A year of doing good with great technology

Earlier last year I was really surprised when my team told me about a guy who was using old Huawei smartphones to save the rainforest.

His name is Topher White, and he’s running what’s one of the most inventive NGOs in environmental protection these days, Rainforest Connection. They hook up these old smartphones to miniature solar panels, then install them high up trees where they can monitor sounds in the forest. Through an AI-powered application in the cloud, these upcycled listening devices can detect the sound of chainsaws and alert nearby rangers of illegal logging activity in real time. They can also listen for patterns of activity that indicate poaching.

As a tech company, sometimes we focus so much on pushing technology to its limits that we forget why we’re doing it in the first place. Topher’s work struck a chord with me because it gets to the heart of why technology’s important: the planet, people, and prosperity.

Seeing the forest through the trees

We’ve been working on the digital divide for years now, but for the longest time our industry has focused on access – access to computers, smartphones, or in our case, access to network connections. Basically, the focus has been on the technology itself.

And for sure, we’ve made some great progress. At Huawei alone, we’ve helped connect more than one-third of the world's population. Not just people in big cities, but also people in some of the most remote and underserved regions on the planet.

Over the years we’ve invested a lot to tweak traditional equipment in practical ways, like shrinking base stations to the size of a backpack so you can strap them to a tree, or developing special microwave equipment for areas where the ground’s too hard to lay optical fiber.

At the end of the day, though, we’ve come to realize that technology is only as good as the value it creates. It doesn’t matter if everyone in the world has access to digital technology if there’s people out there who still can’t use it.

So beyond connectivity and access, we have decided to focus more on developing and deploying technology in a way that empowers all people to create real value in their lives. Last year we’ve seen some exciting progress.

Helping babies see the world around them

Applications are how we create practical value with technology.

Earlier last year I met Dr. Victoria Pueyo, an eye doctor for babies who is doing incredible work in the field of medical applications.

According to the World Health Organization, there are 19 million visually impaired children  around the world. Of them, three in every five have serious conditions that can lead to permanent blindness. And in developing countries, 60% of children who go blind at an early age will die within a year from related complications.

The good news? Most of these conditions are very treatable if you catch them early.

But the bad news is that diagnosis is extremely complicated because babies can’t talk. They can’t respond to questions during an eye test, or describe their perception to a doctor.

Dr. Pueyo is working to make diagnosis easier. Together with Huawei engineers, her start-up DIVE-Medical has developed an application called TrackAI, which enables non-trained professionals to identify children who are at risk of developing vision problems.

Powered by the AI chips on our smartphones, TrackAI observes how children’s eyes respond to moving objects. With that data, it can diagnose visual impairment in babies as young as six months old. The equipment is portable, and because all the data is processed on a smartphone, the barrier to entry is much lower than other forms of costly medical equipment.

With this application, Dr. Pueyo is bringing what was once a rare and expensive medical resource to the most underserved and remote communities in the world.

Making useful technology usable too

Beyond applications, there’s also the challenge of digital skills. As technology providers, we need to make sure that all people – and all businesses – can actually use the technology in front of them.

Every country in the world has an urgent lack of digital skills. According to a survey by the European Commission across the EU, 43% of people EU citizens don't know how to perform basic tasks like searching for information online. Luckily the European Commission is on it. They’ve got systematic programs in place to help people build the skills they need to thrive in the digital world. They’re setting a great example, and as an industry, we need to amplify these efforts.

For example, in Kenya, we're working with a Belgian NGO called Close the Gap, UNESCO, and Safaricom to convert 40-foot steel cargo containers into mobile computer labs. They’re called Digitrucks.

These Digitrucks are equipped with desks, digital devices, and wireless broadband. They are 100% solar-powered, and trainers from a local NGO drive them around teaching digital skills to people in remote villages all around the country. In Kenya alone, we hope to train at least 6,000 young students and 1,000 teachers in2020.

It's a good start, but we have plenty of work ahead of us.

Making the digital world more inclusive

In the past year I’ve had the pleasure of meeting all sorts of smart and passionate people who are working hard to solve some of the biggest problems that we face in the world today. They’re advocating for the planet, for vulnerable groups. For each other.

It’s been a humbling and inspiring experience, and we want to do our part.

So we started a program called TECH4ALL. Through this program, we are partnering up with organizations of all shapes and sizes to promote connectivity, support the development of new applications for different communities, and foster more widespread digital skills.

Ultimately, we want to help make the digital world a more inclusive place, but we can’t do it on our own. Whether it’s turning old phones into listening devices, or making sure that all children have the right to see, the types of challenges we’re working on take collaborative effort.

Everyone brings something different to the table. As we continue to expand this program in 2020, we hope that you can join us. Together, we can do more good.