Biometrics for Covid-19 – Vaccine Delivery in the Developing World – February 25th, 5:00pm ET
Getting the Covid-19 vaccine equitably to the right patients in low-income countries is a major tracking & delivery challenge. With over 1 Billion people worldwide lacking any formal form of identification, and instances of some vaccination drives having over 50% of their vaccines go unaccounted for, getting the COVID-19 vaccine to the people who need it the most is going to test the resolve of the international development community more than ever before. In 2016 Toby and Tristram Norman, former CSCR students, start Simprints a not for profit company that designs, builds and deploys modern biometric solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges. Simprints has reached over 1 million people in developing countries in projects from education to agriculture, to healthcare and medicine. In this talk Toby and Tristram are going to tell us how they have been tasked by GAVI, the Global vaccine alliance, to find a way to accurately and accountably deliver vaccinations to some of the people who need it the most.
Toby holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge on a Gates Scholarship and BA from Harvard and Tristram holds an MSc from the University of London in computer science and a BA from Eckerd College in environmental science. They have worked together for over the last six with doctors and health workers across Africa, Asia, and Central America on initiatives to improve healthcare delivery through technology. Toby and Tristram are both Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneurs and in 2015 started Simprints, a non-profit company aimed at bringing modern biometrics to provide identification to the 1 billion people who lack formal ID. Simprints employs 50 people from all over the world and has 3 offices in England, Bangladesh and Ethiopia. Simprints has won Start-up of the Year from Business Weekly, Best Tech for changing Lives for Good from Tech crunch, 1 of the 15 Most Promising Innovations to Save Lives from USAID, just to name a few. You can find out more about Simprints and their journey at their website here: https://www.simprints.com/
Our lectures are free presentation seminars and discussion events hosted by the Center for Student Coastal Research (CSCR), a nonprofit organization located in Cohasset on Boston’s South Shore. CSCR educates students in environmental sciences, encourages environmental awareness, and promotes activism.
General attendance and participation is comlimentary, tax deductible donations are welcome.
If you are interested in actively participating in the lecture series program, please contact the organizer Dr. Carsten Haber, CSCR board member.
Remember our ‘Give 5‘ campaign? Try to forward this invite to five friends who are not yet familiar with CSCR and its great program! And each student or adult, who brings along two or more (five?) friends interested in joining CSCR will get a free CSCR T-shirt!