BOSTON UNIVERSITY

PERSONAL STATEMENT

I was looking for a place to study over the night for exam in my second year at undergraduate
level when I met a man for the first time that helped me by offering me a place in his laboratory
to study. The interesting thing about it is that I didn’t know he was going to be taking a course I
will be offering the following semester. Few nights together we became friends but I still didn’t
know his area of expertise. The following semester (third year) came and class started, lo and
behold, my laboratory friend was my lecturer. Prior to the commencement of this very
semester, I had never thought of myself having a career path with my degree because I never
had a real predilection for my course. The thought gradually wore out after taking the Digital
Mapping course he took that semester. The thought vanished completely when I took his
second course titled Digital mapping 2.

Taking these courses engendered my interest in GIS and Remote sensing. Although taking these
courses were extremely strenuous as the lecturer would always find something to correct in
your assignment. He was a perfectionist. Sometimes, I would just feel like giving up on the task
as he would keep-on pointing out little mistakes in my work. The good thing about this was
that, this constant meticulous approach helped me to improve personally. This relationship
grew stronger as a made his lab my second home. My classmate started calling me by his name
with the junior (Jr) suffix. In my fourth year, having done series of tasks including helping both
undergraduate colleagues and graduate students with map production, data downloads and
processing, I started exploring the option of taking my education level to graduate level. With
that thought in mind, I started engaging in research projects to further improve my knowledge
in GIS and Remote sensing and its applications especially to the environment. My first research
work was based on application of Remote sensing and GIS to exploration of groundwater in a
basin. The research findings were published in a Q1 remote sensing journal. Overtime, I have
worked with different research groups on different research projects involving the application
of GIS and Remote Sensing to environmental studies including atmospheric, terrestrial, and
underground. Participating in research has helped me to build valuable skills such as critical
thinking, academic writing, and data analytics as well as the ability to multitask. I even took
series of GIS and Remote Sensing course online and some academic writing courses to prepare
me for graduate school. I aim at contributing to an evolutionary phase in Geospatial sciences.

My undergraduate thesis involves the remote sensing approach for air quality monitoring and
its relationship with the land cover change between 2002 and 2020. The supervised image
classification method was adopted to extract the land cover maps from the multitemporal
Landsat images. An Atmospheric correction algorithm was used to estimate the ground surface
reflectance, and a python-based Radiative Transfer Model (Py6S) was used to simulate the
atmospheric properties from the Landsat imagery. Consequently, the results were used to
estimate atmospheric pollution. The accuracy of the estimation was ascertained by correlating
the results with ground-based air pollution data. The spatial pattern of urban growth coincided
with the increase in air pollution. Hence, the satellite-based method was deemed suitable for
large-scale air pollution mapping purposes. I choose work on this project because of the
interdisciplinary opportunity of working with researchers in chemistry science and the vital aim
of tackling one of the major factors affecting climate change and human health as well as
understanding the impact of uncontrolled population growth in Africa cities.

Aside the fact that an undergraduate degree in Surveying and Geoinformatics exposed me to
the various fields of surveying, spatial information science, and remote sensing, I have worked
with lecturers who have groomed me in the areas of problem identification and analysis, data
collection and analysis, and project management which has immensely improved my overall
research capability. I started my research experience by participating in a research project that
integrated satellite imagery and gravity anomaly maps for mapping geological lineaments in the
Gongola Basin of northern Nigeria. The project was successful with the preliminary findings
presented at the annual Engineering conference held at my universitywhile the full research
findings published in a top Q1 remote sensing journal published by Elsevier
(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2020.100346). In addition, I have presented at international
conference and published ten (10) conference proceedings articles. I also have four (4) Journal
peer-reviewed journal articles under review in top Q1 journals. My data analytics skills, critical
thinking skills, and technical writing skills together with the ability to multitask earn me place in
two departmental research group including Geoscience & Remote Sensing (GRS) Research
Group and Geospatial & Environmental Research Group. I am currently working as an editorial
member with Young Surveyor’s network, a professional body affiliated with FIG (International
Federation of Surveyors). I have learnt a lot from leadership role by organizing software training
and also tutoring my students in class and in junior years. During my undergraduate time, I
worked with the departmental executives to organize a software training which was aimed at
keeping the student abreast of the emerging technology trends and techniques particularly in
the GIS and Remote sensing space. I helped the department to organize tutorials and also
tutored different classes in my department to help students with challenges to understand
some courses.

Apart from the experience in the academic environment, I have also had the opportunity to
garner industrial experience in an Oil and Gas company (Shell Development Company of
Nigeria). I participated in several projects such as Image analysis and interpretation,
cartographic mapping, oil spill remediation assessment, oil well decommissioning route survey,
oil spill Joint Investigation Survey as well as attending several learning sections with the geo-
solution teams: Geomatics, Geological services, and Geophysics. For example, I carried out
image classification to detect the changes in an oil field to determine the impact of oil spill
which in turn helped the remediation team to know where to plant vegetation for the
betterment of the ecosystem. I also applied my knowledge of Surveying and cartography in
assisting the oil spill response team in several oil spill investigation survey to obtain coordinates
of the spill point and spill boundary and produce the map to assist the company in estimating
the amount payable for spill damage in order to manage company expenses.
It is noteworthy to highlight that my academic diligence and doggedness have indeed paid
dividends as evident from the award I received during my undergraduate study. Example
includes the yearly endowment scholarship for students with first class grade point average.
Winning these financial awards and recognitions provided extraordinary impetus for more
hard-work and commitment to learning and improving. As a result of these, I was able to
graduate among the top 5% of graduating students in my class, with first-class honors.
One of the challenges I faced as an undergraduate was financial constraints due to low-income
rate in my family. Apart from that, I was the first amongst my siblings to study at the University.
This particularly brought a lot of financial difficulties to the family. This difficulty affected my
performance in my first year as I struggled to get side job. Eventually, in my second year, I
secured a tutoring Job, which help to cater for my needs and consequently stabilize my focus. I
was able to manage this job with my academics from my second year till I graduated with an
excellent grade. This particularly impressed one my tutee as he paid my graduate revised exam
fee to pursue my application.

Studying at Boston University (BU), opens one to various possibilities of research in the field of
Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Science in their department of Remote sensing
and Geospatial Science which makes it unique and different from other universities. My
professional goal aligns with that of BU which is to understand and develop solutions to our
changing environment and how this change is affecting human in other to have a sustainable
future. I piqued interest in environmental studies during my internship days in an oil industry
where report of environmental degradation due to oil and gas production is common. I also like
that fact that BU prepares one to succeed academically, professionally, and socially. I have
always loved swimming since childhood, and BU has a recreational center that incudes
swimming which made my decision to pick them easy.