Digital Transformation in Agriculture

This event is co-sponsored by the Picker Center, Empowering Asian Women, Great China Initiative, the United Nations Association. It will feature guest, Professor Lesly Goh, former Chief Technology Officer at the World Bank Group, Ranveer Chandra, Chief Scientist, Azure Global at Microsoft, Xin Yi Lim, Executive Director, Sustainability and Agricultural Impact, PINDUODUO. This event will be moderated by Sarah Garland, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Earth Institute Columbia University.
The scope of agriculture has been widened by the development of the agricultural food industry with integrated global supply chains, technological and corporate advancements, and environmental effects, which require new structural solutions. Additionally, in recent years, global financial crises have revealed a weakness in the implementation and sustainability of current growth models and agricultural policies. The use of technology will contribute significantly to rural development and a decline in poverty. Developments in technology, science, and engineering are the main instruments to help reach these goals and bring about the changes stated above.

Professor Lesly Goh
Former Chief Technology Officer at the World Bank Group.

Lesly Goh is the Senior Advisor, former Chief Technology Officer for the World Bank Group. She is a Fellow at Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) Judge Business School and Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Lesly brings extensive international experience, advising government policymakers and central banks on the regulatory impact from emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G, Cloud and Edge Computing. Prior to the public sector role, Lesly built a solid technology career in the private sectors such as Microsoft, Deloitte, and startups. She is a certified Data Architect and worked on many high-profile Data and AI initiatives in highly regulated industries such as Financial Services, Healthcare/Life Sciences and Digital Government, including Smart Cities designed for resilience.
Lesly is on the Board of Director for Singapore GovTech and she is a member of the WEF Global Future Councils on Data Policy: the Platform for promoting innovative thinking to shape a sustainable and inclusive future for all.

Ranveer Chandra
Chief Scientist, Azure Global at Microsoft

Ranveer Chandra leads research & innovation across different industry verticals at Microsoft Azure. Ranveer's research has shipped in multiple Microsoft products, including XBOX, Azure, Windows, and Visual Studio. He started the FarmBeats project in 2015, which shipped as a Microsoft product in 2019. He also leads research on battery tech and TV white spaces. Bill Gates featured his work on FarmBeats on GatesNotes, and he has been invited to present to the Secretary of Agriculture, and on TV White Spaces to the FCC Chairman. Ranveer has published over 90 research papers and has over 100 patents granted by the USPTO. He is an IEEE Fellow and has won several awards, including best paper awards in computer science conferences and the MIT Technology Review's Top Innovators Under 35 award in 2010.
Ranveer has an undergraduate degree from IIT Kharagpur, India, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University.

XinYi Lim Executive Director, Sustainability and Agricultural Impact at Pinduoduo

XinYi Lim is Executive Director, Sustainability and Agricultural Impact at Pinduoduo. She is responsible for Pinduoduo's international corporate strategy efforts and innovation in sustainability and agri-tech. Before joining Pinduoduo in late 2018, she worked for Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, in both its Singapore and New York offices as a technology and media analyst in its Public Equities division.
XinYi holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Oxford and a Master's degree from Harvard University.

Moderator: Sarah Garland, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow The Earth Institute Columbia University

Sarah received her Ph.D. in Plant Sciences from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Her doctoral work focused on generating new methods of plant gene editing for both basic research and agricultural applications. Outside of the lab, she was a leader of the Cambridge Food Security Forum and a member of the Cambridge Global Food Security Interdisciplinary Research Centre steering committee. At the Earth Institute, Sarah works with Glenn Denning to explore the role of emerging biotechnology in developing sustainable agriculture systems and to construct recommendations for research, policy, and investment. Sarah holds a B.S. in Biology from Duke University. Sarah was an intern at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama Administration where she first became interested in biotechnology regulation and global food security.

This event is facilitated by Sophia Zhang, SIPA EMPA Candidate '20.

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