DALIAN, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Innovation can be used to benefit the next generation, said Cynthia McCaffrey, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Representative to China at the Summer Davos Forum in the northeast China city of Dalian.

"UNICEF is using technology to tackle epidemics," she said. "In recent years, the availability of detailed data on human behaviour combined with environmental measurements have led to great advances in the computational modeling of epidemics."

UNICEF is developing an open-source platform to collect, combine, analyze, and display real-time information based on data from academic, private sector and open source data.

"Emerging approaches and tools that come about as a result of new technology have an enormous potential to positively impact the lives of children and young people," she said.

For example, UNICEF is using high-resolution satellite imagery and applying deep learning techniques to map every school to provide real-time data that can assess the quality of each school's Internet connectivity in some countries.

UNICEF is working with Microsoft and the University of Cambridge to tackle the education crisis impacting children and young people affected by conflicts and natural disasters, McCaffrey said.

"Under the new collaboration, UNICEF and its partners are working to develop a digital platform that will facilitate learning opportunities for children and young people whose education has been disrupted by crises.

"We want to continue working with Chinese tech companies for partnerships to leverage their digital platforms, cutting edge data security and AI for better ways of programme implementation and efficient on-the-ground solutions for China and Belt and Road countries."