Professor Carlos Moreno

“At a time when our world is changing profoundly as a result of major technological, economic, social, environmental and political changes, urban spaces crystallize all the challenges of our future development, and yet the city of tomorrow, like that of yesterday, it must be a place of encounter, exchange, life, a city for women and men who live and make it live.”

CARLOS MORENO — ONE MAN, MANY WORLDS

Carlos Moreno was born in Colombia in 1959 and moved to France at the age of 20. He is a Senior University Professor, an international expert of the Human Smart City, and a Knight of the French Legion of Honour. This scientist and humanist describes his exceptional career as a path guided through and through by passion: a passion not only for innovation, creativity and exploration but also one for sharing, connecting, and building ties with others. A journey on which he has explored a variety of disciplines and fields in a wide range of spheres – teaching, research, business and industry – strong in his conviction that innovation springs from interaction among them.

TEACHING, RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTATION

Carlos Moreno swiftly joined France’s scientific community in 1979. In 1983 he became a researcher and lecturer at the IUT in Cachan at the Université de Paris Sud, working in the computer science and robotics laboratory (LIMRO). There, he was a leading figure in robotics, a budding discipline at the time which draws on IT, electronics and mathematics and studies the interface between robots and their environment.

Mr Moreno’s work in robotics and artificial intelligence made him absolutely certain of two things: one, that systems must be designed in terms of complexity (as defined by French thinkers such as Henri Laborit and Edgar Morin), meaning that an entity can only be understood in relation to its environment and must be studied in the context of how it relates to and depends upon other factors; and two, that this ‘complexity’ can be applied in the real world to create value through innovative services and uses. Also during this period, Mr Moreno helped create one of France’s first technology transfer offices in the Paris region, at the CERMA in Cachan.

In 1990, after taking part in its creation, he began working at the Université d’Evry, where he became a Senior Professor. While working at the computer sciences lab (LaMI – Laboratoire des Méthodes Informatiques), a joint unit run by the CNRS, he founded and directed the “Distributed Reactive and Adaptive Systems” team and developed extensive ties with industry. In the late 1990s, the creation of Genopole, a biotechnology cluster in Evry, gave scientists, research engineers and entrepreneurs at the university an opportunity to work together despite their different backgrounds and specialisations — an approach that Carlos Moreno has tirelessly promoted since.

Exploring a system from the viewpoint of complexity means understanding it in context and studying its vitality as manifested in the relationship among its component parts, the energy which creates these, and the changes made in order to establish an equilibrium, extract knowledge, introduce change, make a breakthrough, anticipate a death or predict the emergence of new situations.

ADVENTURES IN BUSINESS

In 1998, a new law on innovation and research in France (the ‘Allegre Law’) enabled researchers to start their own business. Professor Moreno quickly seized this opportunity to rally his best PhD students, capitalise on the critical mass of knowledge they had generated, and find industrial applications for the expertise acquired through intelligent complex systems. His start-up, Sinovia, was created in 1998. Based at the laboratory, Sinovia centred on the intelligent control of complex systems with an emphasis on infrastructure. Aided by government funding, Sinovia signed its first partnerships with industrial firms. Every project developed by Professor Moreno during this period has since proven pertinent (see below) and revealed his visionary spirit.

A pioneer in his field, in 2006 he turned his attention to cities – a complex system par excellence – and developed the concept of the ‘sustainable digital city’ as a viable platform from which to provide the services needed to ensure the well-being of a city’s inhabitants. In this context, Professor Moreno’s start-up began working with INEO, a subsidiary of GDF SUEZ, which acquired Sinovia in 2010.

Carlos Moreno became Scientific Adviser to the Chief Executive Officer in charge of strategy for GDF SUEZ’s Smart Cities programme. For five years, he led international efforts to develop the city of the future and created the Live in a Living City forum which brings together experts from around the world to look at how urban environments are changing.

Since November 2015, Carlos Moreno has been coaching promising innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs through his consulting firm InTI in order to transmit and grow his assets.

Among Carlos Moreno’s contributions in the field of technology:

• Urban platforms for multi-technique / multi-service resource sharing
• Smart street lighting systems which promote safety and sustainable development
• Risk prevention at high-risk industrial sites in France (in line with the Seveso Directive)
• Drone programmes for the French military
• Robotics for genetic analysis
• Reactor control systems (nuclear industry)
• Off-shore oil installations
• Assembly systems (automotive industry)
• Mass market innovation (home automation and assistive robotics)

FOCUSED ON SHARING

Throughout his career, Professor Moreno has strived to build connections between worlds most often devoid of them. His extensive work to build bridges between public entities, major firms and SMEs in the high-tech sector is driven by a firm belief in the importance of working together and a desire to cultivate collective intelligence. He also plays an active role in public and private initiatives in the areas of innovation and research partnerships. As a scientific expert he has taken part in several government committees, in working groups and public service missions. He frequently appears in the media to discuss science, technology and related applications for the general public, and provides project support to value-creating start-ups and other innovative entrepreneurs. Carlos Moreno has contributed significant efforts to developing ties between France and Latin American countries, including relations between major firms with export activities in the region. He has also developed business opportunities and promoted reciprocal technology transfer.

Equal to his passion for creating value through business is Professor Moreno’s commitment to France, a country that has welcomed him warmly and to which he remains a faithful servant. While he no longer teachers in an official capacity, he continues to pass on his knowledge and is closely involved in several public service missions. He was named Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in April 2010.

The outstanding career of Carlos Moreno is marked by an interest in people – a focus on others through which we can look beyond ourselves to build a new world together.

Among Carlos Moreno’s public endeavours in service of the community:

• Initiated the Live in a living city international conference
• Initiated the City Protocol Society
• Member of the French National Steering Committee of the Carnot Institutes
• Member of the Advisory Committee for Strategic Planning of the Commissariat General for Investment of the French government’s Future Investments programme
• Member of the Scientific Committee of the S2E2 Competitiveness Cluster
• Former representative of France on the Factory of the Future taskforce for the EU Eureka programme
• Former Director of the Comité Richelieu, an association of high-tech SMEs which promotes the Pacte PME, a support initiative for SMEs
• Former director of Regional Centres for Innovation and Technology Transfer (CRITTs)
• Co-founder of Caldas, an international network for the scientific diaspora

Links of interest:
Web
Ville Vivante
LinkedIn

Dr. Edna Pasher

Dr. Edna Pasher was born and lives in Tel-Aviv. She is a researcher and consultant specializing in Strategy Management, Change, Knowledge and Innovation and in measurement and development of Intellectual Capital. His company focuses on development based on knowledge of organizations, cities and regions and participates in R & D projects as partner in consortium with universities and industries in particular in Europe, focusing on the study and developing the interface between technology and society. A passion that obeys to have studied with the late Prof. Neil Postman in the Media Ecology program at NYU in the 70s.

Edna Pasher received her Ph.D. in Arts and Communication Sciences from New York University and has been a faculty member at Adelphi University, the City University of New York, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Tel Aviv where she still teaches interpersonal communications. Edna founded EPA as an international strategic management consulting firm in 1978. The firm offers customized consulting services to organizations in both the private and public sectors. Dr. Pasher has been a pioneer and leader of the innovation and knowledge management movement in Israel, Knowledge Management (KM). She has more than 30 years of experience in regional and international ICT projects using a variety of evaluation methods, modelling techniques and Quantitative and Qualitative analysis. Edna is the founding partner (since 1991) of the Israeli management and strategy magazine “Status”.

Dr. Pasher is a frequent speaker at local and international conferences, where she has been treated on many occasions as cities promoting female talent and promoting access to funding sources for women entrepreneurs. She is currently founder and director of the Israeli Institute of Smart Cities, whose mission is to improve the municipal transformation of urban areas at the level of smart companies that are achieving innovative culture and technology.

The Israeli Institute of Smart Cities stands out for its unique holistic methodology to address all aspects of evaluation from needs assessment, research, strategic planning, strategy implementation, training and implementation education.

Links of interest:
LinkedIn
Smart Cities Israel

Norberto Penedo Rey

IGAPE Competitiveness Area Director

Aeronautical Engineer from the Polytechnic Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and quality engineer from the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) in 1995.

He developed his professional work initially at the National Institute of Aerospace Technology, as a specialist in Avionics Systems, until the late 1990s, being, among other responsibilities at the national level, the international leader in the certification of on-board communications, in the fighter plane project European.

He joined IGAPE at the end of the 1990s as Head of the Technological Innovation Unit, until his appointment as Deputy Director of project management at the beginning of 2002.

Currently, he is the Director of the Competitiveness Area, with the aim of moving towards new formulas of momentum and competitiveness in the Galician business fabric, under this responsibility, he directs the competences attributed to IGAPE in different subjects, among which are Entrepreneurship, Industrial Policy- Industry 4.0, Cluster Policy and Development of Competitive Programs and Services for Galician SMEs.

IGAPE: Business Factory as an innovation model

These are vertical initiatives, focused on the acceleration of projects related to a specific sector or theme.

Verticality in accelerators has numerous advantages for entrepreneurs. Accelerators of this type are usually led by large corporations or have a network of leading collaborating companies in the sector. This allows entrepreneurs not only to access a network of mentors much more specialized and adapted to their needs, but they have the possibility to share experiences and knowledge with entrepreneurs in their same situation and sector (with the consequent generation of synergies); and they have access to a powerful network of contacts, to potential clients, and even to investors with experience and knowledge of the sector who can contribute more than financing.

But verticality not only brings advantages to entrepreneurs, companies have also seen the benefits of accelerators and innovation through StartUps. The implementation of open innovation strategies in companies has emerged from the inability of some of them to maintain the pace of innovation imposed by the market. Through the accelerators, they not only access new technologies, but also promote new ways of working within their organizations, have access to talent and increase their innovative potential.

Joan Cornet Prat

Technical Engineer and Bachelor in Psychology. After working for some years as a Clinical Psychologist in a General Hospital, he was elected mayor of Manresa in 1979. In 1988 he started working as a high level official in the European Commission in Brussels, where among other projects he launched and directed EURES Service European Employment, and later responsible for the area of Government Cooperation with the countries of North Africa and the Middle East. For five years he worked as a Director in the European Parliament.

In June 2004 he was appointed Secretary General of the Health Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Since September 2005, the Government commissioned the start-up of “BIOCAT” (Biotechnology Agency) and from January 2007 to May 2013 he was founder and CEO of the Fundación TicSalut (ICT Health), since then and until April. 2017 was Director of “mHealth” at Mobile World Capital Barcelona. He has participated in several work groups, as well as in Smart Cities congresses.

He is currently Director of the Digital Health Observatory. European Connected Health Alliance. Barcelona Hub, and collaborates with the European Institute of Technology-Health (Munich).

He has been an MBA professor at Solvay School of Economics and Management in Brussels, IL3 (University of Barcelona) and at the UOC.

Josep de Martí

“I have had the great fortune of being able to see the sector from different perspectives: as an inspector, as a professor of residential directors and now as a friend of many of them. Inforesidencias.com was a bet of which I feel very proud”.

Degree in Law. Master in Social Gerontology. Master in Public Law and administrative organization.

Professor of the Master in Social Gerontology at the University of Barcelona and postgraduate courses in residence management at three universities. Member of the Aging Research Group of the University of Barcelona. Guest professor of the Master’s Degree in Social Gerontology at the Autonomous University of Juárez de Tabasco (Mexico). Member of the Catalano-Balearic Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology.

Official on leave from the Generalitat de Catalunya, where he worked as an inspector of social services for eight years and two as head of the inspection section of social services.

César Mosquera

César Mosquera is a provincial deputy and councilor of Pontevedra for 24 years, where he has been responsible for the area of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Concello de Pontevedra since 1999 when the BNG became part of the local government of the city. He is also vice president of the Deputacion de Pontevedra and responsible for the area of Environment and Sustainable Development.

But above all, Mosquera is responsible for designing, promoting and managing the urban model of Pontevedra, awarded in many cities around the world and that he himself will present at this Forum18 RIES.

Mosquera has a degree in Mathematics and Pedagogy from the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. He was a high school teacher at the Barco de Valdeorras Institute and at the IES Valle Inclán de Pontevedra where he developed most of his career since 1976.

He also taught at UNED.

Gil Gonçalves

Gil Gonçalves is an Assistant Professor at the University of Porto and the Chief Scientific Officer at INOVA+. With an extensive experience in research, Gil has been involved in over 35 National and European RTD projects and has been the Principal Investigator in over 20.

Gil has been working since 2005 in ICT-based projects and products to promote independent living, active and healthy ageing, and smart healthy & friendly environments. Principal Investigator in several R&D projects in these domains, including “NETCARE – Wireless telemetry for continuous health care”, “Padrão de Cuidados Primários para serviços de AAL (Ambient Assisted Living for all)”, “TICE.Healthy – Sistemas de Saúde e Qualidade de Vida (Systems of Health and Quality of Life)”, “HELASCOL – Helping elders to live an active and socially connected life by involving them in the digital society” and “TSBank – Time and Skilss Bank for Active Ageing”.

Currently he is coordinating the C2.5 sub-group (within the European Innovation Partnership for Active and Healthy Ageing C2 group) on the development of new business models based on interoperable solutions, and also the collaborative work with group D4, on Age Friendly environments. This collaborative work as recently published a green paper on “Caregiver’s role on ICT for AFE” that will be presented in the upcoming AAL Forum.

Gil Gonçalves is also Member of the Advisory Board of the Portuguese Ecosystem on Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments, a national network led by Cáritas Coimbra and ESEnfC, that brings together a wide range of Portuguese organizations committed to the promotion of a joint agenda for the implementation of Inclusive Environments for All Ages, with a particular focus on Health, Social Support, ICT and Infrastructures. This ecosystem is connected to the work derived from the EU Thematic Network SHAFE, that will deliver a Joint Statement on these themes to the European Commission and member States on November 2018.

Author of over 30 publications in areas related with digital transformation of health, eHealth, smart environments, ambient assisted living, active and healthy ageing.

Piret Hirv

Piret Hirv, MA is currently working as a health technology division manager at the Science Park Tehnopol. Tehnopol is partner with various international health technology networks, which allows companies to find a suitable development partners and customers, also developing healthcare services through the implementation of connected health solutions.

Until February 2017 Piret has worked as an advisor for E-services and Innovation at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Estonia supporting the digital transformation and innovation of social security area in Estonia, including health, labor and social matters. Ms. Hirv was also developing and implementing Estonian EU Presidency eHealth policy program and was acting as a liaison officer for international organizations and networks coordinating cross-border healthcare-service activities.

In 2017 she graduated from Tallinn University of Technology specializing on healthcare technology. Ms. Hirv has earlier background in medicine as a nurse, also degree in business management, communications and public relations.

Before the position at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ms. Hirv has fifteen years of work experience in pharmaceutical industry, marketing entrepreneur, and long term experience as CEO of lobby and advocacy organization specialized in development cooperation.

Sara Rodríguez

Product Manager Hogar Digital TELEVÉS

Senior Telecommunications Engineer. Master’s Degree in Telemedicine. Executive MBA.

For eighteen years he has developed his professional career in leading companies in the provision of advanced technology services and solutions. He currently works in Televes as Product Manager of Hogar Digital. Participates in different work groups related to innovation and standardization in the areas of Health and Social Services in national and international organizations (CEN, CENELEC, UNE, AMETIC, COIT, etc.), as well as in I+D+i projects related to this theme.

“Home as a point of care”
ICTs open enormous possibilities from which groups that need personalized attention and care can benefit in particular: chronic patients, elderly people, people with cognitive deficits, and so on. The technology allows to achieve a more efficient integrated system, capable of analyzing the information obtained to improve attention and increase accessibility and proximity to people, speeding up response times and capacity and, ultimately, offering new services of greater quality.

Marta Sanz

Director of Operations Edesdev

Jordi Velasco

Director of Marketing and Communication DomusVi