25/03/2026
The Consulate extends its warmest congratulations to Filipino national, Prof. Rodrigo S. Jamisola Jr., of the Department of Mechanical, Energy, and Industrial Engineering at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), on securing a major international research grant valued at USD 1 million over five years from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) of the United States Air Force. This award reflects AFRL‘s commitment to advancing technology through academic partnerships. 
Awarded in September 2025, the project will be led by Prof. Jamisola as Principal Investigator, with the full research funding to be administered through BIUST. The University will also receive a 10% institutional overhead from the award.
The project, titled “Converting Indigenous Tracker Expertise of Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers into Artificial Intelligence Software,” seeks to translate the exceptional tracking knowledge of the San people of the Kalahari into artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of interpreting both animal and human tracks. It brings together four key domains: Cognitive Task Analysis, Animal Tracking, Behavioural and Physiological Signal Analysis, and Artificial Intelligence.
This international collaboration brings together five institutions: BIUST, Duke University (USA), WildTrack (USA), 361 Interactive LLC (USA), and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (India). Co-investigators include Zoe Jewell and Sky Alibhai (Duke University/WildTrack), Mike McCloskey (361 Interactive LLC), and Kalamveetil M. Sharika (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur).
The project also supports three PhD students from the Botswana Defence Force : Larona Ramalepa, Keletso Thebe, and Vemema Kangunde, who previously completed their Master of Engineering (MEng) degrees under Prof. Jamisola as part of the BDF-funded drone development programme. The research will document and model the cognitive processes of expert San trackers and translate this into machine learning algorithms capable of predicting behaviour from environmental evidence.
This award marks Prof. Jamisola’s third research project funded by the United States Government. In September 2023, he received a USD 500,000 grant from the United States Army for the project “Deploying UAVs to Interpret Human and Wildlife Activities from Tracks Using AI with Indigenous Tracker Expertise,” which supports two BDF PhD students : Tinao Petso and Wazha Mmereki, who are both currently nearing completion of their doctoral studies.
In addition, Prof. Jamisola leads a Debswana-funded research project titled “Prediction of Blast-Induced Ground Vibration, Rock Fragmentation, Airblast, Backbreak, and Effects on the Final Pit Wall Stability Using Artificial Intelligence Methods,” valued at BWP 1.6 million (USD 117,000) over four years. The project includes Dr. Oduetse Matsebe as co-investigator and Onalethata Saubi as the PhD student.
In total, Prof. Jamisola has secured approximately BWP 54.58 million (USD 4 million) in external research funding, all administered through BIUST. These initiatives contribute significantly to graduate education, international collaboration, and advanced technological research in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, environmental monitoring, and mining technologies.
This latest achievement further strengthens BIUST’s global research partnerships and underscores the University’s growing role as a centre for high-impact, internationally funded scientific innovation.
“Photo Credit : Research Flash - BIUST”
