Dr. Edna Pasher

Great news! I am very excited and proud to have just signed the MoU between the Israel Smart Cities Institute (ISCI) and ABU DHABI INVESTMENT AUTHORITY. Looking forward to explore the great opportunities emerging for all of us! Together we will succeed!

With my ISCI colleague, Shmuel Be Tovim, we had the honor and pleasure to interview H.E. Tariq Bin Hendi, PhD Director General of Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO). Last month, both the Fintech Community of Israel – City TLV and ISCI signed MoU agreements with ADIO. The fascinating remarks of Dr. Bin Hendi have assured us that, beyond the formal documents, we are heading to a lively and mutually beneficial friendship.

Mr. Shmuel Ben-Tovim

While we develop our relations with our new friends in The Emirates, most of us are under the impression that Israel will play the role of technology provider, while our colleagues will supply the funding. Like any other generalization, this one is also far from being true. Smart Cities is a good example. Just take a quick look at the Smart Dubai 2021 website and you will begin to appreciate the impressive and bold steps that the UAE government has already taken.

And the jewel in the crown is the Dubai’s Expo 2020 site, now postponed to 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, to be transformed into a smart city to test new technology.

There are definitely many opportunities for ISCI and for Israel Smart City technology, but the foundations are already very impressive!

Mr. Daniel Morgenstern

Smart city must reduce radically its municipal solid waste, due to lack of landfills capacity, peak price of handling by incineration into energy, climate crisis and the need to save natural resources.

It’s done by combination of pricing and economic tools (bans and taxes), information and education towards the famous 4 “R”s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover (to energy), resulting in less waste, better utilization and lower cost to the city budget and the single habitant. Implementing the circular economy ideology, we find, is the most convincing solution for the really smart cities.

Mr. Yossi Golan

Recently we have in hand the ability to achieve a healthier city by broadly controlling the cellular radiation levels for residents and making sure there are no radiation anomalies in any area in the city especially prior to the installation of a 5th generation system.

We developed a system that displays cellular radiation maps that allow close monitoring and control of dangerous and problematic abnormal radiation levels in the city. The system produces a radiation map of all the radiating antennas of the cellular network operators one by one and a radiation map of all of them together in all frequency ranges and at each point in the city.

The radiation maps will be prepared and presented to the mayor and the municipal administration and will be expanded and detailed after appropriate measurements of the radiation in the city have been made.

An urgent need to exapulate from “complexity science”

Dr. Boaz Tadmor

The Covid-19 pandemic is an alarm, a red flag to the conventional, developed, technological, academic current medicinal approach and thinking. It brings new challenges and mandates new thinking and new paradigms of executing future medicine.

We believe that there is an urgent need to exapulate from “complexity science” to understand the complexity of this pandemic.

The new ecosystem created by the pandemic within the city, in and out of its hospitals (Including the home and the community), should be treated according to the “complex adaptive system” approach. The emergence of new teaming, new physiological approaches and continuity of care, should help for new understanding and new ways to win the battle.

Mr.Yossi Pasher

From the experience in training of people in many different organizations, It is clear to me that the need for soft skills within a municipality is essential for its staff to provide the best possible services to the city and its residents. There is no Application or any other smart or advanced technical solution, that can replace a dedicated, trained, communicative, creative and when needed- empathetic municipal staff. There is no magic to that- consistent training and managing of these soft skills will provide the results needed.

Soft skills are a cluster of productive personality traits that characterize one’s relationships in a milieu. These skills can include social graces, communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy, and time management.

Some of these soft skills that are highly needed within a municipality are effective communication, strong leadership within the municipality, Improved, creative and problem solving and a better teamwork.

Dr. Zvi Weinstein

One thing I’d like to share, in my field, with regards to Smart cities, is the notion of making use of terms that SMART CITY professionals should always remember: awareness, collective intelligence, intention, co-initiated, open mind, open heart, empathy, open will, consciousness, scale jump.

Without these, a city becomes technologically advanced, but not smart in the full and deep sense of this expression.

Dr. Edna Pasher

We are excited to introduce the World as a Classroom Program, designed and led by myself and by my colleague Shai Gershon, and Inspired by the “City as Classroom” concept by Marshall McLuhan, Eric Mcluhan and Kathryn Hutchon.

Our vision

We are in the era of the knowledge revolution. We need to enable students from all over the world to experience and develop the skills required for an employee and citizen in the New World.

Our strategy

The “World as a Classroom” program enables students to have relevant learning with real-life issues. It enables learning that brings together cultures, ideas, entrepreneurship and innovation.

In the “World as a Classroom” program, learners identify a real need in the world, research it, and work in international teams to find a solution.

All in one global classroom.

Today’s students are the leaders of tomorrow. The world as a classroom is the opportunity to change the world.

Hannah Hertzman

Smart and effective early childhood digital education, is one of the main goals of a smart city. It is important that exposure to this world is controlled, limited, effective and beneficial.

I am fortunate to have had the experience and in-depth understanding – as a person that lead the creation of a children’s focused city (Holon), and as a participant in other children focused projects, of this issue. I can state with conviction that investing in this young age group will create a generation that will operate in the virtual world in an intelligent and smart way, and will be ready to lead the smart city into an even better future.

Rachel Pasher Eijkenaar

Our Knowledge and Intellectual Property within the municipality pilot in the city of Givatayim, that I have been leading with Dr. Edna Pasher, has moved forward in the past month.

With the help of the dedicated municipal staff, to whom we are grateful, we are recruiting volunteers within the municipality – that will carry the task of admins of the Givatayim “INNOVATION PAGE” at the city’s website. ISCI are intrigued once again from the unlimited potential of innovation, knowledge and IP within the municipality. We once again experience the importance of getting the actual

people that are on the ground – to feel passionate about any SMART CITY project- in order for it to take off. We will keep you updated.

Learn more about the Givatayim municipality initiative: Knowledge and IP assets within the municipality