Catherine Nakalembe

It's really powerful to be able to do that.

True innovation is not about high-tech systems, but about making the technology fit the problem.

We have to provide really good information to the people who can do something

with it.

If we do this correctly, we can save time, we can save money, we can save livelihoods.

I'm so grateful to be here.

I'm really excited to be in the TED office, but also for the opportunity to sit down and chat with you during Climate Week.

I used to play badminton.

I was going to do sports science.

That's like literally I was called Catherine Badminton when I was in high school.

That was it.

But by chance, I ended up getting a scholarship to do an environmental science undergraduate.

And at the end, I was able to do this

You can call it like a capstone, a research project that for the first time I left my parents' house and went to the west of the country.

And I did field mapping with a GPS, a backpack, and a forest ranger.

And I remember I have this photo like in this.

It rained completely.

I was completely covered in dirt.

But I was so happy.

And I thought that I wanted to do more of that.