Matt Berg
Encyclopedia
Matt Berg is the director of ICT for the Millennium Villages Project at the Columbia University
’s Earth Institute and member of its Department of Mechanical Engineering research group in Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is the ICT Director of the Millennium Villages Project
at Columbia and the technology director for ChildCount+. Matt Berg is one of Time 100 Most Influential People of the World
.
and grew up in Senegal
. He graduated with honors from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois
in 2000. He has an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management
. Berg is responsible for the development of new mobile phone platform ChildCount+ created under the framework of RapidSMS
. The project helps to reduce preventable diseases in the poorest villages of Africa through continuous monitoring, and it is grounded in a network of community health workers that partner to improve health and nutrition in impoverished areas.
As the ICT Director for the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia, Berg oversees the design and implementation of ICT activities in Millennium Village Project sites. He is now scaling up ChildCount+ to monitor over 100,000 pregnant mothers and children under five.
Prior to joining ChildCount+, Berg helped to build the Rural Technology Lab in Mali
that provides programming training to local students.
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
’s Earth Institute and member of its Department of Mechanical Engineering research group in Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is the ICT Director of the Millennium Villages Project
Millennium Villages Project
The Millennium Villages Project is a project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the United Nations Development Programme, and Millennium Promise....
at Columbia and the technology director for ChildCount+. Matt Berg is one of Time 100 Most Influential People of the World
Time 100
Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. First published in 1999 as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has become an annual event.-History and format:...
.
Biography and Work
Berg was born in 1977 in a small village of CameroonCameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
and grew up in Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
. He graduated with honors from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois
Galesburg, Illinois
Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County....
in 2000. He has an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management
Thunderbird School of Global Management
Thunderbird School of Global Management is a private business school whose main campus is located in Glendale, Arizona. Founded in 1946 by retired U.S...
. Berg is responsible for the development of new mobile phone platform ChildCount+ created under the framework of RapidSMS
RapidSMS
RapidSMS is a web framework based on the Django web framework which extends the logic and capabilities of Django to communicate with SMS messages. Initial development was funded by UNICEF for use in mobile data collection and polls. A side effect of the work was pygsm, a Python library for...
. The project helps to reduce preventable diseases in the poorest villages of Africa through continuous monitoring, and it is grounded in a network of community health workers that partner to improve health and nutrition in impoverished areas.
As the ICT Director for the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia, Berg oversees the design and implementation of ICT activities in Millennium Village Project sites. He is now scaling up ChildCount+ to monitor over 100,000 pregnant mothers and children under five.
Prior to joining ChildCount+, Berg helped to build the Rural Technology Lab in Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
that provides programming training to local students.
See also
- Time 100Time 100Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. First published in 1999 as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has become an annual event.-History and format:...
- Earth Institute
- Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
- Knox College