Harvey Prize winners for 2015: Prof. Marc Kirschner and Prof. Immanuel Bloch
At a festive ceremony on June 5, 2016, the Technion will award the Harvey Prize for 2015 to Prof. Marc Kirschner of Harvard University (USA) and Prof. Immanuel Bloch of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Germany). The $75,000 prize, named after Leo Harvey (1887-1973), was established in 1972 as a bridge of goodwill between Israel and the nations of the world. It is awarded annually to men and women who have made a significant contribution to humanity. Around 17% of the prizewinners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
Technion establishes an innovative Center for Quantum Science Matter and Engineering
The first center of its kind in Israel will be inaugurated on June 1-2, 2016 when the Technion will hold the Mark and Diane Seiden International Symposium on Quantum Science Matter and Engineering.
Visualization of a hydrogen atom
The field of quantum science and engineering is gaining momentum at the Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute. A new Center for Quantum Science Matter and Engineering will be inaugurated at a major international symposium to be held at Technion on June 1 and 2 2016. Twelve leading international scientists together with experts from Technion and the Weizmann Institute will participate in this special event.
Activities in the new Technion center will concentrate on merging the fundamental concepts of quantum science with engineering principles in order to pave the way towards new devices and systems which will lead, within a few years, to practical quantum applications.
The unique cohesion between fundamental science and very advanced engineering that exists at the Technion ensures that the new Technion’s quantum Center will emerge as a world leading entity. The Technion’s track record in identifying major needs and opportunities at early stages, which caused transformational changes in the country, supports the idea that the time is ripe for the establishment of such a center. Historically, Technion revolutionized Israel’s technological capabilities in many areas, including aerospace, microelectronics, optoelectronics and nanotechnology.
The new Center for Quantum Science Matter and Engineering is destined to be one more pillar in the series of Technion actions that spearhead historical changes that transform the Israeli economy.
“The new center will focus on the quantum aspects of computing, communications, sensing and signal processing,” says Prof. Gadi Eisenstein, head of the Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute. “The field of sensing will receive special attention because of its widespread applied implications in all spheres of life.”
The center, from the very early stages, will bring together nanotechnology and photonics experts with the very strong information scientists at the Technion, coming mainly from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments.
The research group of Technion Prof. Erez Hasman has developed technology for compressing dozens of lenses on a nanometric surface. The study, published in Science magazine, paves the way for creating a completely new type of optical elements with potential applications in medicine, food, communications and other fields.
Members of Prof. Hasman’s group laboratory: Elhanan Maguid, Prof. Erez Hasman, Dr. Vladimir Kleiner, Igor Yulevich, [from right to left]
Science magazine reports on new technology developed by the research group of Prof. Erez Hasman from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion. This technology enables the compression of dozens of lenses on a nanometric surface. Possible applications: development and testing of food ingredients and pharmaceuticals, optical interconnect for communication and computing by sending multiple beams of light, splitting the light signals transmitted through optical fiber, connecting several beams of light, multifocal glasses with an unprecedented level of accuracy, and devices for quantum computing.
“The source of our inspiration,” explains Prof. Hasman, “is ordinary radar, based on the deployment of antennas that transmit and receive various wave-fronts. The challenge in the transition from radio wave radar to optical radar is related to the fact that the latter operates at much shorter wavelengths – around 0.5 micron – and the length of the antenna must be smaller than the wavelength.”
The study was conducted by the nano-optics research group, headed by Prof. Hasman, whose members are graduate students Elhanan Maguid, Igor Yulevich, Dekel Veksler and researcher Dr. Vladimir Kleiner, in collaboration with Prof. Mark Brongersma of Stanford University. The group showed that by spatial mixing of various antennas, many wave-fronts can be produced from a shared optical aperture. “The approach that we developed is expected to bring about a functionality revolution in optics,” explains Prof. Hasman. “It is based on a combination the shared-aperture concept and metasurfaces, which I developed back in 2001. This combination paves way for the implementation of multi-functional elements, i.e. elements that are able to perform several tasks simultaneously and, in effect, new types of optical elements.”
Metasurfaces are thin optical elements, approximately one hundredth of the thickness of a hair shaft, covered with miniature antennas (nano-antennas). The shape, location and orientation of the antenna determine the properties of the tiny optical elements, and therefore precise control of the placement of the antennas is essential for the performance of the device. The group has applied techniques for creating nano-antenna arrays in order to obtain special multiple wave-fronts, such as vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum. This achievement has been utilized for the simultaneous measurement of spectrum characteristics and polarization state of light, enabling integrated on-chip spectro–polarimetric analysis.
The article in Science, which was selected for early publication by the editors, presents various methods for implementing multi-functionality in metasurfaces. The unique arrangement of the nano-antennas allows researchers to focus light rays and deflect them in desired directions while controlling the degree of spin of photon. The spin, i.e. the internal angular momentum, is a property of the particle of light (photon) describing the direction of the photon rotation.
The researchers took advantage of these properties and developed an element which is able to measure the wavelength and polarization of light simultaneously, as a single measurement. This is actually a spectro-polarimeter of around 50 microns in size, allowing the integration of advanced small diagnostics systems in medicine and other fields. In the article, the researchers presented the characterization and differentiation between the two types of glucose – left (L) and right (D). Morphologically, the two types of glucose are enantiomeric, i.e. an exact mirror image of each other – like a pair of hands. This property is called chirality.
Since glucose changes the polarization of light, the researchers measured properties of the light scattered by the glucose solution using the metasurfaces that they developed, and were able to distinguish between the two types of glucose.
This distinction between the two types of glucose is important because mammals have enzymes that break down D-glucose but not L-glucose, and therefore only the D enantiomer is biologically active. Moreover, since most biological molecules are chiral, enantiomeric distinction has widespread implications for the pharmaceutical and food industries. Thalidomide, for example – the anti-nausea drug that caused thousands of birth defects in the 1950s – was based on a chiral molecule. One of its enantiomers does indeed relieve morning sickness in pregnant women, but the other harms fetal development.
Schematic demonstration of different light beams with angular momentum emanating from antenna arrays on metasurface
Prof. Hasman heads the Micro and Nanooptics Laboratory at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion. He said, “Apart from the know-how that we have accumulated here in many years of work, Technion has a highly advanced world-class infrastructure, enabling us to develop and produce very pioneering nanotechnology. This is all going on at the Sara & Moshe Zisapel Nanoelectronics Center.” He proudly notes Israel’s position on the global optics map. “Israel, and not only the Technion, is definitely an optics empire. We have some of the world’s leading research groups as well as a highly impressive industry.”
Prof. Hasman earned his doctorate at the Weizmann Institute of Science and then spent a decade spearheading developments in the civilian and defense industries. In 1998, in view of the shortage of optical engineers, the Technion offered him the opportunity to establish the Optical Engineering track at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering – and he accepted the offer. He says, “It is now clear that an engineering background, extensive as it may be, is not complete without a thorough scientific background, and this is the gap that we are filling here: training engineers with a comprehensive understanding of optical science. Today, this track provides industry with many alumni who possess in-depth knowledge in optics and trains many doctoral students, and there are even professors in academia who studied here in the Optical Engineering track.”
In the video: Parallel optical nano-engines based on photonic radar. Optical engines are designed for the manipulation of DNA, photonic nano – switches, photonic nano- valves, etc.
Ron Brachman Joins the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech as the New Institute Director
Brachman brings highly influential academic research and industry experience from Yahoo Labs, Bell Labs, AT&T Labs and DARPA, where he led world-class research teams and drove the creation of innovative technology with exceptional real-world impact
Ron Brachman, Director of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute
Cornell Tech today announced that Ron Brachman, a computer scientist who is an internationally recognized authority on artificial intelligence, will join the campus as the new Director of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. The Jacobs Institute embodies the academic partnership between Cornell University and the Technion Israel-Institute of Technology at Cornell Tech, with an emphasis on moving beyond traditional structures of academia to offer a global perspective on research, education, technology transfer, commercialization and entrepreneurship.
As Director, Brachman will lead the Jacobs Institute’s strategic vision as it continues to grow its non-traditional, multidisciplinary, cutting-edge faculty research, degree programs, and the Runway startup postdoctoral program. Brachman will become a member of the Computer Science faculty at Cornell University and will succeed Adam Shwartz, who returns to the Technion Israel-Institute of Technology as Senior Executive Vice President. The leadership of the Jacobs Institute is shared by the Technion and Cornell, with the directorship rotating between the two universities. As part of this rotation, Shwartz will become the Chair of the Jacobs Institute Board of Directors.
“We are very excited to welcome Ron to the campus. His distinguished research record, industry and team-building career and multi-faceted experience developing new research initiatives will continue the great work at the Jacobs Institute as we broaden and grow,” said Cornell Tech Dean Dan Huttenlocher. “The Jacobs Institute serves as a sandbox of experimentation at Cornell Tech, with the growing success of its Runway startup program and groundbreaking research in the fields of connective media, health tech, cybersecurity and more.”
“I’m so proud of the Jacobs Institute’s growth and success over the past three years, launching a first-of-its-kind multidisciplinary dual-degree program – and seeing its first graduates – and commercializing impactful, deep research through the Runway startup postdocs program,” said Adam Shwartz, outgoing Director of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. “Ron’s expertise creating and leading high-level research teams and his work developing successful new initiatives at top industry and government organizations makes him the perfect choice to grow the Institute.”
“The Jacobs Institute is an amazing, unique undertaking, and I am extremely excited about the opportunity to lead it in its next phase of growth and groundbreaking innovation in education, research, and impact. Under the leadership of Adam Shwartz, the Jacobs Institute is already leading the way in showing how academia can drive real-world innovation,” said Ron Brachman, new Director of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. “I am eager to build on this work in developing the Jacobs Institute’s world-class dual degree programs and innovative approach to research and industry partnership.”
Brachman was Yahoo’s Chief Scientist and Head of Yahoo Labs, where he oversaw all of Yahoo’s science activities worldwide, including teams in Haifa and New York, providing leadership at the intersection of research, applied science and academic partnerships. He was one of the founders of Yahoo Research and the creator of Yahoo’s Academic Relations group, and throughout his ten years at Yahoo helped drive the creation of experimental initiatives and hired and managed top talent. As the Director of the Information Processing Technology Office at DARPA, Brachman established the Cognitive Systems initiative, which developed the technology that led to the creation of Siri. At Bell Labs and AT&T Labs, he drove the overall vision and technical direction of multiple research labs and built world-class groups in AI, Machine Learning, HCI, Security, and other critical technology areas. He has won multiple awards, has served as President of AAAI, currently serves on the Board of the Computing Research Association, and is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAAI. He also advises Segovia Technology, a New York startup that builds software systems for bringing cash payments to the world’s poorest people, working to eliminate poverty in emerging economies and provide humanitarian relief.
“Throughout the search process, we were consistently impressed with Ron’s dedication to breaking new ground, both when creating new partnerships at DARPA and Yahoo Labs and in his research,” said Michael I. Kotlikoff, Provost of Cornell University. “Cornell University is proud to partner with the Technion through the Jacobs Institute at Cornell Tech, and I’m confident that Ron will take the Institute to new levels.”
“Ron worked closely with Israeli research teams, and navigated complex organizations. I trust that he will be able to bring the Technion-Cornell partnership to new levels, and leverage the power of the two universities, and of the two cultures, to move Jacobs Institute as a leader for the digital age: fast moving, flexible and innovative,” said Professor Moshe Sidi, Current Senior Executive Vice President of the Technion Institute.
The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech is the academic partnership between Cornell and the Technion, and is tasked with pushing the boundaries of academia at Cornell Tech. The Jacobs Institute is named for Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, Founding Chairman and CEO Emeritus of Qualcomm, and his wife Joan Klein Jacobs, who donated $133 million to create the Institute in 2013. The Institute has attracted top talent to its faculty, and is part of one of the strongest security and privacy groups in the world. Through a partnership with AOL, the Institute has advanced groundbreaking collaborative research with researchers from Jacobs Institute, Cornell Tech, Technion and AOL, at its AOL Connected Experiences Lab. Since the announcement of the Technion-Cornell historic partnership in 2011, the institute recruited faculty, Ph.D. students and post-docs, initiated the Runway program startup postdoctoral program to commercialize innovative, deep research, opened Masters programs, graduated its first cohort of Connective Media students this year, and will be home to over 50 Masters students – in Connective Media and Health Tech – in the coming academic year.
6th Annual Henry Taub International TCE Conference to Be Held Tomorrow at The Technion
Tomorrow the 6th Annual TCE Conference will be held at the Technion Computer Engineering Center (TEC). The Conference, entitled 3D Visual Computing, will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 24-25, 2016. It will be attended by academics and industry leaders from Israel and abroad who study and work in the field of 3D and Computer Graphics.
The conference will be chaired by Assistant Prof. Mirela Ben-Chen of the Faculty of Computer Science and Prof. Yoav Schechner of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Prof. Schechner’s field is computer vision and Assistant Prof. Ben-Chen researches computer graphics, geometric processing and more.
The widespread of virtual and layered reality technologies along with 3D printing gives an advantage to those with a solid theoretical base and the ability to produce algorithms for the analysis and synthesis of 3D geometric data. “3D has become a hot topic,” says Prof. Ben-Chen. “Scanning and 3D printing technology is constantly improving, but we need tools for processing this data so that people who are not experts will be able to use the technology. Everything done today with images can be done better with 3D data, but for this we need search, comparison and editing algorithms, which are currently at the forefront of research in the field.
The leading researchers in the field will attend the Conference. Prof. William T. Freeman of MIT will speak about his study examining the possibility of studying the properties of a material from video and sound clips that document tapping on it. Prof. Helmut Pottmann of the Vienna University of Technology will speak about geometric architecture – using technological tools for architecture. Prof. Eitan Grinspun of Columbia University will speak about the simulation of physical processes using computer graphics. Other speakers include Prof. Marc Pollefeys of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Prof. Thomas Funkhouser of Princeton University, Prof. Marc Alexa of the Technical University in Berlin and many more.
The Conference is organized by the Technion Computer Engineering Center (TCE), which promotes joint applied research between the Technion faculties of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Members of both faculties and their industry partners conduct research at the Center, which fosters a dialogue between industry and academia on research topics of interest to both. Among other things, the Center disseminates knowledge and holds numerous conferences, culminating in its annual conference.
NYC TECH LEADERS HONOR FIRST-EVER GRADUATES OF JACOBS TECHNION-CORNELL INSTITUTE
Israel’s Technion Becomes First Accredited International University to Grant Degrees in the U.S.
NYC Executive Director Julie Samuels, Israeli Consul General Ido Aharoni and others gathered last night to celebrate the inaugural graduating class of the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. The pre-graduation event at WeWork Bryant Park honored the globally diverse graduates receiving the MS in Information Systems with a concentration in Connective Media, a one-of-a-kind master’s program combining disciplines of technology, media, sociology and business.
The May 29 graduation ceremony at the Cornell University Ithaca, NY campus will include the Jacobs Institute — a partnership of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Cornell University — and will mark the first time an international university has ever granted an accredited degree for studies on U.S. soil. Graduates will receive two degrees, one from the Technion and one from Cornell. The Institute’s 12 Connective Media graduates, from six different countries, are now launching innovative startups and securing jobs at industry-leading companies across the world.
“These graduating entrepreneurs are armed with the knowledge and experience in areas that are vital to the City’s economic health, and the betterment of society as a whole,” said Professor Adam Shwartz, director of the Jacobs Institute. “We look forward with anticipation to the great things they will accomplish and their impact on the economy, as well as the startups they will launch in New York City and beyond.”
“Congratulations to all of the graduating Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute students,” said Technion President Peretz Lavie. “This remarkable group, and all it will accomplish, is a clear example of what can happen when innovation, excellence and a commitment to the improving the lives of people around the world come together.”
The Jacobs Institute was established in 2013 with a $133 million gift from Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, founding chairman and CEO emeritus of Qualcomm, and his wife, Joan Klein Jacobs. It has quickly become a catalyst for global entrepreneurship and a driver of New York’s emerging tech ecosystem and local economy. The Jacobs Institute combines professors, research and resources from the Technion, a leading global research university, that was a vital factor in Israel’s emergence as the “Startup Nation,” and Cornell, a longtime leader in engineering and computer science, with a strong presence in New York City. The Jacobs Institute’s dual-degree program — accredited through Technion in Israel and Cornell in the U.S. — provides graduates with an international advantage and greater recognition in an increasingly global workforce.
The Connective Media graduate program was created by Jacobs Institute Professor Mor Naaman, whose Social Technologies Lab studies social technologies such as YouTube, Facebook and others, and creates new technologies to help people connect. Built as a strong technical degree, the Connective Media program is unique in expanding beyond tech and combines a wide array of human, business and social disciplines. The program challenges students to engage directly with industry leaders on new projects that can impact the world in significant ways, including creating startup concepts and companies. Connective Media students have worked directly with professionals at AOL, Microsoft, LinkedIn and more than a dozen other companies.
“These graduates have strong technical skills, but also skills and knowledge from the social sciences, business and design. Such set of skills is required to innovate and excel in the Connective Media landscape,” said Mor Naaman, Jacobs Institute professor and founder of the Connective Media program. “Their tech expertise, aimed towards the human and social aspects of media technologies, will be an asset to both established companies and startups, especially within communications and media spaces. These graduates are the next generation of this city’s CTOs, product chiefs, and tech leaders.”
The Jacobs Institute’s 12 inaugural graduates represent the global face of today’s tech industry and hail from the U.S., Canada, China, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, and Spain. Several graduates are already planning to begin careers at Facebook, Google, WeWork, Verizon and Bloomberg. Some will launch startup companies aimed at helping quadriplegics, transforming interactive education and changing other fields, and some will continue research partnerships with the Clinton Foundation and other major institutions.
“At the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute you have the opportunity to shape your education and to shape the courses,” said Shawn Bramson, one the inaugural Jacobs Institute graduates.“There’s an amazing entrepreneurial spirit here, reminiscent of the one I was immersed in while I was at the Technion, and an empowerment to apply what we’ve learned to make real social impact in the world.”
Graduates with Professor Adam Shwartz, director of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute (right) and Professor Mor Naaman, founder of the Connective Media program(left
In the late 19th century, when he wrote Hatikva, which became the national anthem of the State of Israel, it is doubtful whether poet Naphtali Herz Imber dreamed that a robotic xylophone built by Technion students would play the national anthem in honor of Israel’s 68th Independence Day.
As part of their final project, Eli Zalianski (27) and Igor Kantor (28), undergraduate students at the Technion Faculty of Electrical Engineering, built a system of robotic arms for playing the xylophone. The system includes eight timed motors that play a selection of songs using MIDI files, which contain the notes.
“Based on an idea presented to us at the Faculty’s Control Robotics & Machine Learning Lab, we built a system of robotic arms that can play the xylophone independently,” Eli related. “In honor of Israel’s 68th Independence Day, we decided to teach the robot the national anthem, and we have no doubt that it’s the first robot that has ever played Hatikva.
“We didn’t think it would take such a long time to work on the system and build the robot,” added Igor. “We spent six months working on building, wiring and programming. We used existing motors and bases and built the whole thing around them. The greatest effort was to build the system itself – a construction that would last and not fall apart. We had to take the music file and translate it into the robot’s movements. MATLAB software converts the file and uses the Arduino controller to send the motors instructions for moving the arms. The user selects a song to play and the software will convert the selected MIDI file into a sequence of timed notes and begin playing the desired song.”
According to Eli: “Eight servo motors drive the four mallets – two motors for each mallet. Each mallet can move to the left and right and then strike the xylophone. I have a background in music that helped me understand how to work with notes and sound.”
Koby Kohai, head of the Control Robotics & Machine Learning Lab at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, advised the students on the project. “For us at the Faculty, the process that the students go through in order to establish themselves professionally is the significant part, rather than the final product. During the course, students must investigate new technologies, and they acquire hands-on experience with entrepreneurship and product development.”
The xylophone is limited to 25 tones and three octaves, and Hatikva meets this constraint. According to Igor, the robot can also play the opening theme of the series “Game of Thrones” and the background music of the video game “Mario”.
