Overcoming Difficult Childhood to Become Innovator Recognized by MIT

Interview date:

May 29, 2020

Isaac Sesi

Engineer
at
Sesi Technologies
Profile: 
professional
Study:
university

Isaac Sesi, CEO of Sesi Technologies and the subject of a Humans of New York story, talks about his journey from a challenging childhood to a career as an inventor and serial entrepreneur in Ghana. 

In 2019, MIT honoured Isaac as one of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35 for GrainMate, a grain moisture meter he invented which helps poor African farmers protect their crops from moisture and rot.

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"My work on the grain moisture meter, right from the research phase to bringing it to market in a way that was impactful for smallholder farmers in Africa, is one of the things that got me recognized as an innovator under 35. Which was really an honour as I had always wanted to go to MIT but I didn't get the opportunity because at the time I was too broke to afford to write the SAT."

ADVICE

  • teach kids to code and write software from an early age
  • encourage kids to rip apart and build devices and hardware
  • help kids link technology to what they want to contribute to the world

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