Qatar Computing Research Institute's Social Computing team at the World Humanitarian Youth Summit.
We aim to research and create humanitarian innovation.
Exhibition: World Humanitarian Youth Summit
Doha, Qatar
September 1 - 2, 2015
This presentation was created by the Social Computing Team to demonstrate our collective work.
About QCRI: http://qcri.org.qa/our-research/social-innovation
About the World Humanitarian Youth Summit: https://www.worldhumanitariansummit.org/whs_youth
7. AIDR SMS/WhatsApp classification
AIDR-SMS Classification extension helps UNICEF classify SMS.
The U-Report platform is a free and open-source SMS platform used by UNICEF to engage on a wide
variety of issues across different countries. In Zambia, UNICEF is using U-Report for public health messaging
and polling.
8.
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10. Aerial imagery and computer vision
UAVs for aerial imagery:
Fast deployment
Easy maintenance
High resolution imagery
Oblique view
Control flexibility
Cheaper operational cost
Aerial surveys to complement or accelerate the traditional
field-based damage and needs assessment surveys.
Buildings (e.g., dwellings, schools, hospitals, etc.)
Transportation infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.)
Logistic support
11. Aerial imagery and computer vision
Hybrid approach
human computing to annotate features of interest in aerial images
machine computing to learn to recognize such features automatically in new, unseen images
Computer vision challenges
orthorectification: mapping between the image pixels and the real world coordinates
image classification (filtering): not all images are relevant or interesting
object detection: objects of interest do not have well-defined structure/geometry
scene understanding: usually cluttered scene, difficult to understand
12. Timeline
2010 QCRI Created
2012 QCRI’s Social Innovation Programme
2013
● AIDR Development starts
● MicroMappers Development starts
● Uaviators Created
● Typhoon Haiyan Response with UN
OCHA
2014
● MicroMappers - Coconuts for Computer
Vision
● UNICEF AIDR SMS - Zambia
● Typhoon Hagupit Response
2015
● WoRDE prototype with Translators
without Borders
● Cyclone Pam (Vanuatu Response)
● Nepal Earthquake Response
Matter. Every day we want to do something that matters. This sense of ‘matter’ or ‘purpose’ differs from person to person. How can research matter a bit more in Qatar for Humanitarians? How can we activate and remix our lessons learned globally locally?
Technology of any sort - laptops, cell/mobile phones, desk tops, internet and social media applications, drones - that are used in some way to aid affected populations and/or humanitarian workers as they strive to recover from disaster and crisis situations
Actively involved with deployments and work closely with SBTF, MicroMappers, UN agencies. In addition, do in-house research on the state-of-the-art regarding the latest machine learning and NLP regarding processing social media data, continuously strive to understand our stakeholders’ needs, and design/implement around them.
Humanitarian Response includes social media, images, communication coordination, satellite phones. All photos were taken at the Qatar Red Crescent Disaster Management Camp, April 2015 by Heather Leson CCBY
The Social and Data source ecosystem is expanding. QCRI aims to be able to share insights across the various social media tools. Imagery, sensor and open data like OpenStreetMap provide the ability to see the data ecosystem to make decisions. Infographic Created with Infogr.am.
AIDR and MicroMappers
http://booki.flossmanuals.net/aidr/
QCRI is working with UNICEF
MicroMappers combines uses human computing to make quick decisions about the content. All the decisions are vetted by at least 3 people. Then, the data is aggregated into information insights.
UAViators is a network of people inspired to use UAVs for social good. QCRI was instrumental in the network growth and continues to do research in computer vision in humanitarian spaces with collaborators like the UN and the World Bank. http://uaviators.org/ Photo from https://irevolution.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/screen-shot-2015-04-06-at-10-57-17-am.png http://irevolution.net/2015/04/07/digital-jedis-cyclone-pam/
http://irevolution.net/2015/04/07/digital-jedis-cyclone-pam/
can be captured and processed within hours rather than days of a disaster
has a spatial resolution of orders of magnitude higher than the most sophisticated satellite imagery
can be oblique rather than nadir (from satellites), which provides more detailed information about the landscape
costs much less than satellite imagery
Orthorectification: finding the correspondence between the image pixels and the real world coordinates
can be captured and processed within hours rather than days of a disaster
has a spatial resolution of orders of magnitude higher than the most sophisticated satellite imagery
can be oblique rather than nadir (from satellites), which provides more detailed information about the landscape
costs much less than satellite imagery
Orthorectification: finding the correspondence between the image pixels and the real world coordinates
QCRI has been researching and creating humanitarian software and new science since 2012. This is a brief overview of some of our key projects and some of the data from our activations with partners.
For the Nepal Earthquake response, there was over 2800 contributors from around the world. We are very thankful for their participation. And, we aim to inspire more digital humanitarian literacy and ownership in areas around the world.
QCRI is keen to inspire local residents in Qatar to get involved in the global space. We will be hosting in person trainings and workshops to help people learn some fo the skills and get involved in the global community. Image includes OSM, infogr.am, Wikipedia free image and photo of Ji Lucas training. Made with Canva.com - More details about this programme -
http://textontechs.com/2015/08/digital-humanitarians-in-qatar/ (First Workshop is in October)
http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/305095#map=8/25.428/50.916&layers=H
Thanks so much for your interest in QCRI. We hope that you are inspired to join our journey to use research and technology to support humanitarian innovation. You can get involved locally or globally. Here are some details about QCRI and activities http://textontechs.com/2015/08/digital-humanitarians-in-qatar/
http://irevolution.net/ http://micromappers.org/ @qatarcomputing
http://micromappers.org/