MPA student Isabella Manghi reflects on her interest in Digital Conservation which she explored as part of her Digital Technology and Public Policy degree at UCL STEaPP.
The effects of the climate crisis together with factors such as the expanding human population, pollution, and a lack of sustainable development have led to the endangerment of many species. Biologists, researchers, charities and international organisations are desperately fighting to preserve our biodiversity and therefore proving essential to research on behavioural patterns and the effects of the climate on different species.
Biologists, organisations and charities have traditionally employed locals to track certain animals, but recently, digital tracking, which can take the form of mounting collars onto animals, has emerged as a method to facilitate crucial knowledge production within the conservation community. Through the application of technological, inter-connected systems, the opportunities to study diverse species have increased. Yet, there are eminent problems associated with these systems, many of which are vulnerable to exploitation and misuse, including allowing poachers to track down and hunt endangered species to the benefit of their bank account.
Blog by Zoey Barthelemy, MPA Candidate in UCL STEaPP
Policy forums act as a platform for different stakeholders to exchange, learn, and most importantly build trust. Most policy platforms are issue-based with support from both political and civil society actors with a stated objective.
When it comes to internet governance, policy forums are a very important element for the multi-stakeholder governance system. The main policy forum each year is the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). A series of policy forums take place in the lead up to each year’s IGF to foster trust, discussion, and exchange among the different communities. This year I had the opportunity to participate in an internet governance policy forum, EuroDIG 2019, as part of the annual YOUthDIG fellowship program.
What is EuroDIG and YOUthDIG?
EuroDIG is a Pan-European dialogue on internet governance (IG) that aims to be more than a conference but a year-round ongoing platform for discuss. This year was the 13th edition, which took place at the World Forum The Hague in The Netherlands from 19 – 20 June. The theme this year was “Cooperating in the Digital Age” to highlight opportunities for multi-stakeholder process.
MPA candidate María Jarquín attended the City Data Conference in Birmingham to learn about innovative solutions in which collaboration between local authorities could bring new approaches to urban issues.
Data is the future. However, this future is built upon collaboration. This is the main take away of the City Data Conference organised by NESTA, in partnership with the University of Birmingham and the West Midlands Combined Authority in early June. The purpose of this event was to bring solutions to the data challenges faced by local authorities.
The Conference started with insights from the first keynote speaker, Kit Collingwood from ThoughtWorks, who discussed the growing demand of expertise in data collaboration, which translates in having career transitions and cross-functional teams where developers can work with data scientists, policy-makers and users. Two solutions (and creative outcomes) shared were the FixMyStreet project and the Dear Data experiment.
MPA student Sam Lane reflects on 6 months of his degree at UCL STEaPP.
I cannot believe that as I am writing this post, we are halfway through the MPA. It is a thought that has been actively repressed by many of the cohort for fear that eventually, the course will come to an end and we will inevitably part ways. So, this blog post serves two purposes. To recount the activities of the second term, and reflect on the first half of the MPA.
Sam at Professor Arthur Petersen’s Inaugural Lecture, March 2017.
First of all, Trump. On a course geared towards science and engineering, he isn’t the obvious point of departure for discussion. However, he has featured heavily in our Evidence, Institutions and Power classes (taught by Professor Yacob Mulugetta and Dr Carolin Kaltofen), generating lively discussions, and maybe even a publication – watch this space, it’s going to be HUGE. This term also saw us learn how to code. We are not just trained as traditional policy analysts relying on cost benefit analysis, oh no, we are trained for the twenty-first century, and that means coding. The analytical methods class also gave an insight into spatial, network and multi-criteria analysis, and we even gazed into the future with foresight techniques. We also began our electives, and UCL offers a fantastic range of disciplines to delve into, but time away from STEaPP seemed to make us appreciate it even more. The extended client projectsare underway, with all teams making a good start to the process.
On the cohort news-desk, we found out Xi Zhu was accepted to study a PhD in Theology at Oxford University. Eliana Camargo Nino was so successful at the World Government Summit (Dubai) Sustainable Development Goal Workshops that she has been called to New York to pitch the winning idea. Patricio Barrera Valdez has brought his work to London and is organising a high-level Mexican Energy Summit at UCL. While Diego Pedraza Segura, was personally invited to several exclusive Chevening events.
However, the term moved fast. Covering all that content in that time has left our brains frazzled and bodies exhausted. At times, it was a bit of blur with January feeling a lifetime away. A change in format from the four-week courses to ten-week modules was welcomed, but that did not slow the pace down. Breakdowns came as thick and fast as the deadlines.
But we were buoyed by a relentless barrage of motivational memes on our group chat to keep us in good spirits. Without a doubt, it is the comradery of the other students which keeps us going. It is fair to say these are no longer just ‘course’ friends but friends for life instead. In six months, I have learnt so much about the others and myself which I have not experienced in the past. During the induction week, when Dr Jason Blackstock said “you’ll learn more from each other than we can possibly teach you”, he was right. And if these six months are a sign of things to come then bring it on.
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