Computing and Innovation in Cape Town
I recently returned from giving a keynote address at the 2019 Open Innovations Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. The event was organized by Prof. Tiko Iyamu from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and Prof. Nixon Muganda Ochara from the University of Venda and drew participants from around South Africa and from Africa as a whole.
The sessions were at the District Six campus of CPUT.
The first talk of the conference, given by Zahied Mukaddam, was an inspiring look at the modifications he has made in the design of his own wheelchair. Frustrated with the expensive and inadequate designs available to him, he has constructed many models, modifying the angle of the seating (tipped back a bit), leg support (holding the legs in place) and the weight of the chair (so he could lift it in and out of his car to drive). He emphasized the need for a chair that would grow with the person using it as many people use a single chair as they grow into adulthood and as they grow in width as adults. I was especially struck by one simple change he made — moving the storage bag from behind the user near the handles to under the seat between the user’s legs. When located between the user’s legs, the storage is accessible to the user and protected from theft. So much better than a design where the storage is practically useless to the wheelchair user behind their back! A powerful example of technology designed to benefit the individual user rather than technology designed for pushing people around!
You can watch Zahied’s excellent talk here in 2 parts: Part 1 and Part 2.
The second talk was a keynote address by Prof. Hosanna Twinomurinzi from School of Computing at the University of South Africa. His talk “4IR and Digital Skills: The Urgency of Open Innovation” focused on the development of digital skills underpinning the fourth industrial revolution. He talked about his work with NEMISA, an institute focusing on enhancing e-skills and sustainable socio-economic development throughout South Africa.
You can watch Hosanna Twinomurinzi’s excellent talk here in 3 parts: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
My own talk was on “ Algorithmic Accountability and the Securing of our Decision-Making Landscape”. Increasingly big decisions about the lives of individuals are being made in a partnership between human decision makers and computer systems. Algorithmically moderated platforms are making profound impacts on our personal and public relationships such as how we find a job, how we get our news, even how we find a spouse. This is fundamentally changing the landscape of our societal decision-making processes — from hiring decisions, to decisions about news amplification, to criminal justice decisions — and making them vulnerable to new types of attacks and influences. I discussed what it would take for us to obtain the best of human decision making and algorithmic decision making, instead of getting the worst of both. I argue that to build the world we want, we need algorithms and platforms that are accountable and transparent. I discussed the role of algorithmic accountability in securing these decision-making processes, using examples from my current work in criminal justice software and media manipulation. I also talked about principles and mechanisms for accountability as well as a set of “anti-patterns” found all too often in deployed systems.
My talk is available in 6 parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.
I also gave a four hour workshop before the conference on “Becoming a Researcher: Practical Strategies for Taming the Angst and Changing the World”. This is a talk I have had the privilege of giving many times around the world as an ACM Distinguished Speaker. I offer the material in both English and Spanish and in a number of different formats, from a 1-hour talk to a 3-week short course, depending on the audience and the time available. It is always a pleasure to talk with students of all levels, faculty advising students, and industrial researchers about these strategies for making research impact!
The main sessions of the Open Innovations had 3 tracks and so I was unable to attend all the presentations, but I would like to highlight the work of a few other speakers.
Prof. Tembisa Ngqodi from the University of Mpumalanga spoke about “A Cloud Computing Adoption Model for the South African Police Services (SAPS)”. She and her team are looking at the benefit of electronic case records. One of my current projects is looking at problems in criminal justice software. Together these represent two points in the life-cycle of automation, the benefits of going from no automation to automation and the troubles of becoming overly confident in the output of automated systems without sufficient accountability and transparency.
Prof. Willard Munyoka from the University of Venda spoke about “Factors influencing digital governance adoption in Zimbabwe”. Beauty Komane from Tshwane Univesity of Technology spoke about using wireless sensor networks for early accident detection in South African mines. Sifiso Mgaga from the University of Kwazulu Natal spoke about denoising techniques for images of latent fingerprints. Waldon Hendricks from Cape Peninsula University presented a comparison of NoSQL data stores. SA Oke from the Central University of Technology, Free State spoke about sustainable groundwater drought management in the Modder River catchment of South Africa. Rosemary Wojuloa from the University of KwaZulu-Natal spoke about technical barriers to renewable energy adoption in Nigeria. Monica Nehemia, from Cape Pacific University and the Office of the Prime Minister in Namibia, spoke about a number of topics including a report on how private healthcare practitioners in Namibia manage heterogeneous health data. Mpinane Flory Senekane from the University of Johannesburg spoke about the handling of medical waste in private health care clinics in the East Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. Fascinating presentations on applying computing technology to solve a wide array of practical problems facing communities in South Africa and beyond.
I would like to thank the conference chairs Prof. Tiko Iyamu and Prof. Nixon Muganda Ochara, Cape Pacific University of Technology and the ACM Distinguished Speakers program. I would also like to thank Julius Nyerere and Waldon Hendricks for their diligent support.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, follow me on Twitter and check out more of my work here(academic work and art).
