Conference on Complex Systems CCS2018 Satellite Meeting
"Complex Systems for the Most Vulnerable"
Thessaloniki, 27 September 2018
In recent years, research efforts addressing the needs of the most vulnerable populations -- from those with low incomes to children, women and other minorities -- have started to draw the attention of the scientific community. Notable examples in this space are the Data for Development and Data For Refugees challenges, organized by Orange and TurkTelecom respectively. However, the gap between the academic world and the organizations that could use the proposed methods and insights for their programmatic purposes is still wide. This satellite workshop, organized by UNICEF’s Office of Innovation, aims at focusing the attention of the Complex System scientific community on the pressing issues that affect the most vulnerable. In addition, this will be a venue to showcase the most relevant theoretical and operational work in complex systems research -- where the challenges of the most vulnerable are a core component.
The three main areas of interest of the satellite will be:
The three main areas of interest of the satellite will be:
- Vulnerable populations: any application of complex systems science, complex networks, data science, machine learning, etc., providing insights and methods to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations, children in particular, as well as young women, migrants and refugees.
- Vulnerable contexts: measuring vulnerabilities in (near) real-time thanks to the increasing availability of non traditional sources of data (e.g. mobile phone records, social media traces). Examples of vulnerabilities include poverty, conflict, resilience to natural disasters, and epidemic risk.
- New vulnerabilities: research addressing new sources of vulnerabilities, such as algorithmic biases; or biases in data, such as the underrepresentation of the most vulnerable -- the poorest and children in particular -- in datasets built from the use of digital services.
