(Interviewed in 2020)

Dagmar Möbius

After finishing his schooling in Ethiopia with honors, Paulos Gorfu Abraha came to Dresden to study electronics at TU Dresden. His older brother served as a role model, having already received a degree in electronics and electrical engineering. After having held several high-level positions in Ethiopia, Abraha now works at a security company in Bavaria which operates worldwide.

This series is called “meet a regional ambassador” and features portraits of our international alumni. TU Dresden boasts more than 450 alumni who dedicate their time as regional ambassadors all around the world. They are available to respond to questions and concerns, and are prepared to help facilitate the transition for TUD students moving abroad. One of them is Dr. Paulos Gorfu Abraha.

In 1982, Paulos Gorfu Abraha finished his schooling in Ethiopia with honors. Thanks to a treaty between Ethiopia and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), he received a scholarship to move to Dresden at the age of 20 to study electronics technology at TUD. His older brother inspired him, having already received a degree in electronics and electrical engineering. After many years in high-level positions in Ethiopia, Abraha now works at a security company in Bavaria which operates worldwide. The 58-year-old has done well for himself. Just his professional and academic achievements stretch over several pages of his CV. To sum up his accomplishments: Dr. Paulos Gorfu Abraha has over three decades of experience with IT projects — from analysis to implementation to the daily management of national IT systems which run 24/7.

In 1988, he completed his studies in the Department of Information Technology within the Electrical Engineering Faculty’s Information Systems Engineering section, graduating with honors. His Diplom thesis focused on “X-ray fluorescence analysis using a scanning electron microscope and an energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer” (Original German title: “Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyse mit der Gerätekombination Rasterelektronenmikroskop/Energiedispersives Röntgenspektrometer”). He then pursued his doctoral studies at the Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems. His thesis “Investigation of thin film systems by electron probe microanalysis” (“Untersuchung von Dünnschichtsystemen mittels Elektronenstrahl-Mikroanalyse”) earned him his doctorate cum laude.

Dr. Paulos Gorfu Abraha returned to his home country in 1993, where he supervised a number of projects, programmed and conducted personnel training. In 1999, he managed to solve a major problem of the millennium — quite literally. The “Y2K Project” concentrated on resolving the eponymous problem in the Ethiopian immigration authority’s system prior to the start of the new millennium. He has also taught programming at Admas College and New Generation College in Addis Ababa.

Over the course of the ten years, Dr. Paulos Gorfu worked as the Technical Manager and Deputy Director of the Integrated Immigration Control Information System (IICIS) project. The goal of the project was to automate processes such as registering passport holders with their photo and fingerprints, issuing machine-readable passports and checking passports at the border. The information systems engineer designed, analyzed, realized and integrated the system components. Subsequently, he led the IT department in the main office for emigration and citizenship matters at Ethiopia’s ministry of internal affairs.

Since 2014, Dr. Paulos Gorfu Abraha has been the Senior Bid Manager at Mühlbauer ID Services GmbH, headquartered in Roding, Bavaria. He is tasked with compiling submissions for international calls for tender for a vast variety of projects. These include identity document solutions (ID smart cards, passports, banking cards), identity document production/ personalization machinery, identity data collection, and front-end and back-end IT systems as well as automating passport control at borders, in particular at international airports. Most of these projects are commissioned by national governments.

“I’m not working in exactly the same field that I did my studies in, but I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today without the methods and techniques that I acquired during that time,” he says. “For example, I did a lot with hardware and software during my studies and while working on my PhD. I was able to apply the skills and knowledge gained later on.”

Dr. Paulos Gorfu Abraha is a member of Germany’s largest Ethiopian alumni organization, the Association of Ethiopians Educated in Germany (AEEG). He regularly contributes information from and about TU Dresden.

The alumnus likes to reminisce about excursions and Christmas parties with his seminar group. Unfortunately, he also remembers the “eruption of hostility toward foreigners in the former GDR subsequent to the fall of the Berlin Wall.” He received two distinctions during his studies, which he mentions almost as an afterthought. The GDR’s Ministry of Education awarded him with the Salvador Allende Grant in 1986 and in 1988, the TU Dresden Senate honored him with the Wilhelm Gotthelf Lohrmann Medal for excellence in his studies.

Dr. Paulos Gorfu Abraha is one of TU Dresden’s 470 regional ambassadors. “I want to be able to provide prospective students from Ethiopia information about TU Dresden,” he explains. In Ethiopia, he is a member of an organization for people who studied in Germany. “This association is a way for us to maintain our connection with Germany,” he says. The organization has also launched several aid projects for Ethiopia from Germany. Paulos Gorfu Abraha is proficient in German, English, Amharic and Tigrinya.

Contact:
Paulos Gorfu Abraha
Email

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