The ‘AI for Social Good’ program is aimed at bringing together nonprofits, academics and Google researchers to collaborate on projects that tackle social, humanitarian and environmental challenges. Working in partnership with Google.org and Google’s University Relations program, Google Research India lab initiated this NGO and academic led collaborative model with 6 projects in 2020, and the program was expanded to 30 projects in July 2021 with a focus on Public Health, Agriculture and Conservation.
In a recent mid-program workshop, the project teams presented their progress and gained insights through Q&A sessions with a wider audience. We are delighted to recognize the following projects based on the presentations shared at the workshop.
Best Presentation
Data-driven Vaccine Demand Forecasting and Health Interventions in Nigeria w/ Prof. Ayan Mukhopadhyay (Vanderbilt University) and HelpMum (Nigeria)
Best Presentation - Honorable Mentions
Saving the Big Cats with Innovative Maps w/ Prof.Nataliya Tkachenko (University of Oxford) and Panthera
Mapping Vulnerable Populations with Novel AI Techniques to Improve Service Delivery and Emergency Response in Three Cities in Kenya w/ Prof. Yiqun Xie (University of Maryland, College Park) and Aquaya Institute (Kenya)
Building AI Based Market Intelligence for Farmer Collectives w/ Prof.Aaditeshwar Seth (IIT, Delhi) and Centre for Collective Development (India)
Impact Recognition
Using AI to Prevent the Risk of Maternal and Neonatal Deaths in Kenya with Prof. Amulya Yadav (Penn State University) and Jacaranda Health (Kenya)
Exploring and Managing Human-Bee Conflict in Asian Cities Using AI w/ Prof. Wei Guo (University of Tokyo) and National Center for Biological Sciences with Bioversity International (India)
Incentive Engineering and Truthful Mechanisms for Grassland Quality and Local Market Price Estimation in Africa w/ Prof.Long Tran-Thanh (University of Warwick) and AfriScout (Kenya)
Methods Recognition
High Resolution Satellite Imagery for Modeling the Impact of Aridification on Crop Production w/ Prof. Saket Anand (IIIT, Delhi) and M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (India)
Media Text Monitoring for Timely Conservation Actions w/ Prof. Fei Fang (Carnegie Mellon University) and World Wide Fund for Nature (India, Nepal, Thailand)
We are excited about the potential that these collaborative projects have, and we look forward to the projects moving towards field deployments and pilot tests.