About me
Hello! I’m Gigi Sung, a geospatial analyst and urban planner with a passion for harnessing technology and data to foster equitable, resilient, and sustainable urban development. My work revolves around one key question: How do we weave data-driven methods into daily public services for communities with vastly different resource levels?
After earning my master’s degree at the Harvard University, I joined the World Health Organization (EMRO), where I focus on spatial data science to address critical public health issues. My projects span from modeling climate–disease dynamics in Yemen to creating GIS-based emergency response strategies in Afghanistan. Along the way, I’ve:
- Developed the PopEstimationModel—an open-source machine learning tool that rapidly estimates refugee camp populations using high-resolution satellite imagery.
- Led predictive modeling efforts for climate-induced vector-borne diseases, enhancing WHO’s early-warning capabilities for dengue and other outbreaks.
- Spearheaded an LLM-based RAG agent for the WHO GIS Portal, using LangChain to improve risk assessment accuracy and data retrieval from WHO documents with minimal hallucination.
- Advised on policy and national GIS roadmaps, helping ministries and country offices integrate geospatial intelligence into public health programs.
- Delivered capacity-building training across 13 WHO member states, advocating open data and open-source GIS solutions for stronger data governance and surveillance.
I firmly believe in open data and open-source solutions as catalysts for democratizing analytics and fostering collective progress. At the same time, my work emphasizes balancing quantitative rigor with qualitative understanding—grounding data-driven insights in the human context that shapes urban life. By integrating both analytical depth and empathetic awareness, I aim to develop strategies and frameworks that not only innovate but also include and empower the communities they serve.