When you walk around the place where you live, most of the times, you feel pretty safe and comfortable, right?
当你在你所住的地方四处走动时，一般情况下，你会觉得很安全也很自在，对吗？
Now imagine if there were land mines buried right here, scattered around, and you'd never know when you might step on one.
现在，想象一下，如果地雷就埋在这里，散布在周围，你永远不会知道你会不会踩到其中一个。
That's how it is for many in my home country, Colombia.
在我的祖国，哥伦比亚，很多人的生活就是如此。
As a result of a 50-year internal armed conflict,
经过了五十年的内部武装冲突，
we have an undetermined number of land mines buried throughout the countryside,
有不知道多少数量的地雷埋在乡间各处，
affecting more than one third of the Colombian population.
影响到超过三分之一的哥伦比亚人口。
These anti-personnel mines are designed to maim, not to kill their targets.
这些杀伤性地雷的设计，是要让目标受重伤残废，而非死亡。
The logic behind this, which is awful,
这背后的逻辑十分可怕，
is that more resources are taken up caring for an injured soldier than dealing with a person who has been killed.
因为照顾伤残的士兵所花费的资源，比处理被杀死的人更多。
I met Adriana Rodriguez about five years ago while I was working for the Colombian government as a documentary filmmaker.
大约在五年前，我认识了阿德瑞娜·罗德里奎兹，当时我在为哥伦比亚政府工作，我是个纪录片制作人。
During the conflict, she was forced to leave her house ... with her kids in her arms.
在冲突期间，她被迫离开了她的家，怀中抱着她的孩子。
One day, one of her neighbors was killed while he stepped on a land mine.
有一天，她一个邻居被炸死了，因为他踩到了一枚地雷。
He was actually inside an abandoned house, not outside, a house exactly like the one Adriana was forced to leave.
其实当时他在一间废弃的房子里面，不是在屋外。阿德瑞娜被迫离开的，也是类似那样子的房子。
Ever since, she has been living with the fear that she, or her children, might step on a land mine.
此后，她一直活在恐惧中，担心她或她的孩子可能会踩到地雷。
You know, the Colombian conflict has been running for so long that neither me nor my mom have seen our country in peace,
哥伦比亚冲突持续了很久，我或是我母亲都没有见过我们的国家有和平的时候。
and for someone like me, who has been living detached from all this suffering, there was only two options:
像我这样的人，过去一直超然生活在这苦难之外，只有两个选项：
either I get used to it, or I can try to change it with all my heart.
我可以习惯它，或是我可以全心全意来改变它。
And I have to admit that for almost 30 years, I was getting used to it, you know?
我得要承认，几乎三十年的时间，让我已经习惯了它。
But something changed for me when I met my wife.
但当我遇见我太太时，改变发生了。
She is a political scientist completely passionate about the Colombian armed conflict.
她是个政治科学家，对于哥伦比亚武装冲突非常有热忱。
She helped me to understand how deeply our country has been affected by land mines and by war.
她协助我了解我们的国家受到地雷及战争的影响有多深。
We decided to come here to the United States in search of new skills
我们决定来到这里，美国，来寻找新技能，
that would enable us to contribute in a fair way to our society, and maybe even help heal it.
让我们能用一种公正的方式来对我们的社会做出贡献，甚至协助治愈它。
While in grad school, I started developing an augmented reality,
在研究所时，我开始开发一种增强现实，
really broad application to help military personnel to deactivate land mines more safely.
应用非常广，它能协助军人用更安全的方式解除地雷。

During that time, I also realized that Colombia is not the only country in the world that has to worry about land mines.
在那期间，我也了解到哥伦比亚并非世界上唯一要担心地雷的国家。
In fact, more than 58 countries are still contaminated with any sort of explosive device.
事实上，超过58个国家仍然遍布着各种爆破性装置。
Only in 2015, due to an escalation of war in countries like Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen,
直到2015年，因为一些国家的战争情况加剧，例如利比亚、叙利亚、乌克兰和也门，
the number of almost doubled, from 3,695 to 6,461 people. Imagine that.
地雷受害者的数目几乎倍增，从3695人变成6461人。想看看那状况。
While some countries are trying to get rid of land mines, some others are increasing their use.
有些国家在试图摆脱地雷，其他国家却用得更凶。
But what happens when a conflict that involved land mines comes to an end? There are two consequences.
当使用地雷的冲突结束之后，会发生什么事？有两个结果。
On the one hand, the internally displaced population will start returning to their lands,
一方面，国内背井离乡的人口会开始返回家园，
and on the other hand, hidden land mines are going to start exploding more often on the civilian side.
另一方面，隐藏的地雷会更常被平民触发而爆炸。
That's the reason why I decided to join the Computer Science Department at NYU,
那就是为什么我决定加入纽约大学的信息科学系，
along with Professor Claudio Silva to start to develop an app called MineSafe.
和克劳迪奥席尔瓦教授合作，开始开发一个叫做MineSafe的app。
MineSafe uses information from the community
MineSafe用来自社区的信息，
to suggest paths that have been declared as the most transited without accident or incident caused by a land mine.
来建议最常有人通行并且没发生地雷意外的路径。
These traffic patterns can also be used to determine the top priority zones to be de-mined.
这些交通模式也能被用来判定哪些区域最需要扫雷。
Almost 15 million people are living now in the countryside of Colombia.
几乎有一千五百万人现在住在哥伦比亚的乡间。
Imagine, for a moment, if we can crowdsource information from all of them
想象一下，如果我们能向他们全体收集信息，
to help people like Adriana and her children to find safe and reliable paths.
来协助像阿德瑞娜及她的孩子的人，找到安全可靠的路径。
This information can not only be used for that. This information can also help them to become more productive.
这些信息不只能用在这上面。这些信息也能协助他们变得更有生产力。
Farmers will be able to find which lands have been cleared from explosive devices,
农夫将能够知道哪些地方的爆破性装置已经被清除，
and in that way, they will be able to find new, fertile grounds to start growing food again.
这么一来，他们就能找到新的肥沃土地，再次开始种植作物。
MineSafe has now a partnership with the Colombian government for the initial pilot,
MineSafe现在有和哥伦比亚政府合作，来做一个前导计划，
and we have now some connections with Cambodia and Somalia as well.
现在我们也和柬埔寨及索马里有了一些连结。
This project is being funded by private money here in the United States, but we don't want to stop here.
这个项目计划是由美国私人资金所资助的，但我们不想到此为止。
We want to go big, and we want to scale the project to every single place where land mines are still a threat.
我们想做更大，我们要把这个项目计划扩展到每一个受地雷威胁的地方。
The Colombian armed conflict is finally coming to an end, but the consequences of years of war are still buried under our feet.
哥伦比亚武装冲突终于要结束了，但多年战争造成的后果，仍然埋在我们的脚下。
We at MineSafe are working to help both people and land to find peace. Thank you.
我们在MineSafe的这群人，正在努力协助人民以及土地找到和平。谢谢。