Richard Heeks asks and answers an important question “How big is the ICT4D research field?” Any thoughts on his numbers?
Change is a group at the University of Washington exploring how technology
can improve the lives of underserved populations in the developing world.
can improve the lives of underserved populations in the developing world.
ICT4D Research: Size and Growth
February 9th, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaOpen Data Kit Wins $1.3 Million Research Grant
February 2nd, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaToday, Google announced the first-ever round of Google Focused Research Awards — funding research in areas of study that are of key interest to Google as well as the research community. These awards, totaling $5.7 million, cover four areas: machine learning, the use of mobile phones as data collection devices for public health and environment monitoring, energy efficiency in computing, and privacy.
These unrestricted grants are for two to three years, and the recipients will have the advantage of access to Google tools, technologies and expertise. They’ve given awards to 12 projects led by 31 professors at 10 universities. The NY Times has more on the awards.
Open Data Kit is one of two projects in the mobile data collection category and the team led by Gaetano Borriello is very excited about what this funding will enable over the next few years.
Rohit Chaudhri on A Programmable Accessory for Cell Phones
February 1st, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaThis talk has been cancelled. We will still be meeting, so bring your lunch, and we’ll have a discussion about all the exciting things Change might be up to next
quarter.
This Thursday at Change, UW grad student Rohit Chaudhri will presenting his work on A Programmable Accessory for Cell Phones.
Rohit says, “Low-tier cell phones like the Nokia 1100, 1200, 2600 etc, are commonly used by individuals from low-income groups in developing regions. While these phones are cheap and affordable (within the $20-$30 range), they do not have a programmable runtime environment like Android, J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile etc, as is available on mid to high tier mobile phones. Hence mobile application developers are unable to create applications for these phones. This restricts the services that can be delivered to users of such phones. In this talk I will present an approach to extend the capabilities of low-tier cell phones. This uses a microcontroller-based accessory connected to the phone to achieve the goal. The idea is to use the cell phone for IO and communications, while application specific computation is offloaded to the microcontroller. I will present the high-level architecture of the system and then discuss implementation and platform capabilities. I will show a location aware application based on this platform. Towards the end I will discuss other possible applications. If folks have ideas about how this platform can be used for ICTD research, it would be great to discuss those during the talk.
I built this platform during my recent internship at MSR India in Bangalore. In prototype scale production, a completely assembled unit costs around $15. A tech report about this work is available at: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/?id=117754.
If time permits I will mention about other fun projects I was involved in during this awesome internship!”
What: Rohit Chaudhri on A Programmable Accessory for Cell Phones
When: Thursday, February 4 at Noon
Where: UW, Paul Allen Center, Room 203
Second Workshop on Technology and Disability in the Developing World
January 27th, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaFollowing an extremely successful first workshop on Technology and Disability in the Developing World in October 2009, the University of Washington is pleased to announce the second workshop on Technology and Disability in the Developing World on Friday, June 18, 2010.
Our first workshop brought together researchers and practitioners interested in technology and disability in the developing world to share knowledge and start building partnerships. The second workshop will focus on low-cost assistive technologies (AT) appropriate for developing country environments. Aspects to consider in addition to affordability when determining appropriateness of AT include safety, durability, utility, maintenance, infrastructure limitations (e.g. lack of electricity, lack of personnel trained in providing AT services), and socio-cultural relevance. Top papers will also be identified for inclusion a leading journal on technology and development.
The workshop will be a multi-disciplinary gathering with practitioners, technologists, social scientists, and industry partners. We invite scholars (students and faculty) and practitioners from all disciplines to submit abstracts (1000 words max) addressing one or more of the following topic areas by March 10th, 2010. Selected presenters will be notified by April 10th.
On-line submission form will be available February 5th and until then, can find out more at http://change.washington.edu/access/workshop_2.
Breona Gutschmidt on One Laptop Per Child
January 26th, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaThis Thursday at Change, UW grad student Breona Gutschmidt will presenting on her work on One Laptop Per Child.
In 2009, the One Laptop Per Child organization (www.laptop.org), founded by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT’s Media Lab, ran a pilot program called OLPCorps. The intention was to provide funds and 100 of the group’s iconic green and white XO laptops to university student teams partnering with established NGOs in order to deploy the computers in rural African locations.
University of Washington graduate student Breona Gutschmidt wrote one of the 30 winning proposals, and, partnering with the East African Center for Women and Children (EAC), headed up a team of graduate students to launch the XO laptops at the Vutakaka Junior School in Takaungu, Kenya, this past summer. She’ll give an overview of the project, including highlights, challenges and assessment, and bring a couple of XO laptops to show-and-tell.
Breona Gutschmidt has spent the last several years working in the technology and education field and is currently pursing an MEd in Educational Communication and Technology at UW’s College of Education. Among other projects, she has written and edited multimedia curriculum for an educational software company called Apex Learning, and she spent several months in Takaungu, Kenya in 2004 implementing a youth and technology project for 12-18 year-olds. She has a B.A. in creative writing and has worked as a writer and editor at companies including Microsoft, the Seattle Art Museum and the University of Washington.
Breona enjoys exploring questions of how new software and hardware will be implemented and developing curriculum tools for new and emerging technologies. She is particularly interested in the intersections between education, technology and creative expression and education, technology and health.
What: Breona Gutschmidt on One Laptop Per Child
When: Thursday, January 27 at Noon
Where: UW, Paul Allen Center, Room 203
Files: Slides
Technology for Employability in Latin America: Research With At-Risk Youth & People With Disabilities
January 25th, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaSince the early 1990s, there has been an increasing interest in technology training centers to build employability options of socially excluded groups in Latin America.
Four researchers — Joyojeet Pal, Jay Freistadt, Michele Frix, and Phil Neff — from the Technology & Social Change (TASCHA) group at the University of Washington Information School examined investments into computer centers providing basic technology training for people with disabilities and at-risk youth.
Using primary research in five countries — Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela — this report discusses the ways in which technology training impacts the employability concerns of two populations with diverse needs and histories of social and economic exclusion from formal labor markets.
This report provides scholars and policy-makers an expansive survey of the landscape of issues around technology employability for socially excluded populations. Findings are broadly divided into three segments:
- Environmental factors that impact such projects including the aspirational environment and the discourse of technology
- Short-term impacts of these programs including the creation of pathways to employment, community-building, as well as impacts on self-esteem and stigmatization and the potential of mismatched employment expectations from access to these programs
- Factors that influence the success of such programs including cost, certification, and accessible technology
Download a PDF of the full report — Technology for employability in Latin America: Research with at-risk youth & people with disabilities.
This research was supported by a grant from Microsoft Community Affairs under the Unlimited Potential Community Technology Skills Program.
Richard Anderson on Building an ICT Portfolio at PATH
January 19th, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaThis Thursday at Change, UW CSE professor Richard Anderson will presenting on his work building an ICT Portfolio at PATH.
PATH is a Seattle based NGO with the mission to “improve the health of people around the world by: advancing technologies, strengthening systems, and encouraging healthy behaviors”. Richard is spending his sabbatical working with PATH as part of their nascent effort in Health Information Systems. In this talk, he will provide an overview of projects that are underway. These include developing a device for communication with rural health clinics, using cell phones for tracking TB cases in Tanzania, building a software application for modeling national scale vaccine refrigeration capacity, and creating a framework for deriving requirements for global health information systems. Richard will also describe what he learned about the Nicaraguan public health system in a recent visit, focusing on how the existing information flows might be made more efficient with improved communication technologies.
What: Richard Anderson on Building an ICT Portfolio at PATH
When: Thursday, January 21 at Noon
Where: UW, Paul Allen Center, Room 203
Brian DeRenzi on eIMCI and CommCare
January 11th, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaThis Thursday at Change, Brian DeRenzi will be discussing his work using mobile phone as job aids for healthcare workers in Tanzania.
Mobile phones and devices are rapidly becoming Ubiquitous in low-resource regions of the world. I will be talking about two different projects I have been involved with in Tanzania that use mobile phones as job aids for people working in health related fields. The first, e-IMCI is a project for health workers in facility to assist with the IMCI protocol. The application guides health workers through a decision tree for the treatment of common ailments of childhood health. A small initial study in 2007 found that users were more likely to follow the protocol when using the e-IMCI software.
The second project, CommCare, is an application that runs on mobile phones to help support community health workers (CHWs). The goal of the project is to provide a tool that CHWs can use to help manage their household and data collection needs. The phone also provides a way to complete the feedback loop by sending information back to CHWs instead of making it a one way street.
I will be discussing some of the open-ended challenges with these projects as well as presenting preliminary results. While I will have slides prepared, this will be an informal talk to introduce two projects we are doing in the mobile health space, with the hopes of spurring more discussion.
What: Brian DeRenzi on eIMCI and CommCare
When: Thursday, January 14 at Noon
Where: UW, Paul Allen Center, Room 203
The Girl Effect
January 6th, 2010 by Yaw AnokwaLittle research has been done to understand how investments in girls impact economic growth and the health and well-being of communities. This lack of data reveals how pervasively girls have been overlooked. For millions of girls across the developing world, there are no systems to record their birth, their citizenship, or even their identity.
However, the existing research summarized in this fact sheet suggests their impact can reach much farther than expected. Find out more about The Girl Effect.
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