Tech as a tool
A virtual workshop to explore tech solutions used to build a safer, healthier society
DataKind has always emphasized on the importance of creating knowledge partnerships. All events spearheaded by Datakind create a space to enable learning from each other. On the 24th of April, 2021, Datakind BLR was a part of one such event — but this time as a guest.
The virtual event was conducted by Gopali Youth Welfare Society, IIT Kharagpur. Saurabh Zanwar and Tanishka Agarwal, executive members of GYWS provided DataKind BLR an opportunity to present at “Tech As a Tool” workshop. “Tech as a Tool” was a knowledge-sharing workshop and had nearly 70 students present. 2 members from DataKind BLR — Shruti Mathur (Co-chapter leader, DKBLR) & Raghuram (ex-Chapter Leader, DKBLR) presented how solutions that benefit the society are being built using technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Raghuram presented “Identifying Urban Makeshift Communities with Satellite Imagery and Geo-Coded Data”, a project with Pollinate Energy. It was presented as a case study going into depth about the algorithms used, the pros & cons of using different algorithms, and explained in depth about data collection and challenges with noisy data.
Shruti spoke about “Demand Side Analysis” carried out for the partner Quest Alliance. This was a hands-on session by making datasets available to the audience to come up with their own dashboards/stories. Also, explaining the use case, walk-through of code, the output of the analysis was discussed as well. More details about these case studies can be found here.
One of the major learnings as stated by Shruti
“Doing these type of community events would help us connect with organizations working in the same space as us and potentially collaborate in the future.”
Saurabh’s experience in his words -
“Our expectation was that DataKind makes us aware on how data can be used in social causes. The session was pretty much around it and in line with what was discussed. The feedback that we received was pretty good and audience definitely learned something new. We can try to engage more with the audience to know how they’re learning”.
The first of its kind, virtual case-study presentation for DataKind BLR has left us all excited about plenty of such collaborations with other partners in the future. You can check out the full presentation here.
DataKind is always looking for volunteers to make a social impact. You can join us on Slack to know about what’s happening. If you are interested in joining the Bangalore chapter’s core team, check out how you can get involved.
Follow us on twitter for more frequent updates or on github to contribute.
If you’re a partner looking to collaborate, please write to us at bangalore@datakind.org
