Zoom Gifted to Technion Israel

Zoom Donates Video Communications Services to Technion

Tech Leaders from Silicon Valley and Israel Celebrate with Visit to Zoom HQ

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. announced that it has gifted a university-wide deployment of its video communications suite to the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, which consistently ranks among the world’s top science and technology research universities. This gift, spearheaded by Technion alumnus and Zoom head of product Oded Gal, provides every student, staff, and alumni with a Technion or partner school email address a Zoom account, affording them an unlimited video and audio communication and a rich set of collaboration tools across desktop and mobile.

“I am immensely proud to bring Zoom to my alma mater. Innovation runs deep in the Technion, and their graduates bring so many gifts to Israel and the world. It is gratifying to bring them this gift.” – Oded Gal

Zoom’s video communications services will be used to connect more than 14,000 Technion students, over 550 faculty, over 1,000 technical and administrative staff, 250 clinicians, and 950 adjuncts and instructors across multiple campuses, as well as up to 100,000 alumni.

The Technion offers international programs in the United States and China with two partnering schools: Founded as a joint academic venture between Cornell University and Technion, The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute is an integral part of Cornell Tech, located on Roosevelt Island in NYC. The Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is a public technological institute and non-profit research university located in the in the city of Shantou, Guangdong province, China. Zoom will be used to connect Technion with these institutions for greater collaboration and knowledge sharing.

(l-r): Peter Aguilar (Zoom), Oded Gal (Zoom), Prof. Peretz Lavie (Technion), and Eric S. Yuan (Zoom).

The connection between Zoom and Technion is a natural one. Listed as third on the 2018 Forbes Cloud 100 and located in the heart of the Silicon Valley, Zoom is among the most innovative technology companies in the world. It earned many early adopters in the Israel tech industry. Technion graduates bring the unique skills and knowledge that helped Israel earn the nickname “Start-Up Nation.” They constitute more than 70% of the country’s high-tech industry founders and managers.

“Zoom enables the Varonis Systems global teams to connect, including our offices in Israel and seven other countries, so they can collaborate seamlessly in real-time. Video is crucial for growing understanding across distances and cultures – Zoom enables us to build trust, move faster, and create the next generation of data security and analytics,” said Lior Gal, director of IT at Varonis Systems.

“Zoom has a mature and cutting-edge technology for delivering video and audio content for higher education. It can serve faculty, staff, and students while combining unique interoperability features with our current e-learning tools and systems. Incorporating Zoom with Moodle gives our staff the ability to deliver courses from anywhere to students in all three Technion international campuses, in Israel, the US, and China,” explained Zeev Schneider, deputy CIO at the Technion IIT.

The announcement was made during a visit by Technion president, Prof. Peretz Lavie, at Zoom headquarters in San Jose, California. “Zoom is an incredible technology. The ability to come together face-to-face is crucial for both ideation and education. Zoom will help Technion in its task of educating the next generation of global technology innovators,” said President Lavie.

“I am immensely proud to bring Zoom to my alma mater,” said Gal. “Innovation runs deep in the Technion, and their graduates bring so many gifts to Israel and the world. It is gratifying to bring them this gift.”

The Technion will roll out its Zoom deployment now through 2019.