Data Science for Social Impact

Online seminar by Prof. Meeyoung Cha and Dr. Karandeep Singh from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) / the Data Science Group, Institute for Basic Science

14 July 2021
KST 10:30 – 12:00

Join us online: https://pusan.zoom.us/j/88132154935?pwd=aStxTnRaWUE2enlxZVdZbldYbXlqZz09

Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are bringing innovations to many research fields that have a direct social impact. In this talk, I’d like to share recent efforts on research related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of them is the inference of economic activities based on satellite imagery. Recent advances in Computer Vision algorithms and the availability of high-resolution satellite images for remote sensing help us tackle this problem from a new perspective (i.e., AI + Geography + Economy). In particular, this talk will feature our group’s efforts in one of the most remote and closed areas in the world, North Korea. The talk will show how a human-machine collaborative algorithm can compute, for the first time, local-level and district-level estimates of economic activity from publicly available satellite imagery. The multi-faceted evaluation based on partial statistics confirms that our method, leveraging no label information, can explain up to 80% of the regional variation. Efforts like this on reliable and timely measurements of economic activities are fundamental for understanding economic development and designing government policies. In addition to the research part, this talk will also include some basic concepts on neural networks and their applications, co-delivered by Karandeep Singh. 

If you missed it, please check it out: https://youtu.be/A9JtJ2U4fiY