UW CSE Industrial Affiliates Program (http://www.cs.washington.edu/affiliates/) is an annual meeting where the department and affiliates to come together and discuss topics and issues of mutual interest. This year, there were a number of talks and posters on Technology for Under-Served Regions. I've put the abstracts and links to talks and posters below. You can also find them at http://change.washington.edu/2010/10/uw-cse-affiliates-talks-on-technology-f... Portable Ultrasound for Midwives Ultrasound imaging is an effective tool for identifying maternal mortality risk factors. Unfortunately, ultrasound is nearly absent in many rural healthcare facilities in developing regions due to the high costs of both equipment and required training. To leverage existing healthcare systems commonly found in these contexts, we have focused our efforts on increasing the diagnostic capabilities of midwives –often central medical figures in rural and low-income communities. We have designed and built a low-cost portable ultrasound device consisting of a USB ultrasound probe and a touchscreen netbook that has a simplified user interface that specifically targets midwives. Our modular design approach allows for easy modification, and the device is designed to utilize existing local healthcare resources in order to create a sustainable solution that does not depend on continuous foreign assistance. Talk: http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ultrasound_talk.pdf Poster: http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ultrasound_poster.pd... FoneAstra: A Low-cost, Networked Sensing Platform for Developing Regions FoneAstra is a low-cost, programmable device that extends capabilities of mobile phones. We discuss how our device extends the functionality of non-programmable, low-tier mobile phones that are most prevalent amongst low-income groups in developing regions. FoneAstra enables interesting mobile applications in a variety of domains ranging from participatory sensing to remote monitoring to healthcare. We present an application in which FoneAstra is being used to monitor the temperature of vaccines in a country-wide “vaccine cold-chain.” We also discuss an application, currently under development, in which FoneAstra will be used to monitor the milk pasteurization process at Human Milk Banks. Both of these applications are being done in collaboration with PATH, our Seattle-based partner NGO, that works in the healthcare delivery area for developing countries. Talk: http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/foneastra_talk.pdf Poster http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/foneastra_poster.pdf Smart Connect: A Communication Link for Peripheral Health Facilities Rural health facilities in developing countries collect valuable data relating to patient care, however it is challenging and time consuming to report this data to the urban facilities where it could be aggregated and utilized. To address this problem, we are developing Smart Connect, a facility-based communication device that uses SMS messages to provide a data link between peripheral health facilities and a server connected to the Internet. In collaboration with PATH, we have completed fieldwork in Nicaragua that indicates that a variety of processes could be improved with the use of this device. These include filing epidemiological surveillance reports, receiving results of diagnostic test, and providing automatic monitoring of vaccine refrigeration equipment. In this talk, I will discuss the requirements gathering process we completed to learn about data collection in the Nicaragua health system, and I will describe areas in which Smart Connect can be used to improve data connectivity. Talk: http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/smartconnect_talk.pd... Poster http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/smartconnect_poster.... Technology for Video-Based Agricultural Education in Rural India This talk will discuss work exploring the use of handheld technology to assist mediators in facilitated video deployments. Facilitated video is a teaching method where a semi-skilled facilitator shows videos of excellent educators to students, pausing the video for questions and interaction. We partnered with Digital Green, an NGO which uses facilitated video for agricultural education in rural India. Based upon an investigation we conducted into the information needs of the facilitators, we built and field-tested two different solutions for delivering information to the facilitator in real time during the video shows. The primary difference between the two was the manner in which the device discovered which video was playing and its timing offset. One approach involved embedding audio codes into the video that were decoded on an Android smart phone using digital signal processing, while the other approach employed a custom-hardware “smart” remote control. We field tested both devices for four weeks in India. User response was very positive, and both approaches were shown to be viable for use in the field. Talk: http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/digitalgreen_talk.pd... CommCare: A mobile phone-based application to strengthen and monitor community health programs Community Health Workers (CHWs) are the first–and often only–medical professionals that people see in rural areas of low-income countries. People living in extreme poverty often delay seeking care until it is too late for them to be helped. CHWs make house hold visits to provide very basic care. However, for CHWs to provide effective care, they must keep track of a great deal of information, from patient records to remembering follow up visits. CommCare is software that we are developing to run on mobile phones to aid CHWs with planning and performing their job. Poster: http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/commcare_poster.pdf Open Data Kit: Tools to Build Information Services for Developing Regions Open Data Kit (ODK), an extensible, open-source suite of tools designed to build information services for developing regions. ODK currently provides four tools to this end: Collect, Aggregate, Voice, and Build. Collect is a mobile platform that renders application logic and supports the manipulation of data. Aggregate provides a “click-to-deploy” server that supports data storage and transfer in the “cloud” or on local servers. Voice renders application logic using phone prompts that users respond to with keypad presses. Finally, Build is a application designer that generates the logic used by the tools. Designed to be used together or independently, ODK core tools build on existing open standards and are supported by an open-source community that has contributed additional tools. We describe four deployments that demonstrate how the decisions made in the system architecture of ODK enable services that can both push and pull information in developing regions. Poster: http://change.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/odk_poster.pdf