Unlocking AI´s Full Potential Through Public-Private Partnerships

Addressing real-world problems through new models of collaboration

The presenters

Bryan Gerhart

Senior Program Officer | U.S. Department of State

Bryan is a Senior Program Officer in the Office of Global Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State. The U.S. Department of State manages America’s relationships with foreign governments, international organizations, and the people of other countries.

Kathleen Buckingham

Senior Manager | World Resources Institute

Kathleen has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Geography and the Environment from the University of Oxford. She is an experienced research lead, skilled in tackling Sustainable Development and Natural Resource Management challenges.

Arnon Houri-Yafin

CEO | Zzapp Malaria

Arnon is currently the CEO of Zzapp Malaria, an XPrize top ten contestant, which is on the mission to eliminate Malaria through the help of AI.

What we covered

How to build data collaboratives

Data collaboratives draw on broadly dispersed data and expertise from government agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and community groups. If managed well data collaboratives have the potential to improve people’s lives and strengthen democratic institutions by combining variety and velocity of the data collected.

How can we forge data collaboratives that are sustainable?

A real-world case study: Preventing Malaria infections through satellite image analysis

AI can help reduce the cost of malaria elimination campaigns by ensuring that field workers locate and treat contaminated water bodies. Based on available online satellite images, topography, and ongoing data from the field workers, the team developed an algorithm to find the areas in which stagnant water bodies (malaria mosquito breeding sites) are likely to exist..

How is Zzapp Malaria collaborating with government agencies to implement their solution?

A real-world case study: Connecting land-use conflicts with government policies

Several technology startups and diverse teams of AI engineers and domain experts from Omdena built an AI-based solution to detect land use conflicts in news articles and connect them with mediating government policies.

How did the collaboration enable successful development, access to funding, and what are the next steps to scale the solution?