Conrad with NASA officials
Meghalaya CM Conrad K. Sangma interacting with NASA officials. Image credit - Twitter @SangmaConrad

A delegation from Meghalaya led by chief minister Conrad K. Sangma on Wednesday visited NASA Ames Research Centre in California including UAS traffic management research centre and other wings of the NASA.

The officials briefed the delegation on the Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management.

After their visit, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma said, “We are very keen in partnering with NASA through the University of California for using drones to address problems of disaster management, reaching vaccines to remote areas and crop management.”

The potential use of drones that will benefit ordinary people are growing from commercial opportunities to rescue operations.

“The CM, who is known for his IT skills and bringing in technology enabled solution, is now looking at ways and possibilities for expanding the use of technology for common good of the people,” said a press statement issued by the CM’s Media & Communications Cell.

The CM also met officials of Wipro Silicon Innovation Centre along with officials from the state including advisor to the CM Thomas A. Sangma, commissioner and secretary P. Sampath Kumar and South West Garo Hills deputy commissioner Ram Kumar.

The possibility of collaboration with Meghalaya was discussed at length during the meeting with officials of the Wipro at California.

“The discussion was on the lines of use of artificial intelligence in maternal and child health administration,” said Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma.

The CM also called on Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Studios and winner of six academy awards.

“We had interaction and learning session with Catmull on how to enable innovation in organisations,” the CM said.

An Erie Silk stole made in Meghalaya was gifted to Ed Catmull, who appreciated the harmless process of producing the silk.

On Tuesday, chief minister Conrad Sangma met Carol Welch, director, Strategy Planning & Management and Orin Levine, director, Global Delivery Programme of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“We discussed about MOTHER App an initiative of our government to provide facilities through technology enabled services to improve mother and child care, educational and rural development outcomes,” said the CM.

The state government has sought technical assistance from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The CM spoke at length on the innovative data driven MOTHER (Meghalaya Outcomes Oriented Transformation in Health, Nutrition, Education and Rural Development) App.