The Science Behind Aarogya Setu: Key Learnings from the World’s Largest Contact Tracing App
February 2021
The presentation will focus on the science behind the contact tracing algorithm, some of the major product decisions made by the app development team and the rationale, as well as key learnings from the exercise.
Co-hosted with The Big Data Institute at
The University of Oxford
Meet the Speaker

Aalekh Sharan
Aalekh Sharan was the contact tracing and data science lead for Aarogya Setu (the world’s largest contact tracing app) and led the team responsible for designing, testing, and deploying the contact tracing and risk propagation algorithm for it.... Previously, he was Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive Officer of NITI AAYOG, the central government’s policy think tank chaired by the Prime Minister of India where he helped co-author and implement India’s Artificial Intelligence strategy and blockchain strategy and also led numerous projects involving digital infrastructure, frontier technologies and open data.
Aalekh is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and is currently pursuing his MBA at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Read more
Coordinating Committee Co-Chairs
Joanna Masel, PhD
Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at The University of Arizona
Luca Ferretti, PhD
Senior Researcher in Statistical Genetics and Pathogen DynamicsBig Data Institute, The University of Oxford
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