stc has announced the launch of Saudi Vision Cable — the first high-speed cable in the Red Sea — through its landing station in Jeddah. The announcement was made in the presence of Dr. Mohammed Saud Al-Tamimi, governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission.
With its name inspired by the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, the Saudi Vision Cable spans 1,160,000 meters and is fully owned by stc Group. The Saudi Vision Cable is the first ever high-capacity submarine cable in the Red Sea region that will provide seamless connectivity of up to 18 Tbps/fiber pair with a total of 16 fiber pairs through four landing stations in Jeddah, Yanbu, Duba, and Haql.
Group CEO of stc, Olayan bin Mohammed Alwetaid said: “This achievement reflects our comprehensive strategy that aims to diversify the group’s investment opportunities and support digital transformation in the Kingdom by boosting the digital infrastructure. The cable will provide digital connectivity services for corporates and individuals in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the continents by building a regional digital hub connecting the continents of the globe and help meet the needs of companies and customers via an integrated digital ecosystem.”
He added: “Saudi Vision Cable provides communication between several international information centers. It also achieves the rising level of the unified optical fiber platform that is cost-efficient and flexible, and provides access — low latency — to all international cables in the landing stations and information centers of the stc Group.”
The new submarine cable will link the MENA region to three continents, leveraging the strategic location of the Kingdom. This will help to enhance investment in international communication services and data centers.
This cable will join 16 cables installed by stc that are positioned between the east and the west of the Kingdom. Saudi Vision Cable will provide a more reliable internet service to meet the increasing demand for communications and connectivity at the local and international levels. It will allow all of the country’s sectors to obtain high-speed internet services, including education, healthcare and business, which will, in general, provide a number of economic and social benefits.
Researchers at the MIT Jameel Clinic have developed an artificial intelligence model that can detect Parkinson’s just from reading a person’s breathing patterns. Parkinson’s disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose as it relies primarily on the appearance of motor symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, and slowness, but these symptoms often appear several years after the disease onset. The research is led by Professor Dina Katabi, the Thuan (1990) and Nicole Pham Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and principal investigator at the MIT Jameel Clinic, and her team.
The Jameel Clinic is the epicenter of AI and healthcare at MIT. It was co-founded in 2018 by MIT and Community Jameel, an independent, global organization advancing science to help communities thrive in a rapidly changing world.
The tool in question is a neural network, a series of connected algorithms that mimic the way a human brain works, capable of assessing whether someone has Parkinson’s from their nocturnal breathing — i.e., breathing patterns that occur while sleeping. The neural network, which was trained by MIT PhD student Yuzhe Yang and postdoc Yuan Yuan, is also able to discern the severity of someone’s Parkinson’s disease and track the progression of their disease over time.
Yang is first author on a new paper describing the work, published in Nature Medicine. Katabi, who is also an affiliate of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and director of the Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing, is the senior author. They are joined by Yuan and 12 colleagues from Rutgers University, the University of Rochester Medical Center, the Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Boston University College of Health and Rehabilitation.
Over the years, researchers have investigated the potential of detecting Parkinson’s using cerebrospinal fluid and neuroimaging, but such methods are invasive, costly and require access to specialized medical centers.
The MIT researchers demonstrated that the AI assessment of Parkinson’s can be done every night at home while the person is asleep and without touching their body. To do so, the team developed a device with the appearance of a home Wi-Fi router, but instead of providing internet access, the device emits radio signals, analyzes their reflections off the surrounding environment, and extracts the subject’s breathing patterns without any bodily contact. The breathing signal is then fed to the neural network to assess Parkinson’s in a passive manner, and there is zero effort needed from the patient and caregiver.
Katabi said: “A relationship between Parkinson’s and breathing was noted as early as 1817, in the work of Dr. James Parkinson. This motivated us to consider the potential of detecting the disease from one’s breathing without looking at movements. Some medical studies have shown that respiratory symptoms manifest years before motor symptoms, meaning that breathing attributes could be promising for risk assessment prior to Parkinson’s diagnosis.”
“In terms of drug development, the results can enable clinical trials with a significantly shorter duration and fewer participants, ultimately accelerating the development of new therapies. In terms of clinical care, the approach can help in the assessment of Parkinson’s patients in traditionally underserved communities, including those who live in rural areas and those with difficulty leaving home due to limited mobility or cognitive impairment,” Katabi added.
Professor of neurology at the University of Rochester and co-author of the paper, Ray Dorsey, said: “We’ve had no therapeutic breakthroughs this century, suggesting that our current approaches to evaluating new treatments is suboptimal. We have very limited information about manifestations of the disease in their natural environment and (Katabi’s) device allows you to get objective, real-world assessments of how people are doing at home. The analogy I like to draw (of current Parkinson’s assessments) is a street lamp at night, and what we see from the street lamp is a very small segment … (Katabi’s) entirely contactless sensor helps us illuminate the darkness.”
Aqarat Real Estate Development Company, an Omar Kassem Alesayi Holding Group subsidiary, headquartered in Jeddah, signed a cooperation agreement with Gensler to design its new project in the Jabal Omar district of Makkah. The agreement was signed on July 29 at a special ceremony in London.
The new project in Jabal Omar has been inspired by the cultural and religious importance of the holy city. The project is located on a land area of 2,600 square meters, less than 700 meters from the Grand Mosque in Makkah, where millions of Muslims from all over the world gather to perform Hajj and Umrah.
The project, which has not yet been named, consists of a 35-story mixed-use high-rise tower situated on a six-story podium with a total built-up area of more than 55,000 square meters. The development program consists of a luxury hotel with approximately 340 rooms and 180 luxury residential units consisting of studios and one- to three-bedroom apartments, in addition to restaurants, shops, additional amenities and parking space.
The tower will be the tallest in its area, allowing guests to enjoy clear views of the Grand Mosque.
The signing ceremony was held in Gensler’s London office and attended by Mohammed Alesayi, board member of AlEsayi Group; Hany Habashy, CEO of AlEsayi Group; Hatem Alesayi, deputy CEO of Aqarat; Diane Hoskins, co-CEO of Gensler; and Richard Hill, president of J. Richard Hill and Co.
The project supports and achieves one of the most important objectives of Saudi Vision 2030, which is to host more Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, provide easy access to the Grand Mosque, improve the quality of services offered, and enrich the spiritual and cultural experience for pilgrims. The project will also contribute to attracting new investments in the Kingdom.
Mohammed AlEsayi said: “This project and its location have special importance for me, my family, our group, and our employees. Our design goal is to combine authenticity and modernity to provide pilgrims and visitors with a sense of calmness and serenity while visiting Makkah and the Grand Mosque. Our design vision is to celebrate the rich uniqueness of Islamic architecture and play a great role in achieving the objectives of the comprehensive development plan of Makkah Al-Mukarramah to become a modern city and an inspiring model for the Islamic world.”
Habashy added: “Contributing to building a sustainable environment and society is one of the most important values and strategies of AlEsayi Group. Therefore, we are keenly focused on enhancing a sustainable environment through this project. The main goal for our Jabal Omar project has always been to add long-term value for our investors, customers and Makkah visitors by creating an iconic multi-use tower and that’s why we chose Gensler to design this unique project.”
CEO of Aqarat Real Estate Development Company, Abdulhadi Al-Rashidi expressed happiness at the signing of the contract with Gensler to design a distinguished architectural tower, which he said is one of the company’s most important projects.
He said the Makkah project is consistent with Aqarat’s innovative residential, commercial, entertainment and services projects in the Kingdom.
Gensler’s Hoskins said: “We are humbled to be designing a project on a site that holds such significance for millions of Muslim people across the world. This is an important project for our local and global design teams to partner with Aqarat. We are ensuring great measures are taken to blend into the holy site and to create a building which residents and visitors can experience for generations.”
Tawal, an integrated ICT infrastructure provider in the Kingdom, has become the newest member of the Small Cell Forum — a global membership organization committed to supporting agile, low-cost mobile infrastructure through small cells.
Tawal joins the organization with the goal of enhancing the provision of integrated ICT infrastructure across the Kingdom, while contributing to SCF’s efforts to make mobile cellular connectivity an accessible resource for organizations of all sizes. In doing so, the company aims to support the digital transformation of industry, enterprise and communities in Saudi Arabia, the wider region and beyond.
Tawal will be represented on SCF’s board of directors by Omar Alrasheed, the company’s general manager of commercial excellence. Alrasheed will play an important role in steering the development of the organization’s policy and direction. Leveraging Tawal’s expertise, he will contribute to SCF’s objective of ensuring scale and diversity for the small cell industry.
As a new member of the organization, Tawal is committed to ensuring the right conditions for the development of diverse, sustainable, and resilient ecosystems. As part of this commitment, Tawal is fully aligned with SCF’s stated priorities, namely the diversification of market applications, deployers and supply chains. Working in collaboration with fellow SCF members, Tawal will contribute in developing specifications, technical blueprints and guides with a view to facilitating interoperability for physical and virtual small cell networks.
Alrasheed said: “Tawal has quickly grown to become a highly influential integrated ICT infrastructure provider. With our growing influence, we aim to propel the global ICT industry forward, pioneering leading-edge ICT infrastructure products and services that enable MNOs, government entities and businesses we serve to fulfill their potential. To achieve this, we aim to partner with like-minded entities aligned with our mission and vision … We aim to work closely with our new partners and leverage our membership to develop state-of-the-art ICT infra solutions that are truly transformative.”
