Patrick Buckley Robot Waiters – The future or just a gimmick? As we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospitality industry is looking to technology as a way to keep workers safe. Could robot waiters be the answer? In...
Patrick Buckley How will AI change the labour market for the better? From the way we shop, to the way we learn, the digital world in which we live is unrecognisable from the reality of a decade ago. One area which...
LUCA Case Study: Netshoes sponsors its mobile website and app with great results In our recent blog post explaining the benefits of sponsored data, we looked at how the company Netshoes used sponsored data to increase their key metrics. In this post,...
LUCA Data and Human Resources: a close relationship We live in an era of burnout, information overload and a battle for work-life balance. More and more, we can see the evolution of Human Resources (HR) into not...
LUCA Deep Learning and satellite images to estimate the impact of COVID19 Motivated by the fact that the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused worldwide turmoil in a short period of time since December 2019, we estimate the negative impact of...
LUCA Success Story: LUCA Transit and Highways England The transport industry is very receptive to the application of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence strategies, as there are clear use cases that can maximize a companies’ efficiency and...
LUCA Planning retail site locations using data One of the key business decisions for any brand is deciding where to ‘set up shop’. This involves having an understanding of your consumer base and is particularly important...
LUCA Mobility patterns in Lima and Callao based on Big Data technology We often think of Big Data as something exclusive to private companies. But one of the clearest applications is that of public bodies who want to improve the lives...
4 Data Enthusiasts changing the world as we know itLUCA 27 March, 2017 It is becoming increasingly apparent that NGOs and governments are creating more roles in the Data Science discipline. Using Big Data for social good is all about coming up with new data-driven ways to solve the most pressing problems in our society. Today, we decided to take a look at some of the trailblazers in this space, focusing on four Data Scientists and Enthusiasts who really are changing the world with their work. 1. Miguel Luengo-Oroz Figure 1: Miguel Luengo-Oroz has a very impressive career background. Chief Scientist at UN Global Pulse, an innovation initiative at the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General, harnessing Big Data for global development. He leads the data science team across the network of Global Pulse Labs in New York, Jakarta and Kampala which provide “innovation as a service” – developing Big Data projects together with UN system partners. Miguel is the founding director of MalariaSpot.org– videogames and crowdsourcing for diagnosis of malaria and other global health diseases, based at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. As an antidisciplinary scientist, over the last 10 years, he has been working on innovative projects at the crossroads of international development, social innovation, global health and systems biology with data science. 2. Bruno Sanchez Andrade Nuño Figure 2: Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño has focused on using Big Data for social good. Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño, Ph.D. is a strategic scientific advisor, and VP for Social Impact at Satellite operator Satellogic. Bruno is committed to bringing the value of Science and Technology in society at large, especially shifting the value of science away from mostly a body of facts and knowledge, and into very transferable skill-sets and tools to understand complexity, and make better decisions (Impact Science project). Previously at the World Bank Innovations Lab (and the President’s Office), their team led the technical work of Big Data across operations globally. Before the World Bank Bruno was Chief Scientist for the mapping company Mapbox during 10-fold early growth; where he worked building and leading the scientific technical support across the company, and in particular on the Satellite team. 3. Jake Porway Figure 3: Jake presenting at the National Geographic series. Jake used his passion for technology and data to see the good values in data and harnessing this information. He remains an active data scientist even after setting up DataKind which aims to give every social organization access to data capacity to better serve societies across the world. He graduated from Columbia University and shortly after started working as a Data Scientist at The New York Times. He has been a TV host for the National Geographic as they promoted a game show using data to create interactive gameplay. DataKind’s global presence allows it to target a range of global issues and have a more effective response from their various offices. He wants to promote the use of data not only just inform trivial decisions but also how to actually improve the world we live in. 4. Christopher Fabian Figure 4: Passionate from the beginning about the potential of data Christopher Fabian has been an integral part of the UNICEF Innovation Unit in New York since 2007. Working on this global project he has used the research and development priorities to focus on short-term problems in parts of the world that have the most difficult operating environments. Christopher states that “technology is not the end-product of innovation, but a principal driver of new ways of thinking about development problems”. We at LUCA are now actively participating in the Innovation Unit with Magic Box project we have just launched in collaboration. This shows that Christopher Fabian is clearly aware of the importance of data and the potential data has when it is optimised and harnessed. We hope that this collaboration combined with Christopher’s stellar experience will lead to more results. He previously stated that local talent is critical in creating successful local solutions and it’s hard for us not agree. How important do you think it is for NGOs to hire Data Scientists? Let us know in the comments section below. When Big Data meets artHackathons are not just for developers
Patrick Buckley Robot Waiters – The future or just a gimmick? As we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospitality industry is looking to technology as a way to keep workers safe. Could robot waiters be the answer? In...
Patrick Buckley How will AI change the labour market for the better? From the way we shop, to the way we learn, the digital world in which we live is unrecognisable from the reality of a decade ago. One area which...
Patrick Buckley How AI is helping fashion retailers stay afloat With an estimated current global market value surpassing 406 billion USD, the fashion industry is one of the most significant yet vulnerable industries out there. In an ever-worsening socio-economic...
LUCA La transformación digital en la gestión del agua, ahora más que nunca Hoy en día mantenemos la incertidumbre de cuándo dispondremos de una vacuna o cuál será el impacto real en la sociedad y en la economía que nos deja esta...
Patrick Buckley Thanks to AI, the future of video-conferencing is in sight. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, video-conferencing has become the backbone of both our work and social lives. Today, on #WorldHugDay, we take a look at some of the ways in which...
Patrick Buckley How AI and Machine Learning help to develop vaccines As Christmas approaches this year, we have all been gifted the great news that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has shown to be both safe and effective in creating an immune...