Speakers: Dr Guénaël Rodier, Dr Xian-Sheng Hua
Moderator: INSEAD Professor Theos Evgeniou

What to expect:
Policy and technology will likely determine our success in the global race against COVID-19, with both digital and biopharmaceutical innovations expected to play key roles. Technology already shows us, in near real time, how quickly COVID-19 is spreading globally. Its effectiveness in slowing down the spread of the virus is less known.

Professor Theos Evgeniou, Dr Guénaël Rodier and Dr Xian-Sheng Hua will discuss key points such as:

  • Epidemic intelligence and risk assessment – how to separate the signal from the noise
  • International coordination of responses to pandemic threats – past, present and future
  • Lessons from and differences to previous outbreaks (e.g. SARS 2002-04, H1N1 2009)
  • How has tech been used to support, and complement, policy in different countries? With which processes, data and tools?
  • What are we learning from COVID-19 to improve technology responses to future pandemic threats?

Dr Guénaël Rodier is the former director of WHO’s department of Country Health Emergency Preparedness and International Health Regulations and had led the WHO technical response to the SARS epidemic.

Dr Xian-Sheng Hua is the Head of AI Center of DAMO Academy at Alibaba and Distinguished Engineer/VP of Alibaba Group, whose technologies have been instrumental for managing Covid-19 in China.

This webcast is organized by the Insead TMT & Healthcare Global Alumni Networks.

Host:
Theos Evgeniou is Professor of Decision Sciences and Technology Management at INSEAD since 2001. He has been working on Machine Learning and AI for almost 25 years, in areas ranging from Computer Vision, to Marketing, Healthcare and Finance, among others. His recent interests focus on the broader topic of AI, business and society, working on areas ranging from AI and regulation to AI innovations for business process optimization and improving decisions as well as on new Machine Learning methods. He has received four degrees from MIT, two BSc degrees simultaneously, one in Computer Science and one in Mathematics, as well as Master and PhD degrees in Computer Science.

Speakers:
Dr Guénaël Rodier is the former Director of the Department of Global Capacities, Alert & Response within the Outbreaks and Health Emergencies Cluster at the World Health Organization (WHO). He previously held other leadership positions at the WHO, including Director, Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response, and Director, International Health Regulations Coordination. Dr Rodier started his career in 1983 as a clinician with a focus on pediatrics infectious diseases in Djibouti. Dr. Rodier has extensive experience in the international surveillance and control of emerging infections, epidemic-prone diseases and global health security. He has been actively involved in the development of new approaches, research, tools and guidelines. He led the WHO technical response to the SARS epidemic and was WHO technical coordinator of the Ebola response in Guinea. Dr Rodier main degrees include a MD from Cochin-Port Royal Medical School, René Descartes University of Paris and an MSc in Clinical Tropical Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (recipient of the Frederick Murgatroyd Award). He has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.

Dr Xian-Sheng Hua is now a Distinguished Engineer/VP of Alibaba Group, Head of AI Center of DAMO Academy, leading a team working on large-scale visual intelligence on the cloud. Dr. Hua is an IEEE Fellow, and ACM Distinguished Scientist. He received the B.S. degree in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree in applied mathematics in 2001, both from Peking University, Beijing, China. He became a Researcher and Senior Director of the Alibaba Group, Hangzhou, China, in April of 2015, leading the Visual Computing Team in Search Division, Alibaba Cloud and then DAMO Academy. He has authored or coauthored more than 200 research papers and has filed more than 90 patents. His research interests include big multimedia data search, advertising, understanding, and mining, as well as pattern recognition and machine learning. Dr. Hua served or is now serving as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Trans. on Multimedia and ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology. He served as a Program Co-Chair for IEEE ICME 2013, ACM Multimedia 2012, and IEEE ICME 2012. He was one of the recipients of the 2008 MIT Technology Review TR35 Young Innovator Award for his outstanding contributions on video search. He was the recipient of the Best Paper Awards at ACM Multimedia 2007, and Best Paper Award of the IEEE Trans. on CSVT in 2014.Dr. Hua will be serving as general co-chair of ACM Multimedia 2020.