Adeoluwa Akande, a PhD researcher at NOVA IMS has been selected to serve as a mentor in the 2018 YouthMappers Research Fellowship.

The 9-month program is designed to enlist, enable, and showcase the contributions of open geospatial data for research on the resilience of vulnerable populations around the world.

Adeoluwa will be mentoring Dennis Irorere, a student of the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria on his researched titled “Leveraging open data and geospatial technology for food security”. His study seeks to develop a platform that can be a repository for farmer’s and agricultural produce data. Furthermore, a crop cultivation map will be developed for Ondo State, one of the most influential states in Nigeria, to foster positive decision making.

All new data created during the course of this research will be open and accessible to the public using the OpenStreetMap platform and tools to ensure it is freely available for the greater public good, particularly local populations planning for the welfare and vitality of their own communities.