Nanopowders are the basis of many nanotechnologies; Technion researchers coin a new term in the field of nanomechanics: “pseudo-elasticity”

 “In the scientific world today, there are two central schools of thought regarding the way nanocrystals come into contact,” says Prof. Eugene Rabkin of the Faculty of Materials Engineering at the Technion. “One school asserts that the crystals homogenously stretch in order to stick together (elastic deformation), but once they adhere, they return to their original shape. According to the other school of thought, as they approach, the inter-atom forces are strong enough to overcome the individual nanocrystals’ strength and compel them to change shape irreversibly (plastic deformation).”

Metallic nanocrystals have an orderly atomic structure, and the way in which they can undergo plastic deformation is by creating a linear “defect” in the orderly atomic structure. These linear defects, which are called “dislocations”, were first observed under a microscope in the mid-1950s and since then they have served as an important basis for understanding the mechanical characteristics of materials. Because of the size of nanocrystals, they generally have a perfect atomic structure and do not have dislocations.

 “Justification for both schools of thought has been offered, yet without a way to resolve the contradiction between them,” adds Prof. Rabkin. “On the one hand, analytical models have shown that the stresses that are created in nanocrystals during the contact formation are large enough to create a large number of dislocations; on the other hand, in experimental observations, only isolated dislocations were observed in the nanocrystalline clusters, in contradiction to the models.”

In order to resolve the contradiction, the Technion researchers used advanced simulation tools that run on high-performance parallel computer located on campus. “The calculation is performed at the atomic level,” relates Dr. Dan Mordehai who today is a member of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion, but who was a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Rabkin’s group when the research was conducted. “We describe the nanocrystals using the atoms that comprise them and the forces between these atoms, and thus, we actually allow the atoms to choose their preferred “path”. These calculations include several hundreds of thousands of atoms and we have to execute them on parallel computer – that is, execute the calculation on a number of computers simultaneously.”

The Technion researchers found, for all intents and purposes, that neither of the schools of thought described the process in its entirety. In their simulation they showed that when the nanocrystals approach each other, the force of their interaction rises to become as great as that which creates many dislocations (as predicted by the second school of thought). Nevertheless, during the adhering process between the nanocrystals, additional dislocations are created, which “repair” the defects, and by the end of the adhering process, they no longer have any dislocations, as observed during experiments.

Thus the new nanomechanical term, coined by the Technion researchers, “pseudo-elasticity” was born. This mechanism enables nanocrystals to retain their original shape, despite the forces acting upon them, which are large enough to overcome their own strength limit. This mechanism may have great importance in many additional fields in contact mechanics for each pair of bodies that gets within a few nanometers of each other.

Prof. David Srolovitz, who is the head of the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore, participated in this research.

Above: Pictures of the simulations that were performed in the Technion show the process of contact formation between two nanocrystals. (Left) The atomic structure of nanocrystals before contact. (Right) The pseudo-elastic mechanism in action (1 to 8). In order to demonstrate the mechanism, only some of the atoms necessary for the process are shown. One can see that during the process of adhering, many defects are created (the atoms appear in dark grey in pictures 3-7), but at the end, the nanocrystals do not exhibit any defects (8). Illustration: Technion Spokesman.

The Technion is in 42^nd place in Engineering and Technology

Computer science at the Technion was ranked as 15^th in the world (among 500 universities) by the respected Shanghai Ranking published this week. Shanghai Jiaotong University published its list of university rankings – considered especially prestigious and reliable – http://www.shanghairanking.com/index.html. Harvard University tops the list, with MIT heading the engineering and technology rankings.

The Technion is ranked 42^nd in the world in engineering and technology and among the 75 leading universities in life sciences, mathematics and chemistry.

The Shanghai Ranking debuted in 2003 and is intended to improve the level of Chinese universities by comparing them to the top 500 universities in the world. The ranking is based on objective criteria and numerous data. Among the criteria – the number of Nobel Prize and other prestigious award winners, the number of scientific papers published in the leading journals – Nature and Science and other performance relative to the size of the university. The comprehensive Chinese research examines 1000 universities, including the top 500 ones.

Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie, said that the high ranking of the Technion in the computer field explains high position of the state of Israel in global high tech. “Research that is now being completed shows that Technion graduates do indeed lead the high tech sector that is moving Israel’s economy forward,” he said. “It turns out that 76% of Technion graduates in the last two decades work in the country’s high tech industry, which is responsible for 51% of the state of Israel’s industrial exports. Of these graduates, 25% are CEOs or deputy general managers, 21% hold other types of management positions, 10% are team leaders and 12.6% are involved in R&D. 59 out of 121 Israeli companies whose shares are traded on NASDAQ were established or are managed by Technion graduates.”

Approximately 700 students, from all over the north of the country, from 5^th grade through to 12^th grade, participated in two summer sessions given by the Science Programs for Youth division of the Technion. In addition, 44 young people participated in the international science camp, “SciTech 2011”.

This year the Science Programs for Youth division offered a range of programs in the areas of medicine, genetic engineering, developing mathematical thinking, aviation sciences, architecture, robotics, nano worlds and more. About 40 different classes were run and the most popular classes, by far, were the ones in robotics and architecture.

Classes were given in three different areas: natural sciences and engineering, basic skills and engineering and technology.

The classes are given by Technion students studying in different faculties who believe that in science and teaching, they are also conveying an important message to the young participants. In addition to the classes, the participants in the Science Programs for Youth also received a discount on entry fees to the Technion swimming pool and thus were able to enjoy the summer to the fullest.

The “SciTech” summer camp is an international science camp that takes place every summer at the Technion. This year’s camp marks its 18^th year. About 44 young men and women from Europe, Asia, the U.S. and Israel came to the Technion camp, which is aimed at youth aged 16-18 with a proven aptitude in science and technology who strive for academic excellence at the highest level. The camp is about four weeks long and combines scientific research with cultural and social activities. Afternoons and evenings are devoted to social activities and on certain days, the participants are taken on outings to see the country. This year’s tours were to Jerusalem, Caesarea, Kfar Blum, the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa and many other places.

The main objective of the camp is to expose young talented people to scientific and technological activity and research, as well as allow them an opportunity to work under the supervision of professional staff from the Technion, to build a bridge between science and the different cultures, to create relationships among students from all over world and to expose them to different aspects of Israeli society and history.

During the camp, the students work in pairs on projects at the cutting edge of Technion research, using the Technion’s equipment and labs. Toward the end of the camp, participants present their research projects by submitting a comprehensive report, a scientific poster presentation and a visual presentation.

The audience at these presentations is made up of the camp participants, the mentors, the academic staff and guests. The audience participates in choosing the best presentation in every scientific field.

The posters are displayed at a special exhibition during the camp’s closing ceremony. They are judged by a committee comprising senior scientists from the Technion as well as experts. The committee members select the best poster in each scientific field, with each winner getting a prize. The reports and posters appear in the annual “SciTech” review.

The prestigious prize is awarded each year to two young researchers for “exceptional achievements in the first stages of their scientific careers”

Prof. Gepstein studies stem cells and recently succeeded in creating in his lab, using stem cells, a unique model for research and treatment of heart disease leading to fatal heart beat disruption. Together with researchers Ilanit Yitzhaki, Leonid Meisals, Irit Huber and additional colleagues, he successfully transformed skin cells, taken from a patient suffering from genetic life-threatening heart arrhythmia, into unique stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells – iPS), and thereafter in his lab, turned these cells into heart cells. In the paper published in the respected journal Nature, the researchers showed that the heart cells that were created in their lab expressed the electrical disruption characteristic of the genetic heartbeat disruption syndrome from which their patient suffered (elongated QT interval syndrome). Following this, the group of researchers using an electrical recording technique examined what was being received from the mechanisms at the root of the patient’s disrupted heartbeat and the effect of medications that may worsen or treat the disease.

The results of the work emphasize the latent potential in the possibility of re-programming adult cells in order to create “induced pluripotent stem cells” specific to the individual patient. These cells, similar to fetal stem cells, have the ability to differentiate into any type of cell in the body (e.g., heart cell, nerve cell, liver cell, etc.). Given that the cells are genetically identical to the patient from whom they are taken, they can be used as a unique model to study different genetic diseases, to develop medications, and for use in the emerging field of personalized medicine. Furthermore, the fact that different types of cells (such as heart cells) that are unique to each patient can be created may pave the way for future use of these cells in the developing field of tissue engineering and cell transplant for the treatment of a range of diseases (e.g., congestive heart failure).

Above: Prof. Lior Gepstein. Photo by: Technion Spokesman

A group of students from the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion have created an application that “writes a book on its own”, in any topic specified by the user

It allows anyone to prepare a guide book just moments before going on vacation or touring museums

 “The idea for the book was brought up as part of the course supervised by Prof. Yossi Gil,” explains Michal Nir, one of the eight students who participated in the project. “We got an algorithm that was developed by one of the department’s faculty members and the team was asked to find an application for it. One of the course requirements was to relate to everything as if it was a start-up project and not as an academic assignment. Consequently, it was important for us to present an attractive product, with a catchy name, whose design was eye-pleasing and user-friendly plus one that met an actual need.”

During the semester the group worked intensively on developing Bookit! and today, it is their product, available on the website developed by the students (http://tiny.cc/bookitnow). In order to create a book, the user is required to enter key words related to the subject he or she has chosen – for instance, travel Spain or art Picasso – and in a short while (a matter of minutes, at most) the book is ready. “The site was built using advanced technology and is meant to be run mainly on the Firefox and Chrome browsers,” adds Michal.

 “As noted, there is the basic algorithm we got at the beginning of the year,” says student Benjamin Kamfer, “but we had to work on it and develop it to meet our specific needs. Every time we ran into a problem, we improved it in order to solve the problem.

 “At this point in time, the algorithm searches Wikipedia for the requested variables and builds a type of “relevance ladder” of different occurrences, from which it creates the book. In other words, it is not a blind search for these values but a very smart search, which analyzes the relevance of the existing material on the Net to the user-entered specifications.”

 “You can, of course, expand the method for searching on the Net, but this requires additional work,” explains Saar Gross, “and for us it was very important to present a finished product and not something half way through development. We, therefore, limited ourselves to working with Wikipedia, and as you can see by the results, it works very well, also in terms of locating content as well as in terms of the book’s graphic design.

 “We definitely do not intend stopping here, but rather will continue to develop the algorithm and the site by improving the existing system capabilities and adding new features.”

Above (Right to left): Vladimir Rudenko, Roee Migdal, Itamar Azolai, Alon Morgenstern, Inbal Serchuk, Saar Gross, Michal Nir, Benjamin Kamper

A joint Mekorot–Technion work plan for the next five years is to be formulated soon. The decision comes during a tour of Mekorot’s Eshkol site by representatives from the Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Following these visits, it was decided that a joint Mekorot–Technion work plan for the next five years is to be formulated. The plan’s objective is to address issues of human capital, water technologies, research and scholarships. The plan will be drawn up in the near future by a joint Mekorot–Technion team.

This project is a continuation of past productive Mekorot–Technion collaborations. Previous cooperation dealt with, among others, challenges in the field of distillation, e.g., improving the quality of distilled water and the use of environmentally-friendly chemicals, as well as challenges in the area of water, e.g., optimization of chemical treatment of the water in the National Water Carrier prior to filtering and while in the carrier, and optimization and integration of devices based on biological testing, designed to signal deterioration of water quality, Additional collaborations have included successful participation of Mekorot in the “Atidim for Infrastructures” project, as part of which Technion students are placed at a Mekorot facility and assigned personal mentors and given the opportunity to acquire valuable practical experience during and at the of their studies.

Today, many Technion graduates work throughout Mekorot in different position. The company’s chairman, Alex Wiznitzer, who graduated from the Technion in 1978, is the most senior Technion alumnus working at Mekorot. Wiznitzer graduated from the Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

 “The Technion is an unparalleled research and scientific institution, and cooperating with it on projects benefits both sides immensely,” said Wiznitzer. “Mekorot is proud to partner with the Technion in the field of R&D and will promote the awarding of scholarships to students in the field of water engineering in order to increase the supply of engineers needed by the Israeli economy.”

“Mekorot is a high technology national infrastructure company,” says Prof. Arnon Bentur, dean of the Faculty of Civil & Environment Engineering. “The strategic collaboration you are promoting will advance technologies that will not only address the country’s needs, but will also leverage and advance business activities abroad, which will be based on innovative ‘blue-&-white” technologies.”

In the picture: Alex Viznitser (right) and Prof’ Bentur

Excellent results for the Technion and the Israeli delegation to the International Mathematics Competition held last week:

Ofir Gorodetsky placed 12^th & Shahar Papini placed 25^th out of 305 participants

Yet another great achievement for Haifa’s Technion: In last week’s International Mathematics Competition for University Students, the Israeli team took 5^th place out of 77 teams. Of the seven members on the Israeli team who represented the country’s higher education institutions, two students from the Technion performed exceptionally. Ofir Gorodetsky, a 19 year old from Haifa, placed 12^th out of 305 competitors and Shahar Papini, also a Technion student, placed 25^th. These two competitors surpassed contestants from prestigious universities from around the world.

During the competition, Israeli representatives won 4 first prizes and 3 second prizes, so that by the end of the competition the Israeli delegation reached 5^th place in team scores, beating the Iranian delegation, considered the best mathematics team.

Ofir Gorodetsky, who completed his undergraduate mathematics studies at the Technion last year when he was only 19, is now a soldier in an elite army unit.  While serving in the IDF, he takes Mathematics graduate courses at the Tel Aviv University.  His father, Grisha Gorodetsky, is from a family of Russian refuseniks who in the 1950s lived in the city of Samara on the banks of the Volga River, and his mother is from Moldova.  Grisha explained that his son, Ofir, who was born in Israel, has loved mathematics all his life and hopes to work in this field in the future.

Ofir, who returned to his army base immediately after coming back from the competition, attended the Ironi Hey high school in Haifa and while still in high school skipped a year and registered for mathematics studies at the Open University. After one year he transferred to the Technion where he completed his undergraduate degree last year, making both the President’s and Dean’s List.

Shahar Papini, who placed 25^th in the world, also serves in an elite unit. He is a Technion reserve officer and will serve for six years in the army. A Haifa resident, aged 21, he completed his undergraduate degree in computer science, mathematics and physics. Shahar, after returning to Israeli, reported that “the atmosphere at the competition was good; we did not mix politics and mathematics. We focused on the competition itself and did really well.”

According to Shahar, “in the past few years we have been doing really well. Last year we also placed high. Israel is at the top of international mathematics and just like last year, this year, we also beat the strong Iranian delegation as well as representatives from world famous universities.”

They hope that in the future this will enable the translation of the genome’s “operating system”; they are working in the new field of synthetic biology and believe that this will be “the high tech of bio tech”

 The objective of the Technion researchers is to decode the “software” that controls the process and use this knowledge to develop medical applications. “In order to do this, we intend to create a ‘Rosetta Stone’ for the gene regulatory code (the original Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele that had the same ancient text inscribed on it in three different languages, as a result of which archaeologists were able to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics),” says Dr. Amit. “This tool will be used to ‘hack’ the control program of real organisms and consequently allow us to ‘write’ new programs – which do not exist in nature – for medical purposes, environmental applications, etc. Synthetic biology is a new branch of life science, which takes a constructive/building approach. It attempts to use biological components to construct new biological systems that do not exist in nature. It forces us to really examine our understanding by requiring us to use what we think we understand in order to create biological functions. It allows us to ask why evolution “locked onto” specific patterns, to imagine and create new biological functions and forces us to work in a multidisciplinary fashion.”

 The approach of researchers in synthetic biology is based on using characteristic genomic components and arranging them together (or “wiring” them to each other) in new architectures. In the next stage they develop patterns based on thermodynamic models, and in the end, they analyze the output using their model. By doing this, they can draw basic programming principles that permit them to translate the architecture and the sequence into computer algorithms. “If we succeed in writing a sequence that predicts our output based on computerized rules that we found in the ‘Rosetta Stone’ – we can then use this ‘key’ to decipher certain sequences that appear in the genome,” says Dr. Amit.

 In the paper appearing in Cell, the Technion researchers show that they can use this approach to develop a new understanding of enhancers among bacteria. These sequences are common to all living creatures and may be thought of as modular objects that can combine “input” or signals. Because bacterial enhancers have a simpler architecture and at times it is easier to characterize them, the Technion researchers chose to focus on them first. The researches demonstrated the possibility of building new bacterial enhancer programs that will lead to a physical model of the control program, or to the “machine code”. The researchers note that the type of computerization that takes place in this context is reminiscent of analogue computing processes more than digital ones.

 “This Rosetta Stone, in the bacterial context, has enabled us to formulate a new understanding, or qualitative model, for many examples of bacterial enhancers in nature, most of which have never been analyzed,” stresses Dr. Amit. “Now we can understand, at least partially, many natural programs that have not yet been decoded by simply reading the DNA sequence.”

A Technion program that will use the existing infrastructure of the Haredi College of Bnei Brak (Mivchar) received authorization from the Council for Higher Education

The Technion is opening an undergraduate degree program in Bnei Brak in mapping and geo-information. The studies are intended for young men from the Haredi sector and will be given in the Haredi College of Bnei Brak (Mivchar). The program has been approved by the Council for Higher Education.

 “There is a severe lack of trained professionals in every field of civil and environmental engineering,” said the dean of the faculty at the Technion, Prof. Arnon Bentur. “We will help Haredi students in Bnei Brak acquire a profession that guarantees them a respectable career that combines income with a broad vista for advancing in the public and private sectors. The Technion in general, and the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering in particular are exerting great effort to expand our target audiences. These efforts have so far led to the opening of a special Technion study track in the Jerusalem College of Engineering, whose students study for two years in the college’s Jerusalem campus and then complete their studies at the Technion in Haifa. In addition, as a result of these endeavors we now award 100 scholarships annually as part of the “Atidim for Infrastructures” program, with 60% of recipients being young people from the country’s periphery. And in the same way, today, we are reaching out to the Haredi sector. This step represents a unique model that simultaneously responds to two national needs – the first, in the field of engineering and the second, the integration of the Haredi sector into the workforce of the state of Israel. The Center for Mapping of Israel will act to find jobs for graduates of the new program.”

We are talking about a three-year program that will not only award a BA but will also constitute a strong basis for getting a “certified surveyor” license – a much sought after employee. Registration has already begun and the 15-month preparatory program will begin in September. After completing this program, students will study for three years for a BA. Classes will be held at the college in Bnei Brak and will be given by members of the Technion’s Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Students in the program will be official Technion students even though the classes are being given in Bnei Brak.

The Council for Higher Education’s decision to authorize the Technion to establish the program in Bnei Brak says, in part, that “the recommendation of the Committee for Monitoring Education in the Haredi Sector was given in the framework of the green light given by the Council for Higher Education’s Planning and Budget Committee – to include new programs for Haredi organizational frameworks in the new five year plan, in terms of planning and budgeting.”

The web page of the Haredi College of Bnei Brak says that “Dr. Harav Avrahum Foss, of blessed memory, founder of the Haredi College of Bnei Brak, who gallantly led the vocational revolution of the Haredi sector, initiated the establishment of the college in order to meet the need for appropriate, completely segregated higher education studies for the Haredi public. The great vision of a great founder was to enable thousands of new students to proudly earn a living.”

 “As an institution that has been contributing to the state in every field of life since its establishment almost one hundred years ago, the Technion is proud and happy to contribute its part to this national mission – providing a wage-earning  profession to the Haredi public,” stressed Technion president, Prof. Peretz Lavie.

Atty. Eyal Mamo, who serves as the chair of the District Appeals Committee for Planning and Construction of the central district: “Contractors have agreed to pay to rouse a blackmailer just so he’ll stop the contiuned foot-dragging and damage; processes are undermined with insufferable ease”

Professionals from a broad range of relevant bodies participated in a special seminar held recently, sponsored by the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning and the Center for City and Regional Studies at the Technion, and devoted to the reform of the Planning and Building Law: the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Planning Administration, the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel, the local committee, the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and many more.

During the seminar, the event’s organizers, Prof. Rachel Alterman and Dr. Dafna Carmon of the Technion, launched their new book, “Will you hear my voice?”, which deals with rights of Israeli citizens to object to the proceedings of planning institutes. The two researchers remarked that in comparison to citizens of other democratic states in the world, Israelis actually exploit their right to be heard in planning and building proceedings quite well. Nevertheless, against the backdrop of the reform that is in advanced planning stages, it appears that the public’s dependence on professionals such as lawyers and engineers will increase in the coming years.

Participants in the seminar who grappled with the question of how much the reform of the Planning and Building Law will affect the citizen’s right to object to the building of an apartment tower opposite the window of his or her home, or even less than this, to object to his or her neighbor’s request to build a balcony ­– will now be better able to understand the implications of the new law.

 “In the 1980s, before those objecting to building plans were required to submit a declaration, only 24% of the people who were opposing a plan were represented by lawyers; in the last decade this group has grown to 63% of all objectors,” Prof. Alterman revealed. “In contrast, in Britain, for example, only 10% of those objecting to a plan represented by a lawyer and in Holland 20%-40% of the objectors were helped by lawyers. In Holland, by the way, public notice by the committees is much clearer and appears in newspapers delivered to people’s homes for free.”

According to her, “The reform does not get rid of the essential bureaucratic obstacles that impair residents’ rights to oppose plans. Today, residents must submit a declaration signed by a lawyer as a condition for objecting. The reform will not just make it any less easy for the public to object to a plan; it is takes an even harder line on this issue and after it becomes law, each person objecting to a plan will be required to note which changes he or she wants to include in the plan – a directive that is liable to again create a need for lawyers and other professionals.”

As a result of this, the researcher recommends establishing a body similar to the public defender that can assist residents challenging building plans. “I would recommend to the planners of the law reform to set up a public defender for planning and building issues. In this way, we can give the entire public an equal chance and also help stop the phenomenon of making every issue a matter for lawyers, which drives away everyone who is afraid they will not be able to afford legal assistance,” says Prof. Alterman.

Today, the people opposed to a plan come to the committee themselves to voice their objections. However, according to the new law, the committee will appoint its own investigator to listen to the challengers who will submit his conclusions to the committee. “This procedure is indeed expected to be more efficient and perhaps even more thorough, but the price of this efficiency is that one person only, who is not elected by the public, will listen to the arguments and reach a conclusion according to his own personal point of view. In addition, our data shows that whoever hires a lawyer does not necessarily reach a better result as far as this individual is concerned,” say the researchers.

Alongside the criticism, the participants noted the significant improvement in the ability of stakeholders to oppose a plan, even those who are not directly related to the property and the cancellation of the special and problematic status of public bodies. The reform initiated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is intended to simplify and shorten planning and building procedures, has other advantages: the stage of public notice has been moved up to the planning stage, the requirement for giving public notice has been broadened and it also includes using the Internet, which will increase the public’s accessibility to information (Prof. Alterman: “This is mainly good for the public surfing the Internet…”) and the right to object now also applies to national plans.

The district commissioner of Haifa of the Ministry of Interior Major-General (Ret.) Yosef Mishlev, making his first visit to the Technion, said that his impression is that 90% of those who submit objections today are lawyers. “Even lawyers who object turn to lawyers who specialize in this type of law and have them represent them in the proceeding,” he said. “An investigator has more time to listen to objections, but because of the use of an investigator, I, as the head of the committee, will lose my direct contact with the person himself.”

Mishlev stressed that, “in my opinion, the public’s participation in the reform has been too little too late. As the Home Front Commander, I learned that the earlier the population gets involved, the better is their ability to cope with a crisis. I believe it unsound to allow anyone to object. Objections should be limited only to those whom the issue touches. We must streamline the process and not make it more cumbersome.”

Acting head of the Planning Commission, architect Doron Drukerman, voiced his disagreement with the perception that the procedure moves on a scale of transparency through to efficiency. “The objections to the planning stage appear at a late point,” he said, “When the planning institute decides to deposit the plan, effort has already been invested by the businessmen and we are in a position such that if no objections are submitted, the plan is automatically authorized. There is a sense of inevitability. It is preferable to identify objections ahead of time in order to find the appropriate solution.”

The representative of the Association of Contractors and Builders, attorney Eyal Mamo, who serves as the chair of the District Appeals Committee for Planning and Construction of the central district, focused on the fact that every person has the right to object and submit an appeal. “We know many cases where contractors agreed to pay to rouse a blackmailer only so that he will stop the foot-dragging and financial damage coming from this,” he said. “Processes are undermined with insufferable ease. Submission of an appeal must happen in such a way that the losing party pays for the expenses caused to the other party. They must also pay the fees. This is the way to screen out a significant percentage of objections.”

The name given to the family of beetles known as click-beetles aptly reflects their unique ability to jump: a unique  mechanism enables them to jump in the air without using their legs. This mechanism allows them to evade potential predators – or simply to turn over in the case when they get “stuck” on their back.

This mechanism has been studied in the past and its basic mechanics were known: when a beetle lies on its back, a locking mechanism is activated that preserves the beetle’s elastic potential energy and release of this mechanism bounces the beetle into the air, to a height of about 30 cm.

Nevertheless, up until the present research conducted by Dr. Gal Ribak and Distinguished Professor Daniel Weihs of the Technion, scientists did not understand how much control the click-beetle had over the jump.

Dr. Ribak and Prof. Weihs, who also investigated the bio-mechanical constraints on the jump, discovered that even though the click-beetle controlled some elements of the jump, its “launch angle” barely changes. A launch with such an angle – approximately 80 degrees – exerts the majority of the jump energy (98% of the energy) on the vertical axis, that is, to overcoming gravitational pull.

Based on a combination of theory (a mathematical-physical model of the jump) and experiment (tracking the jumps of real click-beetles), the researchers concluded that the click-beetle controls the launch speed but not the launch angle.

“The issue of the energetics of the jump especially drew me,” explains Dr. Ribak. “We are dealing with insects that propel their body upward with enormous acceleration – more than 300 times the gravitational acceleration (the acceleration of a free-falling object) – and it was unclear why so much energy is required to execute such a simple action as turning over. Taking a second look, I noticed that the click-beetle does its somersaults in the air and I wanted to understand how much control the beetle itself has over its aerial acrobatics.”

The subject of controlled movement is an important issue in autonomous systems (autonomous robots); for example, an unmanned vehicle that capsizes while carrying out a task. It is very important that this type of vehicle be able to right itself even in difficult terrain so as to continue its mission. Design of such a complex task requires a sense of the environment and spatial orientation.

 “As we are learning from the click-beetle, evolution has supplied us with its own solution to this problem,” says Dr. Ribak. “The jump will successfully turn the beetle over only 50% of the time. In other words, the chances of a successful jump are the same as a failed jump.  Therefore, it is possible that the beetle may have to make several jumps in order to, at the end, land on its feet. It is true that an engineer who designs such a mechanism would not get a lot of compliments but as an evolutionary solution, it has proven itself, and the simplicity of the mechanism is an enormous advantage.”

It is likely that following the research of Dr. Ribak and Prof. Weihs, it will be possible to design tiny vehicles that will be able to jump over obstacles.

Another possible application is a mechanism to turn over sensors. “Suppose that we are interested in dispersing a lot of sensors over a certain area,” explains Dr. Ribak. “The most logical way is to toss them from the air. However, it is clear that some sensors will fall on the ground wrong side up. Using a joint based on a similar mechanism to that of the click-beetle, we can get the sensor to jump up into the air and keep jumping until it lands right side up.”

Dr. Gal is a research biologist studying the eco-physiology of swimming and natural flight, with the focus on natural, evolutionary solutions to engineering problems. “Nature provides us with relatively simple solutions for many engineering problems, which to us seem very complex,” he explains.

The present research is part of Dr. Ribak’s post-doctoral work being carried out in the framework of a Technion program for autonomous systems and under the supervision of Distinguished Professor Daniel Weihs of the Faculty of Aeronautical Engineering.

In his doctoral research (at the Technion, under the supervision of Prof. Zeev Arad of the Faculty of Biology and Prof. Danny Weihs), he studied the diving mechanism of birds such as cormorants, using a theoretical model and computer analysis of underwater video. Dr. Ribak showed that diving birds exploit “negative lift”, which works against the force of buoyancy and enables them to stay under water, just as “regular” (positive) lift opposes gravitational pull and allows airplanes to fly.

Above: Monitoring the click-beetle. A photograph demonstrating a single jump, in intervals of 100th/second. Technion spokesman.

The annual training camp held at the Technion produced outstanding results for Israel:

They won two gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal; Dr. Eli Raz, head of the training program for the Olympics: “Our creativity is our big advantage over the Chinese and the Americans.”

The result of this year’s competition constitute an unprecedented achievement by the team and by the Technion in Haifa, which is the body that trains the hundreds of participants hoping to reach the Olympics and prepares the five-member team for the Olympics. This is an especially exceptional accomplishment given that each member of the team won a medal.

Every year there are two global Physics Olympics: the first is the Asian Olympics to which every country sends eight competitors, and the second and more important one is the International Olympics to which every country in the world sends five competitors.

The competitors are high school students who undergo rigorous selection and intensive preparation for many weeks at the Technion in Haifa, which as noted is the body responsible for preparing and training them for the Olympics. Dr. Eli Raz, a visiting professor in physics at the Technion and the head of the Department of Physics and Optical Engineering at ORT Braude College and responsible for preparing the delegation, said that “the uniqueness of the Israeli team was that we were able to solve questions in a non-standard way and manner. Our guys used their creativity, which is our weapon, and so Gal Dor, one of the two who won a gold medal, was able to get 29.5 points out of 30 on the theoretical part and pass the four Chinese participants in a competition in which the Chinese usually take first place. Dor also scored higher that the five members of the American team. If you think about the fact that every country sends five competitors, try to imagine what a tremendous advantage the Chinese have when choosing the top five from among a billion and a half people, compared to us who only have seven million residents and we must choose the best five.”

Dr. Raz noted that “in the preparation process we do not see the Olympics as the end in itself but rather as the means to advance professionally; therefore, we challenge our team members during the preparations with questions that will help them advance professionally in the field of physics during their studies and questions that require them to crack and solve complex problems.”

The two gold medals were won by Gal Dor, a student from the Ahad Ha’am High School in Petach Tikvah, and Asaf Rosen, a student in the Motte Gur Ironi 3 High School in Modi’in. The silver medals were won by Ben Finkelstein of Rabin Ironi 2 High School in Modi’in and Gur Peri of Rabin High School in Mazkeret Batya. The bronze medal was won by Aviv Frankel of Leibovitch Memorial Ort in Netanya.

The team members underwent long weeks of difficult training and rigorous selection that began with tests taken by 2,500 outstanding students selected by physics teachers in high schools around the country. Of these, 350 students went on to take regional exams prepared by Technion people. In the third stage, 35 outstanding students came to the Technion for a two-week training camp and after this, during Passover, an additional training camp was held at the Technion. Following this, eight students were chosen to represent Israel at the Asian Physics Olympics. From among these eight students, five were chosen to represent Israel at the International Physics Olympics that were held in Bangkok. According to Dr. Raz, “those who prepare the students in the camp are members of a professional team who have all participated in the past in the Physics Olympics and have a lot of experience in competitions. Alex Finkelstein, who is about to complete his graduate degree in physics at the Technion, heads this team.”

Gal Dor who beat the Chinese sounded very restrained when the delegation landed at Ben-Gurion Airport: “It was nice to win the medal. The truth is that I didn’t expect to beat the Chinese and in reality I was even surprised.” In his words, “we are tired from the plane trip and the competition and now we need to rest. Afterward we will think about how to celebrate the victory.” As to the future, Gal said that “physics really isn’t part of my plans for academic studies, but mathematics is.”

Above: The Israeli Physics Team. Photo by: Technion Spokesman