Signal Program

Founded: 2010
Faculty Leads: P. Gregg Greenough, MD, MPH, MS, and Erica Nelson, MD, PhM, MAS
Status: Active Program
Research Theme: Technology and Innovation

Description

The Signal Program on Human Security and Technology was founded in 2012. The Program has worked to advance the safe, ethical, and effective use of information technologies by communities of practice during humanitarian and human rights emergencies through interdisciplinary teams that collaborate with faculty members, international organizations, academic and non-academic research institutes, and professional agencies. Between 2012 and 2022, the team has focused on four major areas of work, including standards and ethics, remote sensing for crisis response, mass atrocity early warning/early action (EW/EA), and vulnerable populations and mobile technologies. These efforts have produced a growing library of satellite imagery guides, novel geospatial technologies for humanitarian research and response, and several practical guides for the ethical implementation of geospatial technologies and ICT.

As the Signal Program enters a new decade the Program continues to build on the successes and lessons learned but has pivoted its objectives and strategies to support localized atrocity and conflict prevention decision-makers through the use of spatial data and methods, more broadly.Our current mission is to strengthen the efficacy and efficiency of atrocity and conflict EW/EA work through strategic, evidence-based, and ethical integration of spatial methods, field methods, and novel analytical tools into existing EW/EA decision-support mechanisms and workflows.

Current Activities:

Atrocity Prevention Lab

Launched in 2023, the Atrocity Prevention Lab works to strengthen innovation, collaboration, and impact of atrocity and conflict prevention work through the integration of spatial methods and technologies. This website catalogs the team’s work to date, amplifies the work of conflict and atrocity prevention organizations, and hosts resources intended to support practitioners, researchers, technologists, policymakers, and any interested individuals who’d like to learn how spatial methods can be used for conflict and atrocity prevention early warning/early action systems.

Team

Drew Boyd, MA

Visiting Scientist, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Drew Boyd has more than a decade of experience in civilian protection, security, humanitarian technology and direct cooperation with at-risk communities. He has worked extensively with human rights defenders around the world, including in the Democratic...

Erica Nelson, MD, PhM, MAS

Co-Director, Humanitarian Geoanalytics Research and Education Programs

Faculty, Emergency Health Systems Program

Erica L Nelson, MD, PhM, MAS is an Emergency Medicine physician who conducts research on the use of geospatial methods for public health and humanitarian response. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin with an PhM in International Peace Studies and...

Gillian Elliott, MA

Project Coordinator, Signal Program

Gillian Elliott is a GIS analyst, environmentalist, and human rights advocate. After completing her bachelor’s degree with a double major in anthropology and environmental sciences from the University of Virginia, she went on to gain two years of hands-on...

Godfred (Kofi) Nyarko, MA

gnyarko@hsph.harvard.edu

Research Program Manager, National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership

Kofi Nyarko is a Research Program Manager at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, where he supports curriculum development and leads impact research to inform the strategic efforts of the National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership and the Building a...

Kalu Okigwe

Practicum Student

Kalu Okigwe is a Geospatial Data Scientist and M.S. candidate in Geographic Information Science at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. His research centers on GeoAIapplications for hazard risk and resilience, with a focus on spatial modeling of...

Madhawa Palihapitiya

Early Warning Consultant, Signal Program

Madhawa "Mads" Palihapitiya is a conflict early warning expert with twenty years of experience in violence and atrocities prevention in several global hotspots. He serves as an Early Warning Consultant for the Signal Program. He is a practitioner of...

Shwetha Srinivasan

Shwetha is a Research Assistant for the Signal Program at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. She holds a Master of Science in Computational Analysis and Public Policy from the University of Chicago, where she specialized in applying data science and...

Sumina Suwal

Practicum Student

Sumina Suwal is a Master’s candidate in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University’s Heller School. Her undergraduate thesis offered a comparative policy analysis of U.S. and Chinese renewable energy frameworks, examining how subsidies...