Month: November 2014

The Landau Prize for the Sciences and Research to be Awarded to Technion Professor David Gershoni, for his Research Contributions Leading to the Production of Entangled Photons

Prof. David Gershoni, from the Department of Physics at the Technion, will receive the 2014 Michael Landau Prize for Sciences and Research awarded by Mifal Hapais (the Israel State Lottery) enterprise, for his research contributions, which have led to the development of a prototype for producing entangled photon emissions. The Prize Committee noted that “This method is significantly different from its predecessors; its advantage lies in its capability to create multiple devices and thereby generate entangled photons on demand. This has important experimental implications for research in the field of quantum information.”

Prof. Gershoni earned his academic degrees at the Technion. In 1986 (at age 33) he pursued his postdoctoral studies at Bell Laboratories headquarters in New Jersey, and after one short year he was accepted there as a faculty member and engaged in research and development. In 1991 he returned to Israel and the Technion, this time as a faculty member at the Department of Physics.

In 2006, Prof. Gershoni proved the possibility of producing entangled photons (particles of light) from semiconductor sources. Entanglement is a phenomenon whereby two quantum particles behave like physical twins that maintain a quantum correlation: when a characteristic of one of the particles changes, the characteristic of its twin simultaneously changes as well, making it impossible to describe the state of one of the particles separately from the state of the other.

In a joint research study with Prof. Joseph Avron from the Department of Physics at the Technion and doctoral students Nika Akopian and Netanel Lindner, Prof. Gershoni demonstrated – both theoretically and experimentally – that under appropriate conditions, an efficient prototype semiconductor-based light source of nanoscale dimensions produces entangled light. The researchers showed that it is possible to build a device based on such a source, which would be capable of producing entangled photons ‘on demand’ – a significant milestone for quantum communications, quantum information processing,computing, and perhaps even teleportation.

“Spooky action at a distance”

Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that first appeared in a 1935 paper authored by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen (one of the founding fathers of the Physics Department at the Technion) and became known as the EPR paradox (EPR stood for their initials). The paper expressed reservations about Einstein’s accepted formulation of quantum mechanics, which allegedly ‘allows’ for information to travel at light speed. Einstein believed that the ‘possibility’ for such behavior is fictitious, or as he put it: ‘spooky action at a distance.’

Niels Bohr, among the fathers of quantum mechanics, claimed in response to the paper on the EPR paradox that this ‘remote operation’ is actually possible, since it is based not on ‘mechanical impact’, but on the ‘logical effect,’ on the conditions that define the behavior of the system. Einstein then retaliated by describing Bohr’s response as “longwinded Talmudic gibberish.”

In 1962, Irish physicist John Bell, demonstrated that the Einstein-Bohr debate could be resolved experimentally. In research trials conducted in the 70s and 80s, as a result of a mathematical model formulated by Bell, it was scientifically proven that entangled particles are indeed endowed with an exceptional correlation that predicts quantum mechanics. The research by Professors Gershoni and Avron, which is based in part on the theoretical work of a former faculty member, the late Distinguished Professor Asher Peres, led to a breakthrough in this direction.

’In effect, we demonstrated how to develop a device that “shoots” entangled photonic pairs on demand,’ explains Prof. Gershoni. “This discovery is an important milestone bridging current technology (classical) and future technologies (quantum). The current technology, which includes computers, communications, lighting, data storage and processing of information, is based on semiconductors, and this is why our discovery is extremely relevant to the high-tech world. We are developing nano-scale semiconductor structures operating as ‘artificial atoms’ whose behavior may be explained and predicted using quantum mechanics. We believe that this breakthrough will advance the field of quantum information processing, which will form the basis of future technologies. Our research motivation stems also from our hope that technology will follow science and that in the near future we will be able to see a wide use of real quantum technology.”

The Landau Prize for Sciences and Research awarded by Mifal Hapais is bestowed on scientists who have made significant achievements and valuable contributions to the advancement of science and research. The Prize Committee selected Prof. Gershoni as this year’s winner of the Physics award; prize committee members include Professors Dan Shahar, Shmuel Fishman and Ora Entin-Wohlman . Landau prize winners in other categories are: Prof. Dana Wolf (Virology), Prof. Elisha Qimron (Hebrew language research), Prof. Amir Sagi (Agriculture), Prof. Howard Litvin (Gerontology), and Prof. Daniel Hanoch Wagner (Chemical and Materials engineering).

The research is being carried out in collaboration with the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute.

In the photo: Prof. David Gershoni
Photo Credit: The Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office

For additional information: Gil Liner, Technion Spokesperson, 058-688-2208.

Autonomous Tracking Shopping Cart – Shopping Made Easy from Technion

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology students have made an autonomous tracking shopping cart using a computer vision algorithm they developed. By using a 3D kinect sensor, 3D camera and Arduino board the cart can track an individual person. Shopping just got easier!

Project by Electrical Engineering students: Ohad Rusnak and Omri Elmalech of the Control Robotics and Machine Learning Lab. Koby Kohai, Chief Engineer.

The 2014 Ziegler award was bestowed upon Dr. Gal Markel for developing an innovative treatment for melanoma.

Dr. Gal Markel, 35, was presented with the 2014 Ziegler award, on November 21st, for developing an innovative treatment for melanoma. The ceremony included a lecture entitled “Phenomena Resulting from Iodine Deficiency” given by Prof. Zaki Kraiem of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, where the event took place.

Dr. Markel, of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sheba Medical Center, is an intern specializing in immuno-oncology, an area of medicine that focuses on the treatment of cancer using the immune system. Dr. Markel received the award for developing a new antibody against the CEACAM1 protein, which plays a central role in the development of the aggressive and fatal metastatic disease. The protein is expected to be used in the immunotherapy of malignant melanoma, and clinical trials are scheduled to begin this coming year. Dr. Markel’s award ceremony lecture was entitled “Cancer under the Radar”, and discussed the way in which cancerous tumors can “hide” and thus avoid detection by the immune system.

Reuven Ziegler (z”l) was born in 1907 in Bóbrka, Poland. He survived the Holocaust along with his wife and son, Zvi Ziegler, who currently is a faculty member at the Technion’s Department of Mathematics. In 1946, the family immigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem, where a daughter, Edna Schechtman (currently a professor of statistics at Ben-Gurion University) was born. In 1948, the Ziegler family moved to Haifa, where Reuven was involved in the timber trade and was an active member of the city’s chamber of commerce.

In 1971, Reuven Ziegler died of a malignant disease, and his family decided to honor his memory by establishing a fund that would bestow awards upon young physicians-researchers for applied medical research. The award, which is for 7,000 NIS, has been presented every other year since 1974 and candidacy is open to researchers from all universities, research institutes and medical centers in Israel. To date, the Ziegler award has been presented to 20 researchers, seven of whom are from the Technion. “It seems like the Ziegler award is a predictor of future success”, said Prof. Michael Aviram, who acted as master of ceremony for the event, “since many of the recipients have ended up in very respectable positions in medicine and in medical research, both in Israel and abroad.” The award committee members are Michael Aviram (Chairperson), Israel Vlodavsky, Ze’ev Hochberg, Nathan Karin, Zaid Abassi, and Asya Rolls.

 

Photo: Dr. Gal Markel

America Online (AOL) to Invest $5M in a Technion Research Project, Conducted Jointly by JTCI and AOL Relegence Israel; AOL Executives from the US and Israel Visited the Technion Last Week.

AOL, the American Internet and media company, announced last week that it will be investing $5 Million at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute to fund research projects conducted by faculty at the Jacobs Institute, at the Technion Computer Engineering Center and at Cornell Tech, with AOL researchers at AOL Relegence… and in New York.

This collaboration is intended to encourage researchers at Technion and Cornell Tech to expand their research efforts in areas including communication and coordination, food and wellness, education and safety, information and entertainment so that it may provide more extensive and accurate information to decision makers, while empowering local communities.

Since AOL’s R&D Center in Israel specializes in developing innovation in the field of online video, the Technion research project will focus on this issue and will examine the effects of video viewing on the viewer’s senses. The study will include researchers from areas of psychology, computer science, and other related fields; it will be conducted by a heterogeneous research group of women and men.

According to Prof. Mor Naaman, a faculty member at JTCI, “Diversity is a major goal of any organization, whether academic or otherwise, and therefore any technology we will develop must serve the entire population, and half of the population happens to be female. Therefore, it is appropriate to reflect this 50-50 ratio within the team’s composition.”

A delegation of senior AOL representatives visited the Technion last Monday (Nov. 17, 2014), headed by Bill Pence, the Chief Technology Officer at AOL responsible for the company’s global technology strategy. The delegation was hosted by Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie, Technion’s VP for External Relations & Resources, Prof. Boaz Golani, and the Head of the Technion Computer Engineering Center, Prof. Rafi Rom.

As part of their visit, Pence and his colleagues were given a tour of the Geometrical Image Processing Lab in the Faculty of Computer Science, founded and headed by Prof. Ron Kimmel. Here they were presented with a customized inhalation mask and a demonstration of realistic stereoscopy technology.Later, the group visited the Parallel Systems Laboratory in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, headed by Prof. Yitzhak Birk.

 

The Ministry of Education Presents the Future Science League: Scientist that have Broken New Ground

The Ministry of Education rolled out a campaign to encourage students to study sciences. On the promotional banner 11 female Israeli scientists were featured, among them were five Technion faculty members and graduates:

Prof. Shulamit Levenberg, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, specializing in stem cells and tissue engineering.

Assoc. Prof. Marcelle Machluf, from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, an expert in tissue engineering and involved in the development and engineering of nano-drug and gene delivery systems for cancer therapy.

Prof. Yonina Eldar, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, who for the last number of years has been focusing on sampling methods in signal processing and communication systems in medical imaging and computational biology.

Dr. Kineret Keren, from the Department of Physics, specializing in biological self-organization.

Dr. Kira Radinsky, founder of the novel startup SalesPredict that applies methodologies she developed during her doctoral research at the Technion to predict future events.

According to the Ministry of Education, promoting studies in science and technology to young people is a national need. The Ministry expressed its deep founded hope that the scientist presented on behalf of the campaign banner will serve as models of inspiration to all students, and female students in particular, and encourage them to engage in the many challenging and fascinating fields of mathematics, science and technology at the secondary level, and when choosing a future career.

View more campaign details (in Hebrew) on the Ministry of Education website here.

 

 

Technion celebrates the inception of classes for its second cohort of the Russian Freshman Year Program.* Graduates of the first cohort successfully integrated into regular Technion study programs at different faculties this year.

The start of the new academic year at the Technion has began with twenty-seven freshman year students from FSU countries enrolled in its Russian study program – they represent the second cohort of this unique program. At the opening ceremony, held on November 5, 2014, two of last year’s graduates, Polina Soloveichik and Andrey Elashkin, spoke about their experiences. “You gave us an opportunity to integrate into the Technion and Israel,” they said. “It’s hard to study at the Technion because here, being successful calls for more than talent alone. You find yourself studying long and hard even after a long day of classes, which leaves you with not much time for anything else. Yet the tremendous support and help by the program staff brought us to where we are today. It is because of all of you that we are now standing here as proud Technion students.”

The program is managed through Technion International in cooperation with the “MASA” and “Nativ” organizations, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, which is responsible for the Hebrew portion of the program. Prof. Anat Rafaeli, the Head of Technion International, welcomed the incoming students and told them that, “It is our goal to attract young people like you to the Technion and to Israel, and to assist you throughout this challenging integration. I can assure you that here you will receive the best science and engineering training, and request your help in undertaking your studies in these fields, as well as Hebrew language studies, very seriously.”

Prof. Rafaeli also thanked Naomi Ben-Ami, the Head of the Nativ organization, for her initiative and assistance that helped get the project off the ground last year. Ben-Ami thanked the staff of Technion International and expressed her hope that this program will strengthen the ties between Israel and ex-Soviet Jewry. “I wish each and every one of you much success, for those of you who choose to remain in Israel and for those who decide to return home. All of you will be our ambassadors.”

“I am touched to see so many of our graduates from the first cohort here today, who are now integrated into regular Technion study tracks, and especially to hear them speaking Hebrew,” said Ariel Geva, the Director of Technion International. “To our new incoming students – you have all demonstrated great courage on coming here – you are embarking on a long, rigorous and fascinating journey, and we want you to know that we are here to assist you with anything you will need along the way.”

The first cohort opened with 22 young talented college-bound high school students from Eastern European countries,. This year, the graduates of the program have successfully integrated into various undergraduate study tracks at the Technion.

The second cohort has just opened with 27 students. As part of the program, students will take a short and concentrated preparation program (four months) consisting of mathematics, physics and Hebrew studies. In their second and third semester they will take five basic courses in engineering and sciences. In the Fall of 2015 – at the end of their first year of studies, which is given in Russian and includes 400 hours of Hebrew study – they will begin to learn with regular Technion students in Hebrew, at a faculty of their choosing.

The Coordinator of the Russian Program, Luba Baladzhaeva, explains that in Russia and Ukraine, teens graduate from high-school at a relatively young age, and begin to look for academic study tracks. “Here at the Technion we offer high quality education and the students can start their studies immediately after their arrival to Israel.” Luba, who formerly worked for the Jewish Agency in Russia, made an Aliyah in 2009, and began working at the Technion two years ago.

Program graduates Constantin and Grigory Senchikhin, are 18 year old twins who grew up in Moscow. They had heard about the Russian program while they were still in high school, and underwent the admissions process which involved a Skype interview and a tour of the Technion campus. “We came here in 2013, met with students and the program heads, and we decided it was a good fit for us.” The brothers received full support from their parents, who also have formal technical education and who work in the fields of tourism and insurance back home.

Grigory, a trumpet player, dreams of studying materials engineering and Constantin, who plays the saxophone and clarinet, wants to study biomedical engineering: “In Russia, I participated at a biomedical contest for high school students called “Step Into the Future” and this field interests me very much. There are wide gaps in the level of academics at high schools in Russia, therefore, elite universities typically take in students from prestigious high schools. Although we had the privilege of studying at an excellent high school, we chose to continue our university education at the Technion, because of its impressive past and excellent faculty.”

Picture Credit: Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office

For more information: Gil Lainer, Technion Spokesperson, 058-688-2208