Growing up in Ghana
I grew up between Kumasi and Accra with my sisters, Nikita and Amrita. We are triplets. For several years, our family lived primarily on a parked bus. Working with limited resources taught me to repair things and find practical ways to make them useful.
Before Achimota School, I studied in Kumasi and at Rising Academy in Ablekuma.
Attending Achimota
In March 2021, Achimota School denied me admission because I wear dreadlocks as an expression of my Rastafarian faith. My family challenged the decision alongside the family of Oheneba Kwaku Nkrabea.
On 31 May 2021, Ghana’s High Court ruled in our favor and ordered the school to admit us. I enrolled shortly afterward and completed my secondary education there. BBC Pidgin and Deutsche Welle covered the case and our return to school.
School and academic awards
- 2021: After enrolling late, I topped my class in Science and Elective Mathematics, as reported by Adom.
- 2023: I earned eight A1 grades in the WASSCE at Achimota, covered by MyJoyOnline.
- 2023: I received a gold medal and the national top-scorer award in the American Mathematics Olympiad, and a silver medal in the Vanda Science International Olympiad. MyJoyOnline reported on the awards.
- 2024: A full scholarship brought me to the University of Pennsylvania to study Computer Engineering.
What I’m building now
I’m working toward a B.S.E. in Computer Engineering, expected in 2028. My independent project, Tomato, is a 32-bit computer with a running FPGA implementation and discrete hardware boards in progress. I design the architecture, build the boards, and write the software.
I also build systems software, including a search engine, a compiler, and a database, and contribute fixes to open-source EDA tools such as LibreLane, OpenROAD, Verilator, and OpenFPGA. My engineering work has included production software at Aragorn AI and battery-management hardware at Vero Electric. I’ve also taught STEM, computer science, and AR/VR.
My projects, resume, and engineering log go into the technical work. The press archive collects the reporting and interviews; Wikipedia provides a public biography.