Mutakusi Ragimana

Inspired by evenings spent pouring over atlases and watching National Geographic, Mutakusi Ragimana’s childhood dream was to become a cartographer, a vision that evolved into a career at the cutting edge of geospatial science. Mutakusi, 27, is a spatial data and remote sensing specialist at Zutari, where he applies advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS),  machine learning and remote sensing to tackle real-world challenges. His projects span disaster management, precision agriculture, infrastructure development and environmental monitoring — from flood modelling in KwaZulu-Natal to urban planning for Expo City Dubai. After earning seven distinctions in matric, he secured the prestigious  Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship at Nelson Mandela University, followed by postgraduate studies at the universities of the Witwatersrand and Pretoria, where his MSc research on land cover monitoring was hailed as a first for Africa. His work has earned numerous accolades, including recognition from the South African National Space Agency and Esri  South Africa. Beyond his technical expertise, Mutakusi is committed to uplifting rural youth through initiatives like the Bono Foundation and the Connect to Your Future mentorship programme.

• BSc Environmental Sciences (Geography and Botany), Nelson Mandela University
• BSc Honours (GIS and remote sensing), University of the Witwatersrand
• MSc in Geoinformatics, University of Pretoria

• Commitment to academic excellence continued with Academic Excellence Awards in 2017 and 2018, which led to an invitation to the Golden Key International Honour Society, along with the Xanadu and Unitas Residence Merit Awards
• Awarded multiple bursaries in 2019 from esteemed organisations including the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the South African National Space Agency and the Industrial Development Corporation
• Recognised for the South African National Space Agency Best Honours Research Presentation
• Named a Grad Star Top 500 candidate (2020)
• Received the Esri South Africa first position award in a geospatial research project (2022)

The successful professional projects:

• MSc Research Dissertation (2022–2024) – this research significantly enhanced land use and land cover monitoring by integrating optical imagery and synthetic aperture radar — a first for the African continent
• Machine Learning for Land Cover Change Detection (2021–2022) and Deep Learning for Building Footprint Extractions (2022)
• Drone Imagery Processing for Precision Agriculture (2022)
• KwaZulu-Natal Flood Modelling (2022)
• George Integrated Public Transport Network (2024–2025) and Expo City Dubai Residential Development (2022–2025)

• My mother, who instilled the passion and drive to pursue a meaningful career, her meticulous nature and dedication significantly shaped both work ethic and approach to life
• Dr Alastair Potts, an ecology lecturer, was instrumental in fuelling a passion for academic research even before the first degree — creating an environment where it was safe to make mistakes and learn from them, while developing early research skills and confidence
• Menachem Rose, a data science mentor during internship, patiently simplified complex concepts such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, offering reassurance that uncertainty at the beginning is normal — encouragement that helped overcome initial hurdles in a new field