Global Humanitarian Technology Conference - GHTC

Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) is an annual technical event held every fall in Seattle, WA USA. The conference is sponsored and organized by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), one of the world’s largest technical professional society, advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

GHTC brings together all the communities interested applying technology to advancing humanity: engineering, science, technology, industry, academe, government agencies, NGOs, charities, funders.

History

Past IEEE President Lew Terman recalled how humanitarian efforts were organized and how this conference was kicked off. "By the end of my presidency in 2008, during which I had had a focus on IEEE having greater focused and coordinated involvement in efforts involving humanitarian activity, we felt a growing need for having a major conference to attract people from around the world to listen to talks, exchange ideas, results, learn, and generally to interact and network within the humanitarian technology sphere. There is a lot of effort going on around the world, but it is scattered, disparate, and communication between those involved is hit or miss. While there have been scattered conferences, to our knowledge there was no major conference with the goal of pulling a large international audience together and covering a wide range of the important topics, as is done with numerous IEEE Society and Council flagship conferences. What humanitarian conferences we knew of had been one-offs, with no year-to-year repetition, something which IEEE had shown to be a key element in continued progress within a given technical area.^[1]

The inaugural IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference was a conference of big ideas, coupled with the realities and problems implementation technologists and real world practitioners face every day. In presenting successes and problems, many left the conference with realistic potential solutions. An overarching theme of the conference was the importance of scale, understanding the impact of unintended consequences of technology, and most of all, the emphasis on realistic actionable technological solutions to humanitarian challenges.^[2]

GHTC 2012

GHTC 2012 will be held on October 21-24, 2012 at Renaissance Seattle Hotel in Seattle WA, USA.

Conference Goals

Foster exchange of information and networking in the humanitarian field
Focus attention of businesses on emerging market opportunities and related technology enablers
Impact in positive and meaningful ways lives of disadvantaged people around the world
Promote science, engineering and technology as key to development of solutions for disadvantaged communities and attract young people to these professional fields

GHTC covers a wide range of topics that include, but are not limited to:

Health, Medical Technology and Telemedicine
Disaster Warning and Response
Water Planning, Availability and Quality
Sanitation
Power for Off-Grid Users
Power Infrastructure/ Renewable/Sustainable Energy
Connectivity and Communications Technologies (data/voice) for Remote Locations
Educational Technologies
Agricultural Technologies
Aplying Science, Engineering and Technology for Environmental Sustainability
Humanitarian Challenges and Opportunities

Why attend?

Participate in an extensive and varied technical program: presentations, keynote and invited talks, discussion sessions, tutorials, exhibits, and the Forum Hall for meeting other attendees
Learn, exchange information, share experiences and network with other interested and dedicated individuals
Gain visibility for humanitarian work and projects
Find new resources and ideas

Partners

IEEE welcomes collaboration and partnerships with other organizations in connection with the Conference.

ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers)

GHTC Satellite Conferences

Asia – is in a planning stage
Australia – is in a planning stage

Contests

International Student Paper Contest
International Student Poster Contest
International Humanitarian Photo/Short-Video Contest

External links

References

[1] ttp://www.todaysengineer.org/2012/Jan/GHTC-2011.asp

[2] ttp://www.earthzine.org/2011/11/21/ieee-conference-focuses-on-tech-solutions-to-humanitarian-challenges/

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