binod takiawala
New Delhi, 14 August 2019 – This week, around 53 teams of young digital innovators from various parts of the country are participating in a Tech Challenge entitled “Reboot the Earth”. The tech challenge is scheduled to take place at HARTRON Innovation Campus, Gurugram, Haryana, from August 17-18, 2019. This is a flagship initiative of the UN Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL) that brings young computer programmers, scientists and other interested people together under the auspices of the United Nations to improve upon or build a new software program that addresses the current climate crisis.
“The advances of the fourth Industrial Revolution, including those brought on by a combination of computing power, robotics, big data and artificial intelligence, are generating revolutions in health care, transport and manufacturing. I am convinced that these new capacities can help us to lift millions of people out of poverty, achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and enable developing countries to leap‑frog into a better future,” said the UN Secretary‑General António Guterres’ in New York remarking on managing the frontiers of technology.
Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our times. Today’s Youth population is faced with a future that is threatened by the impacts of climate change, however, they also present an extraordinary opportunity for urgent action as agents of change and creators of innovative climate solutions.
In this social coding event, participants will use a well-structured taxonomy of challenges and using available and open source data will engage in a human-centered design and strategic problem-solving process. With assistance from mentors who coach participants towards the development of a final product or idea before it is presented to a panel of judges. The ideas, tools and proposals submitted through this Climate Challenge Hackathon will be carefully researched and selected by a diverse jury of reviewers. The selected ideas and tools as well as the key individuals and organizations who originated the ideas and contributed to their implementation in each phase of the challenge will be featured at United Nations Climate Change Youth Summit and websites.
The final best ideas/solutions are awarded with the grand prize that will be presented to the winner at the Earth Award Ceremony on September 21, 2019, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019. The winning solution has an opportunity to be incubated in one of the Global UN Technology Innovation Labs.
This event is Co-organized by the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth and United Nations Office of Information and Communication Technology and Sponsored by SAP and Deloitte.
About UN Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL)
The UN Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL) are designed to move humanity forward, faster by focusing on the use of innovative technology to solve some of humanity’s most pressing needs. The goal of the UNTIL is to function as a start-up environment and create a platform for collaborative problem solving between UN resources, Private sector, Academia and Civil Society. To engage the gears of innovation proactively, the United Nations Office of information and Communication Technology (OICT) is establishing UNTIL based on different humanitarian themes that are central to the needs of each individual Labs specific geolocation. The Labs will use AI, Blockchain, IoT and other high-tech tools to develop technology solutions that will be open source and available globally to all Member States once operational.
