SIPAS SDG Fellows Team are Geneva Challenge Finalists! COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

SIPA’S SDG Fellows Team are Geneva Challenge Finalists! COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Congrats to SIPAs SDG Fellows team (Alonso Flores MPA-EPD 19, Nigora Isamiddinova MPA-DP 19, Jessica Arnold MIA 19, Nitasha Nair MPA 19, and Ji Qi MPA-DP 19) who have advanced to the finals of the 2018 Geneva Challenge. Their project, DASH Data Analytics for Sustainable Herding, aims to map and analyze the changes in migration patterns, seasonality, and urban and agricultural development using data from satellites, mobile telecommunications, and GPS- enabled systems. It will create a blueprint for utilizing big data and applying machine learning and AI for better policy-making under deep uncertainty. Launched in 2014, the Advancing Development Goals International Students Contest, or more commonly known as the Geneva Challenge, is an international contest for graduate students that aims to find innovative and pragmatic solutions to a designated international development problem. Every year five finalist teams, one from each continent, is invited to an oral presentation in Geneva where they defend their solutions to a jury and the public. This year the subject is climate change. SIPA students have a history of partaking in the Geneva Challenge. Previously, a team of recent SIPA graduates (Olga Abilova MIA ’15, David Braha MIA ’15, Isabela Cunha MIA ’15, and Jessica Dalton, a master’s degree candidate at Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights) were selected as finalists for the 2015 Geneva Challenge on migration. Wish Alonso, Nigora, Jessica, Nitasha, and Ji luck as they defend their project on November 27!