PathCheck Foundation
FounderRamesh Raskar
Founded atCambridge, Massachusetts
Type501(c)(3) organization
Key people
Volunteers
2,000+
Websitepathcheck.org

PathCheck Foundation is a volunteer-led nonprofit organization founded in February 2020 at MIT[1][2] that develops COVID-19 apps for digital contact tracing.[3][4] The organization consists of over 1000 volunteers. In addition, various companies donate employee time to the foundation. The organization was previously known as COVID Safe Paths (and before MIT Safe Paths) but was renamed PathCheck Foundation on June 28, 2020.[citation needed]

The original technology for the PathCheck app was based on the MIT Private Kit: Safe Paths app created by Ramesh Raskar with Sandy Pentland, Kent Larson, Steve Penrod, and Kevin Esvelt. The founding team included Abhishek Singh, Kristen Vilcans, Alina Clough, Francesco Maria Bendetti, Kaushal Jain, Khahlil Louisy, Sienna Leis, Greg Nadeau, Rachel Barbar, and John Werner.[5]

On July 8, 2020, Ramesh Raskar, chairman of PathCheck Foundation, addressed the United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Task Force on Artificial Intelligence during their hearing on "Exposure Notification and Contact Tracing: How AI Helps Localities Reopen Safely and Researchers Find a Cure", describing the use of contact tracing technologies used by PathCheck.[6] He also spoke about PathCheck's surveillance and privacy methods at the Wall Street Journal Tech Health event.[7]

Apps developed by PathCheck have been adopted by the governments of Minnesota,[8] Hawaii, Guam,[9] Puerto Rico, Teton County, Wyoming (home of Yellowstone National Park),[10][11][12][13][14] and Cyprus.[15][16]

References

  1. ^ "Because Hamiltonians Track COVID-19: John Werner '92". Hamilton.edu (Press release).
  2. ^ "How an MIT spin-off is using contact tracing to fight COVID-19, and so can you". Tech Republic.
  3. ^ "MIT announces Bluetooth breakthrough in coronavirus tracing app for android and ios". VentureBeat.
  4. ^ Richtel, Matt (June 3, 2020). "Contact Tracing With Your Phone: It's Easier but There Are Tradeoffs" – via NYTimes.com.
  5. ^ "Team | PathCheck". www.pathcheck.org. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
  6. ^ Lee, Victoria; Grant, Andrew (29 July 2020). "Task Force on Artificial Intelligence – hearing to discuss use of AI in contact tracing". lexology.com.
  7. ^ "Surveillance and Our Privacy". Wall Street Journal.
  8. ^ "Minnesota rolls out new app for COVID exposure alerts".
  9. ^ Delgado, Nick (11 September 2020). "Guam first US territory to launch COVID alert app". The Guam Daily Post.
  10. ^ "America Is Reopening. Coronavirus Tracing Apps Aren't Ready". Wall Street Journal.
  11. ^ "What Ever Happened to Digital Contact Tracing?".
  12. ^ "Teton County to use app for contact tracing".
  13. ^ "CONTACT TRACING MOBILE APP - PATHCHECK SAFEPLACES".
  14. ^ "Health Department unveils contact tracing app".
  15. ^ "Apple and Google introduce an app-free virus-tracing program they hope will catch on with the public".
  16. ^ Shankland, Stephen. "Local governments warm to coronavirus-tracking app".
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