Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu was born in Accra, Ghana, where he developed a passion for space and aviation at a young age. He attended Garrison Primary School in Burma Camp and later Ghana Secondary Technical School. He moved to the United Kingdom for further studies, earning a bachelor’s degree in Avionics from Queen Mary University of London in 1991 and a PhD in Control Systems Engineering from Cranfield University.

Ashitey is now a prominent robotics engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he serves as Chief Engineer and Technical Group Leader of the Mobility and Manipulation group. Since joining NASA in 1999, he has played leading roles in major Mars missions including the Mars Rovers, Phoenix Mars Lander, and the InSight mission, which successfully landed on Mars in 2018. His work focuses on planetary robotics, autonomous systems, and robotic manipulation, with over 95 technical publications to his credit.

He is also the founder of the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes STEM education among young Ghanaians. The foundation won the Google RISE Award in 2013. Ashitey continues to inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists through his groundbreaking work and commitment to education.

Reference: Wikipedia