Serving the Underserved: A Technological Perspective Rakesh Agrawal Microsoft Search Labs Mountain View, California

Backdrop 2/3 of the world’s 6 billion people live in the developing world. More than 1 in 6 live on less than $1 per day. Huge inequity in the availability of healthcare, education, and opportunities that condemn millions of people to lives of disease, poverty, and despair. Inequities exist within developed societies too.

In this talk… Focus on school-level education for concreteness Draw upon the experience from participating in the 2005 IBM study for the President of India on the use of IT for improving education

Inequities between Rich and Poor 99% of the 7.2 million infant deaths each year occur in developing countries 99% of pregnancy-related deaths among women are in developing countries A child born in Africa is up to 20 times more likely to die before her first birthday than a child born in the U.S. Lack of Attention/Action Only10% of health R&D is devoted to the diseases that cause 90% of global illness and death Of nearly 1,400 drugs approved in the last 25 years by the FDA, only 20 were specifically for diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world Annual Deaths Proportion in the Developing World Acute lower respiratory infections 3.9 millionN/A HIV/AIDS2.9 million99% Vaccine- preventable diseases >2 million>95% Diarrheal diseases 1.8 millionN/A TB1.6 million99% Malaria>1 million99% Measles610,00098% Maternal conditions 510,00099% Hib400, ,000 N/A Major Causes of Death in the Developing World GLOBAL HEALTH INEQUITIES Source: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

India’s Education System: Significant achievements, but problems remain …

Problems of School Level Education in India Poor performance 39% dropouts in primary, additional 15.6% in secondary, additional 11.7% in higher secondary Pass out ratio is 50% at Class X and majority of them pass in 3rd division Less than 8% finish all schooling to qualify for a college education Poorly trained teachers 51% of primary teachers are higher secondary or below Only 44% have received in-service training Absence of learning material for teachers to update their knowledge Poor teacher-student ratios Ratio in primary is 1:43, secondary and Higher secondary is 1:34. About 9% of primary schools have a teacher-student ratio > 1: % of primary schools have no teachers, 19% have only one teacher for all classes. Poor quality of material Poor quality of textbooks, out-dated curriculum Source: IBM Report on Improving India’s Education System through Information Technology, 2005

Attacking Complex Problems* 1.Define goal 2.Find the highest-leverage approach 3.Discover the ideal technology for that approach 4.In the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology on-hand 1.End the disease 2.Prevention 3.Vaccine that gives life-time immunity 4.Prevention by getting people to avoid risky behavior (requires its own four point plan) Framework Application to AIDS * Bill Gates. Harvard Commencement. June 7, 2007.

Applying the Framework to Education 1.Define goal 2.Find the highest-leverage approach 3.Discover the ideal technology for that approach 4.In the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology on-hand 1.Quality education to all 2.New pedagogy 3.Individualized learning with teacher as a discussant 4.Internet-based mass collaboration to help teachers teach better and improve the educational infrastructure Framework Application

Education Web Participation of experts, teachers, parents and students in the development and revisions of curricula Sharing and collaborative development of lectures, assignments, tests, etc. Tools for capturing feedback on textbooks (errors, better explanations, supplementary readings) Collaborative translation and localization of educational material

Technical Challenges Tools for creating and updating content (Wikipedia++) Trust and authoritativeness of content Personalization of search to find the material suitable for one’s own style of teaching Making material accessible to teachers who do not have a internet connectivity (make use of e-choupal experience) Bootstrapping and incentives

Is Serving Underserved a Valid Research Field? Microsoft Research’s Digital Inclusion 2005 RFP Award Recipients Digital Inclusion Kit in Health and Higher Education Mesh Networking: A Testbed for Security Issues and Community Actions Integrated Healthcare Information Services through Mobile telephony in Botswana Robust and Low-Cost Networking for Rural Kiosks Wi-Fi Enabled Phones for Bridging the Cognitive Divide and Transforming the Classroom Experience Project of Modern Long-Distance Education for Agricultural and Pastoral Area in Tibet Autonomous Region Design and Development of a Low-Cost, Low-Power Portable Medical Device Appropriate Technology Interaction for Facilitating Peer-to-Peer Internet Microfinance in Uganda Poor Man’s Broadband: Peer-to-Peer Dialup Networking Deployment Wireless Ambient Networks on Heterogeneous Rural Environments DSH and CAM: Leveraging Low-Cost Technology for Rural India Wireless Grids: A Technology for Rural Networking AIR: Advancement Through Interactive Radio Immersive Language Learning Using Smart Phones Smartphone Health Information and Epidemiology Network (SHIEN) — Vietnam Speech Interfaces for Health Information-Access in Underserved Communities Early Warning Flood Systems Based on Sensor Networks

Microsoft Research, India TECHNOLOGY FOR EMERGING MARKETS: Multiple mice and cursors on a single PC Consuming content at rural kiosks Learning from recorded lectures

Concluding Thought Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Bill Gates. Harvard Commencement. June 7, Search Labs ’ mission is to invent next in Internet search and applications