2021: Your purpose in action
Over the past year, people and organizations in every part of the world have applied technology to help address their own challenges and opportunities, as well as those of their communities and society at-large. Here are some of their stories.
Support inclusive economic opportunity
We must ensure that economic opportunity is inclusive—for every country, developed and developing; every community, urban and rural; every business, small and large; and every person, including the 1 billion plus people with disabilities.
Watch: Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, United States
NASA’s Mars mission achieved a milestone in space exploration when Ingenuity completed the first powered flight on another planet—a feat that would not have been possible without developers on GitHub, including Ahmad Awais, who contributed code to the software that powered the flight.
Watch: Rebecca Sackett, United States
Rebecca Sackett developed more than 80 apps using Power Apps to help Custom Air Products in Houston, Texas, deliver superior customer service to its customers.
Watch: uPlanner, Peru
uPlanner, one of our Partner of the Year winners, successfully helped keep more than 300,000 university students across South America connected and learning when schools shut down because of the pandemic.
Watch: Government of Nunavut, Canada
Government agencies used Windows 365 to help deliver critical technology solutions that kept residents and companies connected across the vast and remote region in northern Canada. Read more
Read: AirJaldi, India
In partnership with our Airband Initiative, AirJaldi provides broadband and connectivity to some of the most rural parts of India to help improve livelihoods and help increase access to education, telemedicine services and more.
Watch: Toyota 4T Academy, United States
Toyota’s 4T Academy used HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 to teach students new skills, preparing them for highly skilled jobs right out of high school.
Read: Surface Adaptive Kit
We partnered with the disability community to design this kit which makes our devices more accessible for everyone.
Watch: Lindsey Almeida, United States (Xbox Copilot)
Xbox Copilot enables people like Lindsey Almeida, who has limited mobility, to play the video games she loves with help from others by linking two controllers to work as one.
Read: Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS), Juarez, Mexico
The program, which has now expanded to Mexico, helps build sustainable programs to give students equitable access to computer science education. TEALS also helps educators learn to teach computer science by pairing them with industry volunteers and proven curricula. Learn more
Protect fundamental rights
We unequivocally support the fundamental rights of people, from defending democracy, to addressing systemic racial injustice and inequity, to protecting human rights.
Read: Team Rubicon, United States
The nonprofit set up 169 COVID-19 response sites across the United States in just 30 days, using Dynamics 365 to manage the deployment of thousands of volunteers.
Learn more: i.c.stars, United States
The nonprofit works within Black and African American communities to offer digital skills and workforce development for those wanting a career in technology.
Read: King County Community Vaccination Site, United States
Across the country, nonprofits and local governments relied on the power of volunteers and technology like our Microsoft Vaccination Management platform to expand access to vaccines. Read more
Learn more: Global Vaccine Dashboard
This interactive Power BI dashboard featuring publicly available data on vaccinations, testing and more helps provide a view into COVID-19 trends around the world.
Read: Team REWEBA, Kenya
Students created an IoT-based infant monitoring solution to reduce barriers to crucial infant health care for marginalized communities in Kenya, earning them top honors in our 2021 Imagine Cup competition.
Read: Mount Sinai Health System, United States/Kyabirwa Surgical Centre, Uganda
Surgeons at both hospitals have used mixed reality technology to help communicate during more than 500 surgeries while thousands of miles apart.
Commit to a more sustainable future
We must address climate change for a more sustainable future. That’s why we’ve set ambitious climate goals and have detailed plans to achieve them, while enabling others to use technology to create and achieve their own goals.
Read: BeachBot, Netherlands
This AI-enabled rover uses computer vision, built with our Trove app, to remove cigarette butts, which can poison beach animals and marine life, from beaches in the Netherlands.
Watch: Grupo Bimbo, Mexico
The global prepared foods company is using Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to manage its massive worldwide distribution chain in a sustainable way.
Read: SpaceCows, Australia
This multi-agency partnership is using AI, space technology and indigenous-led knowledge to help solve complex environmental management problems across northern Australia.
Read: APN Cape York/CSIRO, Australia
As part of Microsoft’s AI for Earth program, these agencies are using AI and cloud computing to help protect tens of thousands of baby turtles each year.
Earn trust
Every day, we strive to earn the trust of our customers, employees, the communities we serve and the governments that represent them through a commitment to privacy, security, the responsible use of AI and transparency.
Read: O2matic, Denmark
The company created an AI automated oxygen solution, now available to COPD and COVID-19 patients in their homes, to help reduce the risk for this vulnerable patient group and ease stress on hospital respiratory departments.
Read: Mobile Mentor, New Zealand
One of our Partner of the Year winners, the organization uses telemedicine so hospice workers can better serve their patients and support those patients’ families.
Read: Western Lakes Fire District, United States
This fire district used Microsoft Teams to securely share real-time drone footage with first responders, allowing them to gain critical situational awareness and respond more quickly to emergencies.
Read: Crisis Text Line, United States
Through a partnership between Xbox and the nonprofit Crisis Text Line, free mental health support with a trained counselor is only a text message away for gamers experiencing an emotional crisis.
