Communications of the ACM
How Technology Could Revolutionize Refugee Resettlement
A new software program uses a matching algorithm to allocate refugees with no ties to the U.S. to their new homes.
Credit: Library of Congress
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Lund University in Sweden, and the University of Oxford in the U.K. have developed a software program that uses a matching algorithm to allocate refugees with no ties to the U.S. to their new homes.
The Annie software's algorithm is based on a model that uses massive amounts of data from past refugee placements to make future recommendations.
The system analyzes variables such as physical ailments, age, education level, and language spoken, for each individual recommendation.
The system is mainly used by HIAS, a refugee-assistance nonprofit with offices across the country. Every city where HIAS has an office or an affiliate is given a score for each refugee; the higher the score, the better the match.
The software drastically speeds up the refugee resettlement process from half a day to about an hour.
From The Atlantic
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Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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