The University of California, Santa Barbara announced today that it will receive funding through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges. Professors Elizabeth Belding and Amr El Abbadi in the Computer Science Department will pursue an innovative global health research project, titled "ImmuNet: Targeted Immunizations for Infants and Children".

Grand Challenges Explorations funds scientists and researchers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Professor Belding's project is one of 110 Grand Challenges Explorations grants announced today.

"We believe in the power of innovation—that a single bold idea can pioneer solutions to our greatest health and development challenges," said Chris Wilson, Director of Global Health Discovery for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Grand Challenges Explorations seeks to identify and fund these new ideas wherever they come from, allowing scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue the kinds of creative ideas and novel approaches that could help to accelerate the end of polio, cure HIV infection or improve sanitation."

Projects that are receiving funding show promise in tackling priority global health issues where solutions do not yet exist. This includes finding effective methods to eliminate or control infectious diseases such as polio and HIV as well as discovering new sanitation technologies. To learn more about Grand Challenges Explorations, visit http://www.grandchallenges.org.

The ImmuNet project will develop a low-cost local cellular architecture and with an integrated information distribution system and an underlying database that allows rapid determination of immune status; reliable updates to vaccinations records; and quick, targeted dissemination of vaccination availability in rural regions. ImmuNet provides a technical solution that correlates up-to-date vaccine status of all persons in a coverage area with family relationship and biometric data and tracks human behavior to aid in rapid, prioritized immunization of infants and children. ImmunNet facilitates dissemination of vaccination-related information to rural residents through free local voice and data cellular connectivity provided to existing, unmodified cell phones. This is particularly critical in areas where cellular connectivity is not currently available.

"We are thrilled to receive this award from the Gates Foundation, and are very excited about this project. Technology brings empowerment to people in many ways, and health care is one of the primary areas that can improve quality of life," said Elizabeth Belding, co-principal investigator and professor of Computer Science at UCSB. "The development of ImmuNet is a key example of how computer science can be applied to a humanitarian cause for widespread benefit to many people, particularly, as targeted by this award, to infants and children."

Principal investigators Belding and El Abbadi are full professors with the Department of Computer Science at UC Santa Barbara. Professor Belding's research focuses on mobile networking, and particularly on wireless network solutions for developing and underdeveloped regions worldwide. She has a number of partnerships with organizations in South Africa and Zambia, where she is working to develop solutions that bridge the digital divide and bring Internet connectivity to rural residents. Professor Belding is currently the Vice Chair of the Computer Science Department. Professor El Abbadi's research focus is on data management and distributed systems, with recent interest in cloud computing and data dissemination in on-line social networks. Professor El Abbadi is an ACM Fellow and a past Chair of the Computer Science Department.