Enabling the use of AI in humanitarian organizations

The November edition of the Data & Drinks event is approaching fast, and it is going to be a very special one! Join us on November 23rd at 17:30 in Xomnia's HQ in Amsterdam for a night entirely dedicated to AI & data applications in the humanitarian sector. Our speakers are Jacopo Margutti, Data Scientist & Emergency Response Coordinator at the 510 initiative (The Netherlands Red Cross), and Derek Loots, AI / Data / Cloud / DevOps Engineer at Doctors Without Borders.

The event includes dinner, drinks and a lot of networking opportunities with data professionals from Amsterdam and beyond.

Summary of the talks:

Talk #1 by Jacopo Margutti: Digitalizing and automating humanitarian processes
Deploying pipelines and ML models in support of local responders to humanitarian crises comes with a number of challenges: no pre-existing digital infrastructure, ever-shifting priorities, limited resources, and non-negotiable deadlines. This talk will present the approach followed by 510, the data and digital initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross, and dive into one workflow that they set up for classifying text messages of Ukrainian refugees on social media, as well as the feedback shared with the Red Cross, in order to improve humanitarian programs.

Talk #2 by Derek Loots: Enabling MSF to start using Artificial Intelligence safely and securely
Large language models have taken companies by storm. Controlling their usage and potential negative effects is the focus of many companies nowadays. This talk will present an approach that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Netherlands is using to leverage Azure OpenAI to build an internal secure Chat-GPT. Through a community-based approach, MSF is enabling departments to build reliable prompts in the best way, enabling them to also scale through managed infrastructure.

About the speakers:

Jacopo Margutti is a data scientist at 510, the data and digital team of the Netherlands Red Cross. He is responsible for developing and implementing AI / ML components in 510's products and services. Having worked at 510 for more than 4 years, he has been directly involved in several emergency responses and has been deployed in some of them, most recently the Ukraine conflict. He regularly gives trainings and lectures on AI, data analytics, and information management in emergencies. He has a PhD in Physics, which he obtained while working as a researcher for CERN’s LHC, the largest laboratory in the world.

Derek Loots has been building data and analytics platforms over the past 5 years, building multiple data analytics platforms in various industries, from real estate to passenger transport. He currently focuses on advancing humanitarian efforts at Doctors Without Borders by enabling many solutions offered on different cloud platforms - a complex environment where security and data play a vital role in providing humanitarian care.

Agenda:

• 17:30-18.30: Walk-ins & dinner
• 18.30-18.35: Introduction to Xomnia
• 18:35-19:05: Digitalize and automate humanitarian processes by Jacopo Margutti
• 19:05-19:15: Break
• 19.15-19.45: Enabling a humanitarian organization to start using Artificial Intelligence safely and securely by Derek Loots
• 19.45-20.30: Borrel