Tech For Good - Issue 14

TRANSFORMING EPILEPSY TREATMENTS IBM’S GUIDE TO TRUSTED AI HOW CAN BATTERY SUPPLY CHAINS BE SUSTAINABLE? USING TECH TO EMPOWER AFGHAN GIRLS

ISSUE 14

A THOUSAND

STORIES OF HOPE

Online disinformation and hate can have disastrous consequences for migrants. We speak to Hootsuite about how social media can help refugees control the narrative around their stories of strength and courage

DANIEL BRIGHAM Content Director

W

hen celebrating the good technology can do across the world, it would be remiss to not also focus on the bad it does. From the USA Presidential elections to the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out, social media is all too often a shameful arena of misinformation, lies, and troubling conspiracy theories.

It is often used to stir hatred directed at minorities, and this very much applies to the way migrants are portrayed not only across much traditional media, but also in the crevices of social media.

As ever, though, with hate comes hope, and a will to change things for the better.

Our cover story this month is one of using technology for good where it is so often used for bad: the demonisation of refugees. We spoke to Eva Taylor, Corporate Social Responsibility Director at Hootsuite, about the social media management company’s partnership with non-profit organisation Witness Change.

Together they are working on 1000 Dreams, a campaign that aims to create a global movement that changes the narrative around the refugee experience. At its heart is humanising European refugees through the power of social media. Almost 700 refugees have joined the project, telling their stories of quiet heroism.

“Social media in itself can both create that problem and help solve it,” says Taylor. “So that’s obviously what this project is trying to do, trying to get people to take a second to slow down and think critically about what they’re reading and where it’s coming from.”

Elsewhere, we jumped at the chance to speak to Inderpal Bhandari, Global Chief of Data for IBM. It’s a fascinating interview, as he tells us what needs to happen for AI to become more trusted.

I hope you enjoy the issue!

PUBLISHED BY STRANGERS MEDIA LTD, Norwich, UK Company No: 11454926 DIGITAL BULLETIN

TALK TO US hello@strangers.media

CONTENTS 06

58

From South Africa to Peru, we round up the latest news

Treating epilepsy with electrical brain stimulation

08

68

Using social media to shed light on refugees’ dreams

John Abbott, Chief Business Officer at Yoti, tackles digital IDs

22

72

GLOBAL GOOD

LEADERSHIP

HEALTHCARE

EXPERT INSIGHT

SOCIAL GOOD

EDUCATION

Experian’s Jonathan Westley on how to leverage data as a force for good

We visit the innovation hub that is empowering Afghan girls

32

82

How Circulor is making the EV race sustainable

Meeting “child hacker” and cybersecurity expert Reuben Paul

ENVIRONMENT

TEEN TECH STORIES

42

10 MINUTES WITH...

Doug Baer, Global Product Line Manager for Laser Analyzers at ABB

46

GOOD OR BAD? Is AI the future of medicine?

50

LEADERSHIP

IBM’s CDO Inderpal Bhandari outlines the keys to building trusted AI

32

08

58

GLOBAL GOOD

UK researchers measure Earth’s pulse to improve earthquake predictions A team of UK researchers will deploy 50 highly-sensitive seismometres on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean to measure the ‘Earth’s pulse’ and improve scientific understandings of seismic activity. The tools will be placed across a region encompassing the Canary Islands, the Azores and Madeira, and will detect vibrations caused by seismic waves to shed light on the causes of volcanic eruptions.

Biden pushes for EVs to make up half or more of auto sales in the US in 2030 US President Joe Biden has set a new national target for the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). He has called for EVs to represent 40% to 50% of all new auto sales by 2030, according to senior administration officials.

The target is expected to be supported by companies such as General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis. Alongside this goal, Biden will also propose new fuel economy and emission standards.

Peru’s indigenous communities use technology to reduce tree loss in the Amazon

GLOBAL GOOD In case you missed them, we’ve debriefed six of the most interesting Tech For Good stories from the last four weeks 6

TECH FOR GOOD

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has shown how indigenous communities can leverage technology to curb deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. The participants of the study were given smartphones and satellite data to monitor illegal deforestation. As a result, they were able to reduce tree loss by half in the first year of the project.

NEWS DEBRIEF

BioNTech to use mRNA technology to develop new malaria vaccine Germany’s BioNTech has announced its plans to use the mRNA-based technology it developed to create the COVID-19 vaccine to prevent the spread of malaria. BioNTech aims to start clinical trial testing by the end of 2022. The WHO and the EU have been involved in the early planning phase of the vaccine project and offered to help identify and set up the necessary infrastructure for the clinical trials.

Aruna raises $35m to help small fisheries in Indonesia

Khula raises $1.3m for its agritech platform South Africa startup Khula has announced a $1.3m seed round.

Khula’s platform is made up of three products: Fresh Produce Marketplace, which allows farmers to sell produce directly to buyers; Inputs App, which helps farmers access approved services from suppliers; Funder Dashboard, which allows farmers to connect with investors. Founded in 2018, over 3,000 farmers and 100 suppliers have signed up.

Aruna, a platform that connects small fisheries and promotes sustainable fishing in Indonesia has raised $35m in Series A funding. Aruna’s mission is to create a sustainable and fair fisheries ecosystem and help small suppliers adhere to the UN’s sustainability goals.

Aruna’s platform helps to shorten the supply chain to prevent overfishing and predict demand.

ISSUE 14

7

LEADERSHIP

BEYOND YOUR VIRAL DREAMS We speak to Eva Taylor, Corporate Social Responsibility Director at Hootsuite, about how social media can help refugees control their narratives, and change global conversations about migration

AUTHOR: Beatriz Valero de Urquía

8

TECH FOR GOOD

BEYOND YOUR VIRAL DREAMS

ISSUE 14

9

LEADERSHIP

C

an social media change people’s lives? According to DataReportal, over 50% of the global population has a social media profile. Although misinformation and cyberbullying are serious problems created by the widespread perception of social media as a reliable source of news, online platforms can also do a lot of good, especially when it comes to supporting refugees.

As of January 2021, there are 82.4 million people displaced from their 10

TECH FOR GOOD

homes as a result of persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations.

Out of them, 35 million are children.

These statistics, although shocking, can often get lost in the millions of posts that get published every day. That is until something more impactful, like a photo, catches the world’s attention.

Although the Syrian refugee crisis began in March 2011, following a violent government crackdown on public demonstrations in the town of Daraa, it was not until September 2015

BEYOND YOUR VIRAL DREAMS

when users started using social media platforms to pressure European governments to take a stance on the matter.

The catalyst for this was the now-infamous image of a young Syrian refugee boy washed-up on a beach in Turkey.

One image alone changed global conversations and policies regarding refugees; that is the power of social media.

Eva Taylor, Corporate Social Responsibility Director at social media management company Hootsuite, is aware of social media’s potential to make an

impact in the world and promote empathy with those who have suffered losses and difficulties. To make their stories known, and fight the stigma that migrants often face online, her team has partnered with non-profit organisation Witness Change for the 1000 Dreams campaign.

“The idea is to create a global movement that changes the narrative around the refugee experiences and highlights the many different perspectives, many different dreams, that exist,” Taylor says.

Taylor has over a decade of experience developing and executing campaigns that connect brands with stakeholders and communities. She has created campaigns for the likes of Microsoft, the Vancouver Aquarium, Crescent Spur Heli-Skiing, RPS Energy and Tourism Vancouver. She also has a passion for driving social impact. As such, she has collaborated with a variety of nonprofit organisations, both within and outside of her job, including Women in Tech World, Protect Our Winters Canada and Make a Wish Canada.

“My passion for social impact has been present in my entire career,” Taylor says. “And it’s been wonderful to be able to marry this with my interest in social media. Ultimately, my personal philosophy around social for good is that social media is unique in its ability to bring people together across regions, cultures, ideologies. And when people come together on social media ISSUE 14

11

LEADERSHIP

Social media in itself can both create that problem and help solve it” Eva Taylor

12

TECH FOR GOOD

it creates opportunities to discuss, educate, break down barriers, celebrate, commiserate, empathise, mobilise… We see incredible movements taking place on social media that wouldn’t have been able to happen otherwise.”

The 1000 Dreams campaign is a perfect example of this. It’s a project that aims to humanise European refugee communities through photo-storytelling on social media. The goal of the campaign is to collect 1,000 stories from 40 refugee storytellers and provide them with skills training, equipment, and mentorship to conduct interviews and take photographs. To date, nearly 700 refugees living in Europe have shared their stories of strength, challenges and dreams through the project. The vision is creating a global movement that will change the narrative of the refugee experience.

“Refugees are often depicted through an outside lens in society,” says Robin Hammond, Founder of Witness Change.

“At times they are depicted as threats to the land where they’ve settled, and in other instances, as victims. It’s not that simple, so it was our goal to help change that narrative by telling the stories from the more complex perspectives of the refugees themselves.”

Refugees are often the target of online hate and disinformation, which can lead to terrible consequences. In 2018, Facebook was used to organise the burning of

BEYOND YOUR VIRAL DREAMS

mosques and houses belonging to the minority Muslim community of Sri Lanka.

The following year, online misinformation led to anti-immigrant sentiment and hostile demonstrations in the Tijuana border region of the USA. Social media is inundated with millions of posts every day. In that ocean of content, is it often very difficult for people - and especially refugees - to share their truth and fight the overwhelmingly negative depictions of them that can be found online.

“There’s no single experience or person that represents the whole experience of being a refugee,” Taylor says. “If there’s a prevailing negative story or sentiments about refugees on social media, it can really travel quickly to many parts of the world. And people don’t necessarily take the time to factcheck it or consider alternative perspectives, because you’re so quickly moving on from one piece of content to the next. That would be the main challenge I see refugees facing, that they’re not in ISSUE 14

13

LEADERSHIP

Basel’s story “My dreams for the future are about reuniting with my children,” says asylum seeker Basel Watti (53) from the Greek Island of Lesbos. Basel, a successful businessman, says he fled Syria after the state sentenced him to death in order to take his property.

He had to leave his family and life’s work behind. “Leaving my country was like leaving life. Everything I built during my life turned into nothing the moment I decided to cross the border to Turkey.” It took him 18 attempts to cross into Greece.

14

TECH FOR GOOD

On one occasion his boat started taking on water. He thought he would die. “Whenever I have a flashback of this moment, I stop what I’m doing and feel the darkness and sadness controlling me. That was a moment where my kids would have become orphans.” He desperately misses his family. “I am just living in the hope that I can meet them again. This is the hope that helped me survive all the hardship I’ve encountered in my life, and it is giving me strength and helping me to hold on to life.”

BEYOND YOUR VIRAL DREAMS

control of their story and their narrative.

“Social media in itself can both create that problem and help solve it. So that’s obviously what this project is trying to do, trying to get people to take a second to slow down and think critically about what they’re reading and where it’s coming from. It’s a really important skill that needs to be learned, but which isn’t necessarily talked about as much.”

The stories of the 1000 Dreams campaign are a perfect way of starting this conversation.

Their testimonies rarely leave anyone feeling indifferent.

In them, dreams of becoming a musician, a lawyer, a doctor or an Olympic medallist give way to the basic desire to survive, and the longing to be reunited with long-lost loved ones once again.

Céline left Cuba to flee the fines, arrests and beatings she suffered because of her gender identity. Now she cleans houses in Paris. Roghaia is still seeking asylum in Greece after being separated from one of her three sons while leaving Afghanistan. Javier fled Nicaragua when the government began to target the free press, while Aram ran away to Turkey

from her home in Iran after her brother attacked her because he didn’t approve of the man she loved, breaking her nose and jaw. She now cares for her son while hoping to one day finish her obstetrics and gynaecology training.

Célinei, Roghaia, Javier and Aram are only some of the hundreds of refugees who have shared their stories in the hope of letting people into their lives, even for just a few seconds.

“What I especially love about this project is that it’s about refugees by refugees,” Taylor says. “Witness Change has taken the time to create workshops to provide the skills and the equipment so that they [the refugees] can document the stories themselves, and really own their narrative. I think that’s important; letting them own the story and tell it through their own voice.

Ultimately, it’s a phenomenal photo storytelling project. And that’s really where social media shines, using strong visual imagery, telling powerful emotional stories and helping build connections.”

In Taylor’s view, social media can contribute to making a tangible impact in the world. She mentions huge

What I especially love about this project is that it’s about refugees by refugees”

ISSUE 14

15

LEADERSHIP

movements such as MeToo and Black Lives Matter and also trends like the way doctors took to the latest video platform TikTok to fight the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and educate young generations.

“That was such an interesting shift for an industry that’s quite traditional,” she says. “I think they’ve recognised they can’t ignore social media anymore.

That’s an interesting shift that has been accelerated due to the pandemic.

We’re also seeing these rising expectations more than ever of companies being expected to speak out and take a stance on a particular issue, whether it be climate change or racism. I don’t think that’s going to go away.”

16

TECH FOR GOOD

In just a few weeks, the success of the 1000 Dreams campaign is already evident. The project reached 100 million people in its first week. The campaign’s first 700 stories have already been documented, and the organisations are looking at publishing them over the coming months. Meanwhile, the storytellers are still going out and collecting more content to reach the 1000 stories goal. In this way, the project avoids having only a short-term burst and can build up a long-term narrative over time.

“What’s going to work really well for these projects long-term is that these stories are really remarkable examples of human strength and courage in the face of unimaginable fear or threats of danger,” Taylor says. “They’re inspirational, they’re unforgettable, and they’re heart-wrenching and hopeful all at the same time. Once you start reading them, you can’t stop because they’re all really powerful small snippets of someone’s life that you would have never met otherwise.”

But how did they achieve this? To reach their target, Hootsuite is providing Witness Change with social media dashboards that will help the campaign reach wider audiences as well as measure its impact and resulting changes in sentiment. Hootsuite also assists the project with pro-bono support from internal experts that advise on social media

BEYOND YOUR VIRAL DREAMS

These stories are really remarkable examples of human strength and courage in the face of unimaginable fear or threats of danger” ISSUE 14

17

LEADERSHIP

Sarah’s journey “My dream was to get an Olympic gold medal in swimming and make everyone stand up for my Syrian anthem,” says Sarah Mardini (25) from her home in Berlin. After her house was lost in the war in Syria, her family decided it was time to leave. Reaching Europe meant crossing from Turkey to Greece by sea. Fifteen minutes into the journey, the engine cut out. Sarah and her sister entered the water and started pushing the boat. No longer were they swimming for medals - they were swimming for

18

TECH FOR GOOD

their lives. “It was scary… even if you’re a professional swimmer,” she says. “I just didn’t want to die.”

After three and a half hours they delivered the boat, and all in it, safely to Greece. Five years later, therapy helps Sarah process all she’s been through. There’s trauma, but also positive outcomes: “Because of what happened five years ago, I am who I am today,” she says, “I am stronger, braver.” She adds: “After this journey, I think me and my sister can go to the moon and come back, and I know we can do it.”

BEYOND YOUR VIRAL DREAMS

strategies and how to leverage a full range of capabilities, from publishing to scheduling and analytics.

In addition to contributing to the goal of creating social good, this project has allowed Taylor’s team to learn about the needs of social media organisations and improve how they educate future customers in using paid social strategies to further the goals of their campaigns.

“The data is the important part to understand what’s working and what isn’t,” Taylor says. “Without data, you can put so much effort into these projects, but not know what’s effectively

changing. And nonprofits especially don’t really have the time and resources to know what’s working and quickly be able to pivot as needed.

“What we saw during the pandemic was this digital transformation of nonprofits that may not have been so prevalent before, and that’s really pushed them forward into more unique partnerships. They’re now able to reach more people through virtual methods, they’ve removed those geographical limitations or physical limitations. And we’ll see these hybrid ways of working moving forward, which is only going to ISSUE 14

19

LEADERSHIP

What we saw during the pandemic was this digital transformation of non-profits that may not have been so prevalent before”

benefit partnerships more, because now you’re not restricted to only collaborating with those who are in your city.”

Hootsuite is not only encouraging the public to create social change, it’s also empowering its own employees.

Taylor’s team has partnered with Benevity to launch the Beyond the Nest initiative, a project that aims to support employees that want to volunteer with nonprofits by connecting them with their preferred projects and providing paid volunteer time off.

20

TECH FOR GOOD

Through Benevity’s Spark platform, Hootsuite employees will be able to connect with organisations they are passionate about and learn how to get involved in their activities. The focus of the initiative will be around a week in September, but Taylor’s goal is that employees can use it all-year-round to give back to the communities where they live and work.

“At Hootsuite, we have these guiding principles that we’re trying to bring to life through these types of

BEYOND YOUR VIRAL DREAMS

programmes,” Taylor says. “And as neighbours and allies, a lot of the work that I’m doing is focused on enabling our employees to give back to their communities. Our programmes really focus on helping others build connections where it matters. So I am really excited about the Spark platform from Benevity launching shortly.

“Social media certainly can have a huge positive impact when it’s done with the right intentions. The ability to build connections creates this kind

of profound hope for the future where people can really collaborate and make a significant effort towards changing something, which can be really powerful.”

From encouraging people to get vaccinated to pushing for a change in policy, or just public perspectives, Taylor has seen how social media can truly change the world. Every day, there’s a stronger push for companies to be part of this change. Instead of fighting it, Taylor’s team is helping organisations embrace it, or even drive it.

ISSUE 14

21

SOCIAL GOOD

THE DATA SWAP SHOP Has the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the movement in data sharing for societal good? We spoke to Experian’s Jonathan Westley, Chief Data Officer UK&I, to find out

INTERVIEW: Daniel Brigham

22

TECH FOR GOOD

THE DATA SWAP SHOP

ISSUE 14

23

SOCIAL GOOD

I

n general terms, how can data be used as a force for good in society?

Fundamentally, better data leads to clearer insights and more accurate decision-making. In wider society, this can impact all manner of things, from financial inclusivity to efforts to combat climate change. The pandemic has expanded our understanding of how we can use data to create a positive impact and determine the right response to challenges. It’s demonstrated its huge value in combatting society’s biggest problems to business leaders and public sector organisations alike.

24

TECH FOR GOOD

How has data been used for good during the pandemic, and what impact has the pandemic had on changing attitudes to data sharing?During the pandemic, data has shaped our response at the global, national and enterprise level. That’s because when combined with good judgment and expert knowledge, it gives us the raw material we need to plan our actions and then judge the results.

For example, Experian DataLabs, the R&D unit for Experian, helped the NHS plan for future waves of COVID-19 cases by modelling the disease characteristics with daily updated public

THE DATA SWAP SHOP

information. Our data scientists used advanced technology and more than 10 public and proprietary data sources to create a simulator that forecasts when and where the next wave of the virus was likely to have an impact on hospital resources. As situations such as social distancing measures change over time, the model’s “what if” simulator can forecast the impact of the pandemic and even future measure-lifting in specific areas – such as one region or a particular NHS Trust.

To be successful in times of crisis, organisations have to address challenges together, sharing data and findings in a coordinated way. Many have found ways of leveraging data assets to assist public health and safety officials in combating the pandemic and have been inspired to use their data for societal good.

through sharing talent and resources to develop or deliver data products for societal good, providing training, tools or opportunities to those who have lost employment.

The pandemic has expanded our understanding of how we can use data to create a positive impact and determine the right response to challenges” Jonathan Westley

Has the pandemic also seen a shift towards businesses wanting to collaborate on data-sharing to support those in need?

Definitely – we recently found that 77% of business leaders want to find ways of using their data for societal good in some form in the wake of the pandemic. This could be done by increasing collaboration with other organisations to better support those in need. It can also be achieved ISSUE 14

25

SOCIAL GOOD

How can data sharing help less-advantaged communities?

Data plays a huge part in protecting peoples’ livelihoods. During the pandemic, many have struggled to meet financial commitments amid decreasing household incomes and growing unemployment. Insights generated through data sharing applications, such as Open Banking, can help people in these situations to better grasp their own financial circumstances by helping them to access financial products they may not have been able to before.

26

TECH FOR GOOD

Data can also be used by organisations to support people who are financially ‘at risk’. This is the basis of our Affordability Passport solution. At the height of the pandemic more than 20 local authorities and charities used the solution to make it easier for them to identify the most vulnerable who need help. By individualising people, the Passport puts people’s best interests at the heart of decisions that affect their financial circumstances and wellbeing. Doing this is vital for successfully supporting these consumers and building trust during a time when many feel financially vulnerable.

THE DATA SWAP SHOP

How can data help lead to a more inclusive society?

A major area of focus for us relates to financial invisibility. Nearly 5.2 million people in the UK don’t have the data depth for financial systems to make any decision because their financial track record doesn’t hold enough information. A limited financial record for these so-called ‘credit invisibles’ can lead to difficulty accessing products such as loans or mortgages.

At Experian, we have reduced the number of people excluded from mainstream financial services by more than 620,000 since 2018, but there’s still a lot of work to do, both in data sharing and financial education, because individuals can actually do things that help their situation.

Improving financial inclusion can only be done with better data sharing.

That’s why we work closely with industry bodies and companies to improve data quality and introduce new data sources into our credit reporting. Services like Experian Boost, which uses Open Banking technology to factor people’s transactional information and regular payments into their credit scores, helps individuals to build out their own credit files, potentially tipping the balance between someone being marginally declined and accepted for credit.

Can you tell us how important data is to creating an environment of innovation?

Becoming a data-driven organisation can provide a multitude of benefits — one of which is increased innovation. Data can provide insights and perspectives that guide critical thinking and decision-making in new directions. Yet, many organisations still struggle to leverage data in this way because it’s being produced in a variety of different formats.

This makes it incredibly difficult to compare, correlate and combine different data sets internally – let alone externally.

Creating an environment of innovation means making data findable, accurate, describable and readable – whether by machine or person. Standardising data in this way is the first step towards harnessing it for innovation purposes.

This is particularly important for cloudbased collaboration – where datasets can be uploaded and accessed via secure portals by a range of businesses, who can explore potential uses in tandem. Over recent years, this sandbox model has become increasingly central to catalysing disruptive innovation and tackling societal and business issues.

ISSUE 14

27

SOCIAL GOOD

The public has concerns over access to data. Are they right to have concerns, and what can be done to overcome them?

People are more aware than ever about the data they share and its collective worth when combined with the data of others. Ultimately, they want to feel that any information they share will be respected and protected.

We recently found that 77% of business leaders want to find ways of using their data for societal good in some form in the wake of the pandemic”

28

TECH FOR GOOD

Organisations must respond to this concern strategically. Those that hold data need to demonstrate integrity through better data stewardship, transparency and accuracy, in order to build public trust in their data management capabilities.

We must also do everything we can to demonstrate the benefits of increased data sharing to the public. We must work towards a culture of continuous communication, ensuring that people are always aware of what their data is being used for and the benefits of sharing that information in exchange for better products, services and experiences.

How do you ensure that data is secure? How big a threat is security to ensuring data is a force for good?

Failures in keeping data secure can lead to a host of issues. Not only can it cause reputational and financial damage, but it can also create distrust around how data is handled. An incident where personal information is stolen can deter people from sharing their data through initiatives like Open Banking.

Therefore, keeping consumer data safe and secure is our top priority. We invest millions in our technology infrastructure, development and support to protect the data of our customers. We have always aspired to set new benchmarks for best practice in our operating standards and our approach to data stewardship.

THE DATA SWAP SHOP

How can businesses best fortify their data management?

Data management practice can be broken down into four key areas: data standardisation; data skills and literacy; data availability; and responsible data use. Standardisation helps to unlock the value of data by creating a data ecosystem, while helping employees to develop better data skills ensures data knowledge isn’t concentrated on just

a few experts within the business. This also facilitates a cultural change across the organisation around the use of data.

Demonstrating the value of sharing information makes people more inclined to share data, and privacy-preserving technologies such as personal data vaults give people the confidence to do so. Focusing on improvements in these areas will help businesses and organisation succeed in the years ahead.

ISSUE 14

29

SOCIAL GOOD

30

TECH FOR GOOD

THE DATA SWAP SHOP

Has Experian seen a change in the way banks are utilising technology and data to help people manage their finances?

We’ve seen an incredible boom in digital financial tools over the course of the past year and a half. The number of people sharing their data through Open Banking has tripled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over half of lenders have also adopted this technology in the last 12 months, helping people manage their finances in more personalised, fluid and intuitive ways online.

People are increasingly understanding the ways their data can help them better manage their finances and are calling on it to support their financial management and planning. Banks and financial services companies have responded in kind by creating digital apps and services that provide people with insights to help them better manage their money and access new products.

Finally, how hopeful are you that this concerted effort to use data sharing for societal good will continue post-pandemic?

The pandemic has helped business leaders and organisations to understand the true value of their data. Many see COVID-19 as a defining moment for organisations to set up and use data for societal good. However, just as many are now considering the volumes of data they hold, and how it can be used for good in other ways, after the pandemic has passed.

As the world becomes ever more connected, the volume, range and variety of available data will continue to grow at a substantial rate. Organisations recognise now more than ever that when analysed and used correctly, data can have an extraordinary impact. The inclination to make sure this impact is felt by everyone in society won’t go away any time soon.

ISSUE 14

31

ENVIRONMENT

32

TECH FOR GOOD

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: THE RACE AGAINST TIME

ELECTRIC VEHICLES THE RACE AGAINST TIME Douglas Johnson-Poensgen, CEO of rapidly-growing blockchain firm Circulor, warns of the challenges in the battery supply chain and explains what companies must do to make electric vehicles viable and more environmentally friendly AUTHOR: Stuart Hodge

ISSUE 14

33

ENVIRONMENT

“

I

t is the single defining problem of our age.”

That’s how strongly Douglas Johnson-Poensgen views the need for energy transition and for batteries to be produced more sustainably as part of that shift. A space where this need is felt most acutely is the need to make electric vehicles (EVs) more environmentally friendly by cutting out carbon emissions through the supply chain.

34

TECH FOR GOOD

Johnson-Poensgen is CEO of Circulor, a leading provider of supply chain traceability and dynamic CO2-tracking which raised $14 million (nearly £10 million) in funding earlier this year. The blockchain company, founded in 2017 by Johnson-Poensgen and long-term business partner Veera Johnson, provides the only live solution in the market capable of carbon tracking. It works with enterprises across the globe and, most

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: THE RACE AGAINST TIME

notably for this story, numerous prominent vehicle manufacturers wishing to improve their efforts in sustainability and responsible sourcing.

Some recent research by Circulor shows just how worrisome the situation in the sector has truly become – especially when it comes to electric vehicles. A lot of problems further back in the supply chain have been disregarded so much so that the carbon emissions across the life cycle of those EVs are often greater than that of many internal combustion engine vehicles, particularly diesel models.

“We all believe that things like the move towards electric vehicles are clearly important in the journey to slow climate change,” says Johnson-Poensgen. “The problem, though, is that in order to create electric vehicles and the batteries within them, we are having to mine massive quantities of raw materials. Some of those raw materials cause significant environmental damage or require massive amounts of energy such as that which is needed to turn rock into batteries.”

Johnson-Poensgen, a former British Army Royal Engineer, has international experience spanning a quarter of a century working both in leadership roles for large corporates, as well as starting and growing companies. He is now channelling all of that expertise into Circulor.

He says: “This headlong rush towards ‘Let’s all have electric vehicles by 2030’

This headlong rush towards ‘Let’s all have electric vehicles by 2030’ has meant that we’re ignoring some practical challenges…

As a result, the real challenge has shifted to the supply chain” Douglas Johnson-Poensgen

ISSUE 14

35

ENVIRONMENT

SOME KEY BATTERY-RELATED

CONCERNS

• The global demand for batteries is expected to increase from 185 GWh in 2020 to over 2,000 GWh by 2030.

(Statista Research Department, July 2021) • International organisations have already raised concerns regarding the use of child labour for cobalt-mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than half of the world’s supply comes from.

• Lithium mining is playing a direct role in damaging the local environment in Chile’s Atacama salt flats, as mining activities reduce water levels in an already dry region, with severe effects on local communities, protected lagoons and areas of alluvial muds.

(Engineering & Technology, August 2019) • Humankind is going to mine more nickel in the next 25 years than we have in the last 5,000, despite the fact that this material is enormously polluting to mine and refine. Right now the majority of the energy used to turn nickel stock to battery-grade nickel is being generated in coal-fired power stations.

• The world’s largest nickel deposits are in Indonesia, where nickel-mining is creating deep-sea tailings that are already affecting marine ecosystems.

36

TECH FOR GOOD

has meant that we’re ignoring some practical challenges like ‘How are we going to charge them all?’ and ‘Are we going to generate enough renewable energy or electricity so that we’re charging them with sustainable power?’

“As a result, the real challenge has shifted to the supply chain. Of course, these are complex industrial supply chains because the materials you start with are not the materials you finish with.

And, traditionally, you’ve not really known your supply chain much beyond your tier one or possibly tier two supplier, certainly not back to tier six or seven, that is to say: all the way back to mining sites.

Increasingly, our customers are asking ‘How do I get a greater level of visibility into my supply chain in order that I can start to manage this, that I can specify sustainability alongside price and quality in my decisions about who I buy from?’”

About 30% of the carbon invested in an EV comes from the manufacturer, although many are now moving to make their own factories carbon neutral.

The other 70% comes from the supply chain, with half of that pertaining to the battery alone.

“We will end up making climate change worse if we can’t deal with critical issues in the supply chain,” Johnson-Poensgen says.

Amongst Circulor’s customers within the EV space are Volvo, Jaguar Land

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: THE RACE AGAINST TIME

Rover (both of whom have invested in the company), Daimler and Polestar, who recently announced their desire to make a net-zero vehicle by 2030 – a colossally-bold plan which Circulor is looking to help them with.

“Polestar talks about us in the context of that target,” Johnson-Poensgen admits. “That’s a proper moonshot challenge because, actually, no one knows how to do that and yet, it’s a worthwhile objective. They’re doing it as a way of trying to drive top-line growth, so people are going to buy a Polestar and go ‘I buy into that, I want that’. It’s a hugely audacious goal and I admire Thomas [Ingenlath], the chief executive, for putting it out there.”

The distributed-ledger technology in the blockchain used by Circulor utilises a mix of GPS, biometrics and QR codes to digitally verify the movement of materials at every step of the supply chain, right from the mining process through to the factory where the vehicles are made.

“We’re creating a digital twin for commodity to source, and then a digital thread that follows that material all the way to the end product,” explains Johnson-Poensgen. “And, based on that digital thread, we’re attaching other information to that flow of materials, including the amount of embedded carbon added by each participant to the supply chain.

“That’s the basic principle, and you can apply that to any number of use cases.

ISSUE 14

37

ENVIRONMENT

You can apply that to the traceability of leather from cow to car, which is what we’re doing with Jaguar Land Rover; you can apply that to battery materials, which is what we’re doing with the likes of Volvo, Polestar, Daimler, and a number of other car manufacturers.

“There are two broad drivers for this from our customers’ perspective: one is responsible sourcing, ‘I don’t want child labour in my supply chain’, ‘I don’t want deforestation’, ‘I don’t want leather that’s a by-product from deforested bits of the Amazon, I want leather that is sustainably produced or possibly even

38

TECH FOR GOOD

recycled leather’ and also ‘What’s the embedded carbon in what I’m actually putting my vehicle as I drive towards net zero?’

“The other driver comes in relation to businesses funding their operations.

Every big corporation needs to borrow money to fund its working capital and its investments. If you are paying too much for your money, it affects your bottom line. So, with institutional investors such as BlackRock’s Larry Fink finding boards based on a lack of ESG [environmental, social and corporate governance] performance and some of

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: THE RACE AGAINST TIME

I’m in business to try and make a real difference to the problems we’re grappling with and that means that we have to achieve scale”

the big lenders like Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank are looking for evidence of that to use their facilities, it makes a real difference.

“If it costs you more to borrow money than me, I’m going to be more competitive than you. That’s how sustainability or ESG is going to drive the bottom line, quite apart from the fact that it might actually help you sell more.”

Interestingly, Volvo Cars, despite the pandemic, grew sales during a time when most car manufacturers haven’t.

The Swedish manufacturer reported the best first quarter in its history as the

ISSUE 14

39

ENVIRONMENT

company’s global sales increased by 40.8% compared with the same period last year. Johnson-Poensgen believes that that indeed demonstrates how doing business sustainably is good business.

“Volvo has had journalists say to them, ‘Yeah, okay, we’ve seen the headlines about sustainability and responsible sourcing, prove it’,” Johnson-Poensgen says. “And they’ve shown dashboards from our platform and said to them, ‘Look, I know exactly where my cobalt’s come from’, ‘I know what the carbon footprint in the battery going into this particular EV is today’. People go: ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’

And that’s why they commissioned people like us to help them.”

Circulor started four years ago with a triple-faceted focus of “people, planet and profit”. Since becoming profitable at the start of last year, the company has grown rapidly, so much so that the board is considering another round of funding and then potentially going public at the beginning of next year.

But Johnson-Poensgen and his colleagues are staying true to the vision they started with as the business looks to scale up and make even more of a difference to sustainability globally. That is what a considerable portion of the recent investment money will go towards.

“I’m in business to try and make a real difference to the problems we’re grap40

TECH FOR GOOD

pling with and that means that we have to achieve scale,” he says. “We have to work with more car manufacturers in more polluting industries, for example, to expand the impact. You have to make the technology more accessible, easier to engage with, etc.

“Clearly, all successful technologies go on this journey, so part of the investment will be spent on trying to take

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: THE RACE AGAINST TIME

something that a bunch of pioneers decided was worth doing, and make it more and more accessible for the main body of car manufacturers so they go, ‘Yes, this is how we need to try and grapple with these things’, as well.

“We also believe that we’re in a sustainability arms race, in a positive way. There are a lot of folks trying to work on bits of solutions that belong in the overall

drive to be more sustainable – but the challenge, of course, for customers, is ‘How do you see the wood for the trees?’

The planet needs us all collectively to get a grip of this pretty quickly. We know that what we’re doing as a company is something lots of people need and we want to place ourselves as part of the natural shortlist in people’s heads when they’re trying to grapple with these problems.”

ISSUE 14

41

10 MINUTES WITH…

10 minutes with... a gas industry expert

In this series, Tech For Good gets a 10-minute glimpse into new technologies. This month Doug Baer, Global Product Line Manager for Laser Analyzers at ABB, explains how advances in natural gas leak detection systems are helping the oil and gas industry to reduce emissions and meet climate change targets

INTERVIEW BY: Daniel Brigham

42

TECH FOR GOOD

DOUG BAER

T

FG: Will natural gas continue to be a major part of the global energy mix?

Doug: Yes. According to a report by McKinsey, gas will be the strongest-growing fossil fuel and will increase by 0.9% from 2020 to 2035. It is the only fossil fuel expected to grow beyond 2030, peaking in 2037. The global energy company, Gazprom, also estimates that by 2040, worldwide gas consumption is expected to rise by 1.3 trillion cubic metres and exceed 5.3 trillion cubic metres.

TFG: How can natural gas leaks occur?

Doug: Pipelines form the backbone of gas distribution with them being a safe and cost-effective way to transport natural gas. However, gas pipeline leaks occur at all points in the network from collection systems at the well to pipelines under streets and buildings.

The causes of leaks can vary, with leakages occurring because of everything from excavating accidents that result in the rupturing, nicking, or puncturing of a pipeline, to fires near an explosion, to natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, or earthquakes.

TFG: What are the main implications of gas leaks?

Doug: Gas leakages are a serious issue and can have significant safety,

environmental, and cost implications.

Safety: Gas leakages can result in injuries and in many cases, fatalities. In October 2020, a gas line explosion killed three people and injured 28 in Thailand.

The blast happened on a natural gas line owned by state owned oil and gas company PTT PCL and happened in Samut Prakan, southeast of Bangkok.

Gas leaks can also pose a risk in the wider community. Incidents such as the San Bruno pipeline explosion in the USA in 2010 and the Buncefield gas storage facility explosion in the UK in 2005 highlight the dangers that can be posed to communities by the escape of explosive gases and vapours.

Environmental: Methane, the primary component in natural gas, relased into the atmosphere before it is burned is able to trap heat in the atmophere, contributing to global warming. Pipeline leaks are a major contributor to the increasing amount of methane in the atmosphere. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), methane emissions from the oil and gas industry accounted for around 70Mt in 2020 – equating to 5% of world energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Cost: Financially, gas leaking from pipelines also represents the loss of billions of dollars of revenue every year, both in terms of direct product and the effort and costs involved in replacing it.

ISSUE 14

43

10 MINUTES WITH…

TFG: How can the oil and gas industry help to reduce gas leaks?

Doug: While eliminating gas leaks completely is impossible, good pipeline maintenance can help to reduce them.

When laying pipelines, it is important to consider right-of-way clearing. All debris should be removed to help avoid pipeline damage. It is also important that all pipelines undergo rigorous tests, including hydrostatic testing, to ensure the pipes can perform under pressure. All pipelines should be monitored for signs of corrosion, and a proactive inspection and maintenance schedule should be put in place to help maintain pipelines and avoid gas leaks.

44

TECH FOR GOOD

TFG: How efficient are traditional gas leak detection methods?

Doug: Traditional methods are slow, inaccurate, and insensitive. Technicians must walk the area being inspected using handheld analog detectors that can take a long time to calibrate once onsite. Because these systems test the air essentially only every few seconds, the technician must move slowly through the suspected leak site. Test results are manually entered in reporting systems, adding more time to the process.

TFG: What advances are being made in this area?

Doug: One solution being widely deployed is the use of sensor-based IoT technologies, which detect leaks by measuring key parameters such as pressure, flow and temperature. While these can be effective in detecting leaks, this effectiveness is limited to their proximity to the leak and the sheer number of sensors that are needed to service a typical pipeline, especially in situations where there may be multiple leaks per kilometer of pipeline.

Another innovative solution to address these drawbacks is the use of mobile gas leak detection platforms. The include the use of unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] such as drones, which are fitted with powerful miniaturised gas analysers.

These are capable of detecting variations

DOUG BAER

in ambient methane gas concentrations – normally about 2ppm – with a precision of parts per billion (ppb) thus enabling detection, mapping and quantification of large, small and even hidden leaks quickly.

TFG: What drone-based solutions does ABB offer?

Doug: ABB’s latest addition to its ABB Ability Mobile Gas Leak Detection System is HoverGuard.

HoverGuard detects, quantifies and maps leaks up to 100 meters from natural gas distribution and transmission pipelines, gathering lines, storage facilities, and other potential sources quickly, safely and reliably. It automatically generates comprehensive digital reports that summarise results and can be shared in minutes after a survey.

The cloud-connected, multi-gas solution is the first UAV-based system to quantify the three most important greenhouse

gases methane, carbon dioxide and water vapour continuously while flying. Each greenhouse gas affects the environment differently and is present in the air in different amounts. The extremely fast response and high precision of the analyser allows scientists and researchers to reliably quantify greenhouse gas fluxes which provides important information when studying the complex environmental processes affecting climate and pollution.

Patented cavity enhanced laser absorption spectroscopy detects methane with a sensitivity more than 1,000 times higher and over 10 times faster than conventional leak detection tools. This sensitivity and speed allows HoverGuard to detect leaks while flying safely at altitudes of 40 meters, or higher, and at speeds greater than 88 km/h. It can cover 10-15 times more land area per minute by operating on low-cost commercial UAV capable of carrying a payload of 3 kg.

ISSUE 14

45

GOOD OR BAD?

GOOD OR

BAD? Great power comes with great responsibility, and that is particularly true of new technologies. Each month, Tech For Good discusses the potential benefits and dangers of technological advances that are coming to market. This month we ask: Is AI the future of medicine?

AUTHOR: Beatriz Valero de Urquía

46

TECH FOR GOOD

AI IN MEDICINE

ISSUE 14

47

GOOD OR BAD?

TECH FOR O

GOOD?

ne of the most important learnings that has come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is the need to support health innovation. In this field, the technology with the largest potential to revolutionise healthcare is, without a doubt, artificial intelligence (AI). Last year, the global healthcare AI market size was valued at $6.7 billion, and by 2026, innovations in this field are expected to create $150 billion in annual savings for the US economy alone.

The use of AI could lead to faster and more accurate medical diagnoses.

A recent study published in Nature showed that Google AI was able to detect breast cancer better than human doctors, and the AI algorithm trained to detect COVID-19 by the University of Central Florida had a 84% accuracy rate for positive cases and a 93% rate for negative cases. Moreover, AI-assisted technologies could also reduce the more than 250,000 deaths per year that occur in the United States as a result of medical error, according to Johns Hopkins University.

From making healthcare systems more efficient and less expensive, to reducing

48

TECH FOR GOOD

staff burnout and allowing for more precise therapies, this technology has the potential to revolutionise medicine.

What the expert says: “ I’m convinced that the implementation of AI in medicine will be one of the things that change the way care is delivered going forward. It’s clear that clinicians don’t make as good decisions as they could. If they had support to make better decisions, they could do a better job” Dr David Bates, Chief of Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

AI IN MEDICINE

TECH FOR A

lthough AI has great potential for good, its dangers must not be underestimated. While a medical mistake would affect a single person, an underlying problem in a medical algorithm could result in thousands of patients being affected.

The largest risk related to the use of AI in medicine is cultural biases. It is not uncommon for algorithms to reflect the biases of the data that they’re trained on, or the people that designed them. For example, a study published in Science in 2019 found that an algorithm used in U.S. hospitals systematically discriminated against Black patients by allocating less care to them. Other studies have shown that Black people are less likely to get proper treatment for lung cancer and adequate treatment for pain. Given the lack of diversity in major tech companies, concerns regarding the bias of AI in medicine should not be taken lightly.

The conversation regarding the use of AI in medicine also goes hand in hand with the need to deliver data privacy.

While having more data than ever before on illness and disease should be a positive thing, it’s only so if the data is used ethically. Since hospitals account

BAD?

for 30% of all large data breaches in the U.S., until the safety of patient data can be assured, the use of data analytics might do more harm than good.

What the expert says: “ The danger is that AI systems that pit humans against algorithms will likely introduce new biases and errors into the U.S. healthcare system that will not only exacerbate health disparities but also make healthcare more dangerous for everyone” Dr Enid Montague, Associate Professor of Computing at DePaul University

ISSUE 14

49

LEADERSHIP

TRUSTING

AI Inderpal Bhandari, Global Chief Data Officer of IBM, outlines the key elements needed for AI to become “trusted” and gives his take on how it could revolutionise science in the future

AUTHOR: Stuart Hodge

50

TECH FOR GOOD

TRUSTING AI

ISSUE 14

51

LEADERSHIP

T

here are few older heads in the data game than Inderpal Bhandari.

The Global Chief Data Officer for IBM was one of the four original pioneers of the CDO role globally and the only one of those still doing it. He became the very first CDO in the healthcare industry in 2006, and over the last 20 years has worked towards transforming industry-leading organisations and defining the scope, expectations, and deliverables of the modern CDO. “I happened to be there at the right time and so I could grow with the profession,” says Bhandari, who is 52

TECH FOR GOOD

still recognised as one of the foremost authorities in the data and analytics space globally. “I’m the only one left of the original four, who is still working the job! I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing but it has allowed me to make a craft of it!”

And it’s not just the man himself. IBM, as a company, has been at the forefront of AI from the start. As much as a quarter of a century ago, the Deep Blue computer developed by the US multinational made headlines across the world when it won a chess game against world champion Garry Kasparov.

Now, some 25 years later, IBM remains

TRUSTING AI

at the forefront and is still investing massively in the space.

Following the $34 billion purchase of Red Hat a couple of years ago, the company continues to aggressively make acquisitions even now. BoxBoat Technologies and Bluetab have been bought in the past month or so alone and it’s clear to see that work in hybrid cloud, AI and data management are a massive strategic priority for IBM. Bhandari is a huge believer in the power of AI. He spoke to Tech For Good about the importance of building trust in AI moving forward and what he considers to be the five core tenets in doing so. If these are met, he believes that AI has the potential to influence and reshape how the scientific method is employed.

“You have these central tenets of fairness, robustness, transparency, explainability, and privacy and security.

That’s what makes up trusting data,” Bhandari says. “As you start infusing AI into key business processes, it starts absorbing the IT around those processes. An enterprise is then going to ask, ‘Can I really trust my IT provider here?’ So, that’s the first piece of trust that comes into play. It has to do with being essentially transparent, ethical.

That trust is vital from an enterprise point of view. Why would you run the risk of having somebody disintermediate your business?

You have these central tenets of fairness, robustness, transparency, explainability, and privacy and security.

That’s what makes up trusting data” Inderpal Bhandari

ISSUE 14

53

LEADERSHIP

IBM and artificial intelligence IBM believes in augmented intelligence “with a human remaining in the loop” and that the purpose of AI and cognitive systems developed and applied by the company is to augment – not replace – human intelligence.

In the company’s view, moving forward, “build for performance” will not suffice as an AI design paradigm and that we must learn how to build, evaluate and monitor for trust. With that in mind, IBM Research AI is developing diverse approaches for how to achieve fairness, robustness, explainability, accountability, value alignment, and how to integrate them throughout the entire lifecycle of an AI application.

“You also have to consider the data that underlies the AI. How clean is it?

Is it really fit for purpose? Are these models going to be run accurately?

So now we get into the area of robustness. How robust is this system? Is it staying up to date as the data is being refreshed? Is it making sure that old data is getting weeded out? All those kinds of questions come up.

“Another aspect of trust comes in when you’ve got somebody who’s actually making use of the AI system. If the recommendation is off the wall, and there’s no explanation and context to go 54

TECH FOR GOOD

with it, they won’t follow through on it.

These days, the systems are powerful enough to analyze context but you’ve got to be able to explain the recommendation to the decision maker. That’s explainability, essentially.

“The final point is fairness. Are the recommendations fair for the people that are going to be impacted? So, if you’re doing recruiting, for instance, and the AI system makes a recommendation, are those or any recommendations actually going to be fair for the population at large? That is another aspect that becomes extremely important.”

With so many facets involved for AI to be successfully adopted, it becomes incredibly complex for enterprises to harness all that data and bring all these strands together.

IBM has realised that that’s the missing gap in the AI space: the fact there is no real platform there that essentially addresses trusted AI and gets you to trust it. The IBM Cloud Paks, built on Red Hat OpenShift, are AI-powered software solutions that can help organisations build, modernise, and manage applications securely across any cloud and were built with exactly that need in mind.

The most popular of these is the IBM Cloud Pak for Data, a unified platform delivering a data fabric to connect and access siloed data on-premises or across multiple clouds without having to

TRUSTING AI

With regard to coming up with a hypothesis and to be able to then test that out, again, there’s tremendous applicability for AI”

move it. It simplifies access to data by automatically discovering and curating it to deliver actionable knowledge assets and also automates policy enforcement to safeguard use.

“In the five years my team has been using it, we’ve just seen huge strides,” Bhandari says. “The bottom line is it goes to addressing that complexity around those five core tenets and packages it in a way that the average enterprise can pick it up and run with it.”

An example of how this works practically for enterprises can be seen with IBM customer Regions Bank, which selected the company’s AI technology to help improve customer service and assist bankers in their everyday work.

The key challenge for IBM in working with Regions Bank was that the data they had was siloed all in all sorts of

different places in a fragmented fashion.

Using the Cloud Pak for Data platform simplified things for them, so that they could go from addressing the fragmentation, right to the models that were trusted and right through to being able to do AI. “You’ve got data, you’ve got models, and then you’ve got processes,” Bhandari says. “There’s also the infusion of processes and you know, essentially how you’re going to infuse the AI into the process, how you are going to make sure that the humans in the loop in the process, are able to then work with AI and so forth?

“We appreciated very quickly that this is the gap in terms of what enterprises are missing. There are also difficulties that have to do with infusing AI into processes that make it more challenging and difficult. The Cloud Pak for Data ISSUE 14

55

LEADERSHIP

and some of the other Cloud Paks [there are currently six Cloud Paks: Data; Business Automation; Watson AIOps; Integration; Network Automation; and Security] that we came up with, they are meant to address that totality.

“We’ve also invested and acquired more quite recently, over the last year or so, several companies that play in the space of different domains, different verticals, and they essentially understand those verticals very, very well.”

Investing in companies which understand these other verticals and regions is massive for IBM but they are also building these verticals into their own cloud platform.

In their cloud for finance and banking, they’ve ensured that industry regulations have been built into the ecosystem 56

TECH FOR GOOD

to make it more useful for end-users, and to allow them to start making use of it immediately. But, in Bhandari’s eyes, the potential for this goes much further than just helping customers to manage their data and automate their processes.

He can already see evidence of how their work is helping advance science and dealing with some of the world’s biggest and most pressing problems.

“After the outbreak of COVID-19, we set up a high-performance computing consortium, which scientists could use from across the world to help in the response to the pandemic,” he explains.

“A lot of that had to do with essentially how viruses and other molecules interact. There are literally billions and billions of events that take place, and we have to be able to model out a simulation like that.

“We put together this high-performance computing consortium where a number of companies came together, and we allowed them to essentially have access to our supercomputer to be able to do this. So, there’s a whole science community that came together around that, and then went through the scientific method to be able to do it.”

Bhandari’s excitement stretches beyond that, though. He believes that the same scientific method itself could even change as a result of AI becoming more pervasive and more trusted.

TRUSTING AI

“In terms of advancing the scientific method, right, there’s a clear step,” he says. “It’s a sequenced method where you observe some stuff, you come up with a hypothesis, you test your, say, five hypotheses, and that loop goes on ad infinitum as you as you start testing it out, and so forth. And with the more complicated problems, AI becomes critical in dealing with them.

“We talked about how AI can assess the quality of the data and whether it’s fit for purpose. With regard to coming up with a hypothesis and to be able to then test

that out, again, there’s tremendous applicability for AI. At IBM Research we have a program called IBM Project Debater that comes up with its own hypotheses in response to what the other team is saying, but you can see that there’s a whole potential there for applying AI to the hypothesis-generation aspect.

“Then, similarly, for the refinement and the testing, you’re able to apply AI at every step. So, I think that the scientific method would be greatly accelerated as we go forward with AI into the future, and especially trusted AI.” ISSUE 14

57

HEALTHCARE

BEYOND THE BRAIN Ana Maiques, CEO and founder of Neuroelectrics, discusses the potential of a new non-invasive digital therapy to change the way neurological disorders such as epilepsy and depression are diagnosed and treated

AUTHOR: Beatriz Valero de Urquía

58

TECH FOR GOOD

BEYOND THE BRAIN

ISSUE 14

59

HEALTHCARE

F

rom vaccines to prosthetics, healthcare innovation has completely transformed society and saved millions of lives in the process. However, there is one area of medicine that is still in darkness: the study of the brain.

From epilepsy to mental health and Alzheimer’s disease, there are many neurological conditions we still don’t have cures or adequate treatments for.

In the case of epilepsy, studies show that nearly 40% of people diagnosed with this condition don’t respond to the first or second medication they are prescribed with. In these cases, the usual courses of treatment include surgeries where a section of the brain has to be removed or an external device is implanted on the brain.

But what if there was another non-invasive way of treating these disorders?

Born in Spain in 2000, Neuroelectrics is a healthtech startup founded by Ana Maiques and Giulio Ruffini to develop non-invasive therapies for neurological disorders. The company has created a hat that can read brain activity through an EEG technology and create a 3D model of the brain. The cap contains electrodes that inject small amounts of electric streams to stimulate areas of the brain in a painless way.

The technology has already shown to be successful at preventing seizures, 60

TECH FOR GOOD

and Maiques’ team is now looking at obtaining the necessary approvals to commercialise the product, and research into possible use cases in other brain pathologies such as depression and Alzheimer’s.

TFG: How did the idea to create Neuroelectrics come about?

Maiques: “My co-founder - he’s a mathematician - and I, we were really fascinated by the brain in terms of ‘How come the brain is working in an electrical way? And can we decode those electric signals from the brain?’

BEYOND THE BRAIN

We really believe in the power of non-invasive brain stimulation, so injecting very low currents into the brain with the benefit that you can really do these therapies at home” Ana Maiques But also: ‘Can we interfere with those signals and try to model that brain activity?’ So we were, first of all, very fascinated by the brain, trying to learn more about how it works, especially from the physics and maths angle. And then, of course: ‘How can we use that decoding of the brain to really help so many patients in need? So that was really the driver behind our company.”

TFG: Why was there a need for new types of therapies like this one?

Maiques: “I think that drugs have been really good at helping a lot of patients, ISSUE 14

61

HEALTHCARE

but in neuro, because the brain is so complicated, we’ve seen pathologies like epilepsy, where one-third of our patients don’t respond to medication, or depression, or Alzheimer’s where we don’t even have a cure. I think that there’s a gap there where you can use other technologies to help the brain heal.

“We truly believe that there are other ways to deal with brain diseases. And we really believe in the power of non-invasive brain stimulation, so injecting very low currents into the brain with the benefit that you cando these therapies at home. Before the pandemic, we already knew we wanted to go home. Just imagine a world where you suffer from epilepsy, depression, or Alzheimer’s, and you can be treated at home with a cap that can not only stimulate and help you heal your brain but also monitor in real-time what’s going on with the brain.

“This is unprecedented. This is not anything that pharma can do. You can provide the treatment, but you don’t know what is happening in real time, every day, to the brain while you provide the treatment.”

TFG: How does the technology work?

Maiques: “It’s a wireless cap that has up to 32 electrodes, and any of the 32 electrodes can do two functions. They can monitor brain activity, but they 62

TECH FOR GOOD

BEYOND THE BRAIN

can also stimulate the brain, meaning injecting very low currents into the brain.

So the tricky part is: ‘Where do you stimulate? And that’s where our knowhow comes. For every patient we enrol in our epilepsy study, we get an MRI and an EEG of the patient, and we build a 3D model of their brain, you can call it a ‘neuro twin’. And with this ‘neuro twin’ we compute and we really come with the best stimulation paradigm for their brain and their disease. So this is really personalised brain therapy.

“In the case of epilepsy, what we are aiming to do is reduce seizures.

For example, these patients don’t respond to medication. So the area of the brain is hyper-excited. If you can inject negative current and bring the excitation down, you may prevent seizures from happening.

“This is the way we are doing our clinical trial towards FDA approval in the United States, with 180 patients. We started at Boston Children’s Hospital doing a 20 patient study. And the pilot showed how after 10 days of 20 minutes of stimulation every day in the hospital, we were able to reduce seizures by 44%. So it’s pretty remarkable that on a non-invasive means you can reduce seizures and the effects were lasting eight weeks after those 10 days. Of course, this means that the therapy will need to be repeated ISSUE 14

63

HEALTHCARE

really interesting new therapy for so many patients.”

This is unprecedented.

This is not anything that pharma can do” after those eight weeks, so that’s why it makes sense to continue at home.”

TFG: How can this therapy help people that suffer from depression?

Maiques: “There is some evidence that shows that electrical stimulation can really help patients with depression. There are patients which are currently receiving either TMS, which is transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is approved in the United States for depression, but also ECP - electroshock - for major depression disorders. So the concept of electric or non-invasive brain stimulation for depression has been there for a long time. I think that what we’re proposing is really this paradigm of being able to pay the technology home and do it on a repeated basis. We really think that with the mental health pandemic that we are going to have after COVID-19, this could be a 64

TECH FOR GOOD

TFG: What was the biggest challenge in developing a new type of medical technology?

Maiques: “I think the biggest challenge when you’re coming up with a completely new therapy that doesn’t exist as an entrepreneur, is that you don’t only have to worry about the science and trying to understand what you’re doing and how to help patients, but also what is the regulatory process. So we have to go through the FDA regulatory process in the case of the United States. And we also need to consider the reimbursement model: ‘Who’s going to pay for it?

What is the best market?’

“I think sometimes entrepreneurs in the scientific world underestimate what

BEYOND THE BRAIN

it takes to really bring a new therapy to patients. There are a lot of obstacles, but it’s also very exciting because in a way you have the feeling you’re creating a new category. And it’s kind of super cool to think that all those patients who don’t have alternatives may have one because of entrepreneurs and innovators like my team, who are really pushing those technologies forward.”

TFG: You have spoken up about the barriers women face when becoming CEOs. What are the main challenges that you’ve had to face in this regard?

Maiques: “Regardless of what we believe, it’s still really tough to raise money, not only when you’re a woman, but with

diversity in general. Bear in mind that only 2% of all the venture capital invested last year went into women-led organisations. Two percent is a pretty low figure. Why is that? I think because the bottom line is that most venture capitalists are men, or most of the partners in venture capital firms are men. And it’s not that they’re bad people, but they will tend to invest in people like them.

“What we need to do is to create structures in which there are many more women on the other side of the table, as well as diversity in general. I’m a white Western woman, right? I’ve faced a lot of difficulties, but I’m privileged.

Just imagine you’re a Black woman or a woman from a minority background. I ISSUE 14

65

HEALTHCARE

66

TECH FOR GOOD

BEYOND THE BRAIN

think that in general, diversity in venture capital or in the money business should be really encouraged because it’s stealing the hands of very alike people.”

humanity?’ The green deal, green tech, digital health, all these challenges require deep-tech. What the European Commission is doing for the first time in its history is injecting money directly into companies, TFG: You’ve recently been appointed as equity, and helping them to scale and to the board of the European Innovation conquer other markets, and then being Council. Where do you see Europe in very connected with the researchers and terms of innovation? help them to go from science to the Maiques: “It has been an honour, market. So it’s really a privilege and and I really loved the I think there is an opporEuropean Innovation The pilot showed tunity for Europe to really Council. It was crelead the pace of the how after 10 days ated to respond to a new generation of of 20 minutes of very interesting fact, unicorn companies.” which is that Europe stimulation every is pretty good at TFG: Where are the day in the hospital, goals for Neuroelectrics turning money into knowledge. We are for the next three to we were able to the highest producer five years? reduce seizures Maiques: “After our latof scientific publications in the world. est funding round, I reby 44%” But we’re pretty bad ally hope we can get in at turning knowledge into money. So, a couple of years the FDA clearance for once we have the knowledge, once we our therapy. I would like to see Neurohave the science, we are unable to scale electrics as a new therapeutic platform up companies. We are good at creating for rare diseases. I really believe down companies, but we don’t scale them up the line, we are going to be a powerful to compete in the global world. brand. Every time we stimulate a patient “I think that the motivation of the EIC is: at home, we are going to be collecting ‘What can we do to turn knowledge into data about the brain. And this is going money and solve relevant problems in a to be amazing in terms of the know-how responsible way?’ Can you do deep-tech we’re going to have on the brain and technologies that are going to help solve how to provide personalised innovative the next generation of challenges for solutions to patients.”

ISSUE 14

67

EXPERT INSIGHT

EXPERT INSIGHT:

Fixing the broken identity system John Abbott, Chief Business Officer at Yoti, discusses how digital ID systems can make the world safer and easier to navigate for all

R

ecently, the Communications and Digital Committee welcomed the new Online Safety Bill proposals, but warned that the draft legislation is “flawed” in relation to keeping children off porn sites. Numerous children’s charities have come together to request that the new manifestos are delivered. It’s the right call. There are clear technical methods available now that can provide age verification to ensure that adult content remains for adults.

We all connect with digital products and services in the real world and online every day, yet the reliance on paper ID documents to prove who we are is still widespread. In a climate of rising identity fraud and social exclusion 40% of Brits don’t own a driving license,

68

TECH FOR GOOD

JOHN ABBOTT

and 26% don’t have a passport - these issues are becoming magnified.

Fixing these problems through digital identity technologies to help people prove their age and identity in a faster, simpler and safer way makes sense, though understandably there are some hesitations from some over how that data is collected and used at a later point.

As a founding member of the B Corp movement, we know that there are ways to build assurance. Take our secure platform for example. Our app is free for individuals and we generate revenue by charging businesses to check the identity details of their customers. We put customers in full control of their information, with personal details encrypted into unreadable data that can only be unlocked by them using their Yoti app.

Nobody else can access or decipher it, not even our staff. We don’t desire to, but even if we did we cannot mine and sell user data to third parties or share any details without approval.

Transforming everyday processes with digital ID Digital ID technology is already in use across the UK in various forms and Yoti is the trusted digital identity platform for the likes of the Government of Jersey, whose newly appointed official identity provider supports their eGov initiative to get more services online, such as

filing a tax return, registering to vote and accessing the citizen portal.

In the retail space, attacks on store staff are on an alarming rise, as shown in the British Retail Consortium’s 2020 Crime report. This is why we’re taking part in the government sandbox to enhance the likelihood of preventing young people under 18 years old from accessing alcohol and reduce violence and abuse towards workers in licensed premises when challenging young people for ID. Additionally, by introducing automated age checks, staff save time and can be confident that only over age customers can purchase age-restricted items.

How will this work?

We’ve integrated with the world’s largest checkout providers to allow customers to prove their age in two secure ways. The first is age estimation, and the second is the free and reusable Yoti ID app. Both solutions are built with speed and data minimisation at their core.

Age-estimation technology: Here, customers just look into the camera on their own device or a device operated by an organisation, and their age is estimated against a set threshold.

There’s no registration, passport, driving license, app, or phone number required and once age is estimated as ISSUE 14

69

EXPERT INSIGHT

over or under the threshold, the image is deleted and the user approved or rejected. If a user fails the age estimation threshold, they are prompted to verify their age with the Yoti app instead.

It is a facial analysis system, not facial recognition because it doesn’t identify people in any way.

The 18+ age check via the Yoti app: Individuals create a Yoti ID once and can then share attributes from their digital identity with multiple organisations and industries, such as nightclubs, online gambling sites and supermarkets.

They simply scan a QR code to share their 18+ attribute, no other personal details are provided. The app already has 10 million consumer downloads and is growing by thousands every day.

We’ve already performed over 500 million age estimation checks and offer unparalleled accuracy across all skin tones, ages and genders. Human age estimation rates sit at around 4.7 years of accuracy while our technology is within 1.5 at the key age-check age groups. This has serious implications for those who rely on Challenge 25 as the threshold to ensure alcohol isn’t sold to those under 18.

Helping young people online Age verification is also proving popular with social networks. Global social 70

TECH FOR GOOD

media platform Yubo is using our technology to protect children in its chat forums. It performs checks on users to ensure that they are old enough (or not too old) for the people they meet online.

If there is any doubt that the user is using a false age, they are required to prove their age with Yoti.

We’ve also recently partnered with NSPCC and Internet Watch Foundation

JOHN ABBOTT

We all connect with digital products and services in the real world and online every day, yet the reliance on paper ID documents to prove who we are is still widespread”

to launch a tool to help young people get nude images or videos removed from the internet. ‘Report Remove’ can be used by any young person under 18 to report a nude image or video of themselves that has appeared online and the IWF will then review this content and work to have it removed if it breaks the law.

With the government keen to unlock the digital economy, improve access to

services, safeguard privacy and combat fraud through expanding the use of digital identities, there is a strong case for building age verification into the Online Safety Bill. Building trust as we go is of particular importance and we’d urge everyone to look for privacy-preserving solutions to resolve many of the everyday problems our communities are experiencing.

ISSUE 14

71

EDUCATION

A CHANCE FOR CHANGE Dave Saltmarsh, Jamf’s Global Education Strategist and Jeremy Newhouse, MATTER’s Vice President of Operations, sit down with Tech For Good to tell the story of how their organisations came together to build an innovation hub in Kabul, Afghanistan, and support efforts to educate young women across the world

AUTHOR: Beatriz Valero de Urquía

72

TECH FOR GOOD

A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

ISSUE 14

73

EDUCATION

M

ore than three decades of sustained conflict have devastated Afghanistan’s education system. As a result, UNICEF estimates that 3.7 million of the country’s children do not currently attend school. Almost 60% of them are girls.

From the lack of teaching, transport and sanitary resources to the cultural role that women play in Afghan society, many reasons are keeping young women from accessing education.

To address this situation, Jamf, the standard in Apple Enterprise Management, and US non-profit MATTER have partnered to build the Bayat-MATTER Innovation Hub in Kabul, alongside the Bayat Foundation, Afghanistan’s largest humanitarian organisation.

The vision for this hub is to provide students with a technology-enabled active environment where they can learn and explore their interests.

Freshly returned from the opening day, Jamf’s Global Education Strategist Dave Saltmarsh and MATTER’s Vice President of Operations, Jeremy Newhouse sat down in a three-way call with Tech For Good to take a virtual tour of the Kabul facility and reflect on the journey they’ve been on to build it.

Saltmarsh and Newhouse first met in Haiti in 2017, at a time when it had become obvious for both of them that educating children was much 74

TECH FOR GOOD

Everybody wants technology.

Everybody in the developing context is looking at technology as the way out, and as the future for their children” Jeremy Newhouse

A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

more than handing out computers.

The students were also in need of new teaching styles that ensured they truly took in the educational materials, and Jamf and MATTER were eager to put them into practice.

“Everybody wants technology,” Newhouse says. “Everybody in the developing context is looking at technology as the way out, and as the future for their children. And so, everywhere we went, everybody was asking for the same things. They all wanted computer labs, they all wanted school infrastructure that would involve or integrate technology. And we tried our best at providing those solutions for them.

“But when we went back to do our impact assessments, we were so

disappointed in the outcomes. We had to recognise we were failing everywhere we tried. It didn’t matter what country or context, it was failing.”

Newhouse narrates how MATTER watched its computer labs accumulate dust or be used as “glorified computer cafes” where children went to watch YouTube. The project was so unsuccessful that it was to be shut down and put away. Or that is what it thought, until JAMF came along.

“We were working on a hospital project in Haiti with this NGO that also happened to have a school, and we were there watching Jamf, implement something that looked radically different from what we had been working on for years,” Newhouse says.

ISSUE 14

75

EDUCATION

“When you set up a typical computer lab in a typical technology environment, this oftentimes requires a Computer Science expert to teach the content.

And the reality is that, in a developing context, those experts are few and far between. What we saw with Jamf was a potential for self-paced, self-directed learning where there isn’t an expert teaching coding in the class, but the app is teaching coding. And so the facilitator is there to facilitate learning, not be the source of learning. And that was a dramatic difference.”

The Kabul Hub is not the first educational facility of its type that MATTER oversees. The non-profit currently runs several other innovation hubs in places such as Haiti, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Senegal. In turn, Jamf provides these tubs with iPads and online education tools centred around Apple’s ‘Everyone Can Code’ and ‘Everyone Can Create’ curriculum.

Jamf’s Saltmarsh - who has a background in education - believes that these self-paced coding courses are key to truly helping children understand new concepts. He explains how Jamf’s technology-enabled active learning model ensures that children have the space to grow and learn within the classroom, while also bypassing the challenge that comes with a lack of access to expert educators.

76

TECH FOR GOOD

“If there’s something that I’ve learned is that there’s a lot of ideas, and then there’s practice,” Saltmarsh says. “We have gone to the Minister of Education and they said, ‘I want to see the Fourth Industrial Revolution. I want to see critical thinking, I want to see problem-solving, I want to see kids being creative. But the problem is nobody’s really shown us how you can do that. Because it is really chaotic and crazy in the classroom.’

“Jamf developed a piece of software that allows the teacher to manage the classroom. So if I have 25 kids doing something completely different and I want to get their attention, a traditional teacher will yell or they won’t do it, but we can tap a button and pause everybody’s iPad. And we can put kids into

A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

five apps and say ‘These are the five apps we want you to use today’.”

Jamf’s software also allows different students to have separate user profiles on their iPads. Thanks to this feature, the company only needs to send 25 iPads for every 500 students. But the project is about much more than technology.

Both Jamf and MATTER want to use the opportunity that the hubs provide, especially in places like Afghanistan, to empower young women to lead and learn, both as students and as teachers.

“I don’t train teachers for four years,” Saltmarsh says. “We spend four days with them, and we give them three things. First of all, when you ask a question, you use what we’ve known for decades in education as ‘wait time’.

It’s that awkward pause of silence that adults can’t handle. But for kids or young women who’ve never had a chance to speak up in class, enforcing that all of a sudden gets more of the kids engaged.

“The second one is we don’t let teachers touch those devices. And the third one is we only answer questions.

I don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. If I ask a question, I want a student to be the one to come up with the answer. And we train teachers on only those three things.”

To truly make a difference, Saltmarsh and Newhouse want to teach children to fail, and also to understand their own

We can go and help 30 girls, and that’s wonderful.

But if we can change the teachers, think of how many kids we can affect over time” Dave Saltmarsh

ISSUE 14

77

EDUCATION

With Afghanistan, there is a real hunger, where children are taking ownership of their own educational potential and their future” Jeremy Newhouse

learning processes, to ensure that they will continue to pursue learning opportunities even after the programme has ended. But, to do that, they need to change the behaviours of the adults that surround them.

“We also have this flexible space to train teachers to get comfortable changing their style of teaching,” Saltmarsh says. “Because it’s systematic we can go and help 30 girls, and that’s wonderful. But if we can change the teachers, think of how many kids we can affect over time. So the biggest piece of this programme is changing how we instruct teachers to be role models for young women, but also for young men.

78

TECH FOR GOOD

“While we can take young women in isolation, it’s actually more important to teach boys to respect and see the value of young women. And so, in our facilities, for every girl, you can bring a boy.

Because we know what happens to many girls when they hit puberty - they start pretending they’re not as smart as they are. And some of it is because it embarrasses the boy, you know, you don’t want to be too smart for young men. But we want young men, from kindergarten through to 12th grade, to see how smart these girls are, and respect that.”

The traditions and beliefs attached to the role of women are still a huge barrier that Afghan girls face every

A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

day. Despite national and international efforts to educate girls, Amnesty International estimates that 87% of Afghan women are illiterate, while 70-80% face forced marriage before the age of 16.

Newhouse and Saltmarsh see these prejudices in the reluctance of parents to let their daughters join after-school coding clubs, claiming they have to “go home and do chores”. However, they feel that times are changing and that every day the communities they work with are more receptive to the opportunities that technology and education can provide for their daughters.

“Even in cultures where women are not as valued, everybody wants their

child to have the best chance at life, and these parents are no different,” Newhouse says. “And so, the response of the school to the innovation hub has been probably the most dramatic of any of our innovation hubs that we’ve ever set up around the world.

“We had to actually double the capacity because the student enrollment essentially doubled once the innovation hub came in, because kids were so excited and so eager to participate in the innovation hub. We actually had to go back to the funder and get twice as much funding, so we could have more effective time with the kids because the enrollment had just skyrocketed. So it’s been a fantastic success.”

However, the prejudices that come with educating women are not the only barrier that non-profits face in Afghanistan. The most obvious challenge is security-related.

Every day, Afghan national security forces engage in combat with the Taliban and many organisations have expressed fears that the conflict will escalate once the US completes its target of withdrawing all its troops from the country. And schoolgirls are an obvious risk. Last May 10th, 85 people - most of them young girls - died and 147 were injured in a bomb attack that targeted the Sayed Al-Shuhada school in Kabul.

ISSUE 14

79

EDUCATION

MATTER, Jamf and the Bayat Foundation have taken every precaution possible to ensure the safety of their students. The innovation hub is located inside the Red Crescent Society campus, next to the Afghan Special Forces Training Centre and to enter you need to pass through several checkpoints. Nonetheless, Salmath still admits that their students do put themselves at risk just for attending the coding clubs.

“The security issue is the number one issue, but it’s just part of life in Afghanistan,” he says. “It’s tragic when the news shows the realities of the risks that children take to access education.

80

TECH FOR GOOD

That’s the Malala story right? We take as many precautions as we can. But ultimately, it’s the girls and their thirst for their own advancement in education who are the real heroes of the story.”

When asked about the future, both Newhouse and Saltmarsh have a clear challenge they want to meet.

The two nonprofits are building an educational system that supports children throughout their primary and secondary education. But what happens after?

“I was just in Haiti last week, and I asked the headmaster, ‘28 kids, how many of them are going to university?’ and he said ‘Three’. And I said ‘Great,

A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

what are the other 25 going to do?’,” Saltmarsh says. “We don’t want this to be a drop-off programme. We don’t want them to go to 12th grade and then have nowhere to go, because not every kid is going to go university, nor should they necessarily need to.”

Newhouse adds: “Do we think that every child going through this innovation hub is going to become a coder? No. But what we hope is that every child discovers their own learning methodology and that they become life-long learners, no matter what they do.”

All the partners involved in the project are looking at ways of supporting students after graduation, whatever path they choose to pursue. For the students looking to continue their education, Jamf offers a certificate programme, and the Bayat Foundation has partnered with the American University of Afghanistan to offer two scholarships to two of the hub’s students interested in technology.

Saltmarsh and Newhouse are aware that many of their students will not be able to pursue higher studies or to escape the terrible statistics that taint the life of Afghan women. But they both hope that the skills and self-confidence that these young men and women will gain during the programme will help them in their adult life, whatever it may look like.

“With Afghanistan, there is a real hunger, where children are taking ownership of their own educational potential and their future,” Newhouse says. “If there’s a silver lining in the dark cloud of oppression in a country it’s those kids who recognise that it’s not going to be given to them, that if they’re going to get anything, they’re going to have to work for it.

“When I’m in the classroom with the girls, they have this drive, this passion.

They know that they’ve got a limited time to capture as much knowledge and as much learning as they can.

Now we just need to figure out: What after this?”

ISSUE 14

81

TEENAGE TECH STORIES

Teenage tech stories Each month, Tech For Good speaks to one teenage entrepreneur about their incredible achievements in the world of tech, and how they’re contributing to making the world a better place

Name: Reuben Paul

Age: 15 Born: Austin, Texas Achievements: At age seven, Reuben became the youngest person in America to earn the Shaolin-Do black belt. But he has many other accomplishments under his belt, including the founding and running of non-profit organisation CyberShaolin. As a “child hacker” and cybersecurity expert, Reuben has delivered keynote speeches at over 25 conferences in 11 countries on the importance of teaching children cybersecurity skills

82

TECH FOR GOOD

REUBEN PAUL

F

rom a very young age, I was curious about how code works and I started learning about basic programming principles.

My dad used to train and speak in cybersecurity conferences, and so when I was seven years old, I asked him if I could speak at a hacker conference. He said: “Apply to one and if you get selected, you can speak.” With the help of my parents, I applied to DerbyCon and was selected.

When I was eight, I gave my debut talk “InfoSec from the mouth of Babes (or an 8-year-old)” and was encouraged by many hackers and security professionals. Today, God has blessed me to deliver keynote speeches in over 25 conferences in 11 countries.

When I started speaking in more and more security conferences, kids from around the world started to write to me and asked me how they can be like me and learn about cybersecurity. This is what inspired me to create CyberShaolin, a non-profit organisation that has the mission to teach how one can be safe and secure in the cyberworld.

All the educational material I develop with my family is free and available for anyone to learn online. Today we have over 3000 students from around the world learning cybersecurity topics with hands-on labs that they can do online.

My dad and I are 3rd degree Shaolin Kung-Fu black belts, my brother Ittai is a blue belt and my mum is a yellow belt. Combining my interest in cybersecurity and Shaolin Kung-Fu is how we came up with the name CyberShaolin.

ISSUE 14

83

TEENAGE TECH STORIES

The future is cyber. Technology is evolving and kids are going to be living in a digital age.

If children learn how to be safe in the cyberworld today, they will be prepared to make wise cyber decisions and keep themselves and their friends and family safe in the cyber world.

My goal for CyberShaolin is for it to become the one-stop destination to learn and get educated about the dangers and defences of cybersecurity. We are now a small family team and finding time to make my goal real is challenging, but with donations and volunteers, I believe we will be successful.

I want kids to know the three ‘don’ts’ of cybersecurity - Don’t Talk, Don’t Take, Don’t Trust. “Don’t Talk” means that you don’t give out too much information online. “Don’t Take” means that you don’t click on links because you wanted to get something for free. Just as there is no free lunch in the real world, there is no free lunch in the cyber world. And finally, “Don’t Trust”, meaning ‘don’t trust any cyber strangers’, for you do not know who is good or bad behind a computer screen.

84

TECH FOR GOOD

I always finish my talks with a live hacking demonstration to make my point strong, that if I, as a teenager, can learn how to hack, what stops someone who is more advanced and has malicious intent from doing very bad things easily? This is why people need to take cybersecurity seriously.

One of my hacks was presented at “The One” conference in the Netherlands. I decided to hack a toy teddy bear to show how highly connected the world is nowadays - and with this connectivity comes the need for caution as phones, home appliances and even children’s toys, are exploitable.

From then on and at other conferences I have demonstrated hacking other IoT devices such as remote-controlled cars in Prague and drones in South Africa.

Media that covered these conversations started to call me a “child hacker”. When I was eight or nine, I was also called the “chairperson of the conference” because the conference team would usually have to find a chair for me to stand on so I could reach the microphone and give talks.

REUBEN PAUL

A few people have overlooked me, and have personally attacked both me and my family by sending hate messages trying to invalidate the skills that I have because of my age.

I think people are keener to listen to a teenager talking on stage than just any other normal presentation or talk.

The security community has been very

supportive and accepting of me and the points I am trying to get across.

I would like to get a college scholarship to Stanford for gymnastics because they have a great team programme, they are very academically focused and it is a great school, and, God willing, I would like to compete in the Olympics.

ISSUE 14

85

CONTACT US COMMERCIAL ENQUIRIES

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES

business@digitalbulletin.com

editorial@digitalbulletin.com