Agenda

Irene Kaggwa is the Programme Manager at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for Giga, a joint ITU-UNICEF initiative that seeks to connect all schools to the Internet by 2030. Prior to that, she worked in different roles within Uganda Communications Commission - the regulator in the communications sector in Uganda, for a period of more than 23 years. Her experience spans policy development, research, strategy, communications regulation, radio spectrum management, cyber security and implementation of the various aspects of fostering ICT and ICT enabled socio-economic development. A registered engineer, Irene holds a Master of Science in Communications Systems and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol and a Master of Science in Economic Management and Policy (Business Economic Pathway) from the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom.

Chris’s career has focused on how the intersection between new technology and global policy can solve the world’s most pressing problems and advance humanity.

He has advised two UN Secretary-Generals on new technologies, founded and scaled UNICEF’s Innovation Unit, and worked with Heads of State and CEOs to invest in responsible, forward-looking technologies.

Chris has built, invested in, and mentored technology companies from startup through multiple financing rounds and exit. He has led teams that developed some of the largest implementations of open-source mobile phone applications in the world, the first public-sector drone/UAV corridors, the first crypto-currency denominated fund in the public sector, and the Digital Public Goods Alliance with the Government of Norway. 

He is a Commissioner for the Lancet-Financial Times, an Honorary Scholar at the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts, a Board Member of the European Parliaments STOA Centre for Artificial Intelligence, and was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People” in 2013.

Kátia Helena Serafina Cruz Schweikardt, is a Professor at the Federal University of Amazonas. He was the Municipal Secretary of the Environment between 2013-2015. And Municipal Secretary of Education of Manaus between 2015 and 2020. When she took over, SEMED-Manaus was in 20th position among Brazilian capitals in the Basic Education Development Index, and during her management, it was among the 10 best capitals. This result was the result of integrated and shared management, carried out many hands ago, of inspiring and motivating leadership, and above all from the many lessons learned in educational practice with the collective implementation of Integral Education Schools in Manaus and in the reorganization, reconstruction and " remaking" of teacher training processes. Management learned in everyday life and in the practices of transformative schools, riverside, and indigenous schools in the Amazon. She is currently the National Secretary of Basic Education at the Ministry of Education. She was awarded the Inês e Vasconcelos Medal by the Legislative Assembly of Amazonas, in 2020, for the relevant services provided to Public Education. She was awarded the 2020 Public Spirit Award, as a national highlight in the Education Category.

Professor Pilar Orero, PhD (UMIST, UK) works at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) in the TransMedia Catalonia Lab. She has written and edited many books, near 100 academic papers and almost the same number of book chapters --all on Media Accessibility. Leader and participant on numerous EU funded research projects focusing on media accessibility. She works in standardisation and participates in the UN ITU IRG-AVA - Intersector Rapporteur Group Audiovisual Media Accessibility, and SG20 IoT Metaverse. She has been working on Immersive Accessibility for the past 6 years first in a project called ImAc, which results are now further developed in TRACTION, MEDIAVERSE, MILE, and green accessibility through the project GREENSCENT and the MSCA Network ClearClimate (2023-2028). She lead the EU network LEADME on Media Accessibility 2020-2022. She was co-chair of the UN agency ITU WG Accessibility in the Metaverse, and is now chair opf Track 3 Digital Onclusion and accessibility of ITU Metaverse. She is working on AI and accessibility in three funded projects MOSAIC, ALFIE, and SPICE.

For more info please go to: https://webs.uab.cat/pilarorero/