Foundations of ICT for Decision Makers

Current digital trends and innovation, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data privacy, blockchain and digital trust, are rapidly changing and disrupting the way donors, employees, and beneficiaries interact with each other. Technology can be a powerful tool for philanthropic and non-profit organizations, accelerating their digital transformation through automating and streamlining business processes, using digital platforms, and leveraging data and analytics in new ways that enhance their efficiency and social impact.

Intended for professionals from the philanthropic and non-profit sectors, who see information and communication technologies (ICT) as an opportunity to better engage with beneficiaries and stakeholders, this 5-day course will give you and your organization the ability and the toolset to take more leadership responsibilities in driving your digital transformation.

Course Outcomes

  • Asses the risks and benefits linked to blockchains and smart contracts, discern when they can bring added value from when they are superfluous, and understand how to implement and deploy them in your organization.
  • Bring new value to your organization by learning how machine learning and artificial intelligence can help you analyze, classify and make predictions out of your already existing data, and which are the biases and adversarial techniques that can pose a risk to your operations.
  • Improve the survivability and viability of your organization by understanding threats and attacks, learning the appropriate measures to counter them, and implementing the best practices on cybersecurity.
  • Learn fundamental concepts and how the basics of ICT work, from computers and software development, to basic networking and cryptography.
  • Gain an understanding on how data in general, and big data and the cloud work, and the main privacy and data protection implications and concerns that come with it.

Course Methodology

  • Practice and develop an operational understanding of all the concepts learned through relevant and stimulating hands-on exercises and case studies, while participating in engaging discussions with your peers and faculty.
  • Use and apply your newly acquired knowledge in your organization to take more leadership responsibilities in digital innovation and informed decisions while engaging with ICT experts and business stakeholders.

Course Speakers

The courses are developed by the Center for Digital Trust (C4DT) at EPFL, in close partnership with Fondation Lombard Odier (FLO). They will be taught by experts in artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain and cryptography, cybersecurity, and privacy.

Faculty are carefully selected high-level ICT experts, able to engage with a non-technical audience. They are accomplished professors from EPFL, and seasoned industry professionals from C4DT partners such as ELCA and others.

Course Information

This 5-day course will be held from the 7th-11th of June 2021 on the EPFL Campus. For more information on how to register, contact jennifer.bachmann-ona@epfl.ch, places are limited! This event is reserved for the C4DT Community.