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= Global Humanitarian Technology Conference - GHTC =

Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) is an annual technical event held every fall in Seattle, WA USA. The conference is sponsored and organized by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), one of the world’s largest technical professional society, advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

GHTC brings together all the communities interested applying technology to advancing humanity: engineering, science, technology, industry, academe, government agencies, NGOs, charities, funders.

History
Past IEEE President Lew Terman recalled how humanitarian efforts were organized and how this conference was kicked off. "By the end of my presidency in 2008, during which I had had a focus on IEEE having greater focused and coordinated involvement in efforts involving humanitarian activity, we felt a growing need for having a major conference to attract people from around the world to listen to talks, exchange ideas, results, learn, and generally to interact and network within the humanitarian technology sphere. There is a lot of effort going on around the world, but it is scattered, disparate, and communication between those involved is hit or miss. While there have been scattered conferences, to our knowledge there was no major conference with the goal of pulling a large international audience together and covering a wide range of the important topics, as is done with numerous IEEE Society and Council flagship conferences. What humanitarian conferences we knew of had been one-offs, with no year-to-year repetition, something which IEEE had shown to be a key element in continued progress within a given technical area.

The inaugural IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference was a conference of big ideas, coupled with the realities and problems implementation technologists and real world practitioners face every day. In presenting successes and problems, many left the conference with realistic potential solutions. An overarching theme of the conference was the importance of scale, understanding the impact of unintended consequences of technology, and most of all, the emphasis on realistic actionable technological solutions to humanitarian challenges.

GHTC 2012
GHTC 2012 will be held on October 21-24, 2012 at Renaissance Seattle Hotel in Seattle WA, USA.

Conference Goals

 * Foster exchange of information and networking in the humanitarian field
 * Focus attention of businesses on emerging market opportunities and related technology enablers
 * Impact in positive and meaningful ways lives of disadvantaged people around the world
 * Promote science, engineering and technology as key to development of solutions for disadvantaged communities and attract young people to these professional fields

GHTC covers a wide range of topics that include, but are not limited to:

 * Health, Medical Technology and Telemedicine
 * Disaster Warning and Response
 * Water Planning, Availability and Quality
 * Sanitation
 * Power for Off-Grid Users
 * Power Infrastructure/ Renewable/Sustainable Energy
 * Connectivity and Communications Technologies (data/voice) for Remote Locations
 * Educational Technologies
 * Agricultural Technologies
 * Aplying Science, Engineering and Technology for Environmental Sustainability
 * Humanitarian Challenges and Opportunities

Why attend?

 * Participate in an extensive and varied technical program: presentations, keynote and invited talks, discussion sessions, tutorials, exhibits, and the Forum Hall for meeting other attendees
 * Learn, exchange information, share experiences and network with other interested and dedicated individuals
 * Gain visibility for humanitarian work and projects
 * Find new resources and ideas

Partners
IEEE welcomes collaboration and partnerships with other organizations in connection with the Conference.


 * ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers)

GHTC Satellite Conferences

 * Asia – is in a planning stage
 * Australia – is in a planning stage

Contests

 * International Student Paper Contest
 * International Student Poster Contest
 * International Humanitarian Photo/Short-Video Contest