Nurturing the next generation of EO leaders with Digital Earth Africa

Across the globe, a new generation of Earth Observation leaders is taking shape, and Digital Earth Africa (DE Africa) is playing a pivotal role in that journey. By making satellite data accessible, usable, and relevant, DE Africa is not only transforming decision-making across the continent but also shaping the people who will carry this work forward. The collaboration between DE Africa and the Copernicus Master in Digital Earth (CDE) program, co-funded by the European Union, is a clear example of this impact.

The CDE program is one of the world’s leading postgraduate degrees in Earth Observation. Each year, it brings together a select group of students from across the globe to learn cutting-edge skills in geoinformatics, data science, and cloud-based analysis. For several years, DE Africa has been used in this program as a teaching resource and as an exemplar of an open, operational Earth Observation platform. This means that emerging global leaders in Earth Observation are not only learning with DE Africa but are also being equipped to use it in their careers.

Lecturer’s Perspective

Martin Sudmanns, who teaches in the CDE program at the University of Salzburg, has followed DE Africa since its inception. In his “Digital Earth Concepts:  Big Earth Data” course, he teaches big Earth data concepts and introduces the DE Africa platform alongside platforms like Google Earth Engine, showing students how open, cloud-based EO tools can be applied to real-world problems.

He emphasises that the goal is not just teaching software, but giving students exposure to a variety of platforms so they can make informed choices. Some students test DE Africa in depth, others use it as a starting point, but in every case it stands out as a trusted and accessible resource. The CDE program itself is highly competitive, with hundreds of applicants and only a small cohort admitted each year. After graduation, students take the concepts and tools they’ve worked with into academia, industry, and government, extending DE Africa’s impact far beyond the classroom.

The impact is visible through the journeys of three students and alumni, Leila Maritim, Ethel Ogallo, and Ee-Faye Chong, whose experiences reflect both global recognition and African ownership.

Leila Maritim
Leila Maritim, a recent graduate of the CDE program, has now joined DE Africa as an Earth Observation Scientist. With a background in geomatic engineering, she pursued her master’s studies in Austria and France, specializing in cloud computing, machine learning, and geo data science. Her master’s thesis applied graph neural networks to feature extraction, expertise she now brings into DE Africa.

Leila first encountered DE Africa in  a lecture , where it was introduced as a leading data cube for the continent. Today, she is applying that same technology in practice, using DE Africa notebooks to streamline machine learning experiments and develop scalable workflows. As one of several Kenyan women to receive the CDE scholarship, Leila emphasises the importance of representation, encouraging more African students to apply and seize opportunities. Her vision is to enable access to data and foster innovation in Africa’s geospatial sector.

Ethel Ogallo
For current CDE student,  Ethel Ogallo, the program is a step in a journey that began in public health. While working as a geostatistician at the CEMA Africa, she identified a gap between traditional analysis methods and the potential of geoinformatics and AI. This motivated her to join the CDE program, where she discovered DE Africa, not in Nairobi, but in a European lecture hall. .

That moment, she recalls, was bittersweet. While proud to see an African platform celebrated internationally, she also wished she had encountered DE Africa earlier at home. This sparked her determination to integrate platforms like DE Africa into African higher education, ensuring that students across the continent can access the tools and training shaping the global EO field.

Ethel has already used DE Africa in her studies, leveraging its open data and cloud-based resources to overcome barriers she once faced while working in Kenya. She advises aspiring African students to be confident, apply boldly, and recognise that international programs are designed to teach, not to expect perfection from the start.

Ee-Faye Chong
For Ee-Faye Chong, the connection to DE Africa began on the other side of the equation, as part of the establishment team at Geoscience Australia. Joining in 2020 with a background in physics, Ee-Faye worked on capacity development, creating training materials and collaborating with African partners to make EO data more accessible. She played a key role in building DE Africa’s learning platform and shaping “train the trainer” approaches that continue to ripple through universities, NGOs, and governments today.

Now a CDE student herself, Ee-Faye brings her professional experience into the classroom. She sees the program as an opportunity to gain the foundational geospatial skills that complement her hands-on work with DE Africa. Acting as an “unofficial ambassador,” Ee-Faye hopes to introduce fellow students to DE Africa, helping to expand its reach as a trusted global resource. Her journey reflects the spirit of lifelong learning: moving from builder to learner, and ultimately, back again to innovator.

Global recognition, local impact
Together, these stories highlight the unique role DE Africa plays in shaping the next generation of EO leaders. For African scholars like Leila and Ethel, DE Africa is a bridge between global training and local impact. For professionals like Ee-Faye, it is both a foundation and a springboard into new opportunities.

As applications open each year for the Copernicus Master in Digital Earth, DE Africa is proud to see its services embedded in this prestigious program. The stories of Leila, Ethel, and Ee-Faye show that when open data meets global collaboration, the impact reaches far beyond classrooms, into careers, communities, and the future of Earth Observation in Africa.

For African students considering the program, the opportunity is there. Interested students have the opportunity to apply for admission to the next cohort starting in November 2026 https://master-cde.eu/admission/

The next chapter in EO leadership is being written today, and DE Africa is already part of the story.