Politicians, politically connected business persons, bureaucrats, celebrities, and highly placed government officials (collectively termed as the power elite in sociology literature) can influence national and regional policy for personal and ...

An essential component of initiatives that aim to address pervasive inequalities of any kind is the ability to collect empirical evidence of both the status quo baseline and of any improvement that can be attributed to prescribed and deployed ...

Improving digital literacy and reducing gender inequalities in internet access and use have been recognized as important development targets within the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Tracking progress on digital gender ...

Voice forums are an effective intervention medium for marginalized communities to access information in a structured and localized manner. Users actively contribute by posting questions and responses in the form of audio messages, and thereby help in ...

The most vulnerable individuals in society often struggle with long-lasting, multi-faceted challenges like mental illness, substance abuse, chronic health conditions, and homelessness. Individuals experiencing these difficulties tend to interact with ...

Bike-sharing systems provide a sustainable and affordable transportation alternative in many American cities. However, they also face intricate challenges due to imbalance, caused by asymmetric traffic demand. That imbalance often-times leads to bike-...

Mobile money platforms are gaining traction across developing markets as a convenient way of sending and receiving money over mobile phones. Recent joint collaborations between banks and mobile-network operators leverage a customer's past mobile phone ...

Corporate executives who are linked to politicians or administrative officials, or family members of public officials with links to corporate organizations, are known to build an interlocking social network that becomes a power structure of highly ...

The digital sharing economy has introduced opportunities for economic growth, productivity, and technological innovation. However, the adoption of sharing economy applications may be inaccessible to certain demographics, including older adults, low-...

The scalability of medical technology in low resource settings requires a higher level of usability and clear decision support compared to conventional devices, since users often have very limited training. In particular, it is important to provide ...