I am a 3rd-year undergraduate studying Computer Science at Harvard University, and a recognized leader in CS and tech entrepreneurship at school. I come from a strong quantitative background in the natural sciences and theoretical computer science, and I also have substantial technical engineering experience with numerous consulting, teaching, and internship experiences around software engineering and tech startups. I also have leadership experience starting organizations, building teams, and realizing visions in technology and business.
My passion is to rally ambitious and intelligent people to tackle some of the world's most pressing problems, in a way that combines my experience and expertise in computer science and organizational leadership.
Tech in the World is a national organization providing global health fellowships to top computer science students. We identify the best and brightest computer science students, in both technical talent and leadership capacity, form teams, and send them to develop software solutions and engage in global health and development at one of our overseas locations. The fellowships provides an unparalleled opportunity for experiential learning, personal growth, and immersive exposure to global health and development for the fellows, offers sorely needed technical development assistance to development efforts across the world, and builds bridges between computer science and global health, especially at the undergraduate level.
How does your venture push the world forward? Global health and development is one of the foremost human rights issues today: Billions are in poverty and millions die each year from diseases that modern technology can easily prevent and treat. In recent years, computer science and software technologies have shown to be an invaluable asset in global health -- software solutions are inherently scalable, can be widely accessed, and can quickly and automatically process large amounts of data. Successful software solutions have ranged from electronic medical record systems to track 2-year treatment regimens for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients, supply chain management to facilitate last-mile vaccine delivery, and mobile phone-based diagnostic tools to augment triage and decision-making in resource-poor settings.
Computer science has proven to be an indispensable part of global health and development solutions, but it is widely acknowledged that there remains a dearth of software talent in the field. This is due to low levels of awareness of global health informatics among computer science undergraduates, and various barriers to entering the field as a computer science major, including the scarcity of opportunities for computer science students to apply their technical skills in the field. At the same time, computer science undergraduates are seeking opportunities and careers to apply their skills in a meaningful way.
Tech in the World's fellowship program directly solves issues on both sides and immediately provides value to both our fellows and our global health partner organizations, while also laying the groundwork for future collaboration between these two domains. Tech in the World provides the opportunity for students to understand the meaning of being a global citizen, become more culturally sensitive, and engage in meaningful work while also developing software solutions that directly impact global health and the life of thousands to millions worldwide.
Tech in the World is the first of its kind: Never before has there been a formal program with a vision of its scale to build bridges between computer science and global health through a fellowship program for computer science undergraduates. Many of our global health partners have expressed their recognition of the importance of computer science talent, and their desire to get students involved, but have found it difficult to successfully approach and engage students. Meanwhile, many computer science students are interested in learning more about global health, and in particular, having the opportunity to see and contribute to global health and development work firsthand in the field.
Our team, as computer science students backed by numerous advisers and partners in global health, sits at the intersection of these two fields and are working to bring them together.
The core of our solution is the fellowship program, which provides value to all involved parties in several ways.
- It provides a transformative, immersive experience for our fellows.
- It provides immediate technical support to global health efforts.
- It builds local capacity at our remote sites through collaborations with local universities, incubators, and tech organizations.
- It provides the starting point for fellows' experience in global health and development, and provides the foundation for future collaborations.
Yet at the same time, our fellowship model has already been shown to be very successful in a number of different areas. We have studied and learned from the successful fellowships run by Teach for America, Code for America, and Global Health Corps, and we are personally supported by founders from the latter two organizations. These programs have already shown that the fellowship model is able to achieve many aspects of our mission: create a transformative fellowship experience; increase talent flow and retain talent in global health; provide immediate value with young, highly-motivated students; and make a sustainable impact through building local capacity through local partnerships. Thus, we strongly believe that there is good evidence to show that our fellowship model will be successful, and the level of support we have received suggests that others believe in us as well.
Please list any other relevant details about your venture (advisory board, personal accomplishments, crucial partnerships, etc):
Our formal advisory board (www.techintheworld.org/team) includes a Harvard Business School professor, winner of the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, and winners of Harvard's President's Challenge. Our informal advisers and supporters span the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Global Health Institute, MIT, Global Health Corps, Code For America, The Experiment Fund, the McKnight Foundation, Omidyar Network, and more.
On December 24, 2012, Tech in the World launched a 1-month pilot program in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for an initial pilot team of 5 students: 4 top computer science students and 1 film student creating a documentary showcasing the experience and the growing connections between computer science and global health. Our team is currently in Tanzania developing various software solutions for Bienmoyo Foundation and the Association of Private Health Facilities in Tanzania, as well as building local capacity through partnerships with the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology and local technology incubators. Our documentary will be released a few weeks after our return on January 26, 2012, but meanwhile we are posting blog updates at blog.techintheworld.org.
For this pilot program, we won 5 separate grants, from the Resolution Project, the Harvard School of Engineering of Applied Sciences, the Awesome Foundation, Good Ventures, and Omidyar Network, and we expect to obtain larger seed grants from them in the future. We have strong support from the Harvard Global Health Institute and various Harvard faculty, and so we hope to obtain significant funding and support from Harvard in our initial stages. We have been featured in the Harvard Crimson and we are pending publication in the Harvard Gazette, Harvard Global Health Review, and Global Health Hub.
Overall, we have built a strong base of supporters within our Harvard network, to provide local advice and financial support, while also having created a wide network of external partners, foundations, organizations, and key individuals that will support us in our national expansion.
- Full proposal: www.techintheworld.org/proposal
- Pilot team: www.techintheworld.org/team
- Pilot program: www.techintheworld.org/pilot
- Blog: blog.techintheworld.org
- Contact: brandon@techintheworld.org