Innocent Ndubuisi-Obi Jr.
Research Affiliate
email innoobi@mit.edu
twitter @iobijr
Innocent is currently a Research Affiliate and was previously a Research Associate with MIT GOV/LAB. He is interested in urban-rural information architectures related to governing, social computation, and trust. His current work focuses on the development of alternative social technologies to support decentralized and community-based hybrid on-offline communication infrastructures. Prior to MIT, Innocent worked with WhereIsMyTransport in exploring new approaches to informal transit applications. Innocent’s graduate work focused on the design of distributed, citizen-sensing technologies and applied natural language processing in the context of Sub-saharan Africa. At Georgetown, his work at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation focused on impact investing, innovative financing, and government innovation. He earned his BS in International Political Economy from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and his MS in Information Science with a specialization in Computational Social Science from the University of Michigan.
Projects
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Projects May 2020
Public Health Policy and Behavior
Research projects with practitioner partners focused on public health issues and crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ebola epidemic.
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Projects December 2020
Governance Innovation
This initiative combines evidence and methods from design and social science to co-develop governance solutions with practitioner partners.
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Projects September 2022
Bureaucracy and Bureaucrat Behavior
These projects expand on evidence-based scholarship to understand bureaucratic behavior in the Global South and promote citizen engagement and government accountability.
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Projects May 2020
Data to Inform the Pandemic Response (Covid-19)
How can social science research provide rapid inputs to public health crises? Our team is working with partners to produce data and evidence to inform pandemic responses.
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Resources July 2021
Making the Most of Mobility Data (CDRs): A Guide for Policymakers
This guide outlines technical requirements for using call detail records for voice call and SMS, highlights when this data are most useful in crises, and provides guidance on how to work with external experts in service of local needs and policy priorities.
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News September 2022
MITx Case Study: From Data to Covid-19 Policy in Sierra Leone
Updated MITx course focusing on cities and Covid-19 features a case study on our research collaboration in Sierra Leone.
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News July 2021
[MIT News] Study Finds Lockdowns Effective at Reducing Travel in Sierra Leone
MIT researchers use cell tower data to show that movement during Covid-19-related lockdowns declined the most in wealthier areas with more people.
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News July 2021
Pandemics, Policy, and Privacy: A New Guide on Using Data During Crises
MIT’s Governance and Civic Data Design Labs published a technical guide on how to use people’s movements to answer policy questions during crises while keeping people’s data anonymous and private.
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News June 2021
[Stack Overflow Podcast] Don’t Build It – Advice on Civic Tech
Ben Popper at Stack Overflow chatted with Innocent Ndubuisi-Obi and Luke Jordan about the unique challenges you face when trying to solve civic problems with software.
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News May 2021
Were Lockdowns Effective in Sierra Leone? Mobility Data Shows Compliance
Collaborating with government and telecom partners in Sierra Leone, we used call detail records (CDRs) to see if lockdown policies were effective in restricting movement during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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News November 2020
EdX Case Study: From Data to Covid-19 Policy in Sierra Leone
A new online EdX course focusing on cities and Covid-19 features a case study on our research collaboration in Sierra Leone.