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Thinking. Listening. Collaborating.
On Air with Kristie Lu Scott, CNN Interview with George D Thomas
Green Horizon is a 10-year initiative launched by IBM in July 2014. It aims to empower China in transforming its national energy systems and support its needs for sustainable urbanization. Led by IBM Research – China, the initiative taps into IBM’s network of 12 global research labs to create an ecosystem of partners from across government, academia, industry and private enterprise. It covers three projects: Air Quality Management (AQM), Renewable Energy Integration, and Industrial Energy Efficiency (Source: IBM)
Interview with George D Thomas, after his presentation to InnoAsia 2013
Smarter Cities - How visionary leaders are driving prosperity through insight and integration- The global trend of rapid technology modernization combined with the unprecedented human migration to urban regions is creating increased stress on the way we live and interact with our environment. His presentation will focus on the opportunity society has to react to these two trends and develop Smarter Cities.
George D Thomas @ TEDx (2015)
A talk on how data powered by cognitive computing and the new API economy are ushering in the new era of computer-aided humans.
Mr Thomas discussed the future of ‘smarter’ cities and the important role of education from the perspective of a private-sector organisation. He stressed the need to change the traditional education format and to develop outcome-driven curricula, learner-centric collaborative education, lifelong talent management, and technology-enabled outcome-oriented processes. In this regard, he underscored three critical areas: improving teaching effectiveness and student outcomes; enabling greater insight about learners’ needs through predictive analytics; and maximizing operational efficiency and effectiveness.
This session affirmed urbanisation as a megatrend and, thus, the growing importance of cities for development. However, cities are not only generators of social inclusion, decent jobs and innovation but are also settings of social exclusion, violence, environmental deterioration and poverty. The impact of urbanisation depends on individual citizens and their ability to turn their cities into prosperous communities. Therefore, the principle of ‘people first’ was emphasized, involving citizens in the decision-making process. A sustainable urban development approach based on lifelong learning for everyone is imperative to the achievement of sustainable urban development. (Source: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002267/226720e.pdf)
George D Thomas @ TEDx HongKong
How we understand, and therefore interact and influence our world and environment has fundamentally changed in the last decade. This talk at TEDx Hong Kong presents some of the underlying causes of these changes, and how cities, where the majority of the world now live in, can lead the drive to better sustainable and smarter living.