Niamh Smith

Niamh is gifted with a brilliant research mind along with an able set of project management hands. She’s an expert in the environmental factors that influence health and is an instinctual systems thinker, having developed co-creation methods, systematic reviews and qualitative research methods that are being put to successful practical use in the real world.

Achievements include

• Project manager of Health Cascade, the MSCA doctoral network turned social enterprise
• Co-author: Mechanisms of impact of blue spaces on human health
• Co-author: Urban blue spaces and human health
• PhD in public health
• Magnusson Award winner, 2021 (social impact placement)

In my own words…

​​We need to make data less intimidating and more useful to groups of people who are already working tirelessly to improve peoples’ lives and the environment. Let’s let data science and AI do some of the heavy lifting so that social innovators can do what they do best!

We aim to collaborate with social innovators to identify their challenges and explore how data and AI can provide support. By understanding their struggles, we can tailor technological solutions to enhance their impact. We will also draw on their experiences of doing good in the world to figure out how advances in AI and technology more generally can be ethical and used for good.

I want to see the Datavysts network create a significant mindset shift. Data and AI have real potential to help, not hinder, social innovation. Let’s make it happen.