Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies
In humanitarian crises information is key to ensuring that disaster response efforts occur effectively and efficiently. However since information has to be acquired from a variety of different sources at different times it can be hard to obtain when needed. This project deals with designing and developing a notification service that monitors information essential for relief operations and workers provided by different parts of the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). This includes contact information from the Humanitarian ID API content about disasters and other events from ReliefWeb and reported humanitarian aid contributions from Financial Tracking Service (FTS).

I’m interested in the ways technology can be used to make peoples’ lives better and I’m excited to do that with CSAIL and the UN. After 5 internships I’m glad to have the chance to try something new and work in academia. I think that working with the Humanitarian ID and ReliefWeb tools will be a great way to tangibly help real people while the collaboration with CSAIL will help me find out what research is like.