Welcome to the 14th Annual IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) in Philadelphia. GHTC brings together researchers and practitioners to share practical technology-enabled solutions that address the needs of underserved populations worldwide.
This quasi-experimental study evaluates the impact of a three-month digital Integrated Amrita Meditation (IAM)(R) technique intervention program on the perceived stress levels of incarcerated populations. The availability of adequate mental healthcare in prison settings tends to be extremely limited, leading to a number of adverse effects on prisoners pre- and post-release and putting an already vulnerable segment of society at increased risk. In addition to reducing stress levels and positively affecting general mental well-being, offering IAM (R) sessions as a digital programme has been shown to reach greater population numbers. Such programmes could also increase the long-term accessibility and adherence to mental health promotion programmes post-release, which has been correlated with decreased rates of recidivism and a more sustained constructive engagement in society.
This paper explores the utilization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions to address safety training concerns among informal workers in Colombia. The informal sector, particularly prevalent in industries like mining, presents unique challenges regarding occupational health and safety. By leveraging next-generation ICT tools, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mobile applications, this study aims to enhance safety training effectiveness and accessibility for informal workers in Colombia. Drawing upon existing literature and case studies, the paper evaluates the potential of ICT solutions to bridge gaps in traditional safety training methods, offering tailored, interactive, and immersive experiences. Additionally, it discusses the integration of culturally sensitive content and user-friendly interfaces to ensure maximum engagement and knowledge retention. Through a comprehensive analysis of current practices and emerging technologies, this paper underscores the transformative impact of ICT solutions in fostering a safer work environment for informal workers in Colombia.
Computerized Vocational Educational Training (CVET) holds promise for empowering village women in-volved in seaweed cultivation in Tamil Nadu by improving access to learning resources and enhancing digital literacy. The first study explores the challenges faced by women in sea-weed farming, focusing on qualitative data gathered through focus group discussions with 20 women from three different villages. Three main categories of challenges emerged: health, financial, and environmental issues, along with potential solutions. The second study investigates aspiring factors that promote engagement in seaweed cultivation. Moreover, analysis revealed the importance of cultural nuances that impact women's success. Recommendations for addressing these challenges and considerations for future research are discussed for incorporation into CVET courses. By aligning with SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 14 (Life Below Water), this approach not only fosters educational and gender equity but also promotes sustainable environmental practices in coastal communities.
Poor quality newborn care, mostly during the period around delivery, accounts for nearly 1 million neonatal deaths each year globally. Many of these deaths occur in low and low-middle income countries where healthcare professionals may lack the skills to provide newborn resuscitation and care. This study focused on the development of mobile virtual reality simulations to support continuing education for health professionals in low resource settings on essential newborn care. As part of the prototyping process, the study team developed a dedicated usability test application for experimenting with the mechanics and user interface elements required to perform a variety of actions required to develop virtual simulations on essential newborn care (vENC). This study leveraged iterative testing and user feedback to design intuitive and engaging mobile virtual simulations for healthcare users in a low-middle income country setting in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper shares the lessons learned on mobile virtual reality design for users in low resource settings.
Access to affordable and reliable energy in rural parts of Burundi can significantly improve its socio-economic development and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Stand-alone solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are a safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly solution for providing energy to underserved regions. Hence, this paper presents a stand-alone PV system designed to power a tailoring business in a small rural village in Burundi. The system design consists of solar PV arrays, batteries, a charge controller, inverter, and cable connections. The building has an estimated load of 11.99 kWh/day, requiring 22PV modules of 280W capacity, 48 batteries (12V, 100Ah), a 7.6 kW inverter, and a 12A charge controller. The design uses copper wires with cross-sectional areas of 1.13mm 2 and 4.84mm 2 to install and connect PV panels, batteries, inverter, charge controller, and load. The solar system's estimated life cycle cost is $15,334.39. Furthermore, it offsets or mitigates over 34 tons of CO 2e emissions from diesel generator use. The insights from this paper can guide and encourage the Burundi government and interested stakeholders to adopt PV system designs to address electricity shortage.
Internal seasonal migrant workers in India face significant challenges in accessing social security schemes due to their high mobility, inadequate documentation, low digital literacy, regional policy variations, and a general lack of awareness. This paper explores a case study from Jaipur, Rajasthan, where Jan Sahas, a civil society organization and partner within the Migrants Resilience Collaborative, is addressing these challenges using technology. Through the development of the Jan Saathi app, an innovative mobile application, and a scheme discovery and eligibility check platform, this initiative has significantly enhanced service delivery infrastructure for migrant workers. By enabling precise identification of eligibility and facilitating the delivery of benefits, the Migrants Resilience Collaborative has registered over 5.8 million households and successfully delivered over 5.0 million benefits. This approach exemplifies the critical role of leveraging technology in combination with community trust and decentralized implementation, thereby empowering marginalized groups and improving their access to essential services.
In 2020, Nigeria suffered from both intensified flooding seasons due to climate change and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigates the interconnected dynamics of flooding, human mobility, and COVID-19 transmission in Nigeria during the 2020 flooding season. Utilizing a two-stage spatial panel econometric model, the study incorporates data from satellite imagery, mobility tracking, and regional COVID-19 case reports. The results show that flooding severity, along with heavy rainfall, significantly impacts daily human mobility, which in turn influences the spread of COVID-19. These findings highlight the complex challenges at the intersection of natural disasters and public health, underscoring the need for a national-scale flood management plan in developing countries such as Nigeria.
Traditional research methods often fall short in understanding marginalized communities due to cultural and contextual differences. This study explores the application of participatory video (PV) in a humanitarian engineering context, focusing on Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands, and its impact on enhancing social justice within community-led projects. PV is an approach that amplifies marginalized community voices by enabling them to record and share their own stories, contributing to the design of effective solutions and the promotion of social justice. The assessment of the constructed framework showed encouraging outcomes regarding its perceived usability. However, the actual implementation of the framework did not meet expectations. It is crucial to prioritize consistent group-support sessions for video creation, fostering participant motivation, and nurturing trust between the researcher and the participants. Yet, PV emerges as a powerful tool for humanitarian engineering to uncover hidden voices and understand hidden layers of community life.
Communication is key, especially during a crisis. In case of larger incidents, existing infrastructure often faces outages, making it difficult - if not impossible - to communicate. While first responders have communication solutions for these cases, civilians remain disconnected. To avoid such stressful situations, we study Rattlegram, a novel communication solution that uses acoustic coupling of smartphones with VHF/UHF handheld radios to transmit digital information. We compare it to existing protocols for the VHF/UHF band and evaluate its performance in simulations and field tests. We demonstrate its applicability, showing that even a cheap handheld radio can be used to establish communication up to a distance of over 18km in rural and close to 1 km in urban environments. The results highlight that Rattlegram is a viable technology that can be the base for affordable, infrastructure-less emergency communication for the masses.
This study evaluated the impact of Integrated Amrita Meditation (IAM (R)) sessions conducted online through a video conferencing platform on decreasing mental distress (measured with the General Health Questionnaire) and perceived stress (measured with the Perceived Stress Scale) in Tamil Nadu during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research design was quasi-experimental and compared the outcome variables of an intervention and a control group at baseline and follow-up. The intervention group showed a significantly larger decrease in mental distress than the control group at follow-up, and another follow-up at four months showed that the improvement in mental health remained constant. Therefore, conducting online IAM (R) classes is an effective intervention to improve mental health and reduce stress levels. Conducting such interventions through an online mode using digital technology is as effective as conducting it directly. Thus, it should be offered to a larger population to sustain mental well-being and reduce stress, not only during a pandemic.
Rural India grapples with significant struggles in providing clean and safe access to water, sanitation and hygiene measures which have a higher impact on women and children. Inadequate access and lack of proper house-holds water treatment and storage practices often leads to contamination and deteriorated health conditions. This study explores the intersection of WASH and women's empower-ment focussing on a intervention in rural Karnataka, India where women were trained to be Water Ambassadors(WA) in Point of use water quality monitoring using low cost sensors and mobile application. Through a qualitative methodology using in depth interviews and focus group discussion with the women, the study intended to examine the impact on women's sense of agency, well-being, decision making and community engagement. The themes reveal that training had a significant impact on WA's knowledge and confidence, equipping them to influence both household and community water practices, despite being affected by behavioural and cultural resistance. The study highlights the importance of integrating women's empowerment in WASH initiative to bring out gender equality and women's empowerment. With women's involvement, the intervention provided community resilience in water practices and underscored the potential of a technology driven solution to improve WASH outcomes in rural areas.
The world continues to experience immense technological transformations. Despite this, the field of Agriculture in many African countries has not seen much progress with regard to agricultural mechanization. Where progress has been made, many farmers have been unable to benefit due to cost constraints, among other issues. While pushing for more agricultural production through improved mechanization, it is important to factor in the cost and environmental factors. This project succeeds in developing a semi-autonomous tilling machine that performs secondary tillage and seedbed preparation activities. The machine has an average weight of 135 kg, much lighter than tractors that weigh about 2300 kg. An average tillage depth of 10.33 cm was recorded and the controller is easy to use with an average training time requirement of 3.33 minutes.
Following the change from the 8-4-4 Education System in Kenya to the CBC Curriculum, teachers in Kenya are facing new and unique problems. This paper provides a glimpse into the multifaceted challenges encountered by K-12 teachers across various types of schools in Kenya. Through a series of focused and insightful focus group discussions in Kisumu, we explored the experiences of K-12 teachers representing a cross-section of school types. Our research unveiled a range of common challenges, as well as those unique to each school category. Teachers grapple with issues of inadequate resources, overcrowded classrooms, and limited access to teaching materials. Furthermore, they face challenges related to curriculum implementation, including keeping pace with frequent changes and adapting to diverse student needs. Teachers have developed creative ways to enhance students' education based on the situation they are currently in. We found that although some of the problems they face can be different, depending on the school category, most of their solutions revolve around a reliance on the community around them. With our findings, we believe that further research should be done on the development of better tools for teachers to use.
The need for growth in Africa's manufacturing ecosystem was highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic as personal protective equipment (PPE) had to largely be imported. This paper presents the design, fabrication and testing of a face shield produced using locally available materials and methods in Ghana. User research with medical professionals and other PPE users revealed issues with existing commercial face shields such as high cost, poor durability, and discomfort. An improved face shield design was developed, leveraging fabrication methods employed by local tailors. An elastic/foam band made from African fabric was integrated with a plastic sheet, the former being reusable and the latter being disposable. A series of flow visualization experiments were used to determine the efficacy of this shield against that of the commercial counterpart. Particle count and velocity flow field results revealed superior performance of the local design in terms of particle blocking. This study underscores the potential for decentralized manufacturing in Africa, providing a model for creating effective, affordable and accessible PPE using indigenous resources and simple production techniques.
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has highlighted the potential of generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), to revolutionize various sectors by automating content creation, enhancing personalized education, supporting medical diagnostics, and creating immersive entertainment experiences. However, deploying these advanced models often requires substantial computational resources, posing a challenge in resource-limited environments. This paper explores implementing LLM-based conversational systems on a low-cost device, specifically the Raspberry Pi. We designed and implemented a conversational system utilizing four LLMs, ChatGPT, Bard, Llama, and Rinna, and evaluated their performance in terms of execution time and computational resource usage. Our findings reveal that API-based models (ChatGPT and Bard) are more efficient in processing time and resource consumption, making them suitable for real-time applications. In contrast, locally-run models (Llama and Rinna) provide the advantage of offline operation despite higher computational demands.
According to World Health Organization data, in 2019, approximately 53 million tons of e-waste were generated globally, with 41 million computers facing landfill disposal each year. This significant environmental issue highlights the urgent need for sustainable solutions that surpass current practices. Furthermore, data from the World Bank indicates that 700 million people worldwide live on less than $2 per day, many of whom lack access to educational computers and technological resources. Providing these individuals with educational computers could offer a viable pathway out of poverty. Despite this, there has been limited research into repurposing discarded computers for educational use. Our innovative research aims to address both of these pressing issues simultaneously, offering a novel approach to converting landfill-bound computers into valuable educational tools. Research has highlighted the benefits of Thin Client technology in education. Prior studies have shown the effective use of Thin Clients using new devices like Chromebooks and Raspberry Pi, but have not explored repurposing obsolete computers. Our innovative approach bridges this gap by transforming end-of-life computers into valuable educational resources for low-income families, thereby extending their lifespan by 5 to 8 years. This innovative concept was originally proposed and tested by the four co-founders of GrowChild nonprofit-Tariq, Astin, Charles, and Yong-and was subsequently adopted by the Humanitarian Engineering and Computing (HEC) minor and the Humanitarian Youth Preparation for Electronics Education (HYPE) student organization at Miami University. Our methodology includes sustainable hardware reuse, installing compatible operating systems, and providing detailed training. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, leading to the successful donation of 100 refurbished computers to low-income students and local schools in Ohio in the past year, a 400% increase from the previous year.
Climate change has a major effect on the world's food production systems through outbreaks and spread of vector-borne and non-vector-borne crop diseases that affect farmer's incomes and national economies. This study predicts the distribution of Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus (WSMV) from 2021-2040 using historical and future climate data and WSMV species data. Using a maxent species distribution model with a Training AUC of 0.899, Test AUC of 0.884, and a True Skill Statistic of 0.697, potential regions for WSMV distribution are identified. Isothermality of 15-33, precipitation in driest month between 10mm-300mm, mean diurnal temperature of 11 degrees C and above; annual temperature range of 25 degrees C-34 degrees C; precipitation seasonality not exceeding 7; precipitation in coldest quarter of 50mm-250mm; and precipitation of driest quarter of 25mm-250mm will influence WSMV distribution. We recommend strict enforcement of cross-border plant protection regulations, empowerment of local farmers, and integration of national-level response in risk's preparedness plans.
Seventy percent of India's population lives in her villages. But, rural share of the national economy is less than twenty percent. There is a huge potential for business in services such as healthcare, sanitation and clean water in addition to industries in food and agriculture. But, in spite of significant investments by the government, growth in rural sector has been slow. We believe, an integrated educational approach at community level is necessary for ushering responsible participation of the people and boost growth. A few decades ago, Seva-Bharati, a society for education and rural development, demonstrated that significant socioeconomic upturn is possible through a constantly evolving life-based education. This paper presents the historic work of Seva-Bharati. Then, a discussion of their educational experiments are presented. Seva-Bharati created the concept of a model village university that fits in very well with the recommendations of India's new National Education Policy. In general, a village university may be implemented as a Higher Education Institute as a hub of education using existing educational infrastructure. The paper proposes a national framework for integrated education and development through a network of village universities across the nation.
User-centered design (UCD) plays a critical role in product development by focusing on creating interactive products that effectively meet the diverse needs of users. This study introduces a comprehensive approach that integrates the Agile Scrum software development life-cycle (SDLC) with a strong emphasis on usability and explainability. In our approach, users were actively involved as co-designers throughout the entire development process. This involvement was crucial for enhancing both the usability and explainability of the product. To assess the practical application of this approach, we applied it to developing a deep learning-based tea fermentation detection model. We engaged users extensively through various methods, including questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, and direct observation, to gather detailed requirements and feedback. The integration of user feedback into the Interactive Design (ID) process aimed to refine and improve the product based on real user experiences. Our findings indicate that this user-centered approach resulted in a 10% increase in project costs and a 25% extension of the timeline. Despite these additional investments, the positive feedback received from users justified the increased expenditure. Notably, our study revealed that female users reported lower levels of satisfaction compared to their male counterparts, a trend consistent with other research. This suggests a need for further exploration into the factors contributing to this disparity and high-lights the importance of addressing gender-specific concerns in software design. Overall, this study underscores the effectiveness of combining agile methodologies with user-centered principles to achieve high usability and explainability. The insights gained emphasize the necessity for continued research into creating more inclusive and effective software solutions. Addressing the diverse needs of all users, including understanding gender-specific differences leads to products that have equitable user experiences and higher satisfaction across various demographics.
