UNESCO Grant awarded to Foster the Future
Annabelle Bennett
Foster the Future has been awarded $2500 USD to scale our operations using data through the data-backed smart tutoring system, as part of the UNESCO Youth in AI Ethics Challenge. The UNESCO Youth in AI Ethics Challenge aims to support youth leaders designing socially beneficial projects and youth engaging with marginalized communities, with funding available to projects and organisations run by young people, leveraging advanced data science for ethical purposes.
The smart tutoring system has been pioneered by FTF co-founder and operations team leader, Tom, and comprises an advanced matching system to recommend the most suitable tutor for a given student based on the answers given in their volunteer application. Additionally, the system provides useful data to ensure matches are safe and practicable, including commute times between a student and tutor, as well as automatic monitoring of online tutoring to expel the risk of inappropriate behaviour.
The match recommendation system will be integrated into FTF operations to increase the speed with which we can initiate matches across our network. During this time, the FTF team will continue to evaluate the most appropriate methods for providing online tutoring to students who can’t access tutoring in person. Employing data in this way is an important step in maintaining FTF operations into the future by keeping our costs low, allowing us to sustain our lean operational model and grassroots culture. Overall, the system will strengthen our operational processes, enabling us to provide students with the best tutor for their needs, every time.
