From: Bigyan Raj Bista <brb...@mit.edu>
Date: December 5, 2015 at 11:04:08 AM EST
To: miteri <mit...@mit.edu>
Cc: miteri-officers <miteri-...@mit.edu>
Subject: MITeri Seminar - Kathmandu Living Labs
Please forward this to anyone around greater Boston region who is interested in role of data and technology in humanitarian response, urban planning and international development.
Thanks, Bigyan
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"Nepal's Digital Innovation for Social Good: Looking Back to April Earthquake"
Speaker: Dr. Nama Budhathoki (Founder and Executive Directory, Kathmandu Living Labs) Organized by: Nepali Students' Association at MIT (MITeri)
Dr. Nama Budhathoki (Kathmandu Living Labs): Kathmandu Living Labs is a group of young people working to harness human potential and creativity by leveraging open data and civic technology. Dr. Nama Budhathoki founded KLL in 2013 to create detailed maps of Kathmandu valley using OpenStreetMap, a crowd-sourced tool that allows people from all over the world to add details to the map. By mapping road networks as well as restaurants, hospitals, temples, schools etc., Dr. Budhathoki made navigation for Nepal Army and Police, foreign and local NGOs, and other volunteers delivering relief materials in Kathmandu effective and efficient when the recent earthquake devastated Nepal. Since much of the mapping was already complete for Kathmandu, his team was able to quickly focus on disaster-hit districts outside of Kathmandu where no such maps previously existed. As the pioneer who created an ecosystem around open data in Nepal, Dr. Budhathoki and KLL's work in the wake of the humanitarian crisis has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, NPR, The Wired magazine among many other renowned news outlets. KLL’s work was also identified as an exemplary grassroots mapping movement at the first White House Mapathon event organized on May 21. Dr. Budhathoki received his PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed his post-doctoral training at McGill University.”
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