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Dubai, UAE 25-27 January 2022

Agenda Webinars

High Level Event Livestream
Tuesday, 25 January 2022 10:00am Dubai / 01:00am New York

Real-time tracking of vessels and aircraft, real-time mobile positioning data, real-time tracking of postal parcels, high-frequency retail data and high-frequency satellite data are just a few examples of Big Data sources which can be transformed into timely, frequent, and very granular indicators for informed decision-making. The technology and data science exist to exploit the richness of those data sources. Nevertheless, it is still difficult for national statistical offices to use such data, the corresponding new methods, and new technologies in the statistical production.

To help statistical offices, the United Nations Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD) built a cloud-service ecosystem (called the United Nations Global Platform) which enables international collaboration in data innovation. The platform allows use of Big Data and advanced services, which help in developing new methods and applications resulting in timely and detailed indicators for the monitoring of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and as such help to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As a collaboration environment, the platform is very well suited for working and learning together, and for sharing knowledge, data and methods as a global statistical community.

Within the task teams of UN-CEBD, experts are developing new data solutions to estimate access to all-season roads in rural areas, use of open public spaces in urban areas, the shrinking or expanding sizes of water surfaces, CO2 emissions of maritime transport, commuting patterns in metropolitan areas or the number of domestic tourists at local attractions. The number of new applications in traditional areas of transport, tourism, environment, population, agriculture, or trade statistics are steadily increasing. These new data solutions can only be applied in statistical offices around the world, if training is provided at large scale in the use of Big Data and data science.

To provide opportunities for training and hands-on project activities Regional Hubs for Big Data have been established during 2020-2021 in Brazil, China, Rwanda, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These Hubs make it easier for countries to collaborate and receive training given the proximity to the hubs and the sharing of culture and language. They have just started to roll out their programmes of activities.

EXPO 2020 - DUBAI

Expo 2020 - Dubai, the first World Expo in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, presents an immense opportunity to inspire, empower and drive lasting positive environmental, social and economic change on a global scale, ensuring a meaningful and measurable legacy. Expo 2020 will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to bring the world together again, to form a global collaboration that we need right now. Expo 2020 invite visitors to new ideas and perspectives with emphasis on three main sub-themes: Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability.

Beyond Expo 2020, the physical site will transform into District 2020, a model global community for the future and home to world-class innovation, educational, cultural, and entertainment facilities. District 2020 has been designed to support the future of working and living, and to facilitate connection and collaboration. It will be home to an inclusive and diverse community seeking a more balanced way of life – a place that prioritizes well-being, inspires new ideas, facilitates growth and enables human potential.

The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC) of the UAE together UN-CEBD welcome the world to explore data science and big data during a three-day event at Expo 2020. FCSC also invites everyone to witness the ceremonial launch of the Regional Hub for Big Data and Data Science in UAE, which serves the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region.

  • Tuesday, 25 January - Official launch of the Regional Hub for Big Data and Data Science in UAE, plenary sessions, dialogues, and fireside chats
  • Wednesday, 26 January - Sessions of the UN-CEBD task teams with the theme of "improved decision making for sustainable development through use of Big Data and data science"
  • Special session on UN Youth Circle with the theme of "the impact of COVID-19 on people's lives"
  • Thursday, 27 January - continuation of UN-CEBD sessions in the morning, followed by the closing plenary

The UN CEBD strives to enable data-driven transformation for better decision making. It seeks to improve our world by providing access to trusted data for use at local, national and global levels. They aim to deliver a collaborative network of people and organizations, collectively building a Global Platform for trusted data, services and applications.

Road to Expo 2020 Webinar Series

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Agenda Download Information Note

Watch Livestream

09:00
Breakfast and registration
10:00
Opening Video
Regional Hub for Big Data and Data Science in UAE serving the Middle East and North Africa Region
10:10
Welcoming Address
H.E. Abdulla Nasser Lootah, Director General, Prime Minister’s Office
10:20
Keynote Speech
Mr. Liu Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Recorded statement)
10:30
Regional Hubs Panel
Regional Hubs leading the way towards Big Data for Sustainable Development
  • Moderator – Matthew Pennells, Regional Manager for Africa & Digital Transformation Lead, Esri
  • H.E. Thuraya Al Hashimi, Executive Director, Digital Data Enablement Sector, Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, United Arab Emirates
  • Ms. Andrea Diniz da Silva, Professor and Program lead for the UNGP Regional Hub in Brazil, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE
  • Mr. Yusuf Murangwa, Director General, National Institute of Statistics, Rwanda
  • Mr. Ning Jizhe, Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, China (Recorded statement)
  • Mr. Eduardo Rios, President of Institute Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), Brazil (Recorded statement)
11:20
Ministerial Panel
Big data, Artificial Intelligence and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals
  • Moderator – Rudolph Lohmeyer, Partner, Kearney, National Transformations Institute
  • H.E. Omar Sultan AlOlama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, United Arab Emirates
  • Ms. Paula Ingabire, Minister of Information Communication Technology and Innovation, Rwanda
  • Ms. Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN Remarks
12:05
TED Talk
Launch of the United Nations PET Lab project
  • Dr Jack Fitzsimons, Head of Technology, Oblivious AI
  • Andrew Trask, Leader, OpenMined.org (Virtual)
12:20
UN Youth Hackathon Awards
H.E. Shamma bint Suhail bin Faris Al Mazrui, UAE Minister of State for Youth
12:35
Lunch and networking
13:30
Success Stories
A catalyst for change: UN Global Platform / Private sector contribution

The era of immense disruption has led to an immense increase in digital data, great advancements in information and communication technology, and astonishing innovations through artificial intelligence that are advancing enormous changes in the world.

  • Moderator – Mr. Ralf Becker, Chief of the Statistical Capacity Management team, UN Statistics Division
  • H.E. Eng. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Deputy Director General of Digital Government, Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, UAE
  • Mr. Steven Ramage, GEO Chief Engagement Officer (Virtual)
  • Mr. Haidar Fraihat, Leader, Statistics, Information Society and Technology Cluster
  • Mr. Tareq Hijazi, Public Sector Director, Microsoft UAE
14:15
Panel Discussion
Data Innovation in the MENA region
  • Moderator – H.E. Mohammad Hassan, Executive Director of the National Statistics and Data Sector, Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, UAE
  • H.E. Ahmed Mahmoud Fikri, Director General of the Statistics Centre-Abu Dhabi (SCAD), UAE
  • H.E. Eng. Anwaar Al Shimmari, Executive Director of Geospatial Governance Sector, Federal Geographic Information Center, UAE
  • Dr. Hajar Saeed Al Hubaishi, C.E.O, Statistics and Competitiveness Center - Government of Ajman, UAE
  • Mr. Guillaume Thfoin, Head of Business Analytics and Intelligence, Majid Al Futtaim
15:00
Public-Private Sector Dialogue
Global engagement with the Private Sector based on Corporate Social Responsibility

Public-Private Partnerships models to share knowledge for urgent implementation of the Global Goals

  • Moderator – Dr. Hoda AlKhzaimi, Assistant Professor NYUAD, Director for center for cyber security, President of Emirates digital association for women, CEO of woman in AI
  • H.E. Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director General, Dubai Digital, UAE
  • Mr. Sean Evins, Head of EMEA Politics and Government, Meta
  • Dr. Khalid Elgibali, Division President, Middle East and North Africa, Mastercard
15:45
Announcement
Building the necessary skills to use Big Data and data science for the Sustainable Development Goals
Mr. Ronald Jansen, Assistant Director, UN Statistics Division (Virtual)

Announcement of the capacity development program on 26 and 27 January 2022

16:00
Closing remarks
H.E. Sarah Bint Yousif Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology, Chairwoman of the UAE Space
16:45
Tour - Expo 2020 Dubai: Connecting Minds, Creating the Future

Visitors will experience a tailored tour to the subtheme pavilions within Expo 2020 – Dubai.

Theme: Bringing Big Data and Data Science close to home
Hands-on information by UN-CEBD task teams
Venue: Emirates Towers (Boulevard) with 3 conference rooms
Breakfast and registration 08:30 – 09:00

Room A – Session 1.1 – ONS: Machine Learning for National Statistical Offices More information
09:00
What can Machine Learning offer as a service to accelerate NSO Transformation?

Presentation: Intro to Machine Learning for official statistics Demo
Demonstration: Use Cases from NSOs
Operationalization challenge: Roundtable

10:45
Machine Learning Fundamentals
Training session - Novice Level

What does ML do, what are the basic principles, demonstration

Open to all. Some coding experience preferred.

12:00
Lunch
13:00
Coffee and Coding I - ML Applications
Training session - Intermediate + Advanced Level

A chance to get hands on experience of technical processes of how ML applications are developed and used

14:45
Coffee and Coding II – Coffee and Coding Applications Deep Dive
Training session – Advanced Level

In this session participants will be given a deep dive into the application of ML algorithms in practice together with python code examples.

Room B – Session 1.2 – ONS: Capacity Development Support More information
09:15
International Mentoring at ONS
  • Presentation of the work the ONS/FCDO Data Science Hub has been involved including its research & development projects and mentoring support to statistics offices.
  • Discussion
10:45
Research and Implementation In Machine Learning workshop

Digitisation and quantification have driven the growth of big data, and machine learning makes big data more usable. It's easy to see why large organisations including National Statistical Institutions (NSIs) are exploring ways of augmenting their existing decision-making and business operations with machine learning and big data.

In this hands-on workshop we will explore machine learning approaches for producing statistics from Big Data. The ONS and UNECE team will work with workshop participants to discuss experiences, identify common challenges and priorities, and draw out useful insights that can be of value to other organisations considering the use of machine learning for exploring Big Data.

12:00
Lunch
13:00
Research and Implementation In Machine Learning workshop (continued)
15:00
Drop-in session with ONS team
  • An opportunity to speak to the ONS team about their international work in ML and Data Science Capability Building.
  • Follow up on any of the topics raised in the day’s sessions. Find out more about their work and discuss ways to get involved over the next year
Room B – Session 1.3 – Earth Observations (Part I) More information
16:00
Use cases
Virtual
  • Disaster Monitoring – 15 min
    • Claire Boryan (National Agricultural Statistics Service)
  • Crop yield modeling – 15 min
    • Gordon Reichert (Statistics Canada)
  • Algorithm to produce the agricultural frontier using satellite images – 15 min
    • Elio Villaseñor and Eduardo Vázquez (INEGI).
  • Question period for all speakers – 15 min
Room C – Session 1.4 – Mobile Phone Data More information

Mobile Phone Data, Part I

09:00
Welcome and Introduction
09:05
Overview of the MPD task team
Esperanza Magpantay, MPD Task Team lead
09:20
Dynamic population mapping using mobile positioning data
Kaisa Vent, Positium
09:30
Mobile phone data for Tourism statistics
Sarpono Dimuljo, BPS Indonesia
09:40
Big Data as a solution for Migration Statistics
Shorena Tsiklauri, GeoStat
09:50
Disaster and displacement statistics using mobile phone data
Ayumi Arai, University of Tokyo
10:00
Measuring the Information society using mobile phone data
Esperanza Magpantay, ITU
10:10
Discussions/Q&A
10:20
BREAK

Mobile Phone Data, Part II

10:30
Video
Awareness raising on the use of MPD
10:40
Flowminder Flowkit Demo
James Harrison, Flowminder
11:10
Positium Data Mediator: MPD for official statistics
Siim Esko, Positium
11:40
Discussions/Q&A
11:50
Way forward and wrap-up
Room C – Session 1.5 – Big Data for the SDGs More information
13:00
Welcome and introduction to the activities of the task team on Big Data for the SDGs
Niels Ploug
13:05
Citizen generated data for the SDGs
Dilek Fraisl
13:30
SDG indicator 6.6.1 - Workflow processes and possible application for regional hubs
Stuart Crane, UNEP/DHI
14:00
Leave No One Behind: Measuring SDGs using Mobile Phone Big Data
Esperanza Magpantay, ITU, and Siim Esko, Positium
14:30
Break
14:45
Big Data for SDGs in the ESCWA region
Haidar Fraihat, Director of Statistics and Data Division, UNESCWA, Beirut
15:15
Hands-on demonstration on working with real-life data in the case of calculating SDG 9.1.1 in Jordan and the UAE
Atsushi Iimi, World Bank
Country Experience: Jordan
Ahlam Alrousan, IT Director, Jordan Department of Statistics
Country Experience: United Arab Emirates
Marwa Elkabbany, Geographic Information Systems Expert, Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, UAE
Room C – Session 1.6 – Global Sprint on Data Access More information
16:00
Global Sprint on Data Access
Virtual
By Invitation only - Contact us if you are interested in attending

The Sprint will be organized from the perspective of concrete use cases.

Several topics where global value chains come into play have been preselected:

  • international trade in clothing
  • coffee and tea
  • electronics
  • horticultural products
  • (B2C) e-commerce


These use cases are expected to be relevant for a wide array of statistical institutes globally and they address topics that are of significant interest for users of economic statistics. Moreover, it is believed that the use of privately held data sources provides clear benefits, in addition to more traditional statistical sources, in each of these cases.

The topics and associated challenges will be introduced by renowned experts from various domains. The Sprint participants are expected to refine the use cases and decide together where to put the focus. This could lead to some use cases being moved forward, some being dropped, and other use cases for specific industries being added depending on the interest to pursue them.

Theme: Bringing Big Data and Data Science close to home (continued)
Hands-on information by UN-CEBD task teams
Venue: Emirates Towers (Boulevard) with 3 conference rooms
Breakfast and registration 08:30 – 09:00

Room A – Session 2.1 – AIS data More information
09:00
Session 1
Meet the AIS Task Team – the work programs and projects
09:15
Session 2
Introduction on Distributed Computation Principles and Spark
09:55
Session 3
Overview on UNGP AIS Architecture including data variables
10:35
Coffee Break
10:45
Session 4
Presentation on managing and processing Geospatial data (H3 index)
10:55
Session 5
Demo on UNGP AIS Infrastructures: Jupyter Hub, Git Lab, Data Mechanics/Spark
11:20
Session 6
Code examples of querying and analyzing AIS datasets
11:45
Session 7 - Roundtable
Future ideas and direction for the data and platform, including collaboration with regional hubs
12:00
Lunch
13:00
Parallel session (8) - Hands-on
Use UNGP AIS to generate maritime indicators such as port /berth calls, routes, port efficiencies

Pre-requisite: Knowledge of Python or R

  • Installation and configuration (if needed)
  • Step-by-Step (30 minutes)
  • Exercise (120 minutes)
13:00
Parallel session (9) - E-learning
AIS awareness e-learning course
15:30
Session 10
Networking and Closing

Closing remarks and meeting fellow data scientists

Room B - Session 2.2 – Earth Observations (Part II) More information
09:00
Training Material for the use of Earth Observation
Kerrie Mengersen, Queensland University of Technology
10:00
Methods
Lorenzo DeSimone, Food and Agriculture Organization
  1. Optimization of survey design using EO data
    1. Probabilistic sampling using GIS layers
    2. Stratification using EO based indicators
    3. Optimization of geographic distribution of PSU, EA’s and sampling locations
    4. Best practices in georeferencing crop types and land cover classes more in general
  2. Standardized land cover mapping in Google Earth Engine and land cover statistic dashboard (we have a list of classifiers and workflows already scripted in the OCS geospatial account on google earth engine and available to share with intended audience
  3. OCS dashboard prototype for Lesotho
Room B – Session 2.3 – Privacy Preserving Techniques More information
14:00
An Introduction to Privacy Enhancing Technology & the UN PET Lab
Jack Fitzsimmons, Oblivious Software Limited and Andrew Trask, University of Oxford
15:15
Virtual
Presentations of PPT Use Cases in Official Statistics
Chair: Matjaz Jug
  • Monica Scannapieco, Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat)
  • David Archer, Gallois
  • Saeid Molladavoudi, Statistics Canada
  • Baldur Kubo, Cybernetica
16:30
Round Table
Privacy-preserving computation technologies and Data Science
Chair: Fabio Ricciato
Room C - Session 2.4 – UNCEBD Task Team on Training More information
9:00
Capability Building Knowledge Exchange with Regional Hubs and NSOs
10:30
Roundtable for Regional Hubs
Discussing and developing the roles of the Regional Hubs
12:00
Lunch
13:00
Workshop
Understanding the needs of Regional Hubs in their provision of big data capacity development roles
14:30
Action Planning
UN-CEBD Task Team on Training & Regional Hub leads