity for the administration and management of databases, a vital part of GIS. I also intend to further enhance my skills by learning more programming languages relating to my field, in addition to the Visual Basic knowledge I have. I am energetic and self motivated, I believe I do have the intellectual stamina and the maturity to undertake a graduate program in any university in the world, in my field of study. I strongly believe that a research program in any of these fields will go a long way in solving a myriad of epidemics in Africa. I would like to work with professors with relative knowledge of my research interest.