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Change Seminar Tuesday 10/8: Dustin Carlino- "A/B Street: Fixing Seattle's traffic by playing an open source traffic simulation game"
by Esther Jang 07 Oct '19

07 Oct '19

Please join us for Change Seminar next Tuesday 10/8! *When*: Tuesday, 10/8/19, 12pm-1pm *Where*: CSE 203 *Who*: Dustin Carlino *Title: *A/B Street: Fixing Seattle's traffic by playing an open source traffic simulation game *Talk Summary:*Ever been on a bus stuck in traffic wondering where the bus-only lane is? A/B Street (https://github.com/dabreegster/abstreet) is a game simulating vehicle, cyclist, and pedestrian traffic in Seattle. Players reconfigure road space -- such as changing on-street parking to a bike lane -- and traffic signals, then explore how the change affects different groups. The project aims to bring urban planning to the masses, letting anybody prototype and then propose a small idea for improving Seattle. Attend this talk to learn about the complexities of using OpenStreetMap and other public data to build a detailed road model, how to simulate the movement and interactions of thousands of agents faster than real-time, and about the challenges of building a friendly UI for conveying the intricacies of Seattle's worst jams. *Speaker bio: *Dustin graduated from the CS program at UT Austin in 2014, after working on an undergrad thesis to simulate autonomous cars. He worked on Google Compute Engine in Seattle for four years, then decided to pursue A/B Street full-time. His mission is to find short-term solutions to ease traffic woes in growing American cities, by incrementally improving transit and cycling options. Outside of this project, he helps organize Seattle Jumps, a local parkour community. Contact him at dabreegster(a)gmail.com.

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Talk: Thursday 12pm@CSE203: Revi Sterling - USAID: How Technologists Fail Women… And how to more effectively address the gender digital divide
by Kurtis Heimerl 03 Oct '19

03 Oct '19

Revi Sterling will be speaking at our moved change seminar and lunch this Thursday at noon in CSE 203. Revi is currently the Director of the USAID W-GDP WomenConnect Challenge and has a long history or ICTD work at MSR India, Colorado, and other places. Please reach out if you'd like to chat with her 1-1 as well. Abstract: *The real reason we can’t get the last several hundreds of millions of women online comes down to fact there are people in their community who don’t want them online. The women who can get online, are. Let’s talk about how we tried to address this with the USAID WomenConnect Challenge and what the major research and policy gaps still are.* -- Public Key: https://flowcrypt.com/pub/kheimerl@cs.washington.edu

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CSE 590F: Computing and the Developing World
by Naveena Karusala 30 Sep '19

30 Sep '19

Hi all, CSE 590F meets on Tuesdays at 1:30 in Gates 387. This quarter will focus on a selection of papers related to ICTD (Information Communication Technology and Development). We will start with an organizational meeting tomorrow (Oct 1). We'll decide on a theme for weekly readings---they could be classic/foundational ICTD papers, new ICTD papers at recent conferences, or other suggestions as well. If you're interested in this area and want an overview of the current research, please consider registering! Best, Naveena

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Alliance4AI startup overview
by Yosem Companys 17 Sep '19

17 Sep '19

Alliance4AI highlights their latest analysis and summary of the African AI start-up space. https://medium.com/alliance4ai/ai-generation-learnings-from-alliance4ais-fi… (h/t Ulrich Paquet <ulrich.paquet(a)gmail.com>)

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Tensorflow Roadshow Will Go to Africa (Nairobi, Lagos, & JHB)
by Yosem Companys 16 Sep '19

16 Sep '19

From: Jade Abbott <jade.zoe.abbott(a)gmail.com> The Tensorflow team are having a roadshow and are visiting Nairobi, Lagos and Johannesburg in October "The TensorFlow team will be presenting a series of highly technical talks which will inlcude the TensorFlow 2.0 best practices, TF Lite, TF.js, TensorFlow Extended, Model Optimization and much more. Come meet the TensorFlow team, hear what's new, and help us continue to build our developer community!" Sounds like they're going to be fantastic events. More details at the following links: TensorFlow Roadshow Nairobi <https://events.withgoogle.com/tensorflow-roadshow-nairobi-2019/> TensorFlow Roadshow Lagos <https://events.withgoogle.com/tensorflow-roadshow-lagos-2019/> TensorFlow Roadshow Johannesburg <https://events.withgoogle.com/tensorflow-roadshow-johannesburg-2019/>

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Privacy Policy Talk at UW CSE, Wed 9/4 at 3:30pm- "Seattle Surveillance Ordinance: Information for Tech Activists"
by Esther Jang 06 Sep '19

06 Sep '19

Hi Change community, Next *Wed 9/4 3:30pm at UW CSE*, students from the ICTD and Security & Privacy Labs will jointly be hosting a talk by local privacy activist Cynthia Spiess. She'll be talking about how to get involved in the City of Seattle's process for publicly reviewing surveillance technologies used by the city, the Seattle Surveillance Ordinance. *Talk Title: "Seattle Surveillance Ordinance: Information for Tech Activists"* *When: Wednesday 9/4, 3:30-5 pm* *Where: Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering, Gates Commons (rm CSE 691)* *Speaker Bio:*Cynthia Spiess has previously worked at Adobe as a Senior Security Researcher for the Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET). Prior to that, she worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a Security Engineer for the AWS AppSec team; and earlier as a Developer Support Engineer for AWS Premium Support. She has spoken at DefendCon 2017 and iSec (now NCC) Open Forum Seattle. Her work experience covers front-end and back-end web stacks (GUIs and APIs), both traditional and more modern (NoSQL DBs, docker/Mesos), SecOps/IR, and (unsurprisingly) cloud security. *Talk Summary:*The City of Seattle is in the midst of undertaking important steps that impact the privacy (and security in some cases) of all persons living, working, and traveling in Seattle for likely many years to come. This work is partially underway, with different surveillance technologies in different stages of the process. This presentation will cover what the Seattle Surveillance Ordinance is & the overall process end-to-end; what stage we’re at; noteworthy technical findings thus far; what’s next; and how to contribute your knowledge. The overall situation is one which is near starving for technical contributions and voice, so the hope is that this presentation is more than purely informational and instead results in informed participation (in any level or capacity). Here's a FB event <https://www.facebook.com/events/376419182991263/> for sharing. Please come if you can make it, and invite anyone who you think would be interested! Thanks, -Esther

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Fwd: Re Postdoc/Research Associate Opportunity at the CTIC at Penn
by Kurtis Heimerl 04 Sep '19

04 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Muge Haseki <mhaseki(a)law.upenn.edu> Date: Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 1:03 PM Subject: Postdoc/Research Associate Opportunity at the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition at Penn The Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition at the University of Pennsylvania seeks a research fellow to work on a set of research projects focusing on access to information and communication technologies and their impact on economic development outcomes. The work will involve analyzing quantitative data from a variety of datasets, including local administrative data, survey data, experimental data, and financial data. We are currently soliciting applications for postdocs, data scientists, and research associates, with appointment to begin immediately. This position is for 1 year, subject to renewal for an additional year. Qualified candidates should have a graduate degree in Computer Science, Economics, Information Science, or a related field. Strong technical, analytic, and computational skills are essential. Familiarity with financial modeling and prior experience conducting field experiments are preferred. Some of the responsibilities include: · Conduct fieldwork when necessary · Clean and manage large datasets · Conduct statistical analyses of data using R/Stata · Prepare literature reviews, background research, and other draft content for grant proposals and academic papers · Draft project reports, research protocols, and other project documents · Prepare presentations for large venues – e.g., U.N. bodies · Manage teams of research assistants · Represent the project on conference calls and email discussions with various communities of interest · Maintain the project website Interested individuals should send the following materials to Muge Haseki ( mhaseki(a)law.upenn.edu) with a subject line “Postdoc/RA Position”: a CV, a cover letter describing research interests and prior relevant experience, two writing samples (or a relevant chapter from their dissertations), and a list of names and contact information of three references. Review of applications will begin immediately. -- Public Key: https://flowcrypt.com/pub/kheimerl@cs.washington.edu

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Re: [change] Privacy Policy Talk at UW CSE, Wed 9/4 at 3:30pm- "Seattle Surveillance Ordinance: Information for Tech Activists"
by Esther Jang 04 Sep '19

04 Sep '19

Reminder: talk starting in 10 minutes! -Esther On Tue, Sep 3, 2019 at 2:40 PM Esther Jang <infrared(a)cs.washington.edu> wrote: > Reminder: this is tomorrow! > -Esther > > On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 2:01 PM Esther Jang <infrared(a)cs.washington.edu> > wrote: > >> Hi Change community, >> >> Next *Wed 9/4 3:30pm at UW CSE*, students from the ICTD and Security & >> Privacy Labs will jointly be hosting a talk by local privacy activist >> Cynthia Spiess. She'll be talking about how to get involved in the City of >> Seattle's process for publicly reviewing surveillance technologies used by >> the city, the Seattle Surveillance Ordinance. >> >> *Talk Title: "Seattle Surveillance Ordinance: Information for Tech >> Activists"* >> *When: Wednesday 9/4, 3:30-5 pm* >> *Where: Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering, Gates >> Commons (rm CSE 691)* >> >> >> *Speaker Bio:*Cynthia Spiess has previously worked at Adobe as a Senior >> Security Researcher for the Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET). >> Prior to that, she worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a Security >> Engineer for the AWS AppSec team; and earlier as a Developer Support >> Engineer for AWS Premium Support. She has spoken at DefendCon 2017 and iSec >> (now NCC) Open Forum Seattle. Her work experience covers front-end and >> back-end web stacks (GUIs and APIs), both traditional and more modern >> (NoSQL DBs, docker/Mesos), SecOps/IR, and (unsurprisingly) cloud security. >> >> >> *Talk Summary:*The City of Seattle is in the midst of undertaking >> important steps that impact the privacy (and security in some cases) of all >> persons living, working, and traveling in Seattle for likely many years to >> come. This work is partially underway, with different surveillance >> technologies in different stages of the process. This presentation will >> cover what the Seattle Surveillance Ordinance is & the overall process >> end-to-end; what stage we’re at; noteworthy technical findings thus far; >> what’s next; and how to contribute your knowledge. The overall situation is >> one which is near starving for technical contributions and voice, so the >> hope is that this presentation is more than purely informational and >> instead results in informed participation (in any level or capacity). >> >> Here's a FB event <https://www.facebook.com/events/376419182991263/> for >> sharing. Please come if you can make it, and invite anyone who you think >> would be interested! >> >> Thanks, >> -Esther >> > _______________________________________________ > change mailing list > change(a)change.washington.edu > https://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change >

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ICTD 2020 Call For Papers
by Neha Kumar 29 Aug '19

29 Aug '19

The CfP for ICTD 2020 is out! Begin forwarded message: *From: *Nicola Dell <nixdell(a)cornell.edu> *Subject: **ICTD 2020 Call For Papers* *Date: *August 29, 2019 at 8:24:47 AM EDT *Cc: *Indrani Medhi <indranim(a)microsoft.com> Please forward and share with your networks.... *ICTD 2020* ****Call for Papers*** <https://ictd2020.org/participate/cfp/>* Deadline for submission of full papers: *December 20th, 2019* Conference will be held in June, 2020 The 11th International Conference on *Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD 2020)* invites you to submit your work. To be held in cooperation with ACM SIGCAS, ICTD 2020 will provide an international forum for scholarly researchers to explore the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the context of social, political, and economic development. The conference will be in June 2020, with the exact dates and location finalized and announced shortly. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become more pervasive in the lives of people around the world. They are being used in various facets of daily life ranging from economics to health care, education to governance, family life to artistic expression. Diverse groups across the world interact with, are impacted by, and can shape the design of these technologies. The ICTD conference provides a forum for analyzing, critiquing, refining, and inventing new ways in which individuals, communities, and societies interact with and make use of these tools and platforms. There are multidisciplinary challenges associated with the design, engineering, application, and adoption of ICTs in low- and middle-income regions and/or other resource-constrained settings, with implications for design, policy, and practice. For the purposes of this conference, the term “ICT” comprises electronic technologies for information processing and communication, as well as systems, use of big data, interventions, and platforms built on such technologies. “Development” includes, but is not restricted to, poverty alleviation, education, agriculture, healthcare, communication, gender equality, governance, infrastructure, environment, and sustainability. The conference program will reflect the multidisciplinary nature of ICTD research and publishing traditions, with anticipated contributions from fields including (but not limited to) anthropology, computer science, communication, data science, design, economics, electrical engineering, geography, HCI, information systems, political science, public health, and sociology. *FULL PAPERS* An ICTD Full Paper must make a new and complete research contribution, articulate how it is advancing the field of ICTD, and provide complete and substantial support for its results and conclusions. All submissions must be original work; the submitter must clearly document any overlap with previously published or simultaneously submitted papers from any of the authors. Failure to point out and explain overlap will be grounds for rejection. Simultaneous submission of the same paper to another venue with proceedings or a journal is not allowed and will be grounds for rejection. Contact the papers chairs (ictd2020papers(a)gmail.com) if there are questions about this policy. Papers will be evaluated via double-blind peer review by a multidisciplinary panel of at least three reviewers, one of whom will come from outside the paper’s disciplinary domain in order to ensure broad readability. *ANONYMOUS SUBMISSION* Papers must be submitted in a form suitable for anonymous review: no author names or affiliations may appear on the title page, and papers should avoid revealing their identity in the text. When referring to your previous work, do so in the third person, as though it were written by someone else. Only blind the reference itself in the (unusual) case that a third-person reference is infeasible. Publication as a technical report or in an online repository does not constitute a violation of this policy. Contact the papers chairs (ictd2020papers(a)gmail.com) if you have any questions. Papers that are not properly anonymized may be rejected without review. *HUMAN SUBJECTS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS* Submissions that describe experiments with human subjects, that analyze data derived from human subjects, or that otherwise may put humans at risk should: - Disclose whether the research received an approval or waiver from each of the authors' institutional ethics review boards (IRB) if applicable. - Discuss steps taken to ensure that participants and others who might have been affected by an experiment were treated ethically and with respect. If a paper raises significant ethical concerns, it might be rejected based on these concerns. *PAGE LIMITS AND FORMATTING* Submitted papers may include up to 10 pages of text (including figures and tables) and up to 3 pages of appendices (if appropriate). References do not count towards these page limits. Reviewers are not required to read appendices. Papers should be submitted in the two-column CHI 2020 proceedings format (templates available for <https://www.ictdx.org/s/newCHIformat.zip>LaTeX <https://chi2020.acm.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/proceedings.zip>, Overleaf <https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/chi2020-proceedings/qtdvrwbtqxww> or Microsoft Word <https://chi2020.acm.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/SIGCHI-CHI20-Sample-Pape…>). Submissions must be in Portable Document Format (.pdf). Authors should pay special attention to unusual fonts, images, and figures that might create problems for reviewers. Your document should render correctly in Adobe Reader 9 and when printed in black and white. Submissions will be checked for conformance to these requirements. Failure to adhere to the page limit and formatting requirements are grounds for rejection without review. *CONFLICTS OF INTEREST* During submission of a research paper, the submission site will request information about conflicts of interest of the paper's authors with program committee (PC) members. It will be the responsibility of all authors of a paper to identify all and only their potential conflict-of-interest PC members, according to the following definitions. A paper author has a conflict of interest with a PC member when and only when one or more of the following conditions holds: - The PC member is a co-author of the paper. - The PC member has been a co-worker in the same company or university within the past two years. - For student interns, the student is conflicted with their supervisors and with members of the same research group. If the student no longer works for the organization, then they are not conflicted with a PC member from the larger organization. - The PC member has been a collaborator within the past two years. - The PC member is or was the author's primary thesis advisor, no matter how long ago. - The author is or was the PC member's primary thesis advisor, no matter how long ago. - The PC member is a relative or close personal friend of the author. For any other situation where the authors feel they have a conflict with a PC member, they must explain the nature of the conflict to the PC chairs, who will mark the conflict if appropriate. Papers with incorrect or incomplete conflict of interest information are subject to rejection. *CONFERENCE SUBMISSION SERVER * Submission site coming soon. *PUBLICATION AND PRESENTATION* Papers will be archived by default in the ACM Digital Library (unless otherwise requested by authors). Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate publication clearances. At least one of the authors of each accepted paper is expected to present the paper at the conference. *DATES AND DEADLINES* *December 20th, 2019: Deadline for submitting full papers* February 15th, 2020: Notification of acceptance or rejection March 20, 2020: Camera-ready papers due June, 2020: Presentations at ICTD 2020 *All submissions are due at 8pm, Anywhere on Earth* Contact the papers chairs ictd2020papers(a)gmail.com if you have any questions. *PAPERS CHAIRS* Nicola Dell (Cornell Tech) Indrani Medhi Thies (Microsoft Research) *ICTD STEERING COMMITTEE* Michael Best (Georgia Tech) Dorothea Kleine (Univ. of Sheffield), Nithya Sambasivan (Google), Janaki Srinivasan (Int'l Inst. of Information Technology, Bangalore), Kentaro Toyama (Univ. of Michigan), Joseph Muliaro Wafula (Jomo Kenyatta Univ. of Agriculture and Technology) *(The language in this CFP uses material from prior calls and other conference CFPs.) *

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Fwd: Postdoc and RA opportunities at Berkeley
by Matt Podolsky 25 Aug '19

25 Aug '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Joshua Blumenstock <jblumenstock(a)berkeley.edu> Date: Sat, Aug 24, 2019 at 9:40 PM Subject: Postdoc and RA opportunities at Berkeley ============= *Research positions available in “Big Data and Development” * The U.C. Berkeley Data-Intensive Development Lab <http://didl.berkeley.edu/> explores how novel sources of data, and new computational algorithms, can provide insight into the causes and consequences of economic development. We are currently soliciting applications for postdocs, data scientists, and research associates, with appointment to begin in early 2020 (or possibly earlier). The postdoc or research associate will work on interdisciplinary research challenges that lie at the intersection of development economics and statistical machine learning. Research activities will be supervised by Joshua Blumenstock <http://www.jblumenstock.com> (UC Berkeley School of Information), and will build on research topics including: - Social networks in developing economies - Measuring poverty and vulnerability using novel data and computational methods - Fairness and privacy in machine learning - Understanding the consequences of violence and conflict on welfare - Financial inclusion, and new approaches to digital credit Qualified candidates should have a graduate degree in Computer Science, Economics, Statistics, or a related field. Strong technical, analytic, and computational skills are essential: all projects involve the analysis of large, complex data, and require proficiency in one or more object-oriented programming languages. Experience with applied machine learning and econometrics are desired. Interested individuals should send the following materials to Joshua Blumenstock (jblumenstock(a)berkeley.edu) a CV, a cover letter describing research interests and prior relevant experience, two writing samples, and three letters of reference. Review of applications will begin on September 15.

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