Overview
Amidst its many applications to world-life problems, Artificial Intelligence (AI) shows huge potential in helping to alleviate the impact of global environmental challenges - one of which includes preparing for and responding to the threats of natural disasters. The applications range from post-disaster relief to intelligent property distribution, as AI provides a superior system of recognising useful information from satellite images to serve future disaster relief.
One of the most powerful earthquakes recorded in Japan struck the pacific coast of Tohoku in 2011. It destroyed infrastructure, resulted in the loss of lives, and triggered a tsunami that worsened the grievous damage to the community. Dr Yanbing Bai, Assistant Professor, Department of Data Science and Big Data Analytics of School of Statistics, Renmin University of China, who was based in the region hardest hit by this earthquake, worked with a team to use data and AI to alleviate the impacts of this earthquake.
Join us to learn how AI can be effectively used towards building a disaster-resilient society, through a presentation by Dr Yanbing Bai, followed by a fireside chat which will be moderated by Francis Ghesquiere, Practice Manager - Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management, World Bank East Asia and Pacific Region.
Date 18 August 2020, Tuesday
Time 4:00pm - 5:00pm (Singapore Time / UTC+8)
Speaker:
- Dr Yanbing Bai, Assistant Professor - Department of Data Science and Big Data Analytics of School of Statistics, Renmin University of China
Moderator: Francis Ghesquiere, Practice Manager - Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management, The World Bank
Programme:
4:00pm - 4:05pm: Opening Remarks by SGInnovate and Microsoft
4:05pm - 4:30pm: Presentation by Dr Yanbing Bai - Assistant Professor, Department of Data Science and Big Data Analytics of School of Statistics, Renmin University of China
4:30pm - 5:00pm: Fireside Chat
- Francis Ghesquiere, Practice Manager - Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management, The World Bank
Speaker's Profile:
Dr Yanbing Bai, Assistant Professor - Department of Data Science and Big Data Analytics of School of Statistics, Renmin University of China
Dr Yanbing Bai worked at the University of California, Irvine as a Visiting Researcher in 2017, before joining the Renmin University of China (RUC) in 2019, where he is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Data Science and Big Data Analytics. His research focuses on satellite remote sensing and geospatial AI for disaster management. He was appointed as an Outstanding Fellow of RUC in 2019. Since 2017, he has worked in the Youth Member Committee of Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), US. Dr Bai was one of the grantees of the Microsoft AI for Earth program in 2017.
Dr Bai holds a PhD in Engineering from the International Research Institute for Disaster Science at the Tohoku University in Japan.
Moderator's Profile:
Francis Ghesquiere, Practice Manager - Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management, The World Bank
Francis Ghesquiere is the Practice Manager for the World Bank East Asia and Pacific Region, where he supervises the portfolio of Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management for China, Mongolia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. He has been working for the World Bank since the year 2000 and is known for his leadership on several flagship initiatives, including the establishment of Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), the Central America Probabilistic Risk Modelling Initiative, and the Understanding Risk Forum (UR). He was also key in the design of new policy instruments to help accelerate World Bank response to disasters, including the policy on emergency operations and innovative contingent financing instruments such as the CAT-DDO and Contingent Emergency Response Components. Mr. Ghesquiere was the Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Management (GFDRR) until June 2018.
He holds a Master's degree from the Harvard School of Government and an Engineering Degree from the University of Louvain. He also studied Finance and Economics at New York University, ESADE Barcelona and HEC Paris.
