Twenty two years have passed since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The annual ceremony in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin will take place today, Wednesday, Nov. 1st ,at 12:30 PM in the Shalom Zielony Student Union building cinema.
Yitzhak Rabin wanted to become a water engineer. He received an Honorary Doctorate from Technion in 1990:
“In recognition of his invaluable contribution to the defense of the State of Israel and for his endeavors to strengthen the state of Israel and its image at home and abroad.”
Ammonia production is vital for future sustainability, in areas from agriculture, to alternative energy. Yet clean, effective and safe storage and transport of ammonia is critical. In November 2017, a confluence of global experts will gather at Technion to address present challenges and future needs.
On November 15-16, a conference on “New and Old in the Ammonia World” will take place at the Technion. The event is hosted by Technion president, Peretz Lavie, and organized and chaired by the Technion Chemical Engineering professors Gideon Grader and Danny Lewin. Global experts will cover topics that include: safety and risk assessment; ammonia transport in the atmosphere; ammonia production; and the global market. The conference includes a virtual reality 3D presentation of an ammonia production plant developed by the German company Linde.
Modern agriculture would be impossible without ammonia, which increases yields by hundreds of percent, as it is a fundamental source of nitrogen. About 90 percent of ammonia produced today is for crop fertilization. The conference will address the important topics of ammonia import and storage, featuring five international experts in the field.
Prof. Thomas Spicer, Head of the Chemical Hazards Research Center (CHRC) at the University of Arkansas – on the safe storage and risk assessment of ammonia
Norman Olson, Director of the Iowa Energy Center (IEC) – on the effective use of ammonia for propulsion, fertilizer, and energy storage
Balan Karthikeyan of Madras, India – A global expert on HAZOP analysis and process safety in chemical plants.
Robert Tikovsky of Linde, Germany – on the safe and effective design of ammonia plants
Kent Anderson, USA – and expert on ammonia accidents and former president of the Ammonia Refrigeration Association
Data modeling is the way we, scientists, believe information should be explained and handled. Indeed, models are central in almost every task in signal and image processing and machine learning. Sparse representation theory (Sparseland) presents a highly effective and universal model, which has been shown to lead to state-of-the-art results in numerous applications.
We are delighted to announce a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on sparse representations, constructed byProf. Michael Elad from the Technion’s Computer Science Department. This new edX course is made up of two sessions, each running five weeks: the first session presents basic theoretical ideas of sparse representations, and the second connects this model to applications in image processing.
If you are interested in advanced topics in signal and image processing, please join us in this course. Note that registration has already opened, and the course will begin on October 25. In a format that is unique worldwide, we plan to run this edX course in parallel to a formal academic Technion’s course that will be taught in this winter semester.
Technology in the Service of the Future of Banking
Technion and Bank Hapoalim inaugurate TPADS, a joint research center
“This is a definitive and optimistic occasion, in which a major bank partners with a leading technological university to connect the world of economics with the digital domain,” said Prof. Boaz Golany, Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, at the inauguration of the Technion-Poalim Data Science center (TPADS).
The new Center was established by Bank Hapoalim and Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, with the aim of harnessing new technologies for the development of the bank of the future. Researchers from Technion and bank analysts collaborate to address the major challenges of the technological-banking world. According to Prof. Golany, “This pairing between Bank Hapoalim and Technion may be strange at first glance, but it is based on the innovation that characterizes both partners. The digital revolution changes perceptions that we have become accustomed to and will cause banks to look completely different within a decade. Academia, like the financial world, must adapt itself to the digital revolution.”
The cooperation between Bank Hapoalim and Technion is carried out by the bank’s innovation division, and as part of a joint initiative with the Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management led by the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Avishai Mandelbaum.
Avi Kochva, Deputy CEO of Bank Hapoalim and the Head of the Innovation Division, said at the ceremony, “A year ago we announced this collaboration and I am pleased that we have reached this festive day of inauguration. The bank of the future is a proactive one, committed to understanding customers’ needs and adapting to them. A key part of this is the development of information and data analysis, and therefore we partnered with Technion – to strengthen these capabilities of ours.”
“This is an innovative project based on intra-organizational entrepreneurship and creativity on both sides,” said Prof. Mandelbaum. “This is a partnership between equals – the bank provides data and full partnership in analysis and Technion develops advanced theories and related data analysis tools, so as to apply to the bank’s data. Progress made in the past year has been significant, and we continue along the delineated path to benefit from the fruits of our joint research.”
The Center is led by Profs. Avigdor Gal and Oren Kurland of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at Technion, together with Noam Zeigerson, Director of Information and Analysis at Bank Hapoalim’s innovation division.
Dedication of the joint Center at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at Technion. Left to Right: Prof. Avishai Mandelbaum, Avi Kochva, Prof. Boaz Golany and Noam Zeigerson.
Avi Kochva, Deputy CEO of Bank Hapoalim and the Head of the Innovation Division
The most sought-after faculties for undergraduate degrees are medicine, electrical engineering, computer science, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering
For the first time at Technion: 40% of undergraduate students are women
The 2017-18 school year began at Technion on Sunday (22.10). This year, 14,000 students will study at 18 faculties on campus in Haifa, of which 9,236 will be undergraduate students and the rest graduate students, of whom 1,142 will be doctoral students. This year, Technion also commenced the academic year at its international branches in New York and China. Last month, the permanent campus of the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute for applied scientific-engineering research in Manhattan was inaugurated.
At the same time, 220 students began their studies at the Guangdong-Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) in China. The Technion-Guangdong Institute, the first Israeli university in China, will be officially inaugurated this December. Established near the Shantou University campus in the Guangdong province of southeastern China, the Institute will be a research university, and teaching and research programs in the initial years will focus on environmental protection.
In the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the percentage of female students who choose to pursue academic studies in the sciences and engineering, and this year the percentage of women among undergraduate students at Technion is 40%. The rate of new female students is particularly high among minorities – 53%.
Karina Pletoshin from Ashkelon begins her studies at the Faculty of Biology this year. “I chose Technion because of its international reputation and the opportunities its degrees provide. I hope to make new friends, earn high grades, and complete my degree successfully. I don’t know what I’ll do as a career but I plan to complete a Master’s degree.”
For Michal Dubzik from Kfar-Saba and Gal Sidi from Modi’in, this is the first day of computer engineering studies at the Faculty of Computer Science. Both are excited about their first day at Technion. Michal said, “I chose Technion because of its prestigious status and top-notch curriculum. I know that it will be difficult but I hope I’ll manage.”
“Today you join the Technion family, a strong family that has thrived for four generations,” said Technion’s Senior Executive Vice President, Prof. Adam Shwartz, at the opening ceremony. “Technion was founded with the goal of training engineers who would build this country, and later expanded its activities based on the realization that basic engineering training is not sufficient and that strong scientific foundations are needed. Thus, Technion became a leading research university both nationally and globally.”
“A new world needs new tools,” added Prof. Shwartz. “This is a digital world in which computers are essential in every field, not only in computer science, and success in the technological world is based not only on talent but also on a wide variety of human capital. The essential resources we will give you are the ability to think, cope with problems, and the drive to spend all night on something you have not yet been able to solve. Technion is home to thinking and curious people who will lead the Israeli economy and the world at large. It is true that you are only at the beginning of your Bachelor’s degree, but I urge you to begin thinking about graduate studies. Each year, about half a million people complete engineering studies in China and India. Many of them are just as smart as you, but our added value is the graduate degrees that provide deeper research and broader comprehension – advantages reflected in the labor market.”
The ceremony was mastered by Prof. Orit Hazzan, Technion’s Dean of Undergraduate Studies, who told the students, “Today an important chapter in your life begins, not only in the academic sense but also in many other ways. You have joined an academic institution which leads the world in engineering and the sciences, and here you will receive the best training. We have found that students prefer to study at Technion for three main reasons: its reputation, level of study, and the atmosphere on campus. It’s important to us that you focus on your studies, but occasionally look away from the computer, enjoy the range of activities offered, and consider where you can contribute.”
The Dean of Students, Prof. Benny Natan, said, “You come to a Technion that is different from what it used to be. Today’s Technion offers a diversity of activities other than the academic ones, and a social life. It is important that you remember that we at the Dean’s office are here for you. True wisdom includes knowing when to ask for help, and if you need help with any issue – dormitories, scholarships and loans, academic support, personal counselling, etc. – you are welcome to come to us.”
Omer Amit, chairman of Technion’s Student Union, said, “Technion is a wonderful place, as shown by a national student survey. Satisfaction at Technion is the highest in Israel, and it is also the institution most Israeli students recommend studying at. Technion’s sports teams come out on top at intervarsity competitions, we have the best gym in academia, and the only Olympic swimming pool in northern Israel. You are invited to enjoy the sports activities, music performances, pub at the Student Center, and the other wonderful things Technion has to offer you. Your studies will not be easy and occasionally you’ll experience failures, but you will learn to overcome them and succeed.
What Do Your Eyes Say? Device Can Diagnose Diseases Based on Eyelid Motion
HAIFA, ISRAEL (October 15, 2017) – Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering have developed a device that can diagnose diseases by means of an eyelid motion monitor (EMM). The project was published recently in Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.
“Eyelid motion provides meaningful information about the health of a patient,”
Already in its developmental stages, the device has won several international awards, and was ranked in the top 20 in the Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge (TIIC) – Europe Design Contest. Over the past two years, the device has been used in clinical trials at Haemek Medical Center in Afula, Israel.
The device was first developed by Technion Prof. Levi Schachter and doctoral student Adi Hanuka, who began working on it as an undergraduate. Hanuka continued working on it during her graduate studies, with the help of a team of students working under her supervision.
“Eyelid motion provides us with meaningful information about the health of a patient,” explained Hanuka. “This motion can indicate not only eye diseases, but also neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, and autoimmune diseases such as Grave’s. We developed a device that can be installed on the standard refraction glasses used in eye tests, at the request of Dr. Daniel Briscoe, Chairman of the Haemek Medical Center Department of Ophthalmology.”
Prof. Levi Schachter
Glasses are fitted with a hardware and software system that monitors and interprets eyelid movements. With approval of the Ethics Committee Regulations for Research Work Involving Human Participants, measurements of approximately 100 subjects have been collected in order to define the eyelid motion patterns (blinking speed and frequency) of a healthy person. Eyelid motions were analyzed using a signal-processing algorithm written by students Tal Berkowitz, Michal Spector, Shir Laufer, and Naama Pearl.
The team first examined blepharospasm dystonia, a disease characterized by involuntary contraction of the muscles responsible for closing the eyes. The researchers found a statistically significant quantitative relationship between a person’s eyelid pattern and the disease, which means that the device could be used to diagnose it. The system was also used to examine the effect of Botox injections, the conventional treatment for the disease, and it was found that within 15 minutes contractions decrease and the blinking pattern begins to match indices that exist among healthy people.
Doctoral student Adi Hanuka
The researchers are also gathering information about other groups, including patients with dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
“Along with designing the product for purposes of commercialization, we are working in several directions: developing the device as a platform for multidisciplinary research on various topics such as the effect of emotions on blinking patterns; eyelid communication amongst the paralyzed; and automatic diagnosis through machine learning and based on a computerized comparison between the specific monitoring and an extensive database,” said Hanuka.
According to the researchers, the device has the potential to diagnose every disease that is expressed neurologically, including many ocular and systemic such as Ptosis, Thyroid eye disease, Parkinson’s disease, Myasthenia Gravis, and neurologic diseases such as third and seventh cranial nerve palsy.
Graph (CORR): Blinking speed as a function of the amplitude of motion. Green – a patient with blepharospasm dystonia blinking at very high speed.
Technion congratulates the 2017 Nobel Laureates in physics: Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, Professor Emeritus Kip Stephen Thorne, and Prof. Barry Barish, who headed the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 as part of the LIGO experiment. The prize will be awarded to them “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.”
Four months ago, Technion’s Harvey Prize was awarded to three LIGO researchers: Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, Professor Emeritus Kip Stephen Thorne, and Professor Emeritus Ronald Drever, who died shortly before the award ceremony. The Harvey Prize in Science and Technology was awarded “for the first direct detection of gravitational waves, confirming a central prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity and opening a new window to the universe.”
According to Prof. Ehud Behar of Technion’s Faculty of Physics, “The LIGO facility and the discovery of gravity waves provide us with unprecedented information on black holes, information that is not available to us in any other way.” The Nobel Prize winners in physics revealed the physical processes occurring in the last moments before the fusion of black holes as well as processes that occur in neutron stars.”
Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss of MIT receives the award from the President of Technion Left to right: Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, Ian Drever, Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, and Professor Emeritus Kip Stephen Thorne.
