Projects

Current Projects

• AIDR(Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response).  In collaboration with the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). AIDR combines human computing with artificial intelligence to automatically identify relevant information in very large volumes of tweets and text messages (SMS). AIDR is also powering our Artificial Intelligence for Resilient Societies (AIRS) and Artificial Intelligence for Monitoring Elections (AIME) platforms (both under development).
• MicroMappers(Microtasking Apps for Disaster Response). In collaboration with OCHA. MicroMappers is a collection of microtasking apps called Clickers used to crowdsource the analysis of tweets, text messages, Instagram pictures, Youtube videos, satellite imagery as well as UAV/aerial imagery. We combine AIDR and MicroMappers to take humanitarian technologies to the next level. MicroMappers is also being used to support wildlife protection efforts, human rights and soon archaeological research in the region.
• Verily (Crowdsourced Verification for Disaster Response). In partnership with the Masdar Institute’s Social Computing and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Using time-critical crowdsourcing to rapidly verify information posted on social media during disasters. Collaborators include humanitarian organizations and high profile international news organizations.
• TweetCred (Automatically Predicting Credibility of Tweets). In collaboration with Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Delhi.
• Humanitarian UAV Network (UAViators). In collaboration with multiple partners. UAViators promotes Big Data solutions for aerial imagery analysis and facilitates the safe & responsible use of UAVs in a wide range of humanitarian settings. UAViators was recently endorsed by the United Nations.
• Planetary Response Network (Crowdsourcing Satellite Imagery Analysis for Humanitarian Response). In collaboration with Planet Labs and Zooniverse.
• Internet Response League (Using Massive Multiplayer Online Games to make sense of "Big Data" during disasters). In collaboration with the United Nations.
• Digital Humanitarians (Optimizing Organizational Processes for Digital Disaster Response). In collaboration with Microsoft Research and the Standby Volunteer Task Force (SBTF).
• Twitter Analytics (Capturing Real-Time Socio-Economic Trends). In collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Egypt.

Projects Under Consideration
 

• AIDR/SMS to support social good initiatives in Doha.
• MicroMappers & SkyBox Satellite Imagery to support the landrigts of indigenous communities in South America.
• MicroMappers & Drones for Good to support marine biologist efforts to estimate the unique Dugong population in the Arabian Gulf.
• MicroMappers & Drones for Good to support archaeologists in the region by analyzing and protecting important archaeological sites.
• Mobile Analytics (Analyzing Call Record Data for Social Impact). In collaboration with Vodafone Qatar and Flowminder.

Completed Projects

• Customized reCAPTCHA (Using daily login process to tag tweets/images related to disasters).  In collaboration with the UN.
•  Crisis Hashtags Analytics Dashboard. A study of hashtags used during and in the aftermath of major crises (a project in collaboration with Social Computing)
• Digital Disaster Response to Typhoon Pablo. In collaboration with and in support of United Nations Humanitarian Operations.
• GeoTagger for Open Data. In collaboration with the World Bank.
• PeaceTXT for Conflict Prevention. In collaboration with PopTech and Sisi Ni Amani.
• SMS Code of Conduct for Disaster Response. In collaboration with GSMA’s Disaster Response Program.
• COP18 Sentiment analysis tool.  Live sentiment analysis tool of #COP18 tweets during the UN climate change conference in Doha.
• Data Science for Social Good (Mentoring Fellows in Chicago and exploring partnership possibilities for localization in Arab World). In collaboration with the University of Chicago.