{"id":5512,"date":"2020-07-20T16:09:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T23:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=5512"},"modified":"2023-06-20T15:44:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T22:44:48","slug":"retooling-ai-for-earth-grants-with-microsoft-dynamics-365","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/retooling-ai-for-earth-grants-with-microsoft-dynamics-365\/","title":{"rendered":"Retooling AI for Earth grants with Microsoft Dynamics 365"},"content":{"rendered":"
This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Alma Cardenas\u2019s work lies at the intersection of technology and the environment.<\/p>\n
Cardenas and her team support AI for Earth<\/a>, an AI for Good<\/a> initiative that connects grant recipients with the Microsoft cloud and AI technologies to improve how researchers and scientists monitor, model, and manage Earth\u2019s natural systems.<\/p>\n \u201cSupporting scientists who conduct innovative research on the environment using our technology is nothing short of a dream job,\u201d says Cardenas, a senior program manager in Microsoft Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA). \u201cTheir work supports everything from tracking biodiversity using camera traps to understanding how we use our lands. Cloud and AI technologies can help automate some of that and put time back into research.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been three years since AI for Earth\u2019s inception, and Cardenas says that her team currently supports more than 600 grant recipients across 90 countries. With the Microsoft Azure AI tools and cloud computing they need, companies like environmental startups and researchers are taking environmental challenges by storm.<\/p>\n \u201cAI for Earth democratizes the use of data and AI for environmental solutions,\u201d Cardenas says. \u201cWith the funds and access to Azure, environmental organizations can innovate and contribute to a more sustainable world.\u201d<\/p>\n Cardenas hopes to make the AI for Earth grant process straightforward for grantees, but doing so hasn\u2019t always been easy.<\/p>\n \u201cOur program runs like a small startup\u2013we\u2019re a very small team responsible for the grants process end to end, and have to move quickly,\u201d Cardenas says. \u201cWe used a Microsoft Excel sheet to track more than 500 grant recipients, and it quickly became challenging to manage. We couldn\u2019t track everything we needed efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a clear opportunity to use automation to modernize how the team tracks grant applicants and provide a better experience for applicants. Thankfully, an engineering team in Microsoft Digital was ready to take this on.<\/p>\n Their goal?<\/p>\n Build a tool that could manage all AI for Good grant applications, including the one Cardenas used to manage AI for Earth grants.<\/p>\n Developing a modern tool for managing grant applications<\/strong><\/p>\n Gina Sauers, a program manager who oversees CELA projects that use Microsoft Dynamics 365, worked with Cardenas and her team to understand how they managed grant application data.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had to manually take things out of SQL and put it somewhere else to review it,\u201d Sauers says. \u201cIt was clunky and manual, and a lot of the data was incorrect or missing.\u201d<\/p>\n The engineering team built out the back end of the grant application management tool with Microsoft SQL Server. They built the front end using Microsoft Dynamics 365.<\/p>\n