Ing. Wilson holds an MPhil and a BSc in Computer Engineering from KNUST, Ghana and a PGDip. in Wireless and Mobile Computing from CDAC, India. He has over twelve years of practical working experience in programming, robotics, project management and data science. He has worked on and managed numerous projects including the West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative (WADPI) project, World Bank’s GH e-Transform Project, UNESCO’s Youth in Mobile App Development project, Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) project, and many more. He also served as a technical advisor on the Ghana National High Performance Computing Committee in 2018.

He is the Trainer in Chief and competition strategist for the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation who has led teams to win and gain global recognition for Ghana in the Robotics space and also served as one of Ghana’s representatives for the Innovation for Development trilateral relationship between Ghana, Israel and Germany. He has worked and consulted with institutions of high reputation including the Electronics and Telecommunications research Institute (ETRI) of Korea, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Conservation Alliance, Appsol Information System, UNESCO, World Robots Olympiad, GIZ and the CGIAR.

In the recent five years, Ing. Wilson has worked with experts within and outside the CSIR to develop a dozen of novel digital agricultural innovative tools and advisories that is serving thousands of stakeholders in different value chains within the agricultural sub-sector. Among these include the Kuafo Market Place Mobile and Web platforms, the Agritech Advisor Mobile and Web platforms, the CSIR-Space, the Ghana Ag-Data Hub, Digital Cropping Calendars for different crops, the Canovalator Mobile App, Dynamic Dashboarding tools, and many more.

Ing. Michael Wilson is currently a Chief Technologist and Head of the Electronics Division at the CSIR-Institute for Scientific and Technological Information. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Lecturer and a Software Developer at the Kofi Annan ICT Center. He is a board member of the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation, a board member of The OpEx Prize and a Professional Engineer of the Ghana Institute of Engineering (GhIE).

His current research interests are in Robotics, Machine Learning, Internet of Things and he is bent on ensuring that research output and technology is applied to bring us closer to a better, safer and more sustainable world. He is the technical lead and project manager for the development of a Digital Agricultural Innovation Hub (DAIH) as part of the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) project and the lead data scientist for the Accelerating Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa program. Ing. Wilson’s philosophy has always been “DRINK DEEP OR TASTE NOT” and believes that any small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world.

Dr. Michael Kwabena Osei is a Senior Research Scientist and a Tomato Breeder of the CSIR-Crops Research Institute (CRI), Kumasi, Ghana. He was employed at the CSIR-CRI in 2004 as an Assistant Research Scientist to work on vegetable breeding at the Horticulture division of the Institute. During this period, he attended trainings at the AVRDC-The World Vegetable Centre, Arusha, Tanzania and Wageningen University, The Netherlands where he obtained a diploma in vegetable breeding and a certificate in Plant Variety Protection respectively. He was later enrolled at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science of Technology, Kumasi to pursue MSc. degree in Plant Breeding and graduated in 2010. He was subsequently upgraded to the position of a Research Scientist in 2010 after his graduation and was mandated to undertake research on vegetables particularly on tomato breeding. His research activities focus on identifying farmers’ constraints in the field and designing experiments to find solutions to those problems. He was a member of the team of scientists who developed and released two (2) pepper varieties at the CSIR-CRI, Ghana. He has also offered consultancy services to the Wenchi Tomato Factory.

Michael has attended a number of professional trainings in his area of specialization at renowned Institutions such as National Institute of Horticulture and Herbal sciences, RDA, Korea, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India, AgBiotech, Monterrey, California, USA, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, AVRDC, Arusha, Tanzania etc to enhance his research capabilities. He has also presented papers on a wide range of vegetables particularly in tomatoes and garden eggs at both local and international conferences. Dr. Osei is the first to have reported the discovery of three new distinct tomato virus strains associated with Tomato Yellow Leaf curl Virus (TYLCV) disease in Ghana. This outstanding discovery was published in the American Plant Disease Journal and attracted funding from the USA for his research in tomato. He has to date over 90 publications; (35) refereed Journal publications in reputable local and international Journals, (8) edited conference papers, (10) conference abstracts, (4) disease notes, eleven (11) book chapters, a monograph, (13) technical reports including (3) approved consultancy reports, three (3) manuals and three (3) factsheets. Further to this, his work has been showcased in both print media and television stations across the country.

To date Dr. Osei has attracted over 1 million US dollars including its equivalent in Ghana cedis funds through proposal writing and grants from USAID via Virginia Tech. University, USA, Korea government, RDA, Korea (KAFACI phase 1, KAFACI phase 2, KOPIA phase 1, KOPIA Phase 2), World Bank (WAAPP phase 1), TDTC-COVET, YPARD via FARA, UKAID via Worldveg and GhanaCares Obaatanpa via Government of Ghana. He was also part of a team that developed and won proposals from the AVRDC, Ghanaveg, EDIF and Indian government pilot tomato project. He also served as the official representative of Young Professional in Agriculture for Development (YPARD) Chapter in Ghana until 2017. He has also served on several CSIR-CRI committees and was the head of the Horticulture division in 2015, 2020 and 2021. Currently, he is the head of the vegetable section in the Horticulture division of the Institute. He has supervised several International and local MSc. /MPhil students and provided other support services to other undergraduates and masters’ students and also serve as an examiner to some universities in Ghana. In 2011, the Government of Ghana recognized his work and was awarded the National Best Young Scientist (Bronze award) during the first Ghana Science Congress.

Prior to that, he was a CTA award winner in a Young Professional Competition for Agricultural Scientists in Sub Saharan Africa. The tomato research project led by him with funding from Korea government under Korea Africa Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) was adjudged by the donors as the outstanding project among 14 African member countries of KAFACI after evaluation of the project. He was bestowed a certificate of excellence by the Government of Korea in 2015. In 2019, he completed his PhD in plant breeding and genetics at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, University of Ghana. Two years later he has released two tomato varieties which are dubbed ‘CRI-Kwabena Kwabena and KOPIA Tomato’. This is the first ever open-pollinated tomato varieties released in Ghana. This release got him an award from the Korean Programme on International Agriculture (KOPIA), (Cash award and a certificate). Michael is married with four kids; Matilda, Michelle, Maxwell and Mark.