For this week I kept working in the development of the app and wrote conclusion and abstract for the thesis document as well
Abstract:
Landmines are certainly a huge issue in countries affected by armed conflict due to the fact that can remain active for over 50 years after the conflict’s end. This issue has been addressed so far by developing technologies focused on military technology, largely due to the fact that they are the most affected by this scourge in a scenario of armed conflict. Yet, it is important to note that the civilian population is also being affected and the numbers may lean toward them at an accelerated rate in a scenario of post conflict.
Technologies for mobile development, Information collection methods for GPS Devices and Information Visualization are some of the available options to mitigate the problem. Moreover, the access to reliable information about clearance processes is key to avoid the damages by Anti-personnel Mines casualties.
By developing Mine Safe: A mobile App for civilian population of rural zones in Colombia, to identify landmine safe paths for their daily commutes. This project aims to understand the state of the art of the current technologies for humanitarian demining in Colombia as a medium to generate relevant technological applications to contribute to the humanitarian demining process for both civilian and military population.
Conclusion
Research is intended to reach new conclusions in certain topic, in the particular case of this paper these conclusions seems to be more questions. How can the ability to divert/avoid land mines become more accessible to the public? Was the original question that gave origin to this work. Since this question has not been resolved yet. There are some clues on how to tackle this issue by using information and delivering this information to the public to gain accessibility and build accuracy.
Tools developed during this process are intended to deliver information to the population of rural areas regardless their social status or other considerations that might limit the access to technology. These issues can be tackled by establishing international Cooperation between both private and public organizations. For instance the collaboration established between the Colombian government and Academia through the Scientific and Technical Committee illustrate how this relationship can be take to the next level by strengthening and encouraging joint investigation.
Next steps for this project will be definitely attached to collaboration between Academia, Public Sector, Private Entities, Researchers, NGO’s and of course the Colombian Population. Furthermore as the landmine issue is not an isolated situation this project could be extended and adapted to another countries such as Afghanistan, Angola and Iraq among many others were landmines remain an active issue.