As Peachtree Corners representatives attend the world’s largest smart-cities conference in Barcelona, the Gwinnett municipality continues to notch pilot projects from Israeli companies looking to break into the U.S. market.
City leaders on Tuesday were set to appear at Smart City World Congress with Opsys, a provider of Lidar scanners used in automotive and industrial applications based in Holon, Israel. Working together, they planned to showcase how Opsys tracking technology will be used at the intersection of SR 141 and Town Center Boulevard.
The ALTOS Gen 2 is affixed to a utility pole at the entrance to Curiosity Lab, the testing ground for smart and autonomous mobility that has attracted recognition all over the world.
“As our first real-world deployment and first U.S. deployment, we are looking forward to working with Peachtree Corners as our test and demo site to then launch into the U.S. market.” Rafi Harel, CEO of Opsys, said in a news release.
That’s a well-worn path for Israeli innovators who often conduct research and development at home and then look first to the U.S. to commercialize their products and services.
Juganu, a 13-year-old firm from Or Yehuda, Israel, that makes LED streetlights packed with devices, from weather sensors and security cameras to IoT frameworks and Wi-Fi access points, has seen Peachtree Corners has been a hospitable point of entry.
The company has installed 20 smart streetlights at the dog park and playground of its Town Center, with 54 planned for nearby parking lots and storefronts. Once fully installed, the area will be able to offer visitors and residents Wi-Fi — and proof of Juganu’s thesis that its products consolidate multiple systems into a single fixture, simplifying the lives of city officials and saving them time and money.
“Juganu chose Curiosity Lab and Peachtree Corners for our first full deployment in the United States because of the unique combination of innovation, community focus, and forward-thinking leadership that the area embodies,” Shayne Rose, Juganu’s vice president of smart cities for North America, told Global Atlanta in an emailed statement.
Peachtree Corners’ reputation as a “pioneering” smart city drew the attention of a company with 67 registered patents, partners like Atlanta-based NCR Corp. and Qualcomm and installations in 15 countries including Brazil.
Brandon Branham, chief technology officer and assistant city manager at Peachtree Corners, told Global Atlanta that an earlier test phase with six units (still active) in the innovation center’s parking lot helped pave the way for the broader procurement by the city.
“Through our testing, we were able to validate several key items, such as range of Wi-Fi, connectivity to existing systems, and analytics verification,” said Mr. Branham, who also serves as executive director at Curiosity Lab. “Through this testing, we confirmed the capabilities of the smart lighting system, which were desired services we wanted to provide in our Town Center, but through an offering that fit into the design features of our downtown.”
Peachtree Corners has helped Juganu connect with Georgia Power and make the case for other communities to adopt the solution even if they lease their lighting infrastructure, Mr. Rose said.
It’s an example of how Gwinnett’s largest city by population has long hosted roadshows of Israeli solutions that have led to substantive investments, validating Peachtree Corners’ use of Curiosity Lab as an economic development engine.
Other examples of Israeli firms testing the waters in Peachtree Corners include Brodmann17’s software-only “perception technology” for assisted driving, Cyber 2.0’s cybersecurity offerings and Intuition Robotics, which makes the Elli-Q AI-powered robotic device aimed at empowering aging adults.
Cynamics, another cybersecurity firm, and ZenCity, a solution that monitors resident feedback in real-time, were among the companies that made the first steps into Curiosity Lab after city leaders met up with Israeli firms at the Smart City Expo, then took their first trip to Israel, organized by the Pendleton Group, in 2019.
Mr. Branham was in Israel in 2023 when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp led a mission there to meet with companies that have invested in the state.
Learn more about how the relationship between Israel and Peachtree Corners came about:
This post was originally published on here
