Baidu, UNDP partner to use innovation for public good

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BEIJING - Chinese tech giant Baidu and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have further collaborated on technological innovations to tackle social issues.

Baidu President Zhang Yaqin and UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China Nicholas Rosellini on Tuesday called on the public to join their Global Responsibility Innovation Programme to open resources like technology to bring innovative solutions for sustainable development.

The two parties launched the Global Responsibility Innovation Programme last December to encourage innovative proposals from the public to answer increasing development challenges. The first open design challenge was held Tuesday.

The contest received over 2,000 proposals from China and abroad, mostly on environmental protection and poverty alleviation.

The top prize went to student teams from Tsinghua University and Beihang University, who proposed using deep learning technologies to turn sign language into voice to help the hearing-impaired communicate.

Baidu will grant outstanding applicants and teams access to its technology, to help address public concerns via technologies, and contribute to U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

Cooperation between Baidu and the UNDP goes back a long way. In 2014, the Baidu-UNDP Big Data Joint Lab was started, aiming to find big data solutions on environmental protection and other human development challenges. Together they developed Baidu Recycle to promote responsible consumption and production.