Senior Research Assistant (January 2018 – January 2019)

Dhaval Modi was a Senior Research Assistant at the United Nations University Institute in Macau. His work at the Digital Peacekeeping Lab focused on integrating technology for UN Peacekeeping Missions. His interest lies leveraging ICT for peacebuilding in developing countries.

Dhaval recently graduated with his Masters in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University, Washington DC. During his Masters program he worked at Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment; he used data to visualize network of organizations and stakeholders involved in Climate Engineering research for public outreach. He has combined his background in engineering and social sciences to investigate conventions, policies, and legislations internationally that raise the industry standards for extractive resource mining and conditions to establish “no-go zones”. At Conflict Dynamics International, he researched structures of governance, legislation, finance and representation for different capital cities to determine potential options for Mogadishu-Banaadir. He also worked on case studies on fiscal decentralization for oil and gas revenues for Somalia.
Previously in India at Observer Research Foundation, he worked with the Mumbai Police to develop their social media policy in order to increase their public engagement and enhance transparency. Social media presence allowed the law enforcement to curtail hate speech online, as well as through social media analytics, early signs for potential escalations were identified to take preventive action.

Dhaval also holds a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Missouri where he focused on Alternative Fuels. He has worked on campaigning with the Citizens for Accountable Governance during the 2014 National Elections in India.

PROJECTS
During his time at UNU Institute in Macau, Dhaval was part of the following project:
Digital Peacekeeping