Supporting diverse open-source communities through Outreachy
What do diagnostic tools for typhoid fever, community-sourced mapping and estimating greenhouse gas emissions have in common? We’re funding internships through Outreachy that will contribute to these issues and help increase the diversity of people working on open-source technology.
Why Outreachy?
One area the Data for Science and Health team at Wellcome is focused on is funding work that prioritises the needs of communities developing, using, and affected by new tools and new ways of using data. That’s because we want to make the data and technology that underpin science and health more equitable. One of the ways we can do this is through supporting initiatives to increase diversity in the field.
In a previous article, we talked about how we’re working with Outreachy, an an initiative that provides paid internships in open-source to people subject to systemic bias and underrepresented in the technology industry where they live. We know that the technology industry lacks a diverse workforce, and that this limits perspectives, experiences and creativity of teams working in this space. In science and health, there is a risk that technologies built using non-representative datasets or without diverse expertise will cause real harm to some groups.
We’re supporting Outreachy because they actively encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in the industry and support them through their internship. Based on the results of a 2019 study, past Outreachy interns are:
- 92% women
- 4% transgender, genderqueer or non-binary people
- 64% people of colour
- 12% people from a historically disadvantaged caste or tribe
We’re thrilled to support a second round of Outreachy interns who will contribute to richer open-source communities while tackling major global health issues.
The communities we’re supporting
Wellcome recently launched a new strategy with the goal of supporting science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We will do this by focusing on a broad programme of discovery research alongside three health challenges: mental health, infectious disease, and climate and health.
The communities we’re supporting through Outreachy are all working on issues that relate to Wellcome’s strategy and health challenges. They are:
Mboalab
Based in Cameroon, Mboalab aims to facilitate ‘sustainable local development and improve people’s living conditions through open science.’ An intern will be supporting their work on improving ways to diagnose typhoid fever. This is an issue that especially affects low- and middle-income countries where the most accurate tests using microbiological cultures are not readily available. By training an algorithm on multiple symptom variables — including images that reflect different ethnic groups, genders, and ages — the algorithm will help clinicians to diagnose typhoid and assess its severity. Mboalab’s tools use augmented intelligence, which means an artificial intelligence programme or algorithm is assisting a human with decision making — not replacing them.
ODK-X
The global ODK-X community develops free, open-source tools for collecting and managing data in low-resource environments. These tools are used by organisations like the Red Cross, Red Crescent, and the World Mosquito Program. The ODK-X community is currently exploring ways to incorporate Leaflet — a mobile-friendly mapping programme — into applications to support community-driven street mapping. This could have exciting implications for health, from mapping infectious disease outbreaks to monitoring the local effects of climate change.
Moja global
The Moja global community, supported by the Linux Foundation based in the USA, produces open-source software for estimating greenhouse gas emissions from forestry, agriculture, and other land uses. An intern will help update their Full Lands Integration Tool (FLINT) to account for carbon emissions from decomposing forest matter. Focusing on Latin America, this project will help governments, companies, and other users to quickly and accurately monitor their emissions.
Learn more about Outreachy
We are excited to support these communities and Outreachy’s mission and are looking forward to hearing more about what the interns get up to. Outreachy are always interested in hearing from people who might want to be involved, either as a mentor or an intern. Visit their website to learn more.
