There’s a reason many Africans are wary of the identification technology: It doesn’t work as well for people with dark skin. That’s where Charlette N’Guessan, a young Ivorian researcher, comes in.
Tag: innovation
Let’s not forget that well before COVID-19, we often referred to the “revolution” underway in the workplace. Automation, digitalization, climate change and other seismic shifts were bringing upon major changes in the ways we work. Now, the economy — and life— as we know it seem more unpredictable than ever. Yet after several months of […]
As countries around the world scramble to conduct sufficient COVID-19 testing, there is now an urgent need for the design of rapid diagnostics of early symptoms to identify potential carriers to test, and eventually, isolate them. Researchers and the so-called “health tech” and “wearables’ sector are racing to release new devices, and adapt existing ones, […]
PARIS — In 1919, the International Labor Organization adopted the first conventions on women in the workplace. In 2019, the women who won the World Cup earned $850,000 less than their male counterparts. Three waves of feminism have transformed sexual and interpersonal dynamics. Still, the #MeToo movement reminded us of entrenched power-and-sexual dynamics in the […]
Researchers in France have come up with a small but uber-adaptable prototype that could soon change how we type — and in any language we choose.
The Silicon Wadi, as Israel’s tech sector is known, has a penchant for creating innovative new companies. But rather than grow to maturity, they’re often sold off early to larger, foreign firms.
The Honduran island of Utila, in the Caribbean Sea, is using the copious amounts of trash that wash ashore to build roads.
The digital revolution is shifting how societies are structured, and may lead to greater public oversight of government. But it could also have the opposite effect.
Tim Cook’s company is a rock of common sense in an industry that’s gone rogue.
MOSCOW — Rumor has it that Vladimir Putin is something of a techie. Though the man in charge at the Kremlin has been vague about his economic priorities after the March 18 presidential election, Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister, says that Putin “is obsessively interested in new technologies and the digital economy.” During […]
Some designers can’t wait to start burrowing. In Mexico, there’s even talk about building an ‘earthscraper.’
ANDORRA LA VELLA — Perched in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, Andorra — with fewer than 80,000 inhabitants — is as small as it is remote. And yet, the European micro-nation is playing a big part these days in the field of urban studies, the Andorran daily El Periòdic reports. Researchers with the City […]
-Analysis- MADRID — Virtually everyone now uses the Internet before, during and after they travel, whether its downloading an app to become familiar with a particular destination or sharing your holiday photos on Facebook or Instagram. The information revolution has indeed revolutionized both the way we prepare trips, and how we experience them. As such, […]
In spite of dynamic consumer figures, Latin America lags when it comes to investment in research and development, those crucial agents of social and economic development.
-Analysis- SAO PAULO — The idea of economic planning dominated the imagination of 20th-century economists. Unlike the classical liberal view, the planning concept supports clear government intervention in the spontaneous course of markets. By implementing one plan or another, the theory goes, governments can speed up a process or correct a wrong course. Plans are […]
Categories
How Death Makes Us Human — For Now
Thinking of death is inherent to being human. Technological advances, like so many human activities, reflect our desire to avoid it. But that may all be bound to change.
Droughts, demographics, industrialization, pollution, climate change … The need for more clean and accessible water is growing urgent in many places around the world. But beyond praying to the rain gods, what real-life responses are out there? Innovation is key both to help preserve clean water sources, as well as finding new ways to purify […]
To understand why design is important, take a look at Silicon Valley. Forty-two design firms in the U.S. technology hub have been bought up since 2004. About half these acquisitions were made this past year alone. The 25 startups that got the most venture capital financing were founded by designers. Google snapped up the two-person […]
Hiroshima-born designer Issey Miyake has spent his career creating garments that challenge sizing conventions and are both practical and beautiful. A French reporter ponders his influence.
KIGALI — About a 20-minute drive from the Rwandan capital of Kigali, there’s a barren road that leads to a construction site amid cornfields and banana trees. A single blue sign from the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation indicates the entrance to the location, which stands at the top of a hill. There, across a […]
“Hello fetus listeners …” The Babypod is a speaker that, inserted vaginally, will expose a fetus to music of your choice inside the womb. But what kind of music should we choose?
Airline passenger traffic is not slowing down, registering worldwide growth of 6.8% in 2015. The growing demand means more opportunity but also more competition, and airports need to be innovative to attract both business and pleasure air travelers. Long layovers can be tiresome, but not necessarily in Changi, Singapore. With free video games, film screenings, […]
Saving rainwater and increasing green spaces are two small steps shown to help fight the ravages of climate change in cities.
By next year, there will be three times more connected objects than humans on earth, all containing information that can be mined to improve public services, benefit consumers and boost economic growth.
Voltaire said he never saw female inventors. A study on female entrepreneurs in 19th-century France reveals a very different reality.
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On the Italian island of Sicily, young entrepreneurs have launched a project aimed at reducing waste of fresh produce by finding alternative four-legged consumers.
BEIJING — China can be proud of its achievements in both business innovation and in creating a technology-driven economy. In recent years Chinese enterprises have taken their place among the heavyweights in the technological sector and, in particular, in the information and communication industry: names such as Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, Tencent and Xiaomi are recognized […]
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Far from rigid Koranic institutes, this new private school in central France is as much about smart boards as religious values. It is also trilingual: French, Arabic and English.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
The so-called Silicon Age of IT may soon give way to an era of see-through clarity to help usher in ever more wearable technology and the Internet of Things.
Paris-based big data whiz Rand Hindi wants to put his technology savvy to work to free us from our growing enslavement to the digital masters.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.