Speaker: Silvia Figueira

Date: 30th of October, 2026

Time: 11:30am

Place: Room A5.4

Presentation title: “Technology for Social Impact” 

Short bio:

Dr. Silvia Figueira received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil, and her Ph.D. degree also in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego. Currently, she is the Regis and Dianne McKenna Professor and Chair of Computer Science and Engineering at Santa Clara University, California. In the last 15 years, Dr. Figueira’s work has been focused on technology for social impact. Through the Frugal Innovation Hub at Santa Clara University, her students develop applications for low-resource communities. She has worked on projects all over the world and has established collaborations with both companies in Silicon Valley and social enterprises and nonprofit organizations in the United States and abroad.

Abstract:

Technology can have a great impact on under-served communities, but understanding what is needed and what would actually help them is not trivial. This talk will cover our efforts to help low-resource communities embrace technology by designing and developing appropriate applications that match the needs and context of each target community. Our process is based on a wish list, through which organizations make requests that get converted into projects in collaboration with the wishing organization. These projects have taught us how the design, development, testing, and deployment of such applications have to take into account the context and constraints imposed by each community and what conditions might lead to a successful project.