Vision
The Social Hub is an academic unit of the Technion that specializes in research, education, and technological involvement in the community. The Social Hub promotes a social agenda grounded in theories and technological applications that is aimed at enabling Israeli society to contend with its social and economic challenges in an optimal manner. In this way, the Social Hub promotes a vision of the Technion as a leading institution responsible for the development of human capital, leadership, and the production of knowledge.
Goals of the Social Hub:
• To intensify the social-technological commitment of Technion students as agents of change, public-opinion leaders, and leaders of the future.
• To create interfaces for communication and cooperation for the purpose of facilitating the mutual flow of knowledge between different social arenas and the academic research community.
• To develop and to promote technological solutions to problems with which organizations and communities are contending in a manner that facilitates the reduction of social and economic disparities in Israel.
What do we do?
The Social Hub’s flagship program: “Dividing up the good: How can advanced technology help reduce social inequality?”
This program deals with the reduction of socioeconomic disparities in Israeli society through technological development aimed at the redistribution of personal and public resources. To implement the program, the students of the Social Hub develop innovative technological systems to record the vast data regarding resources currently in the hands of the public in order to enable the transfer of surplus resources to the people, institutions, and communities that need them. Our aspiration is to ease lack by increasing the accessibility to existing, available resources. The project engages in technological development based on social-ethical thinking that enables students to actualize their purpose as trailblazers.
Academic Activity
- Courses involving action: The Social Hub supports courses in different Technion faculties that combine learning with the development of projects for social change. Also involved in this activity are staff members, lecturers, students, residents from different communities, local authorities, economic and social organizations, educational institutions, and more
Activity at the Technion
- Cooperative undertakings with socially-engaged entities at the Technion, such as the Technion Students Association (TSA), the Sustainability Hub, and Israeli Hope.
- Lectures for students on socially-related topics.
A Focus on the Community
- Creating platforms for acquiring a deep knowledge of social issues and related challenges while mobilizing the Technion’s unique knowledge resources for the benefit of all parts of Israeli society.
- Making the Social Hub’s cumulative knowledge accessible for the public at large via its internet site, the social media, and events involving the community.
Connections in Israel and the World
- Collaborative research with academic institutions in Israel and abroad.
- The Social Hub is a member of international networks working to advance similar goals.
Third Column: History
The Social Hub was established in 2011 by Prof. Rachel Kallus, a member of the academic staff of the Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. Initially, the Social Hub was known as the “Social Hub for Housing and Community.” Over time, it expanded its realms of activity, and it currently works in conjunction with other faculties in the variety of fields of knowledge that the Technion incorporates. Today, the Social Hub operates as a project of the Technion as a whole, under the Office of the Senior Vice-President of the Technion. Its activity is supervised by an institutional academic committee.
Bottom strip:
The Social Hub in Numbers for the 2022/23 Academic Year
32 courses involving social action.
750 students involved in social action in the city of Hadar and other Municipalities.
1,200 recipients of the Social Hub’s bimonthly bulletin, including academic and administrative staff, students, and other interested parties
3,500 friends and followers on Facebook
An example of a project carried out at the Technion with the Social Hub – Environmental Policy on the installation of solar panels in the Hadar neighborhood
For details and updates about the activities in the incubator, you can visit the website or Facebook page or contact the following directly:
The Social Hub Manager – Ronit Piso ronitp@technion.ac.il | 04-8294450 | 054-4750614
