- change - Mailing Lists

Gates Foundation Grant Opportunities - New Grand Challenges Explorations Topics
by Brian DeRenzi 15 Mar '11

15 Mar '11

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting grant proposals for Round 7 of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to encourage innovative and unconventional global health solutions. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for profit companies. Grant proposals are being accepted online until May 19, 2011 on the following topics: * Explore Nutrition for Healthy Growth of Infants and Children * Apply Synthetic Biology to Global Health Challenges * The Poliovirus Endgame: Create Innovative Ways to Accelerate, Sustain, and Monitor Eradication * Create the Next Generation of Sanitation Technologies * Design New Approaches to Cure HIV Infection * Create Low-Cost Cell Phone-Based Solutions for Improved Uptake and Coverage of Childhood Vaccinations Initial grants will be US $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to US $1 million. Full descriptions of the new topics and application instructions are available at: www.grandchallenges.org/gce/ We are looking forward to receiving innovative ideas from around the world and from all disciplines. If you have a great idea, apply. If you know someone else who may have a great idea, please forward this message. Thank you for your commitment to solving the world's greatest health challenges.

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FW: sys admin / web dev position
by Stella Podgornik 15 Mar '11

15 Mar '11

Is someone interested in a full time staff position at the hospital? I think they want to fill this in the next couple of weeks. Contact Max Burdge, netropic(a)u.washington.edu Here is the most recent job description. It's full time. 1. Programming responsibilities a. Develop web applications in both python/zope/plone and PHP/MySQL environments. Create content types, page templates, maintenance scripts and other tools for use with existing systems in both technology stacks. b. Collaborate with Administrator, Vice Chair, and other radiology web services team members on new and existing web-based projects. c. Keep abreast of best practices in the industry to learn new technologies for possible implementation of newly developed tools. d. Responsible for the full life cycle of an application, including requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing and maintenance. e. Work to troubleshoot problems as identified by ticketing system and administrative coordinator. f. Responsible for configuring, operating and administering department web servers and backup systems. 2. Customer service responsibilities a. Respond to incoming customer service requests via UW Radiology Web Services ticketing system. b. Resolve incoming customer service requests if possible. c. Solicit customer feedback regarding the customer service experience using the appropriate tools. d. Escalate incoming customer service requests to appropriate personnel if unable to resolve. e. Maintain UW Radiology Web Services ticketing system, closing or resolving tickets in an appropriate manner. f. Maintain FAQ system to address common requests as identified by experience. 3. Training responsibilities a. Identify department-wide training needs based on customer service interactions. b. Create curricula to fill these needs. c. schedule, advertise and hold training sessions. d. implement system for assessing training outcomes. e. maintain FAQ system to support ongoing training.

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GNU Free Call (an open telephony system) announced
by ashish makani 15 Mar '11

15 Mar '11

Hi Folks GNU Free Call is a new project to develop and deploy secure self-organized communication services worldwide for private use and for public administration. It uses the open standard SIP protocol and GNU SIP Witch to create secured peer-to-peer mesh calling networks . It may have interesting applications for truly secure, open & decentralized communications, which can stay up, in the event of a natural disaster etc. http://planet.gnu.org/gnutelephony/?p=14 via http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2322881 Best, ashish

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Change Seminar - Spring Quarter
by Eleanor O'Rourke 14 Mar '11

14 Mar '11

Hello Everyone, In preparation for the spring quarter, I wanted to invite you all to attend in the one credit Change Seminar (CSE590C1, SLN: 19386) on Thursdays at noon in the Paul Allen Center (Room 203). Change (http://change.washington.edu) is a group of faculty, students, and staff at the UW who are exploring the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in improving the lives of underserved populations, particularly in the developing world. We are cover topics such as global health, education, micro finance, agricultural development, and general communication, and look at how technology can be used to improve each of these areas. This fall we will be alternating between talks by invited speakers and group discussions. Those who sign up for credit will be asked to participate in leading one of the discussions (this requires very little work and can be done in groups). We are in the process of scheduling speakers, so stay tuned to our calendar (http://is.gd/3PkTF) Twitter (http://is.gd/3PkVk) or mailing list (http://is.gd/3PlkS) for more information. Please consider enrolling. If you are unable to enroll, feel free to come to any of the meetings you are interested in attending! The seminar is available for all UW students and the content is designed to be widely accessible. We encourage students from all departments to enroll/attend if interested. Please forward this message to the relevant mailing lists, and we hope to see you on Thursday March 31 at noon in Room 203 of the Paul Allen Center. Thanks, Nell

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ICTD 2012 Call for Papers
by Yaw Anokwa 10 Mar '11

10 Mar '11

Call for Papers Fifth IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA USA Conference dates: March 12-16, 2012 Paper submission deadline: July 22, 2011 (11:59pm UTC) Conference website: http://www.ictd2012.org Contact us at: program(a)ictd2012.org Twitter: @ICTD2012 <http://twitter.com/ictd2012> Facebook: ICTD 2012 Atlanta<http://www.facebook.com/pages/ICTD-2012-Atlanta/150859891641140> ICTD provides an international forum for scholarly researchers exploring the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social, political, and economic development. The conference program and accepted papers will reflect and deepen the multidisciplinary nature of ICTD research, with anticipated representation from anthropology, computer science, communication, design, economics, electrical engineering, geography, information science, political science, public health, sociology, and so on. Submitted papers are subject to a rigorous and selective double-blind peer review; accepted papers will appear in electronic conference proceedings and will be archived in the ACM and/or IEEE systems. A subset of the papers will also appear in a special issue of Information Technologies & International Development. ICTD2012 is the fifth of an ongoing series of conferences occurring every one-and-a-half years; previous conferences have taken place in: Berkeley, CA (USA) ICTD 2006; Bangalore (India) ICTD 2007; Doha (Qatar) ICTD 2009; and London (United Kingdom) 2010. For the purposes of this conference the term "ICT" comprises electronic technologies for information processing and communication, as well as platforms that are built on such technologies. "Development" means international development, including, but not restricted to, poverty alleviation, education, agriculture, healthcare, general communication, gender equality, governance, infrastructure, environment and sustainable livelihoods. Papers considering novel designs, new technologies, project assessments, policy analyses, impact studies, theoretical contributions, social issues around ICT and development, and so forth will be considered. Well-analyzed negative results from which generalizable conclusions can be drawn are also sought. Relevant papers reporting high-quality original research are solicited. Full papers will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary panel, and evaluated according to their novel research contribution, methodological soundness, theoretical framing and reference to related work, quality of analysis, and quality of writing and presentation. Authors are encouraged (but not required) to address the diversity of approaches in ICTD research by providing context, implications, and actionable guidance to researchers and practitioners beyond the authors’ primary domains. Only original, unpublished, full research papers in English will be considered. Submissions not meeting a minimum bar of academic research writing will be rejected without full review. Papers should contain a maximum of 8000 words. Reviews are double blind, so papers should not include author names or other information that would identify the authors (references to previous work by the authors should be in the third person). Authors should follow IEEE formats and styles described here<http://www.ieee.org/documents/stylemanual.pdf>. Samples of this are also available in PDF<http://www.ictd2012.org/ICTD2012_sample.pdf> and MS Word <http://www.ictd2012.org/ICTD2012_sample.doc> formats. Authors will be required to sign a copyright release for publication in the conference proceedings. Additional submission details will be posted on the conference website<http://www.ictd2012.org/> as the information becomes available. As a new opportunity for 2012, we are offering a peer mentorship program for paper submissions. Submit your paper early (by May 1st, 2011) to this program and get feedback from peer mentors ahead of the normal submission process and June deadline. See the mentorship page<http://www.ictd2012.org/mentorship> for details. Atlanta is a world-class city with a rich and passionate history. Spring comes early to Atlanta; March is likely to be sunny, crisp, and pleasant. The conference venue is the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center<http://www.gatechhotel.com/>. Georgia Tech is one of the top research universities in the United States, distinguished by its commitment to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. The conference website is http://www.ictd2012.org. Follow us on Twitter @ICTD2012 <http://twitter.com/ictd2012> or visit our Facebook page<http://www.facebook.com/pages/ICTD-2012-Atlanta/150859891641140>. Contact us at program(a)ictd2012.org. Important Dates Peer review mentor program submission deadline: May 1, 2011 Paper submission deadline: July 22, 2011 Acceptance notifications: September 16, 2011 Camera-ready papers due: January 16, 2012 Conference dates: March 12-16, 2012 *Program Committee Chairs* Jonathan Donner, Microsoft Research India Beki Grinter, Georgia Institute of Technology Gary Marsden, University of Cape Town *General Conference Chairs* Michael Best, Georgia Institute of Technology Ellen Zegura, Georgia Institute of Technology

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Buckminster Fuller Challenge
by Yaw Anokwa 09 Mar '11

09 Mar '11

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is an annual international design Challenge awarding $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity's most pressing problems. It attracts bold, visionary, tangible initiatives focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. Winning solutions are regionally specific yet globally applicable and present a truly comprehensive, anticipatory, integrated approach to solving the world's complex problems. http://challenge.bfi.org/

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Fwd: IDEO forming a non-profit to look at design for poverty alleviation
by Yaw Anokwa 09 Mar '11

09 Mar '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:32:04 -0800 From: Eric Brewer <brewer(a)cs.berkeley.edu> To: "tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu" <tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu> In addition to this being a generally good thing, there is a call for fellowship applications as part of this... http://www.ideo.com/ideo-org/information

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Paul Yager on Cell-Phone-Based Point-of-Care Diagnostics for the Developing World
by Eleanor O'Rourke 08 Mar '11

08 Mar '11

This Thursday at Change, we will be hosting a talk by professor of bioengineering Paul Yager <http://faculty.washington.edu/yagerp/>, who will discuss his work on developing cell-phone-based point-of-case diagnostics for use in developing countries. He will be joined by bioengineering postdoc Dean Stevens, computer science graduate student Nicola Dell, and undergraduate bioengineering student Sugandhan Venkatachalam, who will speak about their work on the project. *For the last 15 years the Yager lab has been working on development of microfluidic devices for point-of-care diagnostics. Over the last 5 years the lab was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative to develop a system for performing both immunoassays and nucleic acid assays that would work in the low resource settings in the developing world–the DxBox. Inside the DxBox, the immunoassay were performed on a sophisticated disposable, and the assay results were captured using a cell phone chip camera. One of the conclusions of the DxBox project was that to minimize the final cost-per-assay, one of the few possible approaches was to put all the chemistry on an inexpensive (but sophisticated) disposable, and to replace the permanent reader with a camera-equipped cell phone. In collaboration with the Borriello lab, we have been converting protocols that Dean Stevens developed in the DxBox project for quantifying immunoassay results (form a movie from his cell phone) with MatLab into code that runs on the Android phone operating system. We will present the most recent progress on the project.* Please join us for sandwiches, and to learn more about mobile point-of-care diagnostics! *What:* Paul Yager on Cell-Phone-Based Point-of-Care Diagnostics for the Developing World *When:* Thursday, March 10th at noon *Where:* Paul Allen Center, Room 203

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Saurabh Panjwani on Designing for End-to-End Security in Branchless Banking
by Eleanor O'Rourke 07 Mar '11

07 Mar '11

On Monday, March 7 at 11am we will be hosting a roundtable discussion with Saurabh Panjwani <http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/saurap/>, a post doc researcher with the Technology for Emerging Markets<http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/tem/> group at Microsoft Research India. Saurabh will be speaking about his work in designing for end-to-end security in branchless banking. *Mobile-based branchless banking has become one of the key mechanisms for extending financial services to low-income populations in the world’s developing regions. One shortcoming of today’s branchless banking systems is that they rely largely on network-layer services for securing transactions and do not implement any application-layer security. Recent results show that several of these systems are, in fact, not end-to-end secure.* ** *We make the case for designing mobile-based branchless banking systems which build security into the application layer and guarantee end-to-end security to system users. We present a threat model which captures the goals of authenticated transactions in these systems and then provide recommendations for solution design based on our model’s requirements and the practical constraints under which these systems operate.* Join us at a special time on Monday to learn more about mobile branchless banking! *What:* Saurabh Panjwani on Designing for End-to-End Security in Branchless Banking *When:* Monday, March 7th from 11am to 12pm *Where:* Paul Allen Center, Room 203

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NYU Center for Tech and Econ Dev
by Gaetano Borriello 06 Mar '11

06 Mar '11

http://cted.nyu.edu/

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