Talking Impact with Prof. Dick den Hertog
Professor of Operations Research at the University of Amsterdam and science to impact director of Analytics for a Better World Dick den Hertog has been nominated for Huibregtsen Prize 2022. The winner will be announced on October 10.
Talking Impact is a series of conversations with lecturers and staff, students, innovators and entrepreneurs from the University of Amsterdam (UvA)’s Roeterseiland campus, about how their work makes an impact on society.
What is Analytics for a Better World?
Analytics for a Better World uses data, algorithms and models to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. We don’t limit ourselves to one or two of the SDGs. To give some concrete examples, in the past we used data to develop techniques to optimise the food supply chain for the World Food Programme. We’re also working with the World Bank on a project in Timor Leste and Vietnam to improve accessibility to healthcare. So first what we try to do is use analytics to see what the current level of accessibility is and for example, we discovered in Timor Leste 61 per cent of the population has access to primary healthcare within 5 kilometres of their home, and then we work out how to improve it to 95 per cent.
Why did you set it up? And what motivates you?
It started many years ago when I read Excellence without a Soul by Harry R. Lewis. He described education as having no soul, that it was too theoretical and had nothing to do with the real societal problems we’re facing. He said we need to change that and it had a big impact on me. The second book was Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil. It’s about the dark side of analytics. The author coined the term ‘weapons of math destruction’ so I decided to come up with a counterargument in Analytics for a Better World. The third book was Factfulness by Hans Rosling, and it used facts and statistics to explain why most people have a negative understanding of the world and get things wrong. It stimulates me to use analytics to further improve the world because there are many societal problems we face.
How is the UvA’s Roeterseiland campus involved?
They’re very enthusiastic about it and were willing to set up a new institute - the Analytics for a Better World Institute together with MIT in Boston. To have an impact, we came to the conclusion that it’s good to have collaboration with professional companies too so ORTEC invested in it. There are also researchers from UvA working on ABW projects and PhD students.
How important is it to make an impact beyond the university?
It’s extremely important. If you look at analytics there are hundreds of papers on using analytics for the SDGs or for humanitarian aid, but only a few of them have the ability to make an impact. The reason for that is that they’re done by researchers who have good motivation, but if you just do it from a room at a university, the potential for impact is small. You have to collaborate with NGOs, but also with companies like ORTEC to be able to have a sustainable impact.
What we see is a lot of enthusiasm, not only from young people, but also companies who would like to contribute through investments. That’s really exciting to see! It goes beyond just doing good things to make PR on it on the website of the company. In the meetings we have you really see it’s something they want to do.
What are the long-term goals of ABW?
We want to challenge and address societal problems. For example, The Ocean Cleanup approached us several months ago to help with the removal of plastic in the ocean. So maybe that’s our goal - that we aren’t needed anymore because relevant NGOs have their own analytics teams.
We also combine it with teaching. Last year the Bachelor of Business Analytics started at UvA where the first course is Advanced Analytics for a Better World.
Are you interested in collaborating with Analytics for a Better World? Get in touch!