Matthew Podolsky is a researcher with the Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions (TIER) Group, UBC, and the Associate Director of Data Analytics with the Development Impact Laboratory, part of the USAID Higher Education Solutions Network. In addition to his two decades of networks research and development, he has been involved in emerging regions technologies for the past 11 years. Through the Berkeley Research Laboratory and the Rural Data Services Group, Intel, he co-developed the Intel Rural Connectivity Platform, an inexpensive long distance wireless platform, and with the TIER Group, UCB, he has been involved in inexpensive rural mobile, long distance wireless, microgrid, and rural electrification technologies. He has conducted and supported field deployments of these technologies across the globe, including India, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. He currently oversees the development of the Mezuri Data Platform and projects in rural electrification and inexpensive low-powered rural cellular communications.