August 2020 - change - Mailing Lists

Inaugurating the "X4D" Virtual Speaker Series (August 4, 11am-12.30pm EDT)
by Neha Kumar 02 Sep '20

02 Sep '20

Hi all, We invite you to participate in our new "X4D" virtual speaker series, with a focus on unpacking the intersections of technology and global development from different disciplines and/or epistemic locations. Our inaugural session will take place on August 4, 3-4.30pm UTC (that's 11am-12.30pm EDT, 4-5.30pm BST, and 8.30pm-10pm IST). The Zoom link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78811443025?pwd=VHI1SitTVmovSVBuWmp5SHExM0lNUT09 We are delighted to have these speakers at our inaugural session, who will be presenting their perspectives on the value and importance of interdisciplinarity, and opportunities to productively engage in interdisciplinary work, in attempting to address the problems that impact us globally: Dr. Kentaro Toyama University of Michigan, USA Title: 15 years of ICTD research Dr. Dorothea Kleine University of Sheffield, UK Title: Gender and Intersectionality in ICT4D Dr. Aaditeshwar Seth Indian Institute of Technology Delhi & Gram Vaani, India Title: Making ICTD More Impactful Dr. Rediet Abebe Harvard Society of Fellows & UC Berkeley, USA Title: Roles for Computing in Social Justice Event details including abstracts of talks and bios are available on our website https://sites.google.com/view/x4d. We also aim to keep you informed about future events over email and invite you to join this Google group <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/x4d-friends>. We plan to organize an event every 3-4 weeks; the exact time will be determined based on what works best for all our presenters, but keeping in mind that we must be inclusive of many time zones. The next topic will be feminist perspectives on technology design, followed by mental health as a global concern. See you next week! Neha Kumar, Georgia Tech, USA Akhil Mathur, Nokia Bell Labs, UK

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Pls forward: DevEng Journal looking for in-depth reviewers for LMIC manuscripts
by Matt Podolsky 31 Aug '20

31 Aug '20

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Carson Christiano <christiano(a)berkeley.edu> Date: Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 9:35 AM Subject: Pls forward: DevEng Journal looking for in-depth reviewers for LMIC manuscripts Dear colleagues, The *Development Engineering* journal, run out of the Development Impact Lab (DIL) at UC Berkeley, is interested in boosting publications from low- and middle-income country (LMIC) authors by offering in-depth feedback on promising manuscripts. Right now, we are seeking an *engineering researcher with publication experience** to provide in-depth review to an author from Nigeria*, for a paper entitled "An Assessment of the Relative Importance of the Project Management Practices for the Construction Industry in a Developing Country: the Case of the Nigerian Construction Industry." As a reviewer, you will be asked to read the selected manuscript (abstract below) along with DevEng editorial board comments, and provide clear suggestions to the author regarding how she or he can strengthen their chances of publication. We anticipate that the engagement will involve 2-3 rounds of feedback, and possibly a Zoom call to clarify what is meant by the feedback. We are currently able to offer a modest incentive to reviewers in the form of a $500 gift card. *This study assessed the relative importance of the project management practices of construction companies in a developing country using Nigeria as a case study. Quantitative survey research approach was adopted for the study with questionnaire as the primary instrument for data collection. Ten registered indigenous construction companies in Nigeria were selected using random sampling and a total of 250 project management professionals comprising of civil and structural engineers, architects, quantity surveyors and mechanical and electrical engineers were chosen to respond to the level of importance of 53 project management practices selected from 9 project management areas for data collection. A total of 221 valid responses were received from the respondents and the data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS and the relative importance index was calculated in Microsoft Excel. The result of the data analysis indicated that only 22% of the respondents have at least a certification in project management which implies a poor level of skillfulness in the utilization of project management tools, methods and techniques in managing their projects. The result also indicated that the respondents agreed that the utilization of project management practices enhance project management as indicated by the above average value of their relative importance. However, it was found out that there was poor utilization of the tools relating to budget management as indicated by the below average value of the relative importance index.* If you are interested in working with this author, please contact Samuel Fishman at sfishman(a)berkeley.edu, with a sentence or two regarding your qualifications (current status and affiliation, relevant research and publication experience, interest in working with LMIC scholars). Thank you for considering. Best, -- *Carson Christiano* Executive Director Center for Effective Global Action <https://cega.berkeley.edu/> 714B University Hall Berkeley, CA 94720 *o:* 510-642-4361 *c:* 847-858-6023 *skype:* Carson1012 Pronouns: she/her

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Volunteer Request - COVID-19 outbreak visualization
by Richard Anderson 04 Aug '20

04 Aug '20

There is a volunteer opportunity for helping the COVID-19 response. In order to help systematically investigate and respond to localized outbreaks, a tool for visualizing these transmission clusters is needed. This work would involve programming and ideally experience with data visualization. You would work with epidemiologists involved in current outbreak responses. Right now clusters are being plotted manually but an automated tool could speed up their processes and improve quality. To get a sense of what the desired output looks like, see Fig 1c of https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.18.20034561v1.full.pdf or Fig 1 of https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30273-5/… Ideally the output would be in a format, like powerpoint, that could be further edited by the epidemiologists. The level of work is hard to predict because it depends in part on what related software already exists, e.g. for phylogenetic trees, and how easy this is to adapt. A first version of a tool would ideally be usable within 1-2 weeks. For more information, please contact Aram Harrow <aram(a)mit.edu<mailto:aram@mit.edu>>.

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