This program is made possible by MGSDII. The Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative (MGSDII) seeks to strategically promote, support and catalyze knowledge discourse and interaction on the modern state of Israel through scholarship, engagement and collaboration. The MGSDII is a network of Israel Studies programs on San Diego campuses including UC San Diego (UCSD), San Diego State University (SDSU), CSU San Marcos (CSUSM), University of San Diego (USD) and Cal Western School of Law supported by a growing consortium of charitable funders. The programs include academic courses led by visiting Israeli professors; collaborative classroom learning and travel programs; master classes and lecturers; filmmaker and artist residencies; conferences and symposiums; and community education opportunities. To learn more, visit https://mgsdii.org/

Located in one of the most fascinating urban settings in Israel, between Tel Aviv and Haifa, is Jisr az-Zarqa: a marginalized Arab community, located within a “start-up nation”, sandwiched between two of the country’s wealthiest towns, Caesarea and Ma’agan Michael. Logan Heights is an underserved community located in downtown San Diego. Like Jisr az-Zarqa, Logan Heights is a neighborhood immersed in a well-developed, growing city, ranked among the top tech hotspots in CBRE’s 2019 Tech-30 Report.

The Technion-UCSD Project (TUP) aims to strengthen the marginalized residents of Jisr az-Zarqa and Logan Heights by utilizing technological tools in the form of community-technology interaction, to allow them to accumulate technological capital and overcome conceptual and geographical borders and stigmas.

TUP advances the use of high and local technologies to underprivileged communities in a shared process. It does not offer mere solutions, but a learning process done with residents that inquire about problems and potentials, attempting to make a change in the reality of disadvantaged and excluded communities. 

Mor Shilon earned her Ph.D. from the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, where she was awarded the Jacobs Scholarship for Academic Excellence. In her research, Mor investigates the relations between people and technology in complex urban settings. During her studies, she researched hi-tech development in weakened areas.  During her postdoctoral studies (2017-2019), she conducted a thorough study of the emergence of technological start-ups in the mixed region of Haifa and Nazareth where she worked with Next Generation Technologies (NGT) 3. Prof. Shilon is an MGSDII visiting professor at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UCSD.

There is no fee, but please RSVP for planning purposes. This event takes place on campus at Beth Israel. For more information, contact Program Director Ilene Tatro at itatro@cbisd.org.