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Data Mining for Development: Sales Pitch

Over the last few weeks, I've been rekindling my interest in mathematics and international development. I studied both subjects during my undergraduate degree, and have kept trying to figure out a way to combine the two. I'm hoping to spend some time over the next two months running pilot projects in this area to see how well data mining, artificial intelligence, and statistics can be used to help development agencies, non-profits, and related institutions to do their work. Below is the rough draft of a short sales pitch I am working on in this area. E-mail me or comment if you are interested in learning more.

Data Mining for Development: Proposal

Organizations face two major data-related challenges: (1) how to collect meaningful data about their work, and (2) how to improve their operations and impact using that data. We’re here to help.

Today, non-profit organizations and social enterprises work in a challenging environment. With governments focusing on austerity measures and funding bodies receiving lower returns on their financial investments, non-profit organizations are continually facing an uphill battle. They are constantly being encouraged to improve how they operate and prove that they are having a positive effect.

Data Mining for Development (DM4D) is a non-profit project that aims to help organizations and social enterprises achieve their objectives. Composed of a team of graduate students, researchers, and professionals trained in mathematics, statistics, and computer science, DM4D helps organizations in a number of ways:

1. DM4D helps organizations decide how to collect data and run project evaluations at a lower cost. We do this by finding ways to automate the data collection process, and by developing indicators for variables that are difficult to measure.
2. DM4D researchers are familiar with extracting meaningful information from thousands of documents at a time. Organizations produce countless reports, e-mails, and articles, and we can help make sense of such data.
3. DM4D builds mathematical models to help predict how the work environments of non-profit organizations are changing, so they can better prepare for unexpected events and changes coming in the future.

Collecting and understanding large amounts of information and data is difficult and expensive. However, doing so can help an organization achieve its mission and objectives. DM4D is here to provide services and advice to help organizations leverage their data.

For more information, please contact Wojciech Gryc at wojciech@gmail.com.