WPI Hosts Six African PhD Students in Inaugural PASET Program Supported largely by African governments and other donors, including the Government of South Korea and the World Bank, the program aims to build a critical mass of researchers and university professors in Africa December 21, 2020 Share As a boy growing up in a remote village in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, Richard Kipyegon Koech would spend evenings studying by a kerosene lamp. The smoke smudged the walls of his thatched-roof hut and irritated his lungs. At times, he would have to turn away from his work. Richard Koech “If I coughed, it could make the light go out,” Koech remembered. “If I did not have a matchstick, it would interfere with my studies.”