Tech For Good - Issue 09 by NODE

INSIDE THE UNITED NATIONS’ REFUGEES RELIEF WORK A FOCUS ON SAMSUNG’S SUSTAINABILITY DRIVE EXPLORING BENTLEY SYSTEMS’ DIGITAL TWINS DEBATING THE ETHICS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING

ISSUE 09

THE FUTURE OF CITIES Is enough being done to improve the lives of the planet’s urban population? We speak to leaders at the forefront of the smart cities revolution to find out

DANIEL BRIGHAM Content Director

hat does the future of the city hold? That’s the question we’re posing throughout this issue of Tech For Good, as we take a look at how city planners are reacting to the increasing urbanisation of the planet. Jane Jacobs, one of the 20th century’s giants of urbanist literature, wrote in 1961 that “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” Is the rise of the smart city helping to democratise urban living, as Jacobs will have hoped, or will it further marginalise the already marginalised? We explore these issues and more across three features. Robert Mankowski, Senior Vice President of Digital Cities at Bentley

Systems, takes us across the continents to show us a future where sustainability is at the forefront of city living. We also find out how urban public health is becoming an increasingly important issue in the face of a global pandemic, while CityZenith’s CEO Michael Jansen tells us what action is needed to drive real urban change. Elsewhere, we find out how the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has had to get innovative to transform the lives of refugees, Samsung’s Head of Sustainability in the UK, Kevin Considine, tells us about the importance of collaboration to reach sustainability targets, and we speak to 13-year-old coder Anna Miller, a top 20 finalist in Time’s Kid of the Year. I hope you enjoy the issue!

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CONTENTS 06

From space travel to wind farms, we round up the latest news

Inside Samsung’s collaborative approach to sustainability

Bentley Systems takes us on a tour of the future city

Is genetic engineering ethical?

GLOBAL NEWS

SMART CITIES

Why urban public health must become a priority

SMART CITIES

CityZenith’s Michael Jansen on powering zero-emission buildings

ENVIRONMENT

GOOD OR BAD?

EDUCATION

Could the lectures of the future be led by holograms?

TEEN TECH STORIES A chat with 13-year-old Anna Miller

SOCIAL GOOD

The UN’s digital mission to transform the lives of refugees

GLOBAL GOOD

Ghana to relax telecom licensing rules to expand internet access across the country Ghana has announced its plans to broaden the scope of its telecommunications licenses to increase the spectrum available to mobile operators and reduce its consumer data costs. At the moment, Ghana’s licenses are tied to a specific spectrum. The new rules will put an end to this and make the internet more accessible and affordable for the local population.

NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully lands on Mars After almost seven months of travelling through the galaxy, NASA’s rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology lab ever sent to another world, has successfully landed on Mars. Perseverance’s mission is to spend the next two years looking for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. The rover has landed in a deep crater near the planet’s equator called Jezero.

GLOBAL GOOD In case you missed them, we’ve debriefed six of the most interesting Tech For Good stories from the last four weeks 6

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Facebook Marketplace ads illegally selling Brazilian Amazon rainforest plots The BBC has reported that areas of the Amazon rainforest are being sold illegally on Facebook through its Marketplace. Facebook has suggested it won’t take action of its own but it will “work with local authorities”. Protected areas in national forests, as well as land reserved for indigenous people, are being listed. Much of the land is being sold to cattle ranches.

NEWS DEBRIEF

World Economic Forum launches alliance on digital inequality

Singapore will use blockchain to verify COVID-19 test results

The World Economic Forum has launched the Essential Digital Infrastructure and Services Network to close the digital divide. Known as the EDISON Alliance, it will encourage collaboration between the tech industry and governments to find solutions for addressing digital inequality. The Alliance’s initial focus will be on increasing inclusion in healthcare, education and financial services.

Singapore has developed a blockchainbased system for verifying COVID-19 test results. The new standard protects the verification of globally interoperable health documents. Known as HelathCerts, the system is built to be part of an open-source framework. Singapore officials also believe HealthCerts could be used for vaccine certificates. The same tech currently verifies university degrees.

South Korea to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm The government of South Korea has unveiled its $43 billion plan to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm. The wind facility will be built by 2030 and produce 8.4GW. The project is part of South Korea’s Green New Deal, which aims to make the country carbon-neutral by 2050. “With this project, we are accelerating the eco-friendly energy transition,” South Korea’s President Moon has said.

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PUBLIC SECTOR

A TALE OF TWIN CITIES What will the cities of the future look like? Robert Mankowski, Senior Vice President of Digital Cities at Bentley Systems, takes Tech for Good for a tour of Porto, London, Shaoxing and Kalasatama and reveals how digital twin technology can be used to design smarter, resilient and more sustainable cities

AUTHOR: Beatriz Valero de Urquía

TECH FOR GOOD

SMART CITIES: A TALE OF TWIN CITIES

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ities are living systems, and they are growing at a lightning pace. While 2007 was the year when, for the first time in history, over 50% of the world’s population lived in urban areas, this number is predicted to rise to 68% by 2050, according to the United Nations. In less than 30 years’ time, cities all over the world will have to accommodate seven billion people and therefore see significant change. Over the last century, cities have adapted to the modern world. They have become more and more complex to accommodate innovations such as

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cars, public transport, streetlights, and water and sewage systems. However, although technological advancements are a huge reason why cities change, they have also become a fundamental tool for managing that growing complexity. Digital twin technology is one of the tools that public bodies are leveraging in order to design and construct the smart, resilient and more sustainable cities of the future. A digital twin is a virtual replica of a process, system or asset. It combines information and operation technologies to provide a holistic and up-to-date

SMART CITIES: A TALE OF TWIN CITIES

view of that asset in the virtual world. NASA was one of the first ones to use this technology, and it was only thanks to Apollo 13’s digital twin that engineers on Earth could identify the failure on the spacecraft’s oxygen tank and rescue the mission. However, digital twins are not static reproductions. “The virtual replica is connected to the physical process or system or assets, and so those data flows go both ways,” says Robert Mankowski, Senior Vice President of the Digital Cities Business at Bentley Systems. “You have the virtual world, that you are using to

evaluate scenarios and make decisions but, ultimately, those decisions result in actions in the real world. And then, since you’re sensing what’s happening in the physical world, that data becomes part of the virtual twin, creating a cycle.” Bentley Systems is a company that provides innovative software solutions to advance the world’s infrastructure, and generates annual revenues of over $800 million in the process. Its Digital Cities business focuses on helping public bodies and urban ecosystems leverage digital twin technology to improve the design, construction, and operations of its roads, bridges, railways, water, wastewater and utility systems, among many others. The goal is to enhance the quality of life of citizens. “A city is a collection of systems, and they are all connected,” Mankowski says. “You have electricity providers, telecommunications, transportation, safety, health services; cities have all these different departments that are each running their systems, and a digital twin can help bring all of these information systems together into a more holistic view of the city.” Digital twins have endless use cases. In city planning, they can simulate the movement of people for emergency evacuations, monitor and predict air ISSUE 09

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quality, analyse cyber threats and model road traffic, flooding risks, energy management and smart building design. By 2025, it is expected that over 5,000 cities will have a digital twin, according to ABI Research. The Nordic countries have long past embraced cities’ digital future and are using digital twin technology to realise it. The best example of this is in Finland, with Helsinki 3D Plus. 12

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“Helsinki has been using Bentley technology to build 3D models of the city for decades,” Mankowski says. “The most recent version of this is what they call Helsinki 3D Plus, which brings together a couple of models of the city. One of them is based on Bentley technology called ContextCapture. ContextCapture uses automated photogrammetry; it takes photographs and laser scans to reconstruct the geometry of

SMART CITIES: A TALE OF TWIN CITIES

Cities have all these different departments that are each running their own systems, and a digital twin can help bring all of these information systems together into a more holistic view of the city”

the city. And they’re bringing this 3D model together with a model based on CityGML, which an open standard from the Open Geospatial Consortium, which contains more information and semantics about what’s going on with the objects in the city.” ContextCapture provides cities with a 3D reality mesh, a model of real-world conditions in which each digital component can be automat-

ically recognised and geospatially referenced. These models are particularly useful in the making of design, construction, and operations decisions. Helsinki is leveraging this technology alongside Bentley’s OpenCities Planner platform to create a digital twin of its city, but also specifically in the Kalasatama district, which has become an “experimental district for smart city technologies”. ISSUE 09

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Kalasatama really opens up the urban planning process to all stakeholders, so that they can participate in a more inclusive way” Robert Mankowski

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Kalasatama has been designed as a pilot project, a living experiment to test innovative solutions that will drive Finland’s vision of achieving a carbon-neutral Helsinki by 2035. All its buildings are connected to a smart grid, which enables real-time smart metering, an electric vehicles network and new storage solutions for electricity. A solar power plant provides green energy for the district, which is connected to a common heating and cooling grid. Moreover, the entire community is connected to an underground air-tube system for waste management. All of these innovative systems that run through Kalasatama could not be designed and managed without a clear understanding of how the district looks and behaves, and that is what Bentley’s digital twin technology allows. Nonetheless, the key to Kalasatama’s success is not technical, but cultural. “When we talk about change, there’s obviously the technology side of it, but there’s also the people and process side,” Mankowski says. “I think Helsinki is a really good example of that. They made the culture to be much more oriented around having your decisions informed by data. They wanted to change the culture so that, when

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a city department or someone in the city ecosystems - whether it is an engineering firm, a survey firm, a university or an architect - wants to understand a part of the city, they go to the digital twin and they can access the data. And that’s a cultural change that needed to take place before you can really take full advantage of the technology.” This cultural change permeates all levels of Kalasamata’s design, from decision-makers down to citizens. The city was planned in close co-operation with over 200 stakeholders including residents, companies, city officials and researchers. Through Bentley’s

OpenCities Planner platform, the district’s digital twin and its design plans have been made available to the public, allowing stakeholders and citizens to actively participate in the urban planning process. “Kalasatama really opens up the urban planning process to all stakeholders, so that they can participate in a more inclusive way,” Mankowski says. “The OpenCities Planner application has a way of being configured so that you can create forms that people can interact with and crowdsource ideas about what can be improved in the city. That can be something as simple as

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someone noting that there’s a pothole in the street at a certain location, or something as big as a solar power plant.” But how do you start this cultural change? Rome wasn’t built in one day, and neither was Kalasatama. Helsinki’s smart city initiative is still only a pilot, and its design and construction will take many years. This is one of the reasons that public bodies struggle when taking the step to create a digital twin. Largescale smart modernisation projects such as Helsinki 3D Plus often require large amounts of funding and enthusiasm that are difficult to find, although not impossible. “Some of the advice that I provide is that you don’t have to tackle everything at once,” Mankowski says. “We see that even with a water system. A water system, although it’s one big system, can often be thought of as a set of connected systems: potable water distribution, sanitary sewage collection and disposal and treatment, stormwater management. You can start with one of those systems and use 3D models to make predictions and determine the benefits of bringing this information together. You can work it out on a smaller scale, which is faster to get value from, and learn the lessons 16

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for the challenges you’ll face scaling it out to the whole city or water system.” A great example of using digital twin technology to monitor and manage a water system is Bentley’s project in the city of Porto, in Portugal. There, the development of a digital twin for the water system led to improvements in citizens’ quality of life, as it ensured a more sustainable water supply. For example, the technology led to a reduction in the amount of non-revenue water

SMART CITIES: A TALE OF TWIN CITIES

as well as the number of burst pipes, and the time it took to repair them. “Many of the challenges that cities face are also faced by some parts of the city, like a university campus or an airport, or a seaport,” Mankowski says. “Any complex system of systems that has buildings, utilities, transport systems, etc coming together in one environment can benefit from using digital twins to have a better understanding of how that environment works and behaves.”

In this sense, universities are like small cities. Mankowski’s team has supported and overseen the development of a digital twin of the Royal Holloway University of London campus. The university used mobile scanning, which includes both photogrammetry and lidar technology and brought it together alongside their bin data and metadata in Bentley’s Orbit GT environment. Orbit GT allows stakeholders to view all the data in one single ISSUE 09

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place, without the need for specialised software, allowing them to make better-informed decisions. Another situation where digital twin technology is extremely useful is in the design of underground transportation networks, particularly in cities with rich historical heritage or difficult geographical locations. This is the case of Shaoxing’s new Urban Rail Transit Line 1, the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history. With more than 2,500 years of history, Shaoxing is one of the oldest cities in China. Protecting the remains of Shaoxing’s ancient buildings, and constructing in 18

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a 21-square-kilometre area known for abundant rainfall and with numerous lakes and rivers, cannot be approached without careful planning. “The China project used a broad array of products from Bentley as well as some of their own products that they developed for doing the engineering of the whole project,” Mankowski says. “They used Bentley’s ContextCapture to create that reality mesh and they used OpenRoads, our sub-surface utility engineering projects, to create the 3D bin models of the sub-surface utilities that are along the railway route. Then they also used our iTwin technology to bring

SMART CITIES: A TALE OF TWIN CITIES

all of this together into a digital twin and have a unified view of everything.” All of these projects rest upon the importance of data for informed decision making. They leverage information about a city’s buildings but also the behaviour of its citizens, and how each of the city’s systems are used, to understand how to improve them. However, when one has access to this rich pool of data, concerns arise regarding its protection. “Public bodies should be concerned,” Mankowski says. “They have a responsibility to the citizens and to the city to keep that data safe and to make sure

that it’s only used for the right purposes. They should ask their providers what they are doing for security and privacy, what platforms they use to manage all this information and whether they comply with standards and have certifications. And their vendors, like Bentley Systems, should have good answers to that. But I don’t want to be misconstrued and suggest that that means that they shouldn’t embark on a digital twin opportunity, because I obviously don’t think that. “Another important aspect is the balance between being private and

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Public bodies should be concerned [about data privacy]. They have a responsibility to the citizens and to the city to keep that data safe and to make sure that it’s only used for the right purposes”

TECH FOR GOOD

SMART CITIES: A TALE OF TWIN CITIES

secure but also being open. Using Helsinki as an example, they have a culture of open data. It’s about keeping the data that should be private private, but also making data available so that organisations can use it to provide services that improve the lives of citizens. One of the things that Bentley is doing on the openness front is making a core part of our digital twin platform open-source so that the data is not locked into a specific vendor and others can use it to build applications.” Openness and information sharing will be one of the key drivers of smart cities, according to Mankowski. Digital twin technologies provide an understanding of how citizens behave around cities, allow public authorities to improve energy efficiency, emergency management and overall better quality of life for all. Citizen engagement and collaboration will be key in the design of smarter, safer and more sustainable cities. “It’s hard to predict what will happen, but the one thing we can predict is that things are going to change,” Mankowski says. “As for me, there are enough examples now of how digital twins can help deal with, manage and understand change, and help those decision-makers plan for change and even plant for the unexpected.” ISSUE 09

HEALTHCARE

URBAN AID KIT Smart cities are being embraced by municipalities all over the world, but when it comes to the important matter of urban public health, cities aren’t quite as smart as they could be. Might a sophisticated life-saving medical gadget change that? AUTHOR: Joe Appleton

TECH FOR GOOD

SMART CITIES: URBAN AID KIT

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HEALTHCARE

Demonstrating SALI’s smart healthcare system

here do you start with smart city development? Helpfully, the European Smart Cities research group, a think tank at the Centre of Regional Science at the Vienna University of Technology, has outlined six key themes that smart city development is often based on: Smart Government, Smart Economy, Smart Mobility, Smart Environment, Smart People, and Smart Living. These pillars aim to illustrate the needs and challenges that face modern cities, and for governments and planners to develop smart strategies that can tackle 24

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urban problems in an interconnected, holistic way. Variations of these themes occur but most categories will fall under the same umbrella. Smart Living, the category most concerned with urban public health, is the pillar that has been cast in the spotlight over the last 12 months. The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched medical resources in many of the world’s cities. Hospitals have been overwhelmed, key workers have faced shortages of important medical supplies, and the services of first responders have been stretched to breaking point. Unfortunately,

SMART CITIES: URBAN AID KIT

it has taken a global pandemic to highlight many of the issues that health services face on a daily basis. Even with the roll-out of successful vaccinations, health services will face tougher challenges in the future as urban populations boom. Currently, around 50% of the global population lives in an urban environment. According to the United Nations, that figure is expected to rise to 68% by 2050, which will push cities to breaking point. Access to housing, basic resources, and public services will become increasingly difficult as systems struggle to cope under the weight of rising populations, and one system that’s already under enormous strain is our healthcare. While there’s no one-size-fits-all healthcare solution to solve the woes of tomorrow’s cities, there are a number of exciting innovations that are hoping to take the strain off the health services. Smart health services have drastically improved and smart ideas are constantly being deployed, such as advanced telecare systems, e-health platforms, and assisted living solutions. One of the most versatile solutions is a product called SALI, developed by Israel’s Inovytec Medical Solutions. Unlike many other health solutions that focus on making health records available or digitising health services, SALI

SALI’s deployment has highlighted the importance of a realtime connection between all relevant services during an emergency” focuses on bringing advanced emergency first response care to the public. SALI: A full critical aid system “SALI is a smart healthcare system that will change the way that bystanders can respond to out-of-hospital emergencies,” says Guye Halpern, Inovytec’s VP of Product. It’s a smart piece of gadgetry that can be installed in public areas, equipped with the technology and information to prevent deaths by turning bystanders into first-responders. “Our guess is that there are several million AED [automated external defibrillator] machines in the world,” says Halpern. “And no one is using them. Our research has found that no one is using them because of three important reasons. First of all, people are afraid of them because they’re afraid to cause ISSUE 09

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a scene. Experience has taught us that 99.9% of the time, the first responder person at the scene of an emergency will be an untrained caregiver that’s unaccustomed to the situation - and they’re afraid, and for good reason. “Secondly, these first responders are reluctant to use an AED because they ask themselves ‘can I cause more damage by using this?’ Lastly, a first responder will ask themselves ‘can I harm myself by using this?’” According to Inovytec’s research, Israel has a high-percentage of AED use when compared with other countries, but even then the actual figures are astonishingly low. “We’re not talking hundreds; we’re talking dozens of uses,” says Halpern. “And here in Israel, we have approximately between 8,000 and 9,000 deaths per year from what we call ‘shockable rhythm’.” These are deaths that could have been prevented with AED intervention. But SALI is not just an AED. It has defibrillation abilities, but it’s more than an AED. It can be used to open airways, administer oxygen, and perform a wide range of first response medical tasks, while simultaneously connecting with the local or national dispatch to summon an appropriate ambulance and providing vital information to the dispatch operative, while 26

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also talking bystanders through the steps to perform essential first aid. The SALI machine makes the decisions for the operator, with detailed instructions or telephone guided advice. “Currently, we’re the only device that can offer telephone-guided CPR,” says Halpern. “As a bystander, all you have to do is follow SALI’s advice.” Usability tests conducted by Inovytec discovered that 94% of the people who were tested were able to use the device within minutes, with absolutely

SMART CITIES: URBAN AID KIT

no training at all. It was on the strength of the product’s usability that led the Romanian government to deploy almost 400 SALI units across the country. “The reason that the Romanian government chose SALI is that they wanted to have the ability to react to any situation, in real time,” says Halpern. “It’s connected to the national dispatch, and no matter where the system is deployed, it will automatically contact the national dispatch when in use.”

SALI was also piloted in Marburg, Germany. It was adopted by the local dispatch and Red Cross services, and the trial was a successful proof of concept that showed that the use of SALI could significantly lower emergency response time by as much as six-anda-half minutes in some cases, with an average response time of just a minute and a half. The results are promising, but delivering accessible first aid is just one side of SALI’s ability to improve urban ISSUE 09

HEALTHCARE

Inovytec’s plan is to streamline the Chain of Survival, a medical principal that lists a series of actions that can reduce mortality in emergency situations” public health. It’s also a smart device that transmits important information, and its deployment has highlighted the importance of a connection between all relevant services during an emergency. For example, dispatch professionals are often tasked with selecting the type of ambulance that responds to a situation. Generally, ambulances fall into two categories: basic life support ambulances and advanced life support ambulances. Currently, a dispatch operator can only make decisions based on information given by an emergency caller. Given the lack of accurate data, it’s not uncommon for dispatchers to send the wrong type of ambulance, or send an advanced unit when only a basic one is required. However, with a device like SALI that can transmit vital signs and a patient’s condition to the dispatch centre, it gives operators a clearer picture of the situation. This allows for better 28

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decision-making and a more efficient allocation of resources. Streamlining the Chain of Survival Streamlining public services is at the heart of modern smart city development, and any system that can help take the burden off public health services would be a welcome addition to any city. While the failures have grabbed the headlines, the success stories are encouraging to smart city advocates. “To solve any urban problem, you need to generate and share data,” says Halpern. “The cities that were able to react the best to the current situation were those that could operate with all the different elements and integrate their systems. When it comes to healthcare, this is where we excel. We no longer have the luxury to not stay connected.” Inovytec’s plan is to streamline the Chain of Survival, a medical principle

SMART CITIES: URBAN AID KIT

that lists a series of actions that can reduce mortality in emergency situations. It is a concept that’s mainly associated with cardiac arrest, but with a device like SALI, it’s possible to use the same principles to prevent a wider range of medical problems. The traditional Chain of Survival concept has different interpretations, but it starts with setting up an atmosphere to recognise an emergency, followed by calling for the emergency services, a first responder administering CPR, or using an AED, before handing the patient over to a paramedic, and finally being brought to hospital for treatment.

The system will automatically call for an ambulance, giving the correct data for a dispatcher to make an informed decision, and instructing an untrained member of the public to perform advanced first aid. By streamlining the Chain of Survival, resources can be better allocated, and lives can be saved. Using modern technology to improve public health is crucial if cities plan to become more sustainable and liveable in future. Is regulation stifling innovation? To better understand how urban public health falls into the wider smart city

Thomas Müller and Alexander Gelsin, Bee Smart City ISSUE 09

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plan, Tech For Good spoke to Thomas Müller and Alexander Gelsin, founding partners of Germany’s Bee Smart City, a smart city consultancy and global idea sharing platform. “We believe that the pandemic has just been one more tipping point for cities to recognise how important the topic of urban public health is for ensuring liveability for their residents,” says Müller. “In light of climate change and other environmental and social changes, the topic has gained momentum over the recent years.” Gelsin agrees. “The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown how important the provision of smart solutions in urban public health are.” Progress is being made, with inventions like SALI, and with other innovative programmes such as Barcelona’s pioneering telecare medical system, which reaches over 20,000 people over the age of 75 who are living on their own in the city, or Taiwan’s Personal Health Record OS system, a blockchain platform that allows healthcare providers and patients to access their secured medical records in a safe and secure manner. Despite these successes, medical and health-related solutions are not as plentiful as those in other areas. “The development of smart healthcare solutions has not been one of the 30

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top priorities from a local government perspective in recent years, when considering smart city development,” says Müller. “The healthcare system is very complex indeed, which makes the development of solutions difficult. “Certification, approval, and regulation by health insurance companies, clinics and other stakeholders are a necessary and important prerequisite for health-related solutions. Different healthcare systems around the globe represent a barrier for the sharing and replication of solutions. This can be challenging.” 32

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Halpern agrees that regulation can be a large obstacle for both innovators and governments to overcome, but it’s a necessary one. “Regulation is a good thing,” he says. “We need to be regulated. It’s a positive thing, but of course it can be seen as a bother, and it can be a slow process, but we need to do it. For that reason, the SALI system has the same standards as any other medical device, and has been approved in the same way.” It makes sense, since the point of SALI is its ability to transform bystanders into first responders, and

SMART CITIES: URBAN AID KIT

The cities that were able to react the best to the current situation were those that could operate with all the different elements and integrate their systems. We no longer have the luxury to not stay connected”

when it comes to providing advanced medical assistance, regulation is crucial. However, even with smart devices like these, urban public hasn’t been a major priority. Covid-19 may have changed that. “The health of residents is a key element for a city’s liveability,” says Halpern. “We are seeing a growing interest from cities, research institutions and private sector companies in urban public health. In light of the pandemic, we already see that cities are ramping up emergency response procedures and also rethinking access to, and the provi-

sion of, health services from a spatial and digital perspective.” Thanks to innovations like SALI and interest from governments, hopefully the future will make urban public health a higher priority so that when the next health crisis arrives, we are ready to face it head on.

Joe Appleton is a freelance journalist, writer, and author, who focusses on smart city development. He has a particular interest in smart mobility and sustainable living. ISSUE 09

EXPERT INSIGHT

EXPERT INSIGHT:

Digital Twins

Michael Jansen, CEO of CityZenith, is a global leader in the 5D smart cities and digital twins sector. Back in 2009, his vision was to create a single common platform to help large-scale building projects be successful by leveraging data. Now his company is using AIpowered software to enable zeroemission buildings, with a mission to drive change globally

rowth in the digital twins sector is astounding. The market, which was valued at $4 billion, is projected to be $45 billion in just a few years and its time has well and truly come – and now it’s time to think about digital twins on an urban scale. Success of digital twins (virtual replicas of physical devices used by data scientists and IT professionals to run simulations before actual devices are built and deployed) in the manufacturing industry in particular has helped propel the deployment of the technology across other sectors, including the building

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SMART CITIES: MICHAEL JANSEN

industry where CityZenith focuses. There has been a lot of work in the manufacturing sector for the best part of 10 years which is now being translated across multiple other sectors. The convergence of technology and technology standards has also helped, as well as the awareness that there exists massive amounts of data which is unstructured and unused. Digital twins and artificial intelligence (AI) combine to provide a way to use big data. Both of those are not synonymous but they’re interrelated. AI is the software behind the using of the data, inside the twin to predict outcomes, using various methodologies. Digital twins are basically a farm, or a library of sorts, for artificial intelligence applications so they structure all that complex data in one format, or environment. It then becomes easy to build AI-based apps to draw upon this giant library of data. And because there is so much and so many types of data, the AI solutions which can be derived are more varied, more sophisticated and more accurate. So one enables the other and this combination can help lead the drive towards Net Zero or carbon neutrality. With climate change being such a major global agenda right now and cities producing 75% of the world’s carbon emissions, suddenly cities and their carbon emissions become a focus.

The need for cities to develop ways to go Net Zero, which is very complicated but also very doable, now has become an imperative” The need for cities to develop ways to go Net Zero, which is very complicated but also very doable, now has become an imperative and digital twins is seen as an organising framework for that decarbonisation agenda. I believe that digital twins will be the best way as they’re inherently good at dealing with massive complexity and then typifying for multiple collaborators in visual terms. They also can run incredible simulations at scale unlike other techs underneath digital twins. Ideally, you would want to see organisations like C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the UN Global Compact of Paris and others pushing the need for a global digital twin platform for the world’s major cities. If you take the top 100 cities, you’re solving two-thirds ISSUE 09

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In the smart city sector, there all kinds of slogans and promises and not so many concrete examples of executed change with measurable results”

of the world’s problems by taking into account those cities alone and the world has more than 10,000 cities overall. That’s why CityZenith has launched the ‘Clean Cities – Clean Future’ campaign. The purpose is to leave cities with a bold climate resilience agenda. Some 40-70% of carbon emissions in any given city today come from buildings and infrastructure and we want to showcase the technology and what it can do, and specifically the application of helping these cities decarbonise buildings and infrastructure. For every million dollars we raise, we will give away one more city model and within the year we will announce all 10 cities ideally. We will be a common forum where we will bring 36

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stakeholders together to test solutions and the goal will be to create the use of digital twins to help building owners and give them access to the tools and the projects they need to assess their carbon footprint and determine the likely best path to carbon neutrality. To break it down: part of it is just an assessment which the Twin can do itself, based on basic geometry and input about the building and its consumption. Another part is to actually expose the building owners to a network of service providers who can actually go on and do that work. Third, is exposing them to carbon offset markets to buy carbon credits to offset the remaining dependence on fossil fuels. That’s the thesis

SMART CITIES: MICHAEL JANSEN

and we’re going to test the thesis across multiple cities. We’ll be working with city networks, cities themselves, private companies too, keeping things controlled but with enough elements involved that we get to a robust conclusion. Everyone knows we need to reduce carbon emissions by 2050, and I hope this effort will demonstrate the clear need for a platform – and demonstrate that one already exists which can scale. As a company, we then hope that becomes the head of the trojan horse which ultimately allows cities to adopt this tech at scale. An outcome of “we brought it indoors to fix our climate problem, but now we use it for everything” would be ideal.

There are other use cases, such as emergency services. For example, if the fire department had a digital twin of the entire city, with 3D models of every building with floor plans attached, they could plan in advance their attack strategy based on that information. You also have security, risk and threat assessment; access and egress assessment; event planning. Every city has major sports events and arenas, and a need for getting people in and out safely. All this could be done using IoT; using this technology with the right integration has some incredible possibilities. Ultimately, though, what will drive change is concrete examples of success. In the smart city sector, there are all kinds of slogans and promises and not so many concrete examples of executed change with measurable results. What will really make this fly is the money – explaining how the money works and pooling the wisdom of these cities around their more successful incentive programs. What may work for one city may or may not work for another city, for a variety of reasons, but if there was a menu of financial solutions which made it viable for commercial building owners to do this, then it would make more sense. Our goal is to go out there and get real answers and then promote it. ISSUE 09

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THE UN’S REFUGEE MISSION

THE UN’S REFUGEE MISSION Best known for its welfare work, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has spent much of the pandemic looking for innovative ways to digitally transform refugees’ lives for the better. We find out how

AUTHOR: Karl Wright

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SOCIAL GOOD

ne of things I am most proud of,” says Kaan Cetinturk, “is the IT Service Centre in Gaza.” Cetinturk is the CIO & Director of Information Management and Technology at UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Created in 1949, UNRWA provides relief and development assistance to the almost six million Palestinian refugees. A technologist with two decades of experience in change management and digital transformation, Cetinturk is most passionate when he talks about the human triumphs which technology can enable. This is nowhere more evident than when he speaks of the IT Service 40

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Centre (ITSC), a technology hub which he and his agency set up in Gaza and which now provides IT services not only to UNRWA but to many other parts of the United Nations. “At UNRWA, we’re already well into our own digital transformation,” he says. “And the deeper we got into it, the more obvious it became that we needed to bring in people with new skills and the technologies to support those skills. We had a choice. We could find those people in Europe or North America. But from working with young Palestinians, I knew that many had outstanding technology skills. And the unemployment rate in Gaza

THE UN’S REFUGEE MISSION

is 50%, the highest in the world. Why wouldn’t we create the IT resource we needed in Gaza?” So, in 2020, UNRWA created the ITSC, hiring Gazan youths in roles in IT support services and cybersecurity. “The centre is bringing high-quality opportunities and employment to young people in Gaza,” says Cetinturk. “Today, we employ about 60 people and we hope that number will rise soon.” A history of providing support and hope Founded in the wake of the first war between Israel and the Palestinians, the mission of UNRWA is to provide assistance and support to the Palestinian refugees who were displaced to the Palestinian territories and neighbouring countries. It currently has operations in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Many of the people for whom it provides assistance are third- or fourth-generation refugees, part of the world’s largest stateless population. Without the work of UNRWA, these people would often lack even the most basic of services and would enjoy very little opportunity. The agency provides everything from education, through health right up to social services and even sports and cultural facilities.

The IT Service Centre is bringing highquality opportunities and employment to young people in Gaza. Today, we employ about 60 people and we hope that number will rise soon” Kaan Cetinturk

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SOCIAL GOOD

“We run primary healthcare for over three and a half million people,” says Cetinturk. “We operate 44 health centres. UNRWA also provides primary, secondary and vocational education. That includes operating over 700 schools for over half a million pupils. Other services we deliver include micro-financing to start-up businesses, social services, infrastructure development and more. And, of course, as with any large-scale endeavour in the 21st century, technology has a large part to play in how we carry out our role.” Often, public-sector organisations are behind the market in the adoption of new technologies. With UNRWA, this has not always been the case. In some

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fields, the agency is a leader in digital transformation. In 2009, it launched UNRWA e-Health, a patient record system that gives clinicians instant access to all the information they require to treat someone effectively. The system has been an important part of the agency’s efforts to improve refugees’ lives and to make its own resources go as far as possible. Not content with simply automating and streamlining its record-keeping and information-sharing, the agency is also a world-innovator in providing clinicians with up-to-date diagnostics. Working with the World Health Organization (WHO), it integrated e-Health with relevant WHO systems. This means

THE UN’S REFUGEE MISSION

We have to give these kids a high-quality education. That’s non-negotiable. And technology has a real and important role to play in that” that the doctors who treat Palestinian refugees have access, often even before their counterparts in some of the world’s most developed countries, to the very latest diagnostic information and definitions. But like many in-house systems developed in the early 2000s, e-Health is beginning to show its age. “The system was pioneering for its time,” says Cetinturk, referring to the role of E-Health in reducing paperwork and health-staff workload. “But like all such platforms, eventually it began to hit its limitations. Over time, we’ve built layers of new technology on top of the system’s original functions. But now we want to build disaster recovery into the platform. This was, anyway, our intention, but COVID-19 has underlined its importance. To do this, we need to be able to take advantage of the flexibility offered by the cloud. We’re currently looking for donors and partners to work with us on that project.”

Digitalising in a time of COVID In addition to its use of technology in healthcare, UNRWA also offers technology support and innovation in the schools and colleges under its jurisdiction. It uses technology to provide the 20,000 teachers it employs with instant access to pupil performance records and other relevant information. But keeping up with the needs of students during the pandemic has been challenging. “With COVID, it’s been extremely difficult keeping many of the students engaged,” says Cetinturk. “A lack of devices has been a big problem. In many houses, you have several children sharing a singe mobile phone to do their lessons. We managed to get those lessons online, with good-quality, validated teaching materials. But with one shared device and often a poor Internet connection, it’s easy to see why students find it difficult to stay engaged.” In response to this challenge, UNRWA has been reaching out to find partners ISSUE 09

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who can help it upgrade the experience for the pupils under its care. “We have to give these kids a high-quality education,” says Cetinturk. “That’s non-negotiable. And technology has a real and important role to play in that. That’s why we’re in negotiation with potential providers to deliver connectivity bundles or zero-tariff connections to the households with students. We’re also launching a brand new self-learning platform designed to be accessible on that type of device.” The next challenge for the UNRWA is to move beyond providing technological solutions to specific challenges and 44

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address some of the most fundamental social problems facing Palestinian refugees in all five jurisdictions, particularly those which have complicated the pandemic response. “A lot of the people we help are day workers with no savings and very little job security,” Cetinturk explains. “After a relatively short time, these people were no longer prepared to stay at home. They preferred to take the risk of catching COVID rather than face the certainty of going hungry. This meant that, after having controlled the disease well in its early stages, we were suddenly faced with a surge in infections.”

THE UN’S REFUGEE MISSION

As part of its response to this, UNRWA moved as quickly as it could to put as many of its services online. As well as greater use of telehealth, allowing patients to consult doctors by phone or video to avoid transmission at clinics, the agency digitised other basic services. For instance, when refugees have to interface with the agency to report a change in family status or something else that affects their entitlements, they can now do that online. “COVID-19 has definitely accelerated our digital transformation,” says Cetinturk. “In 2019, we set out a two-year strategy for the first phase of transformation.

This involved creating a solid baseline and fixing all the fundamentals with our platforms. Then in 2020, COVID hit. Now, we’ve already pushed key services online and digitised key elements of our operations. All of that is one of the few good outcomes of the pandemic.” We ask Cetinturk what he plans to do next. He thinks for a moment. “One of the things we’re working on, of which I am most proud, is a scheme to bring opportunities to talented young people from the population we serve. We have so many talented and technologically gifted young people. “We’re working with technology partners to place some of those people, who have come up through our technical and vocational colleges, in technology jobs at leading organisations. The idea is that we will fund their salaries for the first year. We will train them with the skillsets the market wants and then help them find their placement. Our goal is to give them opportunity.”

Karl Wright is a journalist and editor who specialises in writing about technology. He has over two decades’ experience writing about the ways in which technology is changing how we live

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ENVIRONMENT

TECH FOR GOOD

TAKING COLLABORATIVE ACTION

Kevin Considine, Head of Sustainability, Samsung Electronics UK and Ireland, tells Tech For Good why ensuring a sustainable future requires investment and collaboration across a broad spectrum INTERVIEW BY: Daniel Brigham

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ENVIRONMENT

FG: Thanks for joining us, Kevin. First off, tell us about your role at Samsung please. Considine: My role at Samsung is very much focussed on government-relations activity, focussing on the product and also the regulation around the product, and then also compliance with those regulations. So we have a Corporate Social Responsibility team at Samsung, who are doing the socially active lead campaigns. I take the compliance element of it, which is the less glamorous bit but I really enjoy it! My focus and interest in sustainability is very much around the interplay between government, business, and, to an extent, academia. So you need to have an evidence base that underpins action, and then implement a process on how businesses inform and influence governments so that we have effective policy and procedures in place. I have to admit, when I joined Samsung, I didn’t realise how big they were, or the broad spectrum of products that they produced. That was a steep learning curve. I’ve now been with Samsung 10 years, but my interest in environmental sustainability stems back to when I was a child and had an interest in nature and wildlife. I was probably on one of the first Masters courses in the UK that linked sustainability and 48

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Over the last 10 years, what’s been really important is the evidence base for action has been far more developed and far clearer and far more compelling” Kevin Considine

TAKING COLLABORATIVE ACTION

Helping to improve wellbeing business. You started seeing jobs arise in the UK around sustainability at the start of the century, and accelerated from that point onwards. So it’s been a really interesting journey. TFG: So when you joined 10 years ago, was sustainability taken seriously? And how has it changed in those 10 years? Considine: When I first started, my focus was very much on the product, but the

role has expanded significantly. Policy has developed around the end of life for a product. We’ve also had legislation and reporting requirements coming in on climate change, energy, and modern slavery, for example. So the role has developed significantly. I think you see that reflected in targets, which means commitments have changed an awful lot, because the evidence has changed. Stakeholder expectation has also changed. ISSUE 09

ENVIRONMENT

The science on sustainability is constantly evolving and developing. I would say, over the last 10 years, what’s been really important is the evidence base for action has been far more developed and far clearer and far more compelling. TFG: Samsung has talked about a sustainable future requiring investment across a broad spectrum. Can you explain the thinking behind that? Considine: When I think about sustain-

ability, I see it as collaborative action. And I think that will be evidenced later this year at COP26 [United Nations Climate Change Conference] in Glasgow, when you’ll have governments, academics, businesses, trade bodies, NGOs, civil society groups all coming together to try to develop a framework for action to mitigate against the impacts of climate change. That illustrates where collaborative action is required. As a business, we don’t act alone; we work with a variety

Samsung’s upcycling solutions for packaging 50

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TAKING COLLABORATIVE ACTION

of different partners on a variety of different subjects to try to understand and improve both the policies and programmes which we’re developing. An example is we’re working with a UK-based organisation, the Carbon Trust, on a corporate level activity. We’ve been working with them to carbon footprint mobile devices since 2012, looking at what the carbon footprint of those devices is. That has been successful, and has been adopted by semiconductors, both for carbon and for water. So that’s

a good example of where we work with a partner organisation to try to improve our understanding, but also demonstrate how we’re taking action on important issues. And I think, going back to my point, collaboration is the key. We need organisations, we need electronics businesses, to talk to each other on important issues, and we need to talk to governments to ensure that we have effective policies in place. So it is very much a collaborative effort on this. Of course, companies can take specific campaigns and issues and try to lead on them. But ultimately, it works better when it’s a collaborative exercise. Organisations probably find it very easy to tick boxes. So how do you drive that sort of fundamental change with sustainability? Being collaborative shows that Samsung takes it incredibly seriously, because being collaborative takes a lot of banging heads against each other and a lot of work. TFG: So how does that culture get created, where sustainability is taken seriously, rather than it just being a box-ticking exercise? Considine: A lot of it comes from making sure that your senior leadership team takes it very seriously. I think we saw that at CES this year. We talked about sustainability as the first issue, which I thought was really important. ISSUE 09

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As a business, we don’t act alone; we work with a variety of different partners on a variety of different subjects to try to understand and improve both the policies and programmes which we’re developing”

I think this is a really important decade, because we’ve got 1.5 as a clear target [limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade] to achieve, there are Sustainable Development Goals in place, and we’ve got net-zero targets. So it’s really important that we and others have in place the policies and the procedures to deliver against stakeholder expectation. No longer is it possible for companies to talk only about their own programmes and their own commitment; they have 52

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to measure themselves against these global commitments. It’s all very obvious and very compelling. TFG: You’ve talked on the macro level about collaboration, but on a micro level, what is Samsung doing to reduce e-waste? Considine: I think it’s a really important issue, and it always has been. An awful lot has been done both here in the UK and at a European level. But there is the

TAKING COLLABORATIVE ACTION

opportunity now for the UK to take a different approach. There are challenges about collecting the waste at the end of life and making sure that it goes through the right systems so that we as a producer can go and collect it and dispose of it or recycle responsibly. In the UK, we are having a review of the regulations this year and I think there will be greater emphasis on producers and other actors in the supply chain to make sure that they are delivering against the objectives

of the regulations. And there’s a role for recyclers, and there’s a role for waste treatment centres to make sure that not only are they collecting that waste, but they’re recycling to the highest standards that we can have so that material can go back into the product. After all, there’s no point making commitments about post-consumer material when we can’t get access to that material. We’ve also made commitments around our packaging and making sure that it is ISSUE 09

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Samsung is increasing its upcycling on Galaxy phones sourced from renewable or sustainable material. And we’ve tried to take plastic out of our packaging where we can. One of the targets that we have at a corporate level is looking at the product-use phase and making sure that we are continuously improving the energy efficiencies, and the target we had for 2020 was surpassed in 2019. We have clear goals, both related to climate change and the circular 54

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economy. Both of those issues are identified in our 2020 sustainability report as priority issues. And we’ve outlined some commitments around those, and we will deliver against those. TFG: How is AI and the use of robots playing a role in making sustainability targets more realistic? Considine: I’ve been saying for ages that I firmly believe that technology is a key

TAKING COLLABORATIVE ACTION

enabler of a circular economy. And when I say a circular economy, I’m not only talking about products, and resources, and minimising the disposal reuse of productive resources, but also the impact that has on tackling climate change. We have IoT technology, and we’ve made commitments to the use of IoT in our products. Artificial intelligence just ramps it up another level, which is fantastic. We’ve been working on our smart things technology to work with homeowners to get them to better understand the energy use in their home to reduce their costs. For example, we’ve got AI technology in our washing machines and our dryers, which can sense whether the clothes are clean, and then the amount of detergent used, the speed of the cycle, or the water volume, for example, to reduce the energy use. I think that predictive technology has a really important role to play for the consumer, and also for us as a business. We’ll be able to identify when a device is maybe not working properly, so rather than sending someone around with a van, we can self diagnose, and hopefully make the necessary repairs remotely. So I think it opens a whole plethora of opportunities. TFG: There’s always more that can be done, so what more would you like Samsung to be doing around sustainability? Considine: I think what I try to get

The next 10 years are a really important 10 years, not only for Samsung, but for the whole globe. Because we all have to take action” across when people talk about Samsung Electronics, is we are so, so different. We manufacture 90% of our own products, while most companies will outsource production. So how they define their sustainability goals and parameters is very different to how Samsung defines it. And of course, I don’t believe there’s another company that cuts across all the product categories that we do, and they don’t have the scope and scale that we do. So the challenge is much greater for us in many respects. But nonetheless, it’s a challenge that we are able to meet. I come back to the point that it has to be collaborative action to deliver sustainable solutions. Climate change and circular economy will continue to be priority ISSUE 09

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TAKING COLLABORATIVE ACTION

issues going forward, and we will continue to develop solutions to meet our commitments. We are clearly positioning sustainability as a really important issue within the senior leadership team, as demonstrated at CES. And as I say the next 10 years are a really important 10 years, not only for Samsung, but for the whole globe. Because we all have to take action. TFG: To finish on one final broad question, do you believe the tech industry as a whole is doing enough around sustainability? And is there a moral duty for the industry to lead this battle against climate change? Considine: I think it’s a great way to position the industry. We’ve seen with COVID that technology has played a huge part in trying to keep our lives as sane as possible. So we are clearly delivering against that and I remain optimistic that the tech industry will play a leading role in that. If you look at AI technology, and what it can do with regards to smart cities, and decarbonising our homes, Samsung is already very much involved in that through the products it produces. So the tech industry, I think, understands that this is a real opportunity for it and tech will play a huge role in delivering a zero carbon economy. Quite simply, it has to. ISSUE 09

GOOD OR BAD?

GOOD OR

BAD? Great power comes with great responsibility, and that is particularly true of new technologies. Each month, Tech for Good discusses the potential benefits and dangers of technological advances that are coming to market. This month we ask: Is genetic engineering ethical?

AUTHOR: Beatriz Valero de Urquía

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GENETIC ENGINEERING

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umans have been playing around with genes for millions of years, through the process of selective breeding. It’s the reason why most of the fruits and vegetables that we have today are completely different to their original form. However, technology now allows us to add, delete or modify DNA sequences, transforming a species within a generation. Genetic technology is currently being used to diagnose and treat complex diseases such as heart disease, asthma, diabetes and cancer, and it may soon contribute to the eradication of malaria. Moreover, genetically engineered or

GOOD? genetically modified organisms are allowing the production of more resistant crops, that can survive adverse weather, ecological and soil conditions, and help to fight world hunger. So far, genetic engineering has contributed to saving millions of lives, whether from hunger or disease, and has shown no signs of creating any type of harm.

What the expert says: “ When cars were invented, people wrote dire warnings about how the high speed would result in crashes and the loss of human lives. And surely, cars kill people and are dangerous. But nobody thinks about banning cars. People try to build safer cars and safer roads instead of banning the technology. It’s the same with genetic engineering” Adriana Heguy, Director of the NYUMC Genome Technology Center and Professor of Pathology

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GENETIC ENGINEERING

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enetic engineering has the potential to lead to terrible social and ecological consequences. In 2018, the first babies with edited genes were born, after Chinese doctor He Jiankui altered the genes of two embryos without their parents’ consent, raising concerns about the technology’s ethics. Moreover, experts have voiced their fears that genetic engineering could worsen social inequality, as it is extremely expensive. Will high-income countries continue to invest in treating conditions that their own citizens no longer suffer from, even if those of other countries do? Moreover, genetic engineering could also have an unforeseen ecological impact. Once a change is made to a DNA sequence, that mutation is passed on and can transmit between species, with potentially devastating consequences. For example, a genetic modification aimed at ending a plague could be passed on to a species that plays an important role in the food chain, such as bees, it can then be severely disrupted. The impact of editing genes is not something that can be contained or predicted, and it could completely disrupt the balance of the Earth’s ecosystems.

BAD? What the expert says: “ Evolution has been working towards optimising the human genome for 3.85 billion years. Do we really think that some small group of genome tinkerers could do better without all sorts of consequences? There are also issues of equity and justice. Do we want to accept the scenario that only those with financial resources get to ‘improve’ the genomes of their children?” Francis S. Collins, MD, Director of

the U.S. National Institute of Health

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EDUCATION

HOLOGRAM INFLUENCERS While the world has adapted to learning online during the pandemic, the next step in edtech could be even more sci-fi. We speak to Imperial College London and others to assess the likelihood of tutors one day delivering lectures via hologram

AUTHOR: Helena Pozniak

TECH FOR GOOD

HOLOGRAM INFLUENCERS

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EDUCATION

ver since we watched a pocket-sized Princess Leia tell Obi-Wan Kenobi that he is her only hope, we - or Star Wars fans at least - have been enchanted by the magic of holograms. Since then, the likes of Elvis Presley and Tupac Shakur have been brought back to “life” as captivating illusions that trick our brains into thinking we are looking at the real thing on stage. While academics may not have the moves or charisma of a digital 3D Elvis, there’s still an undeniable thrill when they’re beamed live into lecture halls from thousands of miles away. It’s nothing like watching a flat screen or a face on the dead eyes of a Zoom call. You can make eye contact, you can have a face-to-face feel to the encounter, a sense that they are magically there. To really understand their impact, you need to see them in the flesh, says Larry O’Reilly, chief executive of ARHT Media, leaders in hologram technology. “They’re so lifelike, you can’t look away,” he says. “You see the whole person, you get the full body language in a way you can’t on a [flat] screen.” His company has helped beam in academics - and a few celebrities - from around the world, from Hong Kong to New York to the South Pacific islands. With a little helping hand from tech, research scientists from Australia, Greece and Germany appeared on stage 64

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together in holographic form at a virtual European conference last year. But beyond marvelling at the technical wizardry, are holograms actually any use in education? “Feedback shows higher engagement - but most importantly better retention of content when you present holographically,” says O’Reilly – a statement based on extensive feedback from corporate clients. But do they have the edge over, say, videoconferencing and other cheaper and more

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In person, left, virtually in person, right convenient online communications which have soared during the pandemic? This is what a team at Imperial College London is trying to find out. It’s invested in equipment from ARHT Media to experiment with lifesize holograms, who are able to chat live to a real audience. “We were the guinea pigs,” says Andrew Parry, head of media at Imperial’s Edtech Lab. “The interaction is key.” So convincing is the tech, your brain tricks you into believing you are looking

at the real thing - but holograms work best with a live audience, so research has been put on hold by the pandemic. This is the same tech that’s been used to bring award ceremonies to life and beam in numerous presenters to academic conferences from around the world. Experts have taught doctors about medicines and vaccines this way. Early research at Imperial has shown - of course - that students are highly engaged and enjoy better interaction ISSUE 09

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It can give a sense of connection. Holograms are persuasive - but you need facilities and the ability to scale the technology” Matthew Ramirez when watching a hologram. While there’s an undeniable novelty factor, will students learn better in the longer term? “We know a sense of presence is important,” says Dr Nai Li, a senior educational researcher in Imperial’s Edtech Lab. She wants to dig deeper into the enthusiasm of students during their first holographic lectures. “It can give a sense of connection,” says Matthew Ramirez, Future Senior Innovation Developer at Jisc, a technology agency for higher education. “Holograms are persuasive - but you need facilities and the ability to scale the technology.” So how do these projections work? An individual is lit brightly in a studio this could be down the road or the other

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side of the world. A camera is placed a few metres away to record movements while a ceiling microphone captures speech, and these are transmitted via bespoke software similar to that used in commercial streaming. With control over every audio and video stream, ARHT Media’s tech runs as a closed network, allowing sharing of other video and audio streams, meaning subjects from elsewhere can also be included. At the presentation end, a powerful short-throw projector casts a bright, sharp image onto a discrete screen made from a foldable gauze-like material stretched over a frame. Transparent and coated with highly reflective paint, it produces the illusion of a real person in the darkness. That individual can communicate with their live audience, who are transmitted back on a large screen - with just 0.3 seconds of delay. Imperial was able to host a live panel event in London with two guests from Los Angeles and New York, beamed onto the stage alongside other panellists. “The interaction is the magical element - our presentation got a lot of attention,” says Parry. To avoid the hassle of rigging up a screen and background to receive a hologram, ARHT Media has created a mobile backdrop on wheels. Called the ‘holopod’, it can be wheeled on

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and off as required. “Having it set up and ready to go makes it a much more convenient technology,” says O’Reilly. A couple of Singapore-based universities are also beginning to use the technology. “Our main educational clients are business schools and medical schools,” says O’Reilly. “They can interact virtually in real time.” Late last year half a dozen orders for ARHT Media’s tech came in from Chinese universities, and another 10 are in the pipeline. But will more cash-strapped universities invest in tech whose value is still being road tested and which requires studios, technical crew and a live

audience? In the longer term, the potential to stream prestigious lecturers in from around the world is tempting. While the process isn’t carbon free, it certainly saves unnecessary flights - attractive for institutions concerned about their environmental footprint. There are glitches, though. For example, if you’re sat too far to the side of a hologram, or the background is incorrectly lit, it destroys the illusion, and with that goes the potential benefits. There is space though, Ramirez says, for more imagination in lecture halls - though this does rather worry some traditionalists who enjoy the ‘stand and ISSUE 09

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If you can use technology to make students feel they are having some added benefit, such as more engaging ways of presenting information, that could become your unique selling point”

deliver’ lecture format. As ever, entertainment industries are ahead of the game - and the education sector could piggyback on what the visual effects sector has learned. Actors have been interacting with computer-generated sets for years, and these could also be used behind a holographic presence on stage. They could then interact with a backdrop of graphics or digital props, much like a weather presenter explaining turbulence and storms with 68

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the aid of interactive isobars and satellite pictures. “If you can use technology to make students feel they are having some added benefit, such as more engaging ways of presenting information, that could become your unique selling point,” says Ramirez. “Immersive tech will filter into academia and they’ll see already what works and what doesn’t. “It’s a leap of technical faith. Not every lecturer would be comfortable - but

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having that added level of engagement to what has been a traditionally passive exchange would have real benefits.” There is a lot to be said for the element of “presence”, says Michael Cowling, Associate Professor of Information and Communication Technology at Central Queensland University in Australia. Virtual events in the academic world have been relatively dismal affairs this year, Cowling says, and he loves lecturing in person - but only if the

students can interact. “Learning is social - at least a holographic teacher can be collaborative,” he says. “But I’m not convinced there is a large pedagogical advantage beyond engagement.” Cowling sees more value in the use of augmented reality, so long as they are used in the right context. Here too universities are also experimenting, mostly in medical and engineering subjects. Imperial is using holograms delivered through headsets to simulate medical procedures to help train future clinicians. At present, hologram technology isn’t portable enough to become mainstream. “It’s not a plug-in-and-play solution that the lecturer can just walk in and switch on,” says Parry. “You need someone to come in and help set up a studio. But I don’t think it’s pie in the sky that at some point in the future it will become standard technology.”

Helena Pozniak is a UK-based journalist who’s interested in education, technology and science careers. She writes regularly for UK newspapers including The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph and has also written for The Times, The Independent and Reuters. She also writes for universities and schools. ISSUE 09

TEENAGE TECH STORIES

Teenage tech stories Each month, Tech For Good speaks to one teenage entrepreneur about their incredible achievements in the world of tech, and how they’re contributing to making the world a better place

Name: Anna Miller

Age: 13 Born: Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, USA Achievements: Anna is a coder, app developer and, as a person with Osteogenesis Impefecta, an advocate for inclusion in the tech world. Anna teaches a Minecraft course at the Digital Habour Foundation, stars in BYUtv’s new TV show Operation Awesome and is developing an app to help people navigate accessibility challenges in public spaces

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ANNA MILLER

n the summer when I was aged nine, I joined a coding programme at Digital Harbor Foundation (DHF). This was something that just sparked my imagination, and kind of led the way for me. Coding is actually really fun and collaborative. I want other kids to see that coding can be fun and that it’ll help no matter what we decide to do in our future.

Osteogenesis Imperfecta is a disease that affects my bones. When I try to walk it feels like I have a heavy weight on my legs. It also means that my bones are very soft, so I can break them a lot. But, no matter how painful it is, it’s not going to stop me. I want to help people with physical disabilites like me, or people with wheelchairs get around easier. Sometimes I miss a class or a talk trying to find an accessible entrance or even an elevator. And the building might have a sign that points to where the entrance might be, but it still takes 15 minutes to get there. So you want to know ahead of time, and you want to know the best routes to take, and that is what I want my app to do. I will be creating the code, but I also want other people to share their experiences in the app. I want them to give other people a heads up, like ‘I walked down this street but it wasn’t very safe. It wasn’t levelled, so the other street is much better’.

ISSUE 09

TEENAGE TECH STORIES

Two years ago, I teamed up with Microsoft to speak at WE Day. I spoke to over 16,000 kids about my love for coding and how inclusive and collaborative it can be. And then I asked Microsoft if I could help lead a coding workshop. I led a Minecraft coding class at the DHF. When I looked around the room, I just saw what brought people together: coding, ideas and, most importantly, just other people. I also helped DHF get new Microsoft computers for their tech classes. Helping the exact place that got me started in coding, giving something back to them when they gave so much to me, was the best thing that I got out of the experience.

When I heard I was a Top 20 Finalist for Time’s Kid of the Year, my brain exploded. I think it’s going to be very inspiring for someone in a wheelchair to see someone like them up there. I have been overlooked quite a bit. When people first look at me, they tend to make some very quick judgements. ‘She’s young, she’s in a wheelchair, she’s a girl; I don’t really think that she can do what we’re doing.’ Sometimes, I might turn up to a programme and someone will come to me and say ‘The little kids go over there’. But, when they see me actually do these things, they second-guess themselves; I’m sure they do. One of my main goals is to tell people that it doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or if you’re in a wheelchair, as long as you’re doing what you love to do.

TECH FOR GOOD

ANNA MILLER

My TV show is called Operation Awesome. I got to team up with five other really cool kids and went across the country helping people in their communities. We have given meals to the homeless, helped puppies get homes, and so much more. When it airs, I think it will give people a sense of hope. This year and last year have been incredibly tough. I hope that seeing five cool kids going across the country, making things happen, doing good, gives them that motivation to keep going. Young people, we think outside the box. We don’t really follow the idea that something has to stay one way because that’s how it’s always been. And, even though we’ve been looked down a lot because we might seem not as smart or glued to our phones all the time, we’re really not.

I’m not sure what the future holds. Some of my goals are studying English, becoming a grand master at chess and an artist, and learning more coding. I really want to continue fighting for inclusion, not just in tech but everything. I want my app to be much more developed. I want to speak more. I want to inspire. And I’m not going to let anyone stop me.

ISSUE 09

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES

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