CLOSE-UP: Osato, Nigerian who sends drones to space, works for US army and owns a university

Nigerians are connecting bright dots on the map of the world; breaking new grounds, setting new records, and as Osatohanmwen Osemwengie will put it, “researching what doesn’t exist yet”!

Osemwengie, who hails from Edo state, left the country in the early 80s and has become a force to reckon with in Robotics Engineering. If there was a Nobel for Robotics Engineering Osato, as he is called, may have won one.

He still holds on to his strong ties in Nigeria and May have visited the country in December 2016, after his mother’s 85th birthday.

“My mom is celebrating her 85 years birthday today…you are very special, mom! Happy birthday! I am looking forward to celebrating Christmas and New Year with you in Nigeria this year,” he wrote in a note to his mother.

SIX MASTERS, FOUR PhD

The academic, who has bagged six masters degrees and four doctorate degrees, served as an administrator at the College of Education, Benin, where he was named educator of the year.

“Six master degrees, not bad. I was in the State of Ohio on Monday December 12th, 2016 for my Masters of Business Administration (MBA) graduation.

“This is my 6th master degree and will begin work on my 7th master degree in January 2017, and my 4th PhD. degree at University of Texas at Dallas in September of 2017.

“You know the proverb, ‘all work and no play makes jack a dull boy’ well, for me, all work and my play is acquiring graduate degrees. Learning is relaxing and takes my mind of my job projects.”

WORKS WITH NASA, SENDS DRONES TO SPACE

The robotic genius, who was a star at the 2008 world robotics championship, also works with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and has succeeded in sending drones to different planets, Mars and Jupiter inclusive.

“NASA’s Next Mars Rover Progresses toward 2020 launch. Many years ago I worked on prototype of Mars Curiosity Rover that has roam Mars for more than 4 years and counting,” Osato said of his work with NASA.

“We are now working on the next rover set to launch in 2020”.

In a CNN report, Osato and a team of engineers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, California, “received a signal from 540 million miles across the solar system, confirming our Juno spacecraft has successfully started orbiting Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system”.

Speaking on the new grounds broken, he said “now my team’s turn to land humans on MARS. Go NASA, Go Vertical”.

HE’S A CEO, OWNS AN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, WORKS FOR US ARMY

Osato owns a drones company, by the name Ubiquity Interface Inc., which is being run by himself as CEO, Ken, his brother, a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Army, and a team  of foreign engineers.

His latest research released in February, 2017, has been submitted to the US Army, and is titled “QuantumDB API for Database Security and Integrity Enhancements”.

“QuantumDB  is a database system required for implementation of secured database management system by the Army and Department of Defense within non-clustered environment in tactical space where computing and storage resources are limited,” the research abstract reads.

In 2011, he founded the “world’s first tuition free, engineering degree-granting university,” Open Robotics University.

The University, which was powered by Google+, awards bachelor, masters and doctorate degrees in robotics engineering for free.

The university headquarters is in Ohio. Open Robotics University currently has students in 45 cities in 25 countries.

It is unclear if the university still exists. Some claim, it went defunct in 2013.

HE IS ALSO A FAMILY MAN

In 2016, he visited his major US base, in Ohio, where he met with his family and shared how much he will miss them,  when he returns to Florida.

“My greatest moment from my visit to Ohio for my graduation was spending some time with my children. I have not seen them in two years,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

“My daughter has been working in Japan for two years, and my son busy with college and now returning to graduate school. Sad to leave Ohio, again, I will be going to visit brothers in Texas for four days, before returning to my base in Jacksonville, Florida.”

Osato was a facilitator for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation- sponsored Ohio Leadership for Integrating Technology Initiative (OLIT).