Robert’s work draws on design research and social theory to examine the various ways in which scientific and engineering understandings of climate change and disaster shape and constrain societal responses to these challenges.  He is currently a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, working in the areas of crisis informatics, human-computer interaction, and science and technology studies. Prior to starting his PhD, Robert was a consultant to the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), where he launched the Open Data for Resilience Initiative, a worldwide effort to harness open data, civic technology, and public participation to improve disaster risk management. Robert currently resides in Oakland, CA, where he is researching information systems related to sea-level rise as part of his dissertation. He is a visiting student researcher with University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society.

David’s research and practice focuses on understanding the complex drivers and dynamics of disaster risk. He works on developing new ways to quantify and measure risk and resilience, both before and after disaster strikes. The transdisciplinary and policy-oriented nature of his work has led him to build collaborations with the World Bank, Google, the Red Cross, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, the Natural Capitals Project and others. He is an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University where he leads a disaster analytics lab. He holds a PhD from Stanford University (2015), a master’s degree from UC Berkeley (2010) and bachelor’s degree from MIT (2007). David co-founded the Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative. David is also active in post-disaster response and recovery, which forms the basis for his research on post-disaster assessment and community resilience. He worked for two years in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake and has been involved with the response and recovery following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand and the 2015 earthquake in Nepal.

Kate Crawford is a Technical Lead at an Internet of Things start-up. She began her career as a project engineer designing ecological building services for residential developments in the UK. Kate’s technical experience has since spanned a variety of large and small private sector, humanitarian and development organisations. Her PhD investigated the relationships between urban livelihoods and infrastructure in Peru and her post-doctoral research explored the decisions to demolish social housing in London. Kate has also delivered, evaluated and written widely on the strategic and technical challenges of shelter and housing after disasters. Kate’s key area of interest – in research and enterprise – is to understand how engineers are embroiled in the repair of dwellings. She is interested in working cooperatively to examine the ways we are taught to think, represent information and conduct ourselves and how these habits are being both disrupted by and absorbed into new technologies.