Month: October 2018

Scientists Discover Biological Ultraviolet Protection “Timer”

Wave-like process recruits skin protection systems to shield
skin from sun exposure, say researchers from Tel Aviv University and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Scientists at Tel Aviv University and Technion have discovered a critical 48-hour cycle that is responsible for synchronizing the biological mechanisms that protect our skin from sun damage.

The new study reveals a biological clock dubbed the “UV-protection timer” that both synchronizes the skin’s response to ultraviolet rays and mediates a tradeoff between two skin defense systems: stress response and pigmentation.

“Our discovery was prompted by the surprising finding that low-frequency UV exposure results in higher skin pigmentation,” says Prof. Carmit Levy of the Department of Human Genetics and Biochemistry at TAU’sSackler Faculty of Medicine, who led the research for the study with TAU doctoral student Hagar Malcov-Brog. “This provides an in-depth mechanistic understanding of how the skin’s response to ultraviolet rays is regulated. Our results support the premise that the evolution of furless human skin led to a UV-protection ‘timer.’ This timer provided maximum skin protection with minimum damage.”

The research was the product of a collaboration with Prof. Shai Shen-Orr of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Prof. Mehdi Khaled of Université Paris-Saclay. Technion doctoral student Ayelet Alpert also conducted research for the study, published as the cover story in Molecular Cell on October 25.

Skip a day in the sun

“We have identified a mechanism that spreads like a wave through the skin over 48 hours after an initial exposure to ultraviolet rays. This process synchronizes the natural defense mechanisms in the skin,” says Prof. Levy. “We concluded that exposure to the sun at a frequency of once every two days leads to optimal protection from sun damage.”

Two principal defense mechanisms naturally protect the skin from UV damage. The first recruits the immune system, inflammation and DNA repair to heal any burning or damage caused by UV radiation that can ultimately cause skin cancer. The second mechanism, pigmentation or tanning, creates a physical buffer to safeguard the skin against future exposure.

The researchers exposed both human and mouse skin samples to disparate UV doses at different times to measure reparative protein and pigmentation responses in the skin. The measurements revealed that certain genes appeared in the skin in a neat and synchronized sequence 48 hours following initial exposure to UV radiation.

To deepen their understanding of the process, the Technion researchers then built a mathematical model of the finding, which shows that MITF, the protein controlling the two skin protection mechanisms, spreads in the skin in a wave-like form, synchronizing the two protective mechanisms. “The frequency of the wave is 48 hours,” says Prof. Shen-Orr. “Imagine you tossed a stone into a pond and saw the ripples spread. Then, before they settled down, you threw in another stone, interrupting the process.”

“Similarly, a process of building and breaking takes place in our skin when it is exposed to the sun,” Prof. Levy continues. “Most experts recommend going to the gym every other day, not daily. The same is true of protecting our skin from sun damage. If you interrupt the protection process by sitting in the sun two days in a row, you damage a mechanism that requires 48 process to complete its cycle.”

The researchers are currently exploring the reason, perhaps related to Vitamin D levels, behind the biological mechanism.

CloudPool Wins the Technion’s BizTEC 2018 Entrepreneurship Program

The 8 finalists presented their developments to experts and investors at the program’s Demo Day

CloudPool is the winner of BizTEC 2018, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s nationwide entrepreneurship program. The group developed an automated artificial intelligence management platform for organizations using several cloud providers.

BizTEC 2018 is an entrepreneurship (pre-acceleration) program run by the Technion’s Bronica Entrepreneurship Center. The program caters teams that develop deep technologies, focusing on entrepreneurs with an “unripe” idea in its early stages. Established by Technion students in 2004, BizTEC now stands out among other Israeli entrepreneurship programs due to its success in accompanying deep technology ventures. Since its inception, more than 1400 teams have benefited from BizTEC; the many companies that have been formed have raised more than $350 million.

This year, 117 teams applied for the program. 26 were selected, and 8 reached the final event yesterday – Demo Day. Each of the finalists presented their developments in the form of a business presentation (pitch). Four of the teams are focused on medicine and biomedical engineering. The other finalists deal with vehicle IoT (Internet of Things), blockchain, and cloud computing management. The program’s judges were comprised of business, law, banking and technology leaders Ruth Alon, Moshe Berkowitz, Idan Friedman, Idan Bar-Dov, Miri Ashkenazi, Noa Oz, and Michael Marciano.

The founders of the winning group, CloudPool, are CEO Michael Czeizler, a former member of Unit 8200, IDF’s elite technological unit (Major in res.) who led a development team at EMC until recently; and technology director Yanai Tevet, who served in Navy intelligence, completed a master’s degree in mathematics and physics, and worked as a technology leader at EMC. Cloudpool developed an automated artificial intelligence management platform for organizations using several cloud providers.

“We developed a platform that permits the automation of processes that are very complicated to perform manually,” said Czeizler. “Its main advantages are avoiding being ‘locked’ to a single cloud provider, significant cost savings, and the ability to respond in real time to events such as changing user patterns or cloud service failure.”

The Best Medical Project Award went to SpeechBeat – an innovative solution for people who stutter. Customized to a person who stutters, the device allows its user to speak fluently and at an appropriate and natural pace. The idea was born at the T2MED hackathon at the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, and currently consists of 4 members: Eshed Rabinovitch, a master’s student in medicine at the Technion under Prof. Noam Ziv; Peleg Shkolnik, a student at the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering; Shaked Ron, a student in the joint program of the Faculties of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering; and Elias Mansour, a graduate of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering who is beginning his doctorate under Prof. Hossam Haick of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering. Rabinovitch stresses that since the project was part of BizTEC’s hardware track, the group received a grant of $8,000 from the Bronica family, and assistance from the community of stutterers was also vital to the development of the project.

Honorable mention went to Agora – the future arena of real estate trading. Using the blockchain technology, the company allows, on one hand, asset owners to issue them as stocks in a specialized tokens stock exchange and, on the other hand, allows anyone to purchase a small portion as an investment in those assets. This breakthrough approach allows anyone to become a liquid investor in real estate and also allows asset owners to offer only small portions of the assets. The company’s founders are Lior Dolinsky, an undergraduate student of computer science at the Technion, and Bar Mor, a computer science student at IDC Herzliya. The company is in the process of fundraising and has already secured $300,000.

Other groups that participated in the closing event:

Lucky – The first home appliance for complete palm care, including nail gel.

SafeDrive – A smart system for vehicle fleet managers that provides continuous and real-time information on the condition of the vehicles.

NovelHand – A robotic arm that enables amputees to perform various functions without any special effort, based on signals obtained from the arm muscle.

VitaPod – A home appliance for monitoring wounds that develop on the legs of diabetics. The device enables continuous monitoring and prevents hospitalization and amputation.

AntiShock – An innovative system for the early detection of septic shock (blood infection), based on monitoring blood flow in capillaries.

BizTEC 2018 was launched about six months ago with the participation of the recipient of the 2018 Israel Prize for Industry, Yehuda Bronicki; Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie; Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development Prof. Boaz Golany; inventor of the flash drive Dov Moran, and BizTEC alumni. The groups were mentored by leading entrepreneurship and investment experts including members of NowTecc, who won the BizTEC 2017 competition; StoreDot founder and CEO Doron Myersdorf; MeMed founder and CEO Eran Eden; SimilarWeb CEO and founder Or Offer; Reuven Sherwin of Wix; Arik Kleinstein of Glilot Capital; Lotan Levkowitz of Grove Ventures; and Irit Israeli of AfterDox.

Entrepreneur Yuri Milner, co-founder of the Breakthrough Prize, donated the fellowship fund to support PhD students at the Technion, Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University

In honor of Israel’s 70^th anniversary, Russian-born Israeli technology entrepreneur, investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner, who resides in the USA, is establishing a fellowship fund of $7m (25m NIS) for 70 students at three Israeli universities. The decision to establish “70 for 70 Fellowships” program is based on his belief that Israeli academia is crucial for the advancement of science.

The funds will be awarded to 70 outstanding PhD candidates, with $25,000 a year given to each fellow for 4 years. Recipients will be outstanding research students from the Technion, Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University, in the fields of fundamental physics, mathematics and life sciences.

The “70 for 70 Fellowships” program was officially announced at a ceremony at TAU on Wednesday October 24, 2018. Following the announcement, the first 10 fellows from the three institutions will be chosen. The fellowship program will be managed by TAU.

Yuri Milner founded Mail.ru Group in 1999 and under his leadership it became one of Europe’s leading internet companies. He took that business public in 2010 and founded DST Global to focus on international internet investments. DST Global became one of the world’s leading technology investors, with a portfolio that has included some of the world’s most prominent internet companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Airbnb, Spotify,  Alibaba, and others.

Milner graduated in 1985 with an advanced degree in theoretical physics, subsequently conducted research in quantum field theory and science has remained his passion. In 2012 he and his wife Julia, together with Sergey Brin (Google), Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan (Facebook), and Anne Wojcicki (23&Me), launched the Breakthrough Prizes – the world’s largest scientific awards, honoring important, primarily recent, achievements in fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics.

In July 2015, together with Stephen Hawking, Milner launched the $100 million Breakthrough Listen initiative to reinvigorate the search for intelligent life in the Universe; and in April 2016 the two launched Breakthrough Starshot, a $100 million research and engineering program to develop the technology for a space probe that could reach another star.

In endowing the “70 for 70 Fellowship”, Milner noted that fundamental science and mathematics are among humanity’s highest achievements, and are also essential for the growth of technological progress that our civilization depends on. “The goal of these fellowships is to help outstanding young researchers contribute to research on the deepest questions,” he said. “TAU, the Hebrew University and the Technion rank among the world’s most innovative universities, providing an environment in which these talented thinkers can reach their potential.”

TAU President Prof. Joseph Klafter thanked Yuri Milner for the large fellowship program. He said that the fellowships will enable outstanding researchers to develop innovative research that may lead to global breakthroughs, strengthening Israel’s position in the areas of elite science and technology.

Prof. Asher Cohen, President of the Hebrew University, added that he believes the fellowships will help outstanding researchers dedicate their time and energy to their work and research, thereby contributing to the advancement of both Israeli and international science.

 

Prof. Peretz Lavie, President of the Technion, said: “The new fellowships will allow us to further expand the research infrastructure nurturing scientific and technological breakthroughs that impact the lives of millions worldwide. Thanks to Yuri Milner’s generosity, more outstanding researchers will get the opportunity to join the honored ranks of numerous researchers responsible for the exceptional global renown of Israel’s scientific research.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Startups Mentored at Technion Will Compete at the 2018 EU Food Venture Summit

Three startups that were mentored at Technion made the short list of 10 finalists selected on October 24 to take part in the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Food Venture Summit—the prestigious business gathering of the European Union’s agri-food innovation community. The startups, which include Jet-Eat and Kiinns, led by Technion alumni, will compete for three equity-free cash prizes of $68,000 each on November 28, 2108, at Station F in Paris. The third winning startup is Natufia.

The finalists were nurtured in the EIT-Food Accelerator Network program, a collaboration of academic and corporate entities aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in food research. An EIT initiative, the program ran accelerators in Switzerland, Germany and in Israel, at Technion.

Some 40 participating agri-food startups, poised to change the world’s food system, received mentoring from academics and international industry experts as well as tailored academic programs weekly sessions with business professionals, co-working spaces and networking opportunities.

Ten startups took part in the accelerator program at Technion, which was a collaborative effort between the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, headed by Prof. Marcelle Machluf, and the Strauss Group, whose CTO/VP of Technology is Dr. Eyal Shimoni. On behalf of the university’s administration, Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan, executive vice president for research and Prof. Boaz Golany, vice president for external relations and resource development are accompanying the accelerator.

“This is a unique platform for entrepreneurs and early-stage start-ups to engage in a tailor-made accelerator program,” said Prof. Ester Segal at the start of the program in June. “We built a special curriculum for the food and agro arena and we provided informal access to the Technion faculty experts and its vast research infrastructure. We at Technion believe that we should take a proactive role in shaping the future of these fields.” Biotechnology and Food Engineering Profs. Segal and Uri Lesmes were joined by Dr. Avital Regev Siman-Tov, to lead the project.

About the three Technion-Mentored winning Startups

Jet-Eat is the first company in the world to develop 3D print technology for vegan meat substitutes. Statistics show that some $1.3 billion tons of food go to waste annually worldwide. The startup, based in Tel Aviv, aims to reduce food waste and provide innovative solutions to feed the growing world population by printing food.

“The company is on a mission,” said Technion alumnus Alexey Tomsov, Jet-Eat’s product manager. “After all, the prices of meat will rise dramatically, more and more people are becoming vegetarians or ‘half-vegetarians,’ and so a solution is needed with a commercial horizon.”

Kiinns has developed a patent-pending technology that eliminates the need to clean domestic and industrial food-processing equipment. The innovative tech turns standard kitchen devices, such as mixers and blenders, into smart appliances by installing a system that doesn’t require cleaning. Co-founded by father and son, Dr. Ehud Furman and Tzvika Furman, both Technion graduates, and based in Haifa, the unique technology saves time, water and energy, and significantly reduces food safety risks.

“The system will save about 90% of the current cleaning costs in plants, stemming from the costs of electricity, water, working hours and halting operations of the machines,” said Dr. Ehud Furman. “Since our sheets are biodegradable or recyclable, there is no environmental damage.  On the contrary, we prevent the penetration of polluted water into sewage and the ground.”

His son, Tzvika Furman, added that the technology can also be adapted for paint, pharma, cosmetic and any other industry where surface cleaning is needed.

Natufia, headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, is a fully automated garden system for indoors designed by chefs for use in the home or the professional kitchen. The innovative hydroponic machine has a sleek modern design that fits into most kitchens and provides a direct supply of fresh herbs and greens all year round free of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. And it plays music too!

The 7 other participating start-ups at the Technion are:

Alkion BioInnovations SAS, based in France, has developed a new natural GMO-free and zero calorie substitute for sugar using plants and sustainable cost-effective biotechnologies.

Phytoponics is an innovative patent-pending hydroponic growing system (a method of growing plants without soil in water-based, nutrient rich solution) developed by UK engineer Adam Dixon.

Biofood Systems Ltd. developed a patented method to culture slaughter free real meat by using bovine embryonic stem cells.

Ballis Natural Kitchen was founded by Inbal Gamliel following digestive problems she developed during her undergraduate studies at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. She makes sweet snacks that are not only tasty but nutritious.

The Sprouted Grain Company, co-founded by couple Nili Badanovsky and Dan Moshe, aims to encourage healthy and wholesome eating by transforming basic staple foods into super foods through the power of sprouting. Soaking and sprouting are traditional, pre-industrial-era methods of food preparation.

Avocadoo is a mobile application which guides users while shopping at the supermarket and helps them assemble a balanced healthy cart that is adapted to their personal tastes, budgets and health restrictions. The company’s goal is to harness the power of technology for healthy eating.

Tryna Grub is a social dining platform for hungry foodies to arrange spontaneous meals with friends in an instant. It was developed by new Immigrants (Olim) Jared Blumenfeld, who made aliya at the age of 19 to serve in the IDF and Dr. Daniel Ayalon-Solares, who made aliya five years ago from Venezuela.

Twenty three years have passed since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The annual ceremony in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin will take place today , Monday, October 22nd ,at 12:30 PM in the Butler Auditorium, Neeman Institute, Technion.

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.”

To view on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dXuBVyyNzU0Location:  , Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Lecture

Some 1,885 new students, 40% of them women, begin their studies today at Technion

The main teaching building on campus – the Ullmann – got a new look as dozens of classrooms were upgraded to include advanced teaching technologies

The 2018/2019 academic year starts at the Technion today, October 21, 2018. This year, 1,885 new students join the Technion student community, with a total population of 13,500 students in 17 faculties. Some 9,200 will study for bachelor’s degrees and 4,300 for graduate degrees. This year, 1,150 graduate students will study for a doctorate degree and the rest for a master’s degree.

The proportion of women among the new students and the total population of undergraduates at the Technion is 40%, following Technion’s strategy to increase the percentage of women in academia. Over the past decade, this policy has led to a significant increase in the percentage of female students who choose academic studies in science and engineering at the Technion.

The Technion’s main campus in Haifa has been invested with significant resources for construction and development over the past year. A particularly extensive renovation took place at the Ullman Building, the main teaching building on campus. Dozens of new classrooms were built, renovated, and equipped with advanced teaching technologies. New learning spaces and 600 seats were added.

In recent years, the Technion has become a global center of knowledge. On the one hand, the Technion has over 800 students from more than 30 countries. On the other, the Technion is expanding its international presence. It now has research collaborations with over 200 leading universities around the world. Its two branches, which opened last year in China and the United States, will have about 680 students this year. Of these, 198 will study for a joint master’s degree at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute – an applied sciences and engineering institute in the heart of Manhattan – and about 480 will study at the Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) in China.

On Thursday morning, Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie welcomed the new students: “Today, you join one the world’s leading academic institutions;” he said, “But first and foremost, you are joining a new family: the Technion family. Our tremendous investment in our students, who are Israel’s best, is evident throughout the campus. We offer you an unparalleled quality of life. The Technion campus has the greatest number of dormitories in Israel; we offer housing for 5,000 students, a number that will continue to increase. As you tour our green, flourishing campus, you will find all the services imaginable: sports facilities and excellent swimming pools, the Student Union Building with its variety of services and activities, the ecological garden, and other charming spots to be discovered over the years.

“In the past few years, we revolutionized Technion’s teaching methods. We brought about a change in the atmosphere and the Technion’s image as a rigid institution that wasn’t considerate of its students. The results of an annual survey of the teaching quality in Israeli academia conducted by the National Union of Israeli Students were published last week, showing that the Technion is in the lead in this regard. This is the third consecutive year that we have been at the top of the survey after years of being at the bottom.”

Dean of Undergraduate Studies Prof. Orit Hazzan presented the new students with a survey conducted last year. “Two main reasons lead students to choose the Technion: the high level of education and the reputation. The studies here are not easy, but they will give you the skills that will help you in the future. You join a quality group – one of the best in Israel. The ability to work in science and engineering gives you the tools to change the world.”

The Dean of Students Prof. Benny Natan said: “You’ve come to a Technion that is different from what it used to be. Today’s Technion has very diverse activities outside of the academic, and a social life. It is important that you remember that we are here for you in the Dean’s office. True wisdom is knowing when to ask for help, and if you need help on any subject – dormitories, scholarships, and loans, academic assistance, personal counseling, etc. – you are welcome to come to us.”

Chairman of the Technion Students Association Amir David Nissan Cohen told the new students: “At the Student Union, we are doing our utmost to help you succeed. The Technion is outstanding not only in terms of academics; we hold parties and dozens of cultural events every semester. The Technion Students’ Association does not engage in politics – only in promoting the welfare of students at the Technion.”

New curricula

New elite program at the Technion: the “Alonim” Data Science Program

A new elite, ground-breaking program within the IDF’s academic reserve is underway at the Technion: the Alonim Data Science Program. This is a significant step in the collaboration between the IDF and the Technion. The Technion pioneered a bachelor’s degree in data science and engineering two years ago and has two data science master’s programs.

After a very careful selection and screening processes, 18 participants were chosen for the first cycle of the Alonim program out of 150 candidates. The curriculum is very intensive: in only 4.5 years, students will complete a bachelor’s degree, a demanding four-year degree like other engineering degrees at the Technion, and a master’s degree in research. The program’s participants will be guided and mentored by both the Technion and the IDF.

The students will study in a world-class academic environment. This environment relies on a wide range of world-renowned researchers in the various disciplines that make up the world of data science; the use of innovative teaching infrastructures that enable working with vast databases of data while studying; and close cooperation with industry. At the end of their studies, the graduates will be integrated into innovative research and development projects in various IDF technology units and will serve as the the army’s cutting edge in data science.

According to the Harvard Business Review, data science is the most sought-after profession of the 21st century. This reality led to the Technion’s decision to expand in this field and launch the bachelor’s degree track in data science and engineering, headed by Profs. Avigdor Gal and Oren Kurland.

The elite Alonim program was put together by the Dean of the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Prof. Carmel Domshlak; Profs. Oren Kurland, Avigdor Gal, and Shoham Sabach, who manage the data science programs; and Dr. Gila Molcho, Data Science Coordinator at the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion. In the IDF, the program is led by Brigadier-General Eran Shani, head of the Personnel Management Planning Division. The head of the Academic-Technological Personnel Administration, Lieutenant-Colonel Itay Levanon, and IDF Data Science Liaison Colonel S. manage the program on behalf of the army.

The “Bareket” Academic Reserve Program – a first master’s degree in Israel

The new academic reserve program, Bareket, led by Prof. Moshe Tennenholtz, is designed for outstanding students who completed a bachelor’s degree during high school. The program grants a master’s degree within two years and is the first academic reserve master’s degree program at the Technion; it joins the Galim and Arazim programs at Tel Aviv University. Seven students will study at the Technion (a total of 14 country-wide) out of the 90 who applied to the program. “These are particularly brilliant students who completed an undergraduate degree in mathematics or computer science with an average of 96,” says Dr. Gila Molcho, the Data Science coordinator at the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion. “The program provides a solution to the IDF’s shortage of information people who are also developers.”

The #Ladders Program – an introduction to research at the Technion

New employment opportunities were made available to Technion students through the #Ladders program, which introduces research carried out at the Technion to undergraduate students. According to Dean of Undergraduate Studies Prof. Orit Hazzan, who initiated the unique project: “The new program offers students from all faculties an opportunity to gain practical experience and join research teams at the Technion during their undergraduate studies. This experience will add value to their CVs and professional futures, whether they choose an academic career as graduate students or faculty members, or whether they choose careers in industry as entrepreneurs or employees.”

A new course called “Introduction to Research at the Technion” is being launched as part of the program; students from a variety of faculties will be introduced to researchers and research at the Technion.

ANN ARBOR—Consider a future in which robots work alongside humans to search for disaster survivors and seniors monitor their response to bacterial infections in real time.

A $20 million gift from The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation will expand collaboration among researchers at the University of Michigan, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel to help enhance quality of life through advancements in robotics and precision health.

“Collaboration is critical when addressing important societal issues like precision health and robotics,” said S. Jack Hu, U-M vice president for research and the J. Reid and Polly Anderson Professor of Manufacturing. “In partnering with our colleagues at two of the world’s leading research universities, we are able to accelerate the promising potential in these significant areas of research.”

Since 2011, researchers at U-M, ​Technion and Weizmann have collaborated on nearly 50 competitively funded research projects as part of the Michigan-Israel Partnership for Research and Education. The partnership, funded by philanthropic gifts, supports research, fosters innovation and spurs collaboration among the three institutions in fields ranging from biomedical sciences to engineering. With this new gift, The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation has given a total of $25 million to U-M for the partnership.

“In this day & age, international and interdisciplinary collaborations are vital to the future of science and engineering.” Said Prof. Boaz Golany, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development at Technion. “The support of the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation enables three world leading universities to join hands in a partnership that will benefit people not only in the US and Israel, but worldwide.”

“We are grateful to The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation for this visionary gift,” said Israel Bar-Joseph, vice president of resource development and public affairs at Weizmann. “We look forward to building an impactful research program that will deepen the relations between these three great institutions.”

This week, researchers from all three institutions are gathering in Ann Arbor as part of the seventh-annual D. Dan and Betty Kahn Symposium. The gift, announced Thursday, will support two large inter-university research projects, the annual symposium and smaller-scale collaborative projects.

“The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation is pleased to support this unique partnership as an outgrowth of the Kahn Symposium that began in 2011,” said Larry Wolfe, president of The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation. “We see the partnership as a natural extension of Dan Kahn’s vision and an opportunity for three of the world’s great universities to pursue transformative research advancements in health, science and education. We hope this gift will inspire others to support  this incredible cause.”

Collaborative research projects

One project aims to advance the frontiers of autonomous robotic science by discovering new principles, creating new technology and demonstrating innovations in autonomous systems.

“While autonomous vehicles have been pushing the boundaries of what robots can do without any human guidance, the greatest impact robots can have is by being right by our side,” said Alec D. Gallimore, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, the Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Professor, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and a professor of aerospace engineering.

“Robots can be designed with physical capabilities complementary to our own, and rather than replacing humans, the robots we envision can make existing jobs easier. They could increase productivity, improve worker safety and allow workers to spend more time on the creative and engaging parts of their jobs, while robots seamlessly support them by performing the tiring and repetitive parts.”

As part of the second project, researchers from the three institutions plan to develop tools that enhance privacy and computational effectiveness in big-data analytics in precision health.

“When it comes to precision health, we have tremendous opportunities to advance scientific discovery and implementation with the right technical, clinical, regulatory and communication strategies,” said Marschall S. Runge, executive vice president for medical affairs and dean of the U-M Medical School. “If we can increase multidisciplinary collaboration, we can bring cohesion and momentum to this new but fragmented field and establish a strong, stable foundation for future precision health discoveries.”

In addition to collaborative research, the partnership has supported the exchange of 15 early-career researchers between U-M and either Technion or Weizmann.

 

 

Researchers at the Technion’s Schulich Faculty of Chemistry have developed innovative synthetic methods that expand the chemical toolbox and enable effective preparation of new and complex proteins.

HAIFA, ISRAEL (October 8, 2018) – Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University have developed a new method of protein synthesis that could one day be used to promote biochemical, structural and functional studies, and in the creation of new drugs. The findings were recently published in Nature Communications. The research team led by Prof. Ashraf Brik of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry included  Muhammad Jbara, Shay Laps, Dr. Guy Kamnesky, and Guy Mann, along with Prof. Cynthia Wolberger of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Proteins are vital components of the living cell from which organelles are built into cells, muscles, and more, and the ability of the Technion-Johns Hopkins team to create them artificially could dramatically affect such endeavors.

The team was able to form complex protein clusters by precisely tuning chemical processes. This is an expansion of the chemical toolbox for the synthesis of proteins and the opening of a new channel for the development of chemistry based on organometallic complexes. The method was demonstrated by the synthesis of a copper storage protein (CSP1) and in the reaction of ubiquitinated proteins for the formation of a strong (covalent) complex of nucleosome-enzyme.

Prof. Brik completed his master’s and doctoral degrees at the Technion and later became Israel’s first Arabic chemistry professor. After a meteoric career at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, he joined the faculty of the Technion on the initiative of Nobel Laureate and Technion Distinguished Prof. Aaron Ciechanover. Prof. Brik has won numerous awards including the Humboldt Research Award (Germany), the Hirata Award (Japan), the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, the Eli Hurvitz Award (Israel), and the Israel Chemical Society’s Prize for the Outstanding Young Scientist. He was recently elected as a member of the Israel Young Academy.

This study was supported by the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF).

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and Intel Corporation inaugurated a new Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) yesterday, Monday, October 8th. The Center is chartered with advancing research in AI fields and collaboration between Technion and Intel researchers.

Intel’s Dr. Michael Mayberry, chief technology officer, and Naveen Rao, corporate vice president, and general manager of the Artificial Intelligence Products Group represented Intel at the inauguration of the new AI Center. Prof. Boaz Golany, vice president for External Relations and Resource Development, Prof. Wayne Kaplan, executive vice president for Research, Prof. Nahum Shimkin, dean of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Prof. Dan Geiger, dean of the Computer Science Department and Prof. Carmel Domshlak, Dean of the William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, represented the Technion.

Prof. Shie Mannor from the Technion Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering will head the Center. “The Technion is the leading university in Israel in the field of artificial intelligence and is one of the top ten universities in the world in the field,” Mannor said. “In 2018 the Technion ranked 7th in the CS Rankings: Computer Science Rankings.  The Technion has about 20 faculty members whose main field of research is computational learning and another 40 [researchers] are working in related fields. The majority of the researchers come from the Faculty of Computer Science, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management and some of them are from other faculties such as Medicine and Biology.”

Mannor added: “As part of this collaboration with Intel, the company will support research projects of Technion faculty members engaged in computational learning and artificial intelligence together with Intel researchers. The research will cover a variety of areas, including natural language processing, deep learning and hardware optimization for different learning algorithms.”

Intel Israel CEO Yaniv Garty said, “We are proud of the cooperation with the Technion, which will promote Israeli technology and Intel’s technological leadership in the field of artificial intelligence.”

“Intel is a leader in this field and the research center will help further advance AI innovation. I have no doubt that we will achieve breakthroughs that will lead to significant developments in the coming years. Intel has always maintained a close cooperation with Israeli academia, which has included many contributions, support of teaching programs, scholarships for outstanding students, joint research and more,” he said.

Prof. Boaz Golany, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development added: “The Technion intends to expand its activities in the fields of machine learning and intelligent technology in the next few years and the joint activity with Intel is one of the first steps in this direction. We are working to raise unprecedented resources to support basic research in the field and in parallel, to work with leading companies such as Intel to promote applications in a wide range of fields including healthcare, autonomous vehicles, smart environments, home, and industrial robots and more.”

Intel and The Technion have maintained close ties for many years. In 2009, Intel awarded The Technion the “Intel Award” in recognition of the university, whose graduates were the founding nucleus of the company’s branch which was established in Haifa in 1974. To date, Intel supports some Technion’s labs and funds many scholarships for students at the Technion, including specifically supporting outstanding students in electrical engineering and computer science.