Big data for development use cases
Day 4, 10:00-11:30 am (lecture and exercises)
Rachel Sibande
This Lecture will delve into real practical examples of how Big Data has been applied in real life. The Lecture will highlight diverse use cases in health, food security monitoring and disaster management among others from over 5 countries. The Lecture shall focus on the practical use of Mobile Network Operator data in combination with other traditional data sets. At the end of this lecture a practical guide of how to deploy mobile data for development initiatives and accompanying literature will be shared.
Speaker biography
Rachel is Senior Director at the United Nations Foundation. She leads Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning for development projects and Digital Transformation work inĀ Africa.
She established Malawi’s first technology and Innovation hub, mHub in 2014. The hub provides digital skills training and investment readiness support for emerging entrepreneurs.
Rachel became a Google Scholar in 2015,Ā being a recipient of Google’s Anita Borg Award for outstanding computer science students from around the world. She has been listed twice by Forbes as one of Africa’s 30 under 30 entrepreneurs in 2016Ā and as a new wealth creator in 2019.
In 2018, Mrs. Sibande won the Climate Smart Innovation pan African competition of the Next Einstein Forum after inventing a thermal chemical plant that produces light and gas from maize cobs for mini grids to power rural households in Malawi.
Rachel holds a PhD in computer Science from Rhodes University in South Africa. She read Cyrptography and Coding Theory for her Masters degree from the Mzuzu University and holds a Bachelors of Science degree majoring in Computer Science and Statistics from the University of Malawi.