When weather swings or trade routes falter, the ripple effects reach dinner tables and national budgets. We’re making those pressures visible—who can supply, who depends, and where shortfalls may hit first.
Food Power and Food Insecurity
Project Lead: David Yang
What we’re building
- An index and online platform that show, for each country and key commodity, who has bargaining power and who is exposed—based on import dependence, reserve levels, and available substitutes.
- Simulation tools that trace how a drought, conflict, or export ban in one location could ripple through trade networks.
What it enables
- Shared, transparent metrics that help governments and the public see dependency and coercion risk.
- More resilient planning grounded in evidence rather than guesswork.
Climate Change and Volatility in Food Supply: Historical contributions to and future implications for food insecurity
Project Leads: Peter Huybers
What we’re building
- A first, global subnational look at how heat, moisture, and sunlight work together to change harvests.
- Scalable processing so datasets and models improve as new observations arrive.
What it enables
- Clearer insight into where and when production may swing, before shortages bite.
- Smarter investments in adaptation, storage, and trade that cushion communities from climate shocks.
About the AWS Impact Computing Project at HDSI
Launched in 2022, the AWS Impact Computing Project is a collaboration between HDSI and AWS. Together, we are reimagining how data science and high-performance computing can be melded to confront society’s most complex challenges.