Month: June 2017

In 2014, infections with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) claimed the lives of more than 700,000 people worldwide, in addition to a cumulative expenditure of $35 billion a year in the US alone. Using nanotechnology, image processing tools and statistical analysis, Technion researchers have developed a system that enables rapid and accurate customization of the antibiotic to the patient. The result? Faster diagnostics, earlier and more effective treatment of infectious bacteria, and improved patient recovery times.

A diagnostic system developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology enables rapid and accurate customization of the antibiotic to the patient. The system makes for faster diagnostics, earlier and more effective treatment of infectious bacteria, and improved patient recovery times. The findings were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Antibiotics are one of the most effective ways to treat bacterial infections. However, the widespread use of antibiotics accelerates the development of bacterial strains that are resistant to specific antibiotics. In 2014, infections with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) claimed the lives of more than 700,000 people worldwide, in addition to a cumulative expenditure of $35 billion a year in the US alone.

For patients with threatening infections, urgent treatment is required for their health. According to established estimates, for every hour that effective antibiotic treatment is delayed, survival rates drop by ~7.6% for patients with septic shock. Therefore, in order not to leave the patient without adequate protection while awaiting the results, many doctors will prescribe an antibiotic with a broad spectrum of activity in large doses. This phenomenon facilitates the emergence of AMR and also affects the microbiota – the population of “good bacteria” found in the human body that protects it.

In this context, the importance of technologies that can predetermine the resistance of a specific bacteria to specific antibiotics is obvious. The innovative system developed at the Technion, called the SNDA-AST, quickly analyzes bacteria isolated from patients with infections and assesses their level of resistance to specific antibiotics. This enables the healthcare team to choose the most effective antibiotic a day earlier compared to when using traditional methods. In addition, the researchers demonstrated the ability to test bacteria directly from raw patient urine samples, thereby skipping the isolation step, and potentially saving two days for patients with urinary tract infections.

The study was led by Prof. Shulamit Levenberg, Dean of the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, and was carried out by three researchers in her lab: doctoral student Jonathan Avesar, postdoctoral student Dekel Rosenfeld and doctoral student Tom Ben-Arye. The study was carried out in cooperation with Assistant Professor Moran Bercovici of the Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and doctoral student Marianna Truman-Rosentsvit, in cooperation with Dr. Yuval Geffen, head of the Microbiology Laboratory at Rambam Health Care Campus. It was funded by a KAMIN grant from the Innovation Authority and the Israeli Centers of Research Excellence (I-CORE).

According to Avesar, who hails from the United States,  “Every day, tens to hundreds of tests are carried out at every hospital in Israel to map the resistance levels of infectious bacteria from samples taken from patients. The problem is that this is a very long test, since it is based on sending the sample to the lab, growing a bacterial culture in a petri dish and analyzing the culture. This process requires relatively large sampling and usually takes a few days, in part because the workday at labs is limited to around eight hours. Our method, on the other hand, provides accurate results in a short time based on a much smaller sample. It is obvious that a faster response allows us to start treatment earlier and improve the speed of recovery.”

The device developed by the Technion researchers is a chip with hundreds of nanoliter wells* inside it, each containing a few bacteria and a specific antibiotic. Detection of the bacterial response is done using a fluorescent marker, image processing tools and statistical analysis of the colors obtained from the bacteria in all the nanoliter wells. (*a nanoliter is 1000 times smaller than a milliliter.)

In a study in which 12 bacteria-antibiotic combinations were tested in the system, the results, which were obtained in a short time, as stated, were accurate and allow for early and effective treatment of the infectious bacteria. Avesar said, “The use of the technology that we developed reduces the size of the required sample by several orders of magnitude, reduces the scanning time by around 50%, significantly reduces the lab space required for testing and reduces the cost per test.”

WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SAY “BEST”?

Technion student develops system that interprets sarcasm on Twitter, and translates it into sarcasm-free language.

Researchers in the Technion Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management have developed a system for interpreting sarcastic statements in social media. The system, developed by graduate student Lotam Peled, under the guidance of Assistant Professor Roi Reichart, is called Sarcasm SIGN (sarcasm Sentimental Interpretation GeNerator).

“There are a lot of systems designed to identify sarcasm, but this is the first that is able to interpret sarcasm in written text,” said Peled. “We hope in the future, it will help people with autism and Asperger’s, who have difficulty interpreting sarcasm, irony and humor.”

Based on machine translation, the new system turns sarcastic sentences into honest (non-sarcastic) ones. It will, for example, turn a sarcastic sentence such as, “The new ‘Fast and Furious’ movie is awesome. #sarcasm” into the honest sentence, “The new Fast and Furious movie is terrible.”

Despite the vast development in this field, and the successes of sentiment analysis applications on “social media intelligence,” existing applications do not know how to interpret sarcasm, where the writer writes the opposite of what (s)he actually means.

In order to teach the system to produce accurate interpretations, the researchers compiled a database of 3,000 sarcastic tweets that were tagged with #sarcasm, where each tweet was interpreted into a non-sarcastic expression by five human experts. In addition, the system was trained to identify words with strong sarcastic sentiments – for example, the word “best” in the tweet, “best day ever” – and to replace them with strong words that reveal the true meaning of the text. The system was examined by a number of (human) judges, who gave its interpretations high scores of fluency and adequacy, agreeing that in most cases it produced a semantically and linguistically correct sentence.

Automatic identification and analysis of sentiment in text is a very complex challenge being explored by many researchers around the world because of its commercial potential and scientific importance. Sentiment identification could be used in social, commercial, and other applications to improve communication between people and computers, and between social media users.

Public Engagement with Science Online – Science on Social Media

An Israel Science Foundation research workshop will take place at Technion

How do we decide whether a post in our feed on the medicinal properties of turmeric is trustworthy or should be ignored? How is social media changing the way scientists interact with the general public?

Public engagement with science on social media will be the key topic at the Israel Science Foundation’s research workshop to be held at Technion on June 25-28, 2017.

In recent years, social media has expanded as a source of information and space for discussion and decision-making on various issues. This platform changes how we evaluate sources, process information, and interact with each other. Given the impact of science and technology on our lives, it is important to understand how scientific knowledge is disseminated, discussed, and interpreted on social media. The workshop will be held at Technion at the initiative of Prof. Ayelet Baram-Tsabari of the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology. Funding for the workshop was provided by the Israel Science Foundation, Technion’s Moshe Yanai Foundation, Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, and a grant from the Haifa Municipality in cooperation with the Technion.

Leading researchers in the field of science communication will participate in the workshop, including:

1. Prof. Lloyd Spencer Davis is a scientist, media figure, and science communication researcher who founded and heads the Center for Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is a world-renowned scientist and researcher on penguin behavior, as well as an award-winning filmmaker and author.  Prof. Davis has won awards for both academic achievements and for his work as a writer, photographer, and filmmaker.
2. Prof. Dominique Brossard is a leading science communication researcher, known for both her provocative views and heavy motorcycle. Prof. Brossard is the head of the Department of Life Sciences Communication at one of the world’s leading universities in this field, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the interaction between science, media, and policy, with an emphasis on science in public controversy and technologies in the making (genome editing and genetic engineering, nanotechnology, climate change, etc.). Her research group has been focusing on scientific discourse on Twitter.
3. Prof. Noah Weeth Feinstein of the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction, and Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison explores how people understand and use science when coping with health or environmental challenges in their private, social, and political lives. Feinstein also deals with questions of scientific literacy and the role of education and teaching in coping with climate change.
4. Prof. Rainer Bromme of the Department of Psychology at the University of Münster, Germany, laid the psychological infrastructure for understanding public engagement in science. He is the world’s leading expert on how people evaluate the credibility and reliability of scientific content. For example, when a person sees a publication claiming that turmeric cures cancer, what are the considerations that will make him believe or dismiss the text? How should he make the decision?
5. Prof. Bruce Lewenstein heads the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University and is a faculty member at the Department of Communication. He is one of the world’s founders of the field and devotes all of his time to research, teaching, and applications aimed at making science accessible to the public. He explores the democratic aspects of science communication (for example, citizen science and public participation in research) and changes in science coverage in the media. He is an experienced speaker who is familiar with Israel and is able to compare the accessibility of science and science communication in Israel to other countries.
6. Prof. Massimiano Bucchi of the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento, Italy, explores cultural-historical changes in relations between science, technology, and society and the challenges and dilemmas that affect science and technology in contemporary democracies (for example, how do readers understand infographics? What is the role of visualization in science communication?). Since 2016, Prof. Bucchi has been editor-in-chief of Public Understanding of Science, the leading journal in the field of science communication.

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For the full conference program: http://peso2017.net.technion.ac.il/program/

For the opening night program, which includes discussions on issues specific to Israel: http://peso2017.net.technion.ac.il/science-cafe-opening-night/   

Two donations and a new prize were announced at the Technion at the annual session of the Board of Governors

Good news for the Technion: Two donations and a new prize were announced today at the annual session of the Board of Governors. Japanese entrepreneur Dr. Hiroshi Fujiwara has announced a donation of $4 million to the Technion’s Cyber Security Research Center, and Technion graduates Dr. Andrew and Aviva Goldenberg will donate $5 million to the Technion for the establishment of a Pavilion Studio at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.

In addition, the Mauerberger Foundation Fund Prize for Significant Technologies for Africa was announced In a special plenary session of the Board of Governors called “Technion, Israel & the World in the 21st Century – Fulfilling the Technion Vision,” the Technion recognizes the donors.  Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said at the ceremony that “there are friends and donors here from South Africa, Japan, Canada, the United States and Israel, all of whom have one common denominator: the aspiration to Tikkun Olam. To you, those who practice Tikkun Olam, we express our thanks today. By giving of yourselves, you make the world a better place.”

“The drive towards a better society, a better habitat for mankind, is not a new one. In fact, one could argue that it is as old as humanity itself. Starting with the bible – it doesn’t take long for the reader to reach the point in which Adam and Eve are expelled from paradise – and from there onwards everything is pretty much an uphill battle” said Prof. Boaz Golani, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development.

“This notion has been the driving force behind religions, political parties and even a failed startup or two. It has also been the driving force behind some of the most revolutionary scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs thus far. it all originated at the same place: identifying a problem and trying to address it and improve life using science and technology. The establishment of Technion itself is well rooted in similar circumstances

Technion was to become unique worldwide, as a university that would precede, create, shape, and secure the future of a modern state.

This journey is far from over. Currently, both Israel and the world at large face new & somewhat daunting challenges – some new, some old – all demanding our fullest attention. It is the vision of the Technion and the foresight of its founders that will guide us in our attempt to face and overcome these challenges to the benefit of humanity, but it is the support of our friends and partners that is imperative to turn our quest into a successful one. ”

Technion graduate Sami Sagol, who turned Keter Plastic from a small factory in Jaffa into a huge international conglomerate, said at the ceremony: “I entered the Technion as a young student in 1960. After graduating I often worked with the Technion and its graduates.  The Technion is a leading institution thanks to the inter-disciplinary connection between the faculties, between engineering, medicine, science, psychology, etc.”

“My parents, Henry and Marilyn Taub, began their support of the Technion 50 years ago, with the understanding that a leading science and engineering institution was a vital need for the State of Israel,” said Steven Taub. “My brother Ira, my sister Judy and I are proud to be a second generation of Technion supporters,” he added.

First Japanese donation

Japanese entrepreneur Dr. Hiroshi Fujiwara has announced a donation of $4 million to the Technion’s Cyber Security Research Center.  “Today’s announcement marks the beginning of a new stage in our relationship with Japan,” said Professor Boaz Golany, Vice President for External Relations & Resource Development at Technion. “Japan and Israel share many similarities, as both are highly developed countries that rely heavily on technology as an economic booster. We strongly believe that today’s new pledge will enable us to better prepare ourselves to some of the cyber challenges both countries face at the present time and even more so in the future.”

Dr. Fujiwara, an entrepreneur and a successful businessman, acquired professional experience in global companies, including IBM and Hitachi, and is the founder and president of Tokyo-based firms BroadBand Tower (BBTower) and Internet Research Institute (IRI). Dr. Fujiwara first visited Israel and Technion in 2016 at the initiative of Mr. Kanji Ishizumi, President of Technion Japan (the Technion’s friends association in the country). During his visit, he met with Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie as well as researchers and faculty. He said: “My involvement is intended to create the infrastructure for such cooperation with the hope that it will lead to commercialization of technologies that will benefit our two countries.”

The Cyber Security Research Center was opened at the Technion in April 2016 in cooperation with the Israeli National Cyber Bureau. “Israel and Technion in particular, are leaders in maintaining the country’s ability to withstand cyber threats. Yet to continue to do this we must promote interdisciplinary research that relies on the capabilities of the Technion. This new gift will enable us to do exactly that, as it will allow faculty members from various disciplines to continue and investigate the protection of cyberspace,” said Prof. Eli Biham, head of the Center.

For Africa

“The Mauerberger Foundation Fund Prize for Significant Technologies for Africa is intended to strengthen the academic ties and exchange of information between the Technion and Africa and to harness new technologies for the benefit of humanity. The new prize is a natural continuation of the Fund’s support the Technion and in Israel in general, as well as in South Africa.

The Mauerberger Foundation Fund (MFF) has always worked for the benefit of human beings regardless of religion, race and color, and adhered to this principle even during the period of apartheid in South Africa. In many ways, the Founder’s vision for the Foundation Fund anticipated South Africa’s unique journey to democracy with a constitution that acknowledges the injustices of its past.

Mauerberger believed strongly in practicing “Tikkun Olam” (Repairing the World) and the Technion, which he first visited in 1955, was an opportunity for him to advance humanity. He assisted in the establishment of the soil engineering labs and in 1979, 3 years after his death, the Mauerberger Building was completed. Today, the Helen and Morris Mauerberger Soil Engineering Building is home to Engineers without Borders (EWB), a pioneering program that the MFF continues to support.

Foundation Chair Dianna Yach said that the prize would promote technological breakthroughs in areas related to the advancement of humanity. The competition will be open to researchers from the Technion, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben Gurion University.

“At the Technion we received tools for a career”

Technion graduates Dr. Andrew and Aviva Goldenberg will donate $5 million to the Technion. The donation, said Dr. Goldenberg, expresses their thanks and appreciation to the Technion for providing the two of them with tools for successful and rewarding careers. Moreover, the Technion is the place where the couple met for the first time 50 years ago, in December 1967.

Dr. Andrew Goldenberg is a graduate of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Aviva is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. Dr. Andrew Goldenberg, who completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering at the Technion, continued his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto, where he has been a professor since 1982.

The Goldenberg’s donation will serve two purposes: the establishment of the Pavilion of the Andrew and Aviva Goldenberg Architecture Studio and a scholarship in robotics engineering.

DNA as a “Natural Server Farm”: The TCE Conference at Technion

The conference will mark the 50th anniversary of the formulation of the Viterbi Algorithm, which changed the world of electronics

The use of DNA to store digital information will be one of the main topics of Technion’s 7th TCE (Technion Computer Engineering) Conference, to be held on Wednesday and Thursday, June 21-22, 2017. The conference, named after Henry Taub, will focus on the coding of information and storage systems, and will include lectures on diverse topics such as coding that enables flash memory reliability, storage systems of high speeds in massive volumes, and the challenges of cloud storage and DNA storage.

The digital information stored by humanity is now measured in the tens of trillions of bytes. The rapidly growing quantities of information pose a highly complex challenge, because most of the information is stored on vast server farms that take up large areas and enormous energy, which causes considerable environmental damage.

In recent years, it has become clear that DNA, known to us from the world of biology, could serve as a “natural server farm” whose advantages surpass those of today’s conventional servers. DNA in live creatures is responsible for preserving vast quantities of information in a minimal physical volume for prolonged periods and without harmful errors. It is estimated that a single gram of DNA can store hundreds of millions of gigabytes (GB), and this information will be preserved for thousands of years (compared with the life span of a disk, which is only a few years).

The idea, which was first introduced and implemented back in the 1960s by geneticists at Harvard, has developed since then. In order to continue this progress, close cooperation is required between scientists, engineers, and coding experts. “The hard disk has been dramatically minimized over the years,” explains Asst. Prof. Eitan Yaakobi of Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science. “From the first gigantic hard disk, which was built in 1956 and contained 5 MB, through portable hard drives (flash memories) of 8 MB, to portable storage devices of 256 GB and disks that contain far more, this is tremendous progress. The problem is that further progress today is very limited because any additional miniaturization introduces a lot of noise to the system.”

The conference will mark the 50th anniversary of the Viterbi Algorithm, which has led to the development of communications and storage devices capable of removing noise and interference from relevant signals. Dr. Andrew Viterbi, who published his historic paper on this subject in 1967, received an honorary doctorate degree from Technion in 2000. Since then he has been a distinguished visiting professor at the Technion Faculty of Electrical Engineering, which recently changed its name to the Andrew and Erma Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering. In 2015, Dr. Viterbi donated $50 million to the Faculty. A special session to mark the 50th anniversary of the formulation of the Viterbi Algorithm will be held on the second day of the conference, and will be chaired by his colleague and friend, Prof. Paul Siegel.

The conference organizers, Yaakobi (Computer Science) and Asst. Prof. Yuval Cassuto (Electrical Engineering), are already third-generation experts in coding and information theory. They were preceded by Profs. Tuvi Etzion and Ronny Roth (Computer Science) and Neri Merhav and Shlomo Shamai (Electrical Engineering), who were students of Profs. Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv, who developed the important algorithm on which most data-compression (Zip, etc.) technologies are based.

The conference will take place in the Technion Faculty of Computer Science auditorium. For the conference program click here.

For further details: Technion Spokesperson Doron Shaham – 050-3109088

June 19, 2017

Technion Students Developed an Autonomous Aerial Reconnaissance System and Won 3rd Place in an International Competition

A team of students from the Technion has won 3rd place out of 54 in an international competition for the development of an unmanned aircraft for search and rescue of missing travelers. The team flew to the competition with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, as part of the Ministry’s program for delegations of students to science competitions abroad.

Science Minister Ofir Akunis congratulated the team, “Our brilliant students have done it again. Israeli teams are doing exceptionally well in many international competitions and reach top placements. In doing so, we are strengthening Israel’s position as a world leader in innovation. The Ministry of Science will continue to support the next generation of Israeli scientists, our outstanding researchers, and students.”

Fifty-four teams of college and high school students from eight countries, including the United States, Germany, India, Turkey, Poland, Canada, and Romania, took part in the AUVSI SUAS competition, which is held annually in Maryland, USA. For the competition, which aims to encourage the development of unmanned aerial vehicles, each team must build an unmanned aerial vehicle that fulfills defined tasks. This year the competition focused on the search and rescue of a missing traveler, and aircraft that were built had to carry an autonomous aerial reconnaissance system capable of identifying objects, avoiding obstacles, and more.

The TAS (Technion Air Systems) team was comprised of 18 students from the Technion Faculty of Aerospace Engineering and Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The team developed and manufactured two aircrafts with a wingspan of 2.9 meters, 2.1 meters in length, and weighing 12.5 kg. The students had performed analyses, simulations, tests, and ground and air experiments in order to achieve the best possible performance, and finally built the aircraft by hand.

The aircraft is capable of taking off, flying, landing automatically, manually and automatically identifying ground targets located in the search area and outside the boundaries of the sector, evading static and dynamic obstacles, dropping cargo to specific coordinates, and transmitting data in real time to the control center (the competition’s judges, in this case). The aircraft has many civilian applications, such as identifying accidents and road congestion, identifying fires, patrolling oil pipelines and electricity lines, and site photography for mapping purposes.

Team advisor Dror Artzi said after the competition, “Technion is highly esteemed by all the organizers and participants in this prestigious competition.”

Adi Topork, the team captain, added, “We have been receiving positive comments from the aerospace industry regarding our students’ ability to develop such an aircraft in just two semesters. This is the fourth time we have participated in the competition, and every year we develop a different platform and improved systems.”

The team members are Adi Topork, Imri Tsror, Jason Ben Shitrit, Sigalit Grinberg, Daniel Joseph, Ohad Marcus, Ophir Milul, Roi Yehudai, Alexander Shendar, Shani Bijio, Jenna Brunner, Emanuel Ben Shushan, Maxim Solovay, Haim Ilya Brod, Eyal Ganis, Dan Ben David, Aviv Hasson, Netanel Even Danan, and Dolev Simon. The project moderator is Dror Artzi and the project TA is Yevgeni Gutnick.

Underwater poisoned arrows: Researchers at Technion and the University of Haifa are deciphering the stinging mechanism of the jellyfish

The quantity of jellyfish worldwide and in the Mediterranean Sea is growing steadily, and as a result, we encounter large swarms on Israel’s coastline every year. The most common jellyfish in Israel is the nomad jellyfish (Rhopilema nomadica), which reached the Mediterranean Sea in the 1970s.

The jellyfish belongs to the phylum Cnidaria – animals that attack their prey (plankton) and defend themselves with stinging cells containing syringes that are actually poison arrows. Although they don’t have eyes, ears, or even brains, they have survived for 600 million years, with virtually no developmental changes, and are thus among the most ancient complex creatures that have not died out.

A study conducted at Technion is first to explain the unique stinging mechanism of the nomad jellyfish. According to Prof. Uri Shavit of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, “The jellyfish attacks its prey or its enemy by injecting a toxic substance by means of thousands of microscopic syringes located on each of its tentacles. The syringe is located inside the stinging cell (nematocyte) and is packaged inside a spherical capsule about 10 microns in diameter. In response to chemical changes in the environment or physical contact, pressure increases inside the capsule and the needle is ejected at a tremendous acceleration of more than 50,000,000  meters per second square – one hundred times the acceleration of a rifle bullet.”

The needle’s firing mechanism, from a folded position in the capsule to its full length, is being studied by many researchers around the world. The conventional explanation is that the needle is pulled out and shoots the poisonous substance following the creation of a force mechanism called osmotic potential. This force pushes the needle and liquid like a pump pushing water upwards inside a building. The pressure exerted in this process is tremendous: 150 atmospheres. For purposes of illustration, this is the pressure needed to pump water to the top of a building a kilometer and a half high.

However, the study, recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, found that the driving force is not limited to the capsule alone. In fact, it is a powerful osmotic mechanism that develops at the needle’s moving front. This mechanism releases the needle and pulls it like a locomotive pulling railroad cars.

The study is based on measurements taken using lab-on-chip technology and the development of a mathematical model that tracks the movement of the substance within the system. The elongation mechanism of the stinging needles was deciphered by Profs. Shavit and Gilad Yossifon of Technion’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Tamar Lotan of the University of Haifa’s Charney School of Marine Sciences.

The solution was provided by an experimental system developed based on a microfluidics platform in Prof. Yossifon’s lab. This system enabled researchers to route the needle and its direction. Prof. Shavit explains, “Each capsule was placed at the opening of a micro-channel that bridged between a central water channel and another channel that contained oil. We found that when the needle penetrated through oil, its elongation rate decreased by three orders of magnitude, from 50 milliseconds in water to about 25 seconds in oil.”

The researchers conclude that, unlike the conventional model, the osmotic phenomenon is not limited to the capsule but rather occurs throughout its needle elongation. According to Prof. Shavit, “This means that the osmotic potential can be influenced along the pathway of the needle, thus reducing its ability to penetrate the skin and preventing the stinging.”

MIT President at Technion: Universities Play a Major Role in Making a Better World

Prof. Rafael Reif spoke at Technion’s Honorary Doctorate Conferment Ceremony

“In the United States and in many nations around the world, now is a moment of change. As we navigate uncertainty around the globe, it is useful to remind ourselves and the world that universities can be a powerful, steady force for good. In fact, I believe that this moment offers a remarkable opportunity for research universities to be leaders: leaders in education, leaders in research, and in particular, leaders in solving problems, to make a better world.”

The remarks were made on Monday by MIT President Prof. Rafael Reif, at Technion’s Honorary Doctorate Conferment Ceremony.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie spoke at the ceremony about the rapidly changing world and  academia’s duty to adapt itself to these changes. “Among other things, we must provide our students with the tools they will need in the changing labor market, adopt the appropriate learning methodologies for the new world, expand a frameworks to encourage interdisciplinary research, and strengthen the triangular relationship between academia, government, and industry. Thanks to leaders like you, honorary doctorate recipients, I have no doubt that we will be able to successfully deal with the fourth industrial revolution which we are in the midst of.”

One of the recipients was Dr. Joseph Ciechanover, and esteemed Israeli diplomat and successful entrepreneur. Ciechanover led negotiations for the peace treaty with Egypt, served as Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, legal adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, chair of the board of El-Al, and is also a businessman. He recently took part in the negotiations that led to reconciliation with Turkey. His brother, Distinguished Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, a 2004 Nobel laureate in Chemistry and faculty member at Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, said at the ceremony: “Words cannot describe what my brother has done for the State of Israel, and I owe him a lot. We lost our parents when I was a boy and my brother Yossi, 14 years my senior, accompanied me everywhere, hand in hand, and brought me to the point where I am today. Without him I would not be standing here before you today.”

MIT President Prof. Rafael Reif, speaking and behalf of the recipients, said, “Technion’s impact on the world is enormous relative to its size, and that is why I chose to spend my sabbatical year in 1988 here – at a university that I admire and with colleagues I deeply respect. My choice also had personal roots: in 1938, my parents fled Eastern Europe shortly before most of their families were exterminated or died of starvation and disease. My parents came to Venezuela with nothing – no language, no money, no friends. They are the ones who taught my brother and me that even if you leave your home, the one thing you will always take with you is education. Education is the tool that allows you to invent your future, and due to this perspective, I chose academia.

The following are Technion’s 2017 Honorary Doctorate Recipients, along with their citations:  

Prof. Bernard Amadei

“In recognition of your pioneering research in geotechnology and your unique contributions to engineering education; with appreciation for your impact on society through the establishment of Engineers Without Borders-USA and co-founding Engineers Without Borders-International; and in gratitude for your support of its implementation at Technion.”

Dr. Joseph Ciechanover

“In recognition of your outstanding contribution to the international standing of the State of Israel; in appreciation of your relentless and multi-faceted achievements as a jurist, economist, and statesman; and in gratitude for your long-standing support of Technion and its students as chairman of the Dr. Yaakov Isler Foundation.”

Prof. David L. Donoho 

“In recognition of your significant contributions to modern mathematical statistics, in particular the field of optimal algorithms for statistical estimation in the presence of noise and efficient techniques for sparse representation and recovery in large data sets; and in gratitude for your friendship and cooperation with Technion and its faculty.”

Prof. Odile Eisenstein

“In tribute to your outstanding scientific achievements and your important fundamental contributions to the fields of organic, organometallic, catalytic, and computational chemistry; in recognition of your outstanding leadership in the international scientific community; and in gratitude for your friendship and support of the scientific community in Israel and Technion in particular.”

Emanuel Zvi Liban

“In recognition of your relentless efforts to promote the Israel aviation industry and numerous innovative engineering solutions; in honor of your pioneering role in the field of jet and piston engines manufacturing, advancing Israel’s economic wellbeing and security; and in gratitude for your involvement in educating new generations of mechanical engineers in the State of Israel.”

Martin Paul Moshal

“In recognition of your significant contributions to education and industry in Israel; in appreciation for your generosity – enabling disadvantaged students to attend Technion through the Moshal Scholarship Program, thereby profoundly changing their lives and the lives of those in their communities; and for your friendship to Technion.”

Joseph Neubauer

“In tribute to your professional achievements in the business world and as the head of a Fortune 100 company; in appreciation for your contribution to many American and Israeli not-for-profit organizations and your belief in the importance of giving back; in recognition of your being a catalyst for excellence and diversity among our students and faculty; and in gratitude for your generous support of Technion and Israel.”

Prof. L. Rafael Reif

“With appreciation for your outstanding leadership, pioneering work in 3D-integrated circuits, vision for education in the digital age, and cultivation of relations between MIT and Israeli universities; and in gratitude for your instrumental contributions to Technion’s academic advancement.”

Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd. (TRDF) and UGC Announce $200M Venture Capital Fund to Support the Establishment of Start-Ups Based on Technion-Created Knowledge

The Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd. (TRDF) and UG Capital Management Ltd. (UGC) announced today, at the closing plenary of the Technion Board of Governors (Board of Trustees) which met on campus, that they intend to establish a new venture capital fund of $200 million. The fund will focus on investments in science and technology companies mainly related to Technion and its alumni. The joint management team with offices in Israel and Hong Kong includes Jonathan Mitchell, CY Lau and Thomas Lau of UG Capital Management Ltd., and Eddy Shalev, Dr. Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot of Genesis Partners.

UGC is the venture capital arm of UGI (United Gain Investment Ltd). UGI, founded in 2003, is a fund management company with extensive experience in global investments, asset management, and consulting services. UGI offers a wide range of financial services and products to private investors and organizations. Its goal is to provide professional and leading solutions in all investment categories, in order to preserve and increase investors’ assets. UGI is licensed by the Hong Kong Securities Authority (type 4 and type 9) and operates under its supervision.

Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan, Executive Vice President for Research and Director General of the Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd., thanked the team that led the development on behalf of Technion and said, “The Technion has been increasing its commercialization activities in recent years and we have already noted many successes in this field, including more than doubling the number of startup companies set up at the Technion through the new Technion DRIVE Accelerator. However, we must not become complacent. This is why we contacted Jonathan Mitchell from UGI, who connected us to investors from Hong Kong headed by CY Lau. We realized that in addition to partners in the US and Hong Kong, we need an excellent team here in Israel, and so we were joined by the founders of Genesis, Eddy Shalev, Dr. Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot.

“You could say we’re doing alchemy here,” said Jonathan Mitchell. “We’ve combined a number of components – the Israeli mind, institutional and private investors, and of course Technion and the local staff – and with all this we will contribute to the welfare of the world.”

 

At a festive ceremony attended by Minister of Education Naftali Bennett, the Lauder Dormitory Building was inaugurated today at the Technion

The state-of-the art building was donated to the Technion by World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder and his wife Jo Carole

“The Technion is, and should continue to be, the beacon of the State of Israel,” said Minister of Education Naftali Bennett today at the Technion. The remarks were made at the inauguration ceremony of the Lauder Student Dormitory Building, which was held with the participation of Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, Ronald Lauder’s representative in Israel Avi Balashnikov, Technion Dean of Students Prof. Benny Natan and Technion Student Union Chairman Omer Amit. The ceremony was held as part of the events of the Technion International Board of Governors.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder and his wife Jo Carole donated $5 million to the Technion for the construction of the dorms – the most beautiful and elaborate dormitories in Israel for undergraduate students.  The complex consists of four 9-storey buildings with 116 apartments and 488 beds. The new dormitories, designed by architects Yael and Yaron Granot, will house 408 single students and 40 couples.

The Lauder Dormitory Building, which was inaugurated this morning, is equipped with advanced technologies and infrastructure and contains 29 apartments with 122 housing solutions (beds) for students.  

Minister of Education Naftali Bennett said at the ceremony that “the Technion’s secret lies in its being an integral part of Israeli society and of the vision of the State of Israel.  You are not hidden away in an ivory tower. On the contrary, you are connected to the Israeli experience and operate out of a commitment to society. You are working to increase the number of ultra-Orthodox and Arab students and students from outlying areas, providing an equal opportunity to all residents of Israel. The new dormitories, built through the donation of the Lauder family, will enable students to invest their time and energy in their demanding studies. On this day, we are planting the seeds of a promising future.”

“We are delighted and grateful to be inaugurating today the Ron and Jo Carole Lauder dormitory building on the Technion campus. This is a great day of celebration for us,” said Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie at the ceremony. “Technion is proud to be the Israeli university with the largest number of dormitory beds in the country, and in fact, the total number of beds in all other universities combined – is smaller than the number at Technion – close to 5000 beds. It is our explicit policy to open the dorms to all students, practicing what we preach in terms of diversity and equal opportunity.

“The Technion plays a major role in closing the socio-economic and cultural divides in the Israeli society. Increasing the number of dormitories where students – Jews and Arabs, Israeli Born and new Immigrants, religious and secular, live side by side, and pay the lowest rent in Israel, is crucial to achieve these goals.

I call upon the government to allocate more land and more financial resources to both colleges and Universities to build dormitories and other needed student services. They should also help the academic institutes to facilitate the regulatory procedures needed for the construction. This may provide at least a partial solution to the pressing housing problem in Israel.”

Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav thanked the Lauder family for their investment in the city. He said: “Haifa is a university center where 45,000 students live. The Lauder family’s investment in student dormitories is an important and correct investment for the Technion and for Haifa.”

“The Lauder family visited the Technion about three years ago and fell in love with it,” said Ronald Lauder’s representative in Israel, Avi Balashnikov. “They are proud to be among the distinguished group of Friends of the Technion, an institution to which they attach great importance in the building and development of the State of Israel and the Jewish People. The Lauder Foundation works to promote education and academia in Israel and the donation to the Technion continues this important support for the advancement of higher education in the State of Israel.”

2017 Adelis Brain Research Award Won by Prof. Asya Rolls

On June 12, 2017, the Adelis Award for groundbreaking research by a young scientist was presented to Asst. Prof. Asya Rolls of Technion for her work in the field of brain-regulated immunity.

administrators

The Adelis Foundation was established by the late André Cohen Deloro to support academic excellence in Israel, in particular within the realm of medical and scientific research. In 2015, in line with Deloro’s legacy and in loyalty to his vision, the Foundation decided to inaugurate the Adelis Award for Brain Research and to budget $100,000 annually as a research grant to groundbreaking Israeli research. The purpose of the award is to encourage excellence among young Israeli scientists performing brain research in Israel; to advance understanding of the brain and its functions and of the ailments connected with it; and to achieve international impact.

Brain research holds a top position on the global scale of scientific research priorities.

In this third year of the award, the Adelis Foundation was both pleased and proud to witness such an impressive number of high-quality proposals representing Israeli potential in the field of brain research.

Senior figures from Israel’s scientific community were selected for the award’s panel of judges: Dr. Gal Ifergane, Prof. Moshe Bar, Prof. Illana Gozes, Prof. Eilon Vaadia, Prof. Jackie Schiller, Prof. Rafi Malach, Prof. Noam Ziv, Prof. Emeritus Amos Korczyn, and Prof. Michal Schwartz – all veteran brain researchers who number among Israel’s foremost.

The judging panel had no easy task, given the diversity of submissions and their superior level. The decision was to present the 2017 award to Rolls, a researcher at the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, with Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie and Rébecca Boukhris of the Adelis Foundation doing the honors. The award ceremony took place during the events of Technion’s Board of Governors.

Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute explained: “The committee members were impressed by Rolls’s past achievements and by her research proposal, the two main criteria for selecting the best nominee. Her research focuses on how positive emotions, such as those created by the reward system, help the immune system to fight pathologies. While this concept has been around for a while, it has never been proven experimentally, and the implications of placebo have been a mystery for decades.”

In 2016, Rolls published an outstanding paper in Nature Medicine in which she demonstrated a mechanism that connects the placebo effect to systemic immune activation. In her submission to the Adelis Foundation, Rolls proposed to test how the reward system affects the immune system in fighting tumors – a novel approach to fighting tumors.

Rolls joined the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at Technion in October 2012 after completing her postdoctoral training at Stanford University. She obtained her PhD from the Weizmann Institute, and her MSc from Technion.  

Rolls is an elected member of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS)-Kavli network of excellence (2015-2019); she received the Fulbright, Rothschild, and European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) long-term fellowships; the NARSAD Young Investigator Grant; the Krill Prize, awarded by the Wolf Foundation; and most recently the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Research Scholar Grant.

“Thoughts and emotions impact physical health,” said Rolls. “This connection is evident in the emergence of disease following stress, or recovery in response to placebo treatment. Nevertheless, this fundamental aspect of physiology remains largely unexplored. Our laboratory aims to uncover the physiological mechanisms that underlie the connection between the brain and the immune system. By understanding the connection, we will be able to harness the brain’s potential to cure.

“Emotions and thoughts are reflected in specific brain activity. We developed a new experimental platform that maps how brain activity affects the immune system, and applied this platform to uncover a potential mechanism of the placebo response. We showed that activation of the brain’s reward system, which is active during positive emotional states, stimulates the immune system and its capacity to fight bacteria. The Adelis Award will allow us to understand whether brain activity can also enhance the immune system’s ability to fight cancer.”

Group photo of ADELIS foundation and guests

Group photo of ADELIS foundation and guests

2016 Harvey Prize Awarded for the Discovery of Gravitational Waves and Development of Optogenetics

The Harvey Prize was awarded to two research groups that revolutionized two fields of science: astrophysics and brain research. The ceremony was held as part of the Technion Board of Governors events. “Both of these groups have contributed significantly to our understanding of the universe,” said Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie. “One achieved a breakthrough in our understanding of the outer universe, and the other at the most internal level – the living cell.”

The Harvey Prize is the most prestigious scientific award conferred by Technion, and has been awarded annually since 1972 in recognition of outstanding contributions to science, technology, medicine, and peace in the Middle East. The prize fund was established by the late Leo M. Harvey (1887-1973), an industrialist and inventor from Los Angeles. Scott Leemaster, Chairman of the American Friends of the Technion, said that the Harvey Prize has become a “Nobel predictor,” since around 20% of its winners are later awarded the Nobel Prize. He noted that the heritage of the Harvey family continues to live on through the prize.

Group 1: Discovery of Gravitational Waves

In the field of science and technology, the prize was awarded to Profs. Emeritus Ronald Drever and Kip Stephen Thorne of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and to Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss of MIT. The three scientists, who led the LIGO experiment, received the prize for the discovery of gravitational waves, which verified a key prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity and opened a new window to the universe.

Gravitational waves are curved “ripples” that move in the four-dimensional space. Monitoring these waves is a huge scientific-engineering challenge because unlike light, which is easy to monitor due to its strong interaction with matter, gravitational waves do not maintain strong interactions and must be monitored in a highly sensitive facility that is not affected by minor earthquakes and nearby vehicle traffic. Moreover, the movement being monitored is smaller than a single atom. Indeed, LIGO is a tremendous and particularly sensitive gravitational wave detector (interferometer), in which laser beams move through a long vacuum sleeve that increases the sensitivity of the system.  

The gravitational waves trapped by the LIGO scientists were created in a fusion of two particularly large black holes. The collision, which took place 1.3 billion years ago, lasted a fraction of a second but created tremendous energy that generated the gravitational waves when they reached Earth, monitored by the system.

Einstein hypothesized the existence of gravitational waves in his theory of general relativity; their existence was verified indirectly in the 1970s, which won scientists Taylor and Hales the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1993. However, direct observation of these waves occurred only in 2015, at the LIGO facility. Even though Einstein retracted his prediction 20 years after his initial discovery in 1916 and denied the existence of gravitational waves, Weiss, Drever, Thorne, and their colleagues have proved that Einstein erred in his denial. Top scientists around the world estimate that this success will lead to the formulation of a “unified theory,” which will explain most of the phenomena in the universe based on the four physical forces: strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational.

Profs. Weiss and Thorn, who led the discovery of gravitational waves, noted at Technion’s Harvey ceremony that they represent a group of about 1,000 scientists and engineers from 16 research institutions from around the world. They thanked the experiment directors; the US Congress, whose support was steadfast over the years; and the US National Science Foundation (NSF), which supported the project for 40 years even though, in the words of Prof. Weiss, “It was a big gamble on a technology without certainty that it would succeed, and US taxpayers’ money.”

The third scientist who was awarded the Harvey Prize for the LIGO experiment is Prof. Emeritus Ronald Drever, who passed away in March. His brother Ian, who accepted the prize on his behalf, said that Ronald was a born scientist who invented many things and conducted experiments even as a boy. Toward the end of his life, Drever suffered from dementia but updates on the LIGO experiment and news of the prize were beneficial to his health.

Group 2: Development of Optogenetics

In the field of human health, the prize was awarded to Prof. Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Prof. Peter Hegemann of the Humboldt University of Berlin. They received the prize for the discovery of the opsin molecules involved in sensing light in microorganism cells and their digitalization in the development of optogenetics. This innovative and original approach, which has revolutionized the field of neurobiology, enables the study of the function of nerve cells, and the connection between neural networks and animal behavior.

Optogenetics, one of the hottest areas of brain research today, is a highly accurate method for stimulating the brain and is therefore considered the best method for activating specific cells in order to test their effect on the function of an organism. The method makes it possible to affect brain cells by means of light, without electrodes. Using this approach scientists have succeeded in establishing, erasing, and changing memories, albeit in mice at this stage.

Israeli scientists are the most innovative and productive scientists in Europe today in various fields; following are a few examples. Prof. Lior Gepstein of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine has developed a method for the treatment of arrhythmia by means of optogenetics. Prof. Shay Shoham of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering has developed the first combination of optogenetics and holography as a means of restoring vision among patients with retinal blindness. Asst. Prof. Asya Rolls of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine uses optogenetic means to discover how the brain’s reward system enhances the immune system’s activity. Prof. Itamar Kahn of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine combines optogenetic methods with brain fMRI in order to study the mechanism of neurons and neuronal networks.

Recipient Prof. Deisseroth, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, said, “It is difficult to study the problems that cause people great suffering because psychiatry has many elements which are difficult to measure, and the brain is difficult to understand.

“The development of optogenetics is indeed a tremendous achievement; however, it does not belong solely to two researchers, but to generations of scientists whose work led to the accumulation of the knowledge necessary for the breakthrough. For this reason, receiving the Harvey Prize is a great honor for me, because it recognizes basic science – a practice that is not always sufficiently appreciated. Basic science often leads to dramatic developments in medicine without the scientist knowing at the outset where his research will lead. The lesson to be learned from the development of optogenetics is the importance of public support for basic science.”

Recipient Prof. Hegemann said excitedly that for him as a German the Harvey Prize is more important than other prizes he has won over the years. “One hundred and twenty years ago, Berlin was a world center of science where Einstein worked, and then the greatest disaster of all time occurred, which caused a severe blow to the Jewish people.

Israeli scientists are the most innovative and productive scientists in Europe today

“The recovery of German-Israeli relations is a wonderful phenomenon in my eyes. I visited Israel in 1977 for the first time and was amazed to discover the highly developed scientific ties between Israel and Germany. I think that the depth of the discussion, the culture of discourse, and the Israeli openness enables us, the Germans, to maintain beneficial and fruitful relations with Israeli scientists. Israeli scientists are the most innovative and productive scientists in Europe today, and I regret that I have not stayed here for longer periods of cooperation – but that might still happen.”