How to use technology for good?
Does technology work for us, or do we work for technology? How can we build sustainable IT? And how can we make IT accessible for everyone? Sometimes we forget to ask ourselves, and each other, these types of questions when we’re building technology. This is why we organise “The Human side of IT event at Rabobank” – this blog is a reflection on what I learned during the most recent event! In this reflection on a sustainable IT journey, there were different speakers from tech, sharing some of the interesting facets growing a better world through technology.
Technology is the fastest changing industry there is, but the often-overlooked part of this industry is the humans that work with the technology. Humans are not robots, even though some may feel or think that we are. There are many facets to humans. We are the most complex machine there is, yet we have the most difficult time understanding and taking care of ourselves.
Topic: 3 elephants and raspberry pi’s
As interesting as the topic sounds, so was the speaker- Thijs Suijten, having over 20 years of experience in tech using different stacks ranging from backend to hardware to web to mobile. In this session, he shared how he uses his technical skills to address global challenges and make the world a better place. Thijs took us on a journey through Hack the Planet’s latest project in Gabon, where they used smart cameras to protect both elephants and humans in the rainforest.
"How can you use technology for good?"
In this fast-paced digital tech world , how often do we wonder and reflect on what kind of impact we are making to the society and world at large using technology? By sharing an inspirational journey, Thijs highlighted how we can create a sustainable impact to ourselves and the society by using technology. Thijs has been working in IT for a considerable while. Technical skills took him to unexpected places. When he was 14 years old, he knew he wanted to work with computers. By the time he wrote millions of codes already as part of his journey as an engineer, he wondered how many people were helped with that? He wondered what if he could work towards addressing and resolving the bigger challenges of the world with these codes. He started working with different start-ups on varied technologies but soon the same feeling of not doing enough started to haunt him and eventually led him to using technology for good.
Thijs is now part of a non- profit organisation with Q42. He, along with his team use engineering power to contribute to a better world. Thijs shared the story of how he ended up in the African rainforest- Gabon , where they used smart cameras to protect both elephants and humans. Gabon is very well known for forest animals. Elephants are endangered and poaching is one of the major reasons. On their way to this rainforest they met two women who were heavily dependent on the rainforests for food and survival. “We will die of hunger”, said the women. They could not go into the plantations anymore because of the elephants breaking in and attacking them. And this was a classic scenario of human-elephant conflict, something that we might not even are aware of ourselves.
The use of machine learning to detect elephants
Thijs started working on this project after talking to the rangers in the rainforest. The rangers work with camera traps to detect poachers as well as elephants. These camera traps could take pictures whenever there was a movement in front of the camera, but could not send real time information to the rangers which was the biggest challenge. And it was especially difficult in such a remote area, where there is no power and no signal.
Thijs and his team solved this problem in about 8 months. They installed minicomputers which could wirelessly talk to the camera. When the camera would take pictures, it would wake up the device they built, download pictures using a Wi-Fi system which they developed, use machine learning algorithm to automatically detect whether there is a human or elephant in the photo. And finally, they used a satellite modem to send information through space to the phone of the rangers.
And as you can imagine, the journey was not at all easy. It was filled with challenges as well as some valuable learnings. The first camera they installed to test the technology in the field, gave false results as it misinterpreted the branch of a tree to be an elephant. They had to reposition the camera as well as the tree branch. The machine learning model does not always detect everything, there are always situations in the real world that cannot be predicted. Then, they went to the second camera to check the results and it worked. It was able to spot elephants and send a real time message to the phone of his colleagues. It could also detect the same set of elephants who broke into the plantation and affected humans. It was a big moment for him and the team. This clearly shows that working outside your comfort zone is where you learn the most.
What's next?
Thijs also shared more about other projects they’ve worked on, such as using VR to make the elderly feel less lonely and an online interactive to educate teenagers on the dangers of online sexual abuse.
With this session, he planted a seed. In ways that we don't only think about what we want to learn and do using technology and how much money we want to make, but more about what do we want to leave behind as humans. As a professional in IT for over 7 years now, it was a very inspiring session for me personally. It made a huge change in my approach the way of working. Being aware of the impact of my contribution to the society at large, has been a conscious reflection which I wish to continue embarking on in this journey ahead.
Want to read more stories? Check out - Stories from Hack the Planet and get inspired to think how you can use technology for good!