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Humanitarian Technology Panel at LAEDC 2022

July 5, 2022 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Humanitarian Technology Panel at the IEEE Latin American Electron Devices (LAEDC) 2022

Featuring Panelists:

Pritpal Singh, PhD, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Villanova University

Luis Kun, PhD, President-Elect 2022, IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology

Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan, renowned global and sustainable development technologist

Morgan Mozhgan Kiani, PhD, Department of Engineering, Texas Christian University

 

Note: This is both an in-person and virtual event. Time is 2:00 p.m. on July 5, Pueblo, Mexico time, (UTC – 5)

Register here: https://attend.ieee.org/laedc-2022/registration/

 

Also note: Luis Kun’s Invited Talk for the LAEDC, “Disparities 2022 and the Global Citizen Safety and Security. A Transformational opportunity for Engineers as Systems ‘Conductors’ of Society Critical Thinking,” will be presented on July 4. Abstract: While the world struggled with COVID-19, it was expected that primary, secondary and college students would attend school via distance learning, while people would telework and the public would access their medical support via telemedicine. In addition, purchases of products would be done (mainly) via e-Commerce. These assumptions may be clear for the developed world, however approximately 60% of the world does not have Internet access and if additionally, you lack safe drinking water, food, health or a house to live in, Internet is not a priority. The Information Age is providing data that shows in real time complexity and the lack of interoperability among global participants. In the Global Economy, Society lives in silos. While the world faces simultaneously a large number of interrelated challenges, different governments are trying unsuccessfully to address them not as a complex dynamic system but as independent and separate ones. According to a 2022 Global Risks Survey,20% the world population lives in 52 of the poorest countries and only 6% have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The water crisis and the WHO/UNICEF: 2.2 billion lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Approximately 1 million people die every year from hygiene-related diseases such as: diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio, all preventable. The world is currently trying to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, the water and food crisis and contemplating a potential famine for millions living in very poor countries as a result of an ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine that prevents them from getting wheat, barley, corn and sunflower oil. If we look at the US as microcosm of the world, for most educated people, political polarization / midterm elections, mass shootings and the unrestricted sale of guns with no background checks, race, the price of gasoline, food and the cost of living are the “current” big worries. For years, areas such as California’s San Joaquin Valley have been booming their agricultural industry while confronting punishing droughts and fires, due to climate change, leading to water over-extraction from aquifers. This process is irreversible and the lands have sank 28 feet in a fairly short period of time. According to a 2021 Science article subsidence will affect 1.6 billion people who will be displaced in the next 2 decades because those areas will be susceptible to floods. Meanwhile Lakes Mead, Powell, Travis, Great Salt Lake and many others, are quickly disappearing and the water that would flow to California for agriculture purposes not only is disappearing but in some instances the minerals left below will make areas such as Salt Lake City unlivable. With the daily global population increases (perhaps reaching 10 billion by 2045), water, food and energy will be major challenges to the world. The February 2021 climate crisis in Texas, showed not only how all of our Critical Infrastructures are interdependent among themselves but how dependent we are with cyberspace, and how unprepared the world is for the effects of climate change. A new holistic transformational approach is needed, where biomedical / system engineers and or computer scientists help integrate the multidisciplines and interdisciplines needed to solve these challenges.

 

 

Organizer

IEEE Latin American Electron Devices Conference

Venue

Puebla, Mexico
Puebla, Mexico + Google Map
View Venue Website