About
Achieving universal access to reliable electricity is crucial to improving broader development outcomes. The absence of consistent, reliable, and up-to-date data on energy services and outcomes prevents timely and effective decision-making on critical matters of policy and investment. Data analytics and machine learning offer great promise in data-poor environments for identifying existing conditions and measuring impacts, obviating the need for expensive ground surveys in many cases.
"We have only just begun to scratch the surface on useful applications of data analytics and machine learning to support modern energy access. Accordingly, EAP and RTI are cosponsoring a convening in Washington, DC, on Friday, December 6, 2019, to bring together key players from research and practice communities working on energy analytics applications in the developing world. Our intent is to assess the state of knowledge and practice, facilitate collaborations, explore the potential for and challenges to creating an open knowledge network for energy data, and identify existing and future data sources. The session aims to generate a briefing paper that documents the potential for machine learning and data analytics to contribute to a better understanding of the links between energy and socioeconomic development, and identifies the highest-priority opportunities, needs and barriers to further work at this intersection."
A preliminary agenda can be found below. A full agenda and additional material will be sent out in advance of the convening. Lunch and light refreshments will be provided.
Please RSVP to energyaccess@duke.edu by Tuesday, December 3, 2019.
Schedule
8:00–8:30 a.m. Registration + Coffee
8:30–8:40 a.m. Welcome + Overview
8:40–9:05 a.m. Opening: Toward a Global Energy Data Commons
9:05–10:30 a.m. Panel Discussion: Making data available and usable: Collection, interoperability, openness
10:30–10:50 a.m. Coffee Break
10:50 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Panel Discussion: Using data: Applications, frontiers, barriers
12:15–1:00 p.m. Lunch + Networking
1:00–2:00 p.m. Charting a Course: Moderated discussion on overcoming obstacles to enhanced collaboration and data availability
2:00 p.m. Wrap-up + Networking