Istanbul, Turkey, April 22, 2022 - UNDP IICPSD SDG AI Lab in collaboration with United Nations Volunteers hosted Demo Day – Spring 2022 to present the progress on digital projects and share updates on Volunteer Data Science Initiative with student teams from Koç University, Bilkent University and Middle East Technical University.  

Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, GIS, Machine Learning can bring innovative solutions to global development challenges such as Covid-19, disaster response, and poverty. Therefore, SDG AI Lab in partnership with UN Volunteers is leveraging Volunteer Data Scientists Initiative to actively engage over 100 online data science volunteers from 45 countries and develop digital solutions for sustainable development. The Lab has achieved significant progress in establishing its own Volunteer Developer Community, which provides networking, learning and leadership opportunities for online volunteers.

On the success of Volunteer Data Scientists Initiative, Ms. Rimma Sabayeva, UN Volunteers Regional Manager for Europe and CIS, shared: “SDG AI Lab’s initiative has been recognized as one of the best UN Volunteers practices for online volunteers’ engagement. We are ready to support replication of this practice both across the region and around the globe for the achievement of the SDGs.”

Mr. Sahba Sobhani, IICPSD Director, highlighted SDG AI Lab’s efforts for digital transformation, quoted: “SDG AI Lab has helped us to better understand the use of frontier technologies for sustainable development and SDGs as well as their potential for our daily work at UNDP.”

At the webinar, SDG AI Lab team presented their latest progress on digital products, such as Digital Social Vulnerability Index (DSVI) and Frontier Technology Radar for Disaster Risk Reduction (FTR4DRR). It is worth mentioning that Frontier Technology Radar for Disaster Risk Reduction has made noticeable improvement during the past few months.

Frontier Technology Radar for Disaster Risk Reduction (FTR4DRR) is an online tool for the monitoring and tracking of existing and emerging digital solutions developed in disaster context. It has been developed under the partnership of UNDP DRT,  SDG AI Lab and CBi, aiming to effectively support UNDP and other development stakeholders in navigating fast growing digital solutions for disaster management.

“With the help of many incredible volunteers around the world, we made such a wonderful Radar and receive much positive feedbacks. The whole team feels very proud, and we hope to it will have positive impact on people’s wellbeing in this planet.”

Nuno Ribeiro, TechRadar Project Volunteer

Demo Day — Spring 2022 highlighted the power of volunteerism for inclusive digital transformation. Also, SDG AI Lab will continue to advance cutting-edge technologies to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs through volunteerism.