Jiangsu students provide new solution to China's left-behind children issue
(english.jsjyt.gov.cn) Updated：2017-12-05
A screen shows that the number of a region’s left-behind children and their families is 2,143. The red dots represent the specific location of left-behind children. Such information as their personal details, family conditions, what towns and cities their parents work in, and the region’s migration rate can also be displayed on the screen. [Photo/yangtse.com]
China’s left-behind children, those left unsupervised or in the care of relatives or neighbors by migrant worker parents, have woven bonds of pity and love in Chinese people as their numbers have surged in recent years.
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs as of 2016 the total number of left-behind children in China had reached 9.02 million, with over 90 percent of them living in Central and West China’s rural areas.
Such cold and unfeeling data has been published every year, but what can we do with these figures, and can we learn more from the data?
The answer is definitely yes.
A group of students from Jiangsu, East China, majoring in art at the local Southeast University, has carved out their own new way by joining hands with Lidutech, a company with expertise in software development.
The students and company have developed a system which applies big data and visualization technology to provide feasible solutions to help government decision makers and others gain insight into the rising social issue.
Engineers from Lidutech were in charge of building a specialized platform, while their college partners helped to creatively display the figures on different devices.
