Dr. Patrick Meier is an internationally recognized expert on Humanitarian Technology. Over the past 15 years, Patrick has worked on wide range of innovative humanitarian initiatives in the Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia, India, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Morocco, Western Sahara, Haiti, Peru and Vanuatu with multiple organizations including the United Nations, Red Cross and World Bank. He pioneered the field of Crisis Mapping at Harvard University and was amongst the first to apply Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data analytics in the humanitarian sector. During his time at QCRI, an advanced computing research institute in Qatar, he spearheaded both the design and deployment of next generation humanitarian technologies powered by artificial intelligence, crowdsourcing and computer vision. He co-deployed these AI solutions with international aid organizations such as UN/OCHA to help them make sense of social media, pictures, videos, aerial imagery and text messages generated during and after major disasters. Patrick subsequently launched the global Humanitarian UAV Network to accelerate the responsible use of aerial robotics (drones) in humanitarian efforts. Most recently, he co-founded WeRobotics to scale the positive impact of humanitarian efforts by building local capacity around the use of appropriate robotics solutions. Patrick also serves as a consultant to Facebook and Planet Labs where he guides their efforts in the humanitarian space. His recent book Digital Humanitarians: How Big Data Changes the Face of Humanitarian Action has been praised by experts from UN/OCHA, UN Global Pulse, ICRC, IFRC, World Bank, USAID, DfID, NetHope, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford and others. He has given over 200 talks in more than 20 countries, and his influential blog iRevolutions has received close to 2 million hits. Patrick has a PhD from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Pre-Doc from Stanford and an MA from Columbia University.