The emerging technologies and digital data are transforming the way the world is currently shaping its response, preparedness and anticipation of humanitarian crisis response and development assistance. This module introduces students to a range of physical and digital technologies that are commonly used in humanitarian action. These technologies include the application of earth observation satellites, unmanned aerial vehicle (i.e., drones), geospatial techniques, predictive analytics, use of social-media big data, mobile surveillance technology for digital health, and crowdsourcing of other forms of digital data for humanitarian action. Students will be learning about the application of various technologies, their limitations, and ethical considerations of digital data use in humanitarian and development contexts.

This module covers the fundamentals of computer systems for humanitarian studies and introduces students to programming language. Applications of satellite and social media data, and artificial intelligences in humanitarian action are introduced. Practical applications of technologies in the humanitarian field are introduced through guest lectures from humanitarian experts and practitioners (e.g., NGOs and UN Organisations) outlining specific challenges on the ground.

On this module, students will be taught through a series of interactive learning sessions including lectures, seminars, discussions, and problem orientated e-learning methods (both tutor and student-led), enabling them to apply new knowledge and hands-on experience with humanitarian data and computer programming. Students will become familiar with sources and applications of data for humanitarian action.

Module contents include:

Introduction to humanitarian and information technologies, sources, and application of digital data in humanitarian action
	Introduction to fundamentals of programming languages (e.g., R language for computing and data visualisation) and online data portals
	Introduction into computational statistics
	Introduction to social media, geospatial big data, and artificial intelligence in humanitarian action
	Independent and group work on data analysis and presentation