The Institute of
Technological
Empowerment
Professor Opher Etzion
“If you're not making someone
else's life better, then you're
wasting your time. Your life will
become better by making other lives
better.”
― Will Smith

2
The Institute of Technological
Empowerment is a societal-
academic initiative aimed to
empower populations in the
Israeli periphery and
developing countries using
advanced technologies
The institute’s activity is
based on: multi-disciplinary
research, implementation of
projects in the field, and
education program – both
academic and popular

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Israel is known as high-tech state
However, in Israel there are gaps
in technology use over geographies
and populations
The combination of the
abilities in Israel, the
short distances within
Israel, and the Israeli
cooperative mentality
makes Israel an ideal lab
for technological
empowerment in
developing countries
Yezreel Valley College is the right
place due to its location and mission

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The Technological Empowerment Institute stand
on three legs
The research leg: multi-disciplinary research
that focuses on making high technologies,
especially based on Internet of Things,
accessible and personalized for target
populations
The implementation leg: realization of
projects by students and technology
partners to implement the stated goals
The education leg: through education
establish technological leadership in the
region, which can serve as a model for
developing countries

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Example:
Personalized aides for elderly to maintain independent life
Motion
sensor
Door
sensor
Chair
Sensor
Voice
Sensor
Alert
family
member
Alerts example:
Door was not locked within 2 minutes after entrance
Falling event detected
Vocal distress detected
No motion for certain time period detected
While much technology exists, it is not widely
used. It needs to be more personalized, more
affordable, and much simpler…
The research required is multi-disciplinary:
Technology oriented, human oriented, economic oriented and particular
domain oriented

6
On Personalization
The industrial revolution opened the era of
mass production, variety depends on the
economy of scale.
Current technology such as Internet of
Things provides the opportunity to enable
everybody to create their own systems.
This requires multi-disciplinary effort.

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Major tool: senior project of students in YVC,
other Israeli academic programs, and
developing countries (including mixed
teams).
Based on infrastructure of hardware and
software that will be contributed by
technology partners
The projects will be synergetic with the
research activities
Each project will generate a prototype that
will be tested in the field. The aspiration is
to productize each project by start-ups,
technology partners, or the institute’s
staff.

8
Initial areas for projects:
Agriculture: with an eye to developing countries
Aging population: independent living, assisting
nursing house caretakers, quality of life activities
nursing
People with disabilities: aides for blind people and
more
Smart cities and government in the periphery: waste
management
Traditional industries: TBD

9
Major aim: technology leadership in the
northern part of Israel.
Through academic programs – existing and
additional ones
Through educating the community – in all ages
and becoming a center of gravity for
knowledge in the area
Working together with other peripheries in
the universe.

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Creating academic partnership with researchers from
various disciplines and domain experts
Creating partnership with technology companies: using
technologies and technology transfer
Creating partnership with non profit organizations that
can provide mission and guidance
Creating partnership with potential benefactors of our
activities

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Goals for the first
period
Establishment of the institute: building the
infrastructure and partnerships, and establishing the
steering and advisory committees
Posing the initial set of research challenges, and
establishing international teams to work towards these
challenged
Execution of at least six projects, within at least three
academic institutes, at least one in a developing
country
Last but not least: raising seed money for the institute
and the various activities.

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My main motivation is to use the experience and
knowledge I have accumulated over the years to make a
better world