Kalev spoke yesterday on GDELT, the use of “big data” to understand conflict, and his work with the United States Institute of Peace at the “PeaceTech Summit: Engineering Durable Peace” event co-hosted by the National Academy of Engineering and the US Institute of Peace.

The PeaceTech Summit is a collaboration of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) to explore more strategic uses of technologies to enhance peacebuilding initiatives. The Summit seeks to highlight a range of technologies and applications that have already demonstrated real impact or particular promise in specific settings. Our challenge is to consider how to enhance their potential in advancing the larger agenda of conflict prevention and mitigation. We will hear from both visionary experts and experienced peace-builders in exploring these issues.

The Summit is a product of the Roundtable on Technology, Science and Peacebuilding, an inter-governmental and public-private working group co-chaired by the Presidents of NAE and USIP. The Roundtable has applied the systemic, strategic, and scientific perspectives of engineering and related professions to the problems of deadly conflict in particular societies. Drawing on the last three years of the Roundtable, we seek through the Summit to engage a wider audience and a new generation of private sector innovators and investors who will see not just humanitarian opportunity, but also commercial necessity, in reducing the level of tension and violence in markets around the world. The Summit will introduce a newly-launched initiative of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the PeaceTech Laboratory, which offers concrete opportunities for inter-disciplinary, public-private collaboration in technology development and application.