Cosmos Daniel Ikpoba

Passion for science

Cosmos Daniel Ikpoba, MSc

Meet Cosmos Daniel Ikpoba, Skoltech graduate of the Information Science and Technology program. Cosmos has always had this passion for science and during his studies he learnt about Skoltech and let's read what made him pursue this path.

a journey to Skoltech

I am a native of Nigeria. I remembered when I was 8 years old, I will go get empty cams and cartons, disassemble them, and made cars with them. This continued till I was 10. The interest in engineering has always been evident in my actions at my early age although, at this age, I had no idea on which aspect of engineering I was going to focus on. During my last year in high school, I decided I wanted to study Mechanical Engineering.
Ironically, this was the best thing that could happen! I already had the opportunity to learn about Skoltech and, as a foreign researcher with an interest in innovation, I have to admit that I was very attracted to an idea to pursue a PhD at Skoltech's Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. This made me get into one of the best universities of technology, the Federal University Of Technology Akure (FUTA).

what made you choose Skoltech

During my undergraduate studies, my interest became more focused on computation and simulation after I attend a FluidSim seminar that was on the design and simulation of pneumatic and hydraulic circuits. After my undergraduate studies at the university, I decided to search for a university where I would be more exposed to the nature of computational sciences and its numerous applications. I was influenced by the computational program at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), Moscow, Russia, for this reason, I applied to Skoltech and was admitted into Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) now Information Science and Technology at Skoltech.

I got the registration link from one of my friends who studied Industrial Mathematics from the same university with me whom we had both attended a scholarship seminar organized by a senior colleague from the same university. I perused the university website, immediately I got the link and also researched about Skoltech. I saw their collaborations and most importantly they had the course I wanted to study plus all the courses were offered in English!

PhD Programs at Skoltech

study at Skoltech

Skoltech is a unique university in the sense that it presents lots of opportunities to students to either get involved in research or offer courses, however, this has to be approved by the student's supervisor. During my studies, I had the opportunity to take courses from other tracks to learn new skills related to my interests and others to learn more about my research. What I took away from all of this was the opportunity to foster my ability to be involved in research works, discussions of results and documentation, basically learn by doing.

volunteering and current work

Right from high school, I have always loved to volunteer and participate in extracurricular activities. During my studies at Skoltech, I was opportune to volunteer for various programs. I participated in a sport competition between students and the teaching staff (that was during the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia). Also, new year events and other social events were organized and I attended as well.

At the moment I am teaching in a school. My future plans: work for a while to get experience, get into grad school and get involve in businesses.

life in Moscow

Living in Moscow was an interesting part of my stay at Skoltech. The city is forever busy just like the place where I grew up (Lagos, Nigeria), and beautiful. I remembered Valentina Ekimova organized some tours to some historical places in Moscow that I was part of. This helped me adapt to the city's culture with ease. The transport system is strict to schedule and the underground metro amazing. Groceries are almost at every corner in some places. Though cold for an individual like me who grew up in a tropic region, however, the house heating systems where I lived worked perfectly plus there was an orientation for international students on items of clothing to buy and how to prepare against Moscow winter.

your advice to future Skoltech students

Skoltech is a great place to learn, make connections, birth start-ups, and other things. All of these require one to identify the opportunities early, form the necessary team/association/connections needed to make whatsoever it is a reality. My sincere advice will be to build strong relationships with both local and international students! Be smart and be confident in what you do, learn how to present yourself and your opinion(s) in any settings/platform!