Research cooperation between HCU Hamburg and Technion – The Isreal Insitute of Technology

The Smart Social Strategies Lab at Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and the chair of Digital City Science at HCU Hamburg have initiated a research cooperation on digital interactive technologies in the field of sociospatial urban development.

At the beginning of 2023, a first ignition phase for an envisioned long-term research partnership between Technion and HCU has been successfully accomplished. Supported with an incentive funding from HCU, first joint activities of research groups in both institutions have been carried out over a period of 1 year, including scientific visits, joint workshops and conferences. Partner at Technion is the the Smart Social Strategy Lab (3SL) directed by Prof. Meirav Gutman, an interdisciplinary group that investigates the usage of geographical and sociographical data for urban strategy- and policy-making. Methodically and technologically, the group´s research complements very well with interactive planning technologies that are created at the chair of Digital City Science (Prof. Jörg Rainer Noennig) at HCU Hamburg. The cross-connection of both approaches opens up promising opportunities for supporting the planning of urban neighbourhoods with state-of-the-art tools and methodologies. On HCU side, the cooperation was coordinated by Dr. Jan Barski und Dr. Filipe Mello Rose. The overall goal was to explore first topics for a common research agenda on which both institutions will join forces in the next years. Joint publications and funding applications for example to the German-Israeli-Fund have prepared a solid basis for various future cooperation in which Technion´s spectacular Hadar Interaction Theatre – a large scale facility for digital citizen participation – will play a key role.