Scroll down for short takes from Council partners…
Good reads department: IBM on Johannesburg as "a model of urban renewal"
Writing for Forbes, IBM Chief Storyteller Steve Hamm puts the spotlight on Johannesburg, South Africa – in particular what he calls the amazing transformation of the city's Braamfontein district following two decades of decay. Today, Hamm writes, "the neighborhood is emerging as a powerful symbol of the potential for renewal in cities in Africa and around the world and a signal that innovation and optimism can triumph over poverty and crime." It's a fascinating story of how researchers from Council Lead Partner IBM and their South African counterparts are creating an innovation ecosystem focused on urban revitalization.
Cisco and ABB team on smart home platform
Smart cities are going to want smart homes – and Council Lead Partner Cisco and Associate Partner ABB announced an international joint venture with Robert Bosch GmbH called mozaiq operations to accelerate their development. The companies plan to develop an open platform that promotes and enables interoperability in smart home technologies. They say the platform will help unify today’s stand-alone solutions for home automation and offer interoperability across devices. “ABB has a comprehensive range of solutions for residential and commercial buildings and is committed to driving innovation in this exciting space," said Tarak Mehta, head of ABB’s Low Voltage Products Division. "Collaborations such as mozaiq will ensure that consumers have faster access to the best-possible technology."
Oracle cloud will help streamline medical trials
Council Associate Partner Oracle is helping research teams streamline the process of managing data they collect in clinical trials, a move that could help cut medical costs and conceivably bring new technologies to patients faster. Pharmaceutical Product Development, a leading contract research organization used for clinical trials worldwide, is moving its work to the Oracle Health Sciences Cloud. The firm says it migrated data from 124 studies to the cloud in just six weeks, a migration that is already reducing the administrative burden.
Incoming Saudi Telecom boss highlights operators' key role in IoT
Khaled Biyari, who takes over as chief executive of Saudi Telecom later this month, discussed the fundamental role that telecom operators will play in the Internet of Things in an interview with Mobile World Live. “Current networks will evolve into networks that will enable IoT,” he said. “It will drive operators to upgrade their networks to provide the necessary bandwidth and latency to allow such services to be delivered in the right form.” He also suggested 5G is only a few years away. A Council Associate Partner, Saudi Telecom is the largest telecommunications services provider in the MENA region. Watch the full interview here.
CH2M HILL will help USAID improve water programming in developing countries
Council Associate Partner CH2M HILL has been awarded a contract to provide engineering and technical support services to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Missions, Bureaus and Offices worldwide. The goal is to improve health in developing countries through the sustainable delivery of water, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as advance water resource management in agriculture for enhanced food security. Denver-based CH2M HILL also announced a partnership with the Singapore Public Utilities Board and Singapore Cooperation Enterprise to provide technical and integrated water management leadership services for the city of Jaipur, India.
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