Month: May 2023

A hackathon focused on coping with extreme heat waves in urban areas recently took place at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology as part of the Entrepreneurship and Career Day organized by t-hub, the Technion Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center. First place went to the ‘SOLARit’ team for their initiative, which enables the supply of electricity during power outages by using heat from water in solar water heaters. The winning team was comprised of four students from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering: Yoav Ronen, Ester Konstantinov, Andrei Serenko, Noy Winetraub, and Neta Soto. They worked on developing a Stirling engine as an add-on to existing solar water heaters, in order to utilize heat from the water to produce local energy for the home’s refrigerator and air-conditioning system during emergencies, such as when there is a power outage.

The winning team will represent the Technion at Green Challenge – an international sustainability hackathon taking place in Denmark on June 23, 2023. The Technion’s Sustainability Frontier will fund their flights and their participation in the hackathon.

The event was a collaboration between the Technion’s Sustainability Center, the Social Hub, and the Technion Student Association. More than 50 students from a variety of faculties took part, divided into 11 teams. The competition was launched two weeks before the hackathon with a lecture about mapping challenges in the event of extreme heat waves by Naama Shapira of the Technion’s Samuel Neaman Institute. Her lecture covered the environmental and social ramifications on urban residents, including the collapse of the electric system and other essential systems, fires and floods, energy poverty, and a rise in disease and violence.

The ‘Eco Shade’ team won second place with their social-environmental initiative to set up cooling systems in public transportation stations. Their cooling system is based on plants attached to manual water pumps. The team included students Tamar Klein, Dror Arie, Hadas Levy, and Omri Leshem, from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering.

Third place went to the ‘Keep it Cool’ team for their application that helps transfer disadvantaged populations to safe spaces during emergencies. The app connects the users to the Health Funds and Social Security in order to quickly reach people who require assistance. The team included Raphael Zailer, Harel Yadid, Shon Wolfson, Ofek Har Even, Fatima Abu Rabiah, and Ido Reuven from the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

The hackathon was organized by two students: Ohad Schindler of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Tal Fein of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The students were supervised by the following mentors: Naama Shapira of the Samuel Neaman Institute, Tali Nimrodi of the Clariter company, Yoni Haran from the company Village in the Box, Lior Kedem from Termokir Industries, Ofer Keren of Green Academy, doctoral student Naga Venkata Sai Kumar of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, and guests Dr. Bela Nikitina and student Or Sharon of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

The competition’s judges were Prof. Michelle Portman of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning; Dr. Yael Danin-Poleg of the Social Hub; Alona Selfin, head of industrial relations and marketing in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Nimrod Peleg, laboratory director at the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Ariel Beeri of The Generator, which promotes entrepreneurial initiatives for coping with extreme heat waves.

The Doing Good hackathon concluded recently at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology’s Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science. In the course of the hackathon, students developed technological solutions for social challenges. This year, the hackathon focused on improving the quality of life for children in hospitals and it was conducted in close collaboration with the Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital of the Rambam Health Care Campus and with Prof. Daniella Magen, Director of the Pediatrics Division and the Pediatrics Nephrology Institute at Rambam.

The ‘ProTechTor’ team won first place, having developed an automated alert system for events of violence against medical personnel. The team included B.Sc. students Gil Litvin and Edo Cohen, and M.Sc. students Nadav Rubinstein and Idan Levi.

Having learned from medical personnel about the limitations of distress buttons in hospitals, including their inaccessibility and the aversion towards using them, ‘ProTechTor’ invented an automatic AI-based system that provides alerts during incidents involving violence or potential violence. According to Litvin, “the system is based on video feeds and separates the sound from the images. The sound is analyzed according to its intensity, content, and emotional charge (fear and anger) and the images are analyzed according to the degree of violence they contain. Artificial intelligence then enables the system to provide information about each scene in a traffic light format – devoid of violence (green), potential for violence (yellow) or contains actual violence (red). An agreed code word can be added to the system and can be used by the medical personnel in the event of violence or potential violence.”

Second place went to students who developed a medical chatbot. A team that developed an efficient communications interface between patients and the nursing staff came in third. The concept was devised by one of the students who had been hospitalized as a child in the oncology department. The Audience’s Favorite category was won by a team that invented an application for physical therapy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. Danny Raz, Dean of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science, told the participants that, “this hackathon is special – its purpose is to create something that will contribute to the community and that represents computers in the service of humanity (#CS4people). People look at high-tech and don’t understand how it affects them. It’s important that we be part of the community. Together we can make a better society.”

Prof. Daniella Magen said: “The world of medicine is marching forward thanks to advanced technology and out-of-the-box thinking, but the force that motivates development in the field of medicine is the aspiration to improve humanity and alleviate suffering. Working together with our creative partners at the Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen the ties between medicine and innovation, which is likely to generate amazing initiatives that can improve the quality of life for the sick children we treat.”

Approximately 130 students took part in the hackathon. They were supervised and assisted by researchers and engineers from the Technion and from the industry, as well as by doctors and members of the nursing staff, who helped them get their solutions to the finishing line with real proofs of feasibility. The challenges were presented by Rambam staff based on actual problems that exist in the hospital: patients’ and medical personnel’s waiting times, pain level monitoring in children, and various problems related to transferring patients from the hospital back to their homes.

The hackathon was organized by four students from the Taub Faculty of Computer Science: Benny Mosheyev, Shelly Golan, Mor Ventura and Michael Toker.

The Technion Smart Social Strategy (3S) laboratory showcases its “Constellations of Loneliness” project at the Time Space Existence biennial architecture exhibition in Venice.

“Time Space Existence” is the European Cultural Centre (ECC) architecture exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia. Its 2023 edition draws attention to the emerging expressions of sustainability in its numerous forms, from focusing on the environment and urban landscape to the unfolding conversations on innovation, reuse, and community.

“Constellation of Loneliness” is an artistic project based on the data from Hadar neighbourhood, a low socioeconomic status neighbourhood with a high percentage of elderly citizens, many of them also immigrants. The project represents loneliness through a digital city model drawing on big data and AI simulation. Between 2017-2021, authorities recorded an unusually high rate of bodies found in a state of advanced decay in the Hadar neighbourhood. The absence of these people was not noticed by anyone for a considerable time. By visualizing the data sets surrounding this tragedy, viewers are invited to explore the fragments of a fragile and ambivalent reality floating through the anonymized numbers. The resulting image highlights the patterns of the database’s blueprint and its shadows. This data shadow resembles a celestial constellation of stars, separated by time and space, connected through the work of our imagination. The lines connecting the spots mark both the challenge of loneliness and the potential power of the community to reach out and bridge the distance.

“Constellation of Loneliness” can be viewed at Palazzo Bembo from 20 May to 26 November 2023.

The 3S Lab uses innovation to enhance urban resilience and achieve sustainable urban development. The group creates data-driven models of urban social life and makes them available to decision-makers and residents. By making these models accessible to the general public, it encourages civic participation. The group’s visualization theater projects these models, creating a space for assembly, learning, and dialogical development. This immersive experience allows participants to engage with the data and experiment with planning in a multi-layered and complex city model.

“Smart cities are an important modern-day breakthrough,” says Dr Meirav Aharon-Gutman, head of the 3S Lab and faculty member of the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. “But it’s important to remember their limitations. Currently, the ‘smart city’ is all about infrastructure: surveillance cameras, traffic lights, and garbage collection. We believe that the city isn’t its infrastructure but its people and the connections they form. Loneliness is an important issue of city life; it’s a 21st-century epidemic. We must not ignore it.”

To address loneliness, Dr Aharon-Gutman explains, it must first be seen. On a personal level, we see and feel it, of course. But data-based visualization tools are required to handle it on an institutional level. “The tools we develop in the 3S Lab can provide social and municipal workers with relevant data about the city’s people, including the loneliest among them.” As a proof of concept, 3S Lab created a digital twin of the Hadar neighbourhood of Haifa, featuring 170 layers of data, including rent, number of people per apartment, homes of elderly citizens, community centres, and street dealer locations. This varied data allows municipal bodies and charitable organizations to identify problems and provide aid.

The Israel Innovation Institute’s PLANETech community has embarked on a unique collaboration with the Technion, whereby researchers from different academic departments whose studies relate to FoodTech, water, energy and materials, meet with entrepreneurs and investors interested in Climate Tech. The two groups will conduct a series of meetings during which they will tackle an important, high-impact challenge: how to accelerate the translation of scientific breakthroughs into applications that will help fight the climate crisis.

The opening session at the Technion was led by Noam Sonennberg of PLANETech; Prof. Avner Rothschild, Deputy Senior VP for Sustainability at the Technion; Rona Samler, Chief Business Officer at Technion R&D Foundation Ltd.; and Orly Mulla, Director of the Sustainability Center at the Technion. Twenty Technion researchers whose fields of expertise cover water, energy and food took part, as well as around 20 entrepreneurs. The purpose was to form “business matches.”

After the various research projects were presented, scientists and entrepreneurs discussed topics including renewable energy technologies, moderated by Uri Sadot and Itay Diamant from the company SolarEdge; food technologies, led by Ari Ben Dror of the Good Food Institute Israel; water technologies, with Ravid Levy of WaterEdge.IL; and materials, headed by Zvi Cohen of Criaterra Innovations.

Noam Sonennberg, Director of PLANETech, said that “the key to successfully fighting climate change is deep technological developments and their rapid, extensive assimilation. Important scientific breakthroughs in this field already exist and are waiting to emerge from the walls of academia and become tech companies. Many times, the problem lies in bringing together the science and technology people and the entrepreneurs. Together, they can build amazing companies that can help us solve the largest challenge of our generation.”

Prof. Avner Rothschild, Deputy Senior VP for Sustainability at the Technion, added that, “this initiative connects between entrepreneurs on the one hand, researchers and groundbreaking research projects on the other, with the aim of sprouting companies that will develop new tech solutions for overcoming the environmental and climate crises. This is the first step of the Technion’s Sustainability Frontier, which was recently established with a view to harness the Technion’s vast knowledge and experience in a wide variety of fields. The Sustainability Frontier aims to develop sustainable solutions for the environmental and climate challenges, engage the Technion community and create partnerships with other communities in order to work together to achieve a viable future for the next generations.”

The Technion mourns the passing of Mr. Zohar Zisapel, graduate of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and one of the pillars of the Israeli Start-Up Nation. Recipient of the Israel Defense Prize, Technion Honorary Doctorate and Technion Medal, Mr. Zisapel was a true friend of the Technion and one of its greatest and most dedicated supporters through the years.

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan said: “Zohar was a true friend of the Andrew and his Alma Mater, the Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His vision, his innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, as well as his deep social commitment, made him, together with his brother Yehuda, who is also a graduate of the same faculty, a source of pride for us and an inspirational model for all Technion graduates. Zohar was among the rare people who envisioned the future and then made it a reality. His pioneering endeavors, in which he saw the Technion as a true partner, contributed immensely to the development of Israel’s high-tech industries. He and his brother recognized early on the technological potential of nanotechnology and helped establish the Sara and Moshe Zisapel Nanoelectronics Center in the Technion, the first of its kind in Israel. This center, together with the Russel Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) sparked the Israeli nanotech revolution. The new building of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, which will carry the names of Zohar and Yehuda Zisapel, will perpetuate their vision, and enable the continued growth of the faculty, the recruitment of leading faculty members and the nourishing of the next generation of Israeli engineers. We are grateful to Zohar and to his family for their support, partnership, and steadfast friendship. May his memory be a blessing.”

“The Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering grieves the untimely passing of its graduate and friend, Mr. Zohar Zisapel Z”L,” said Faculty Dean Professor Idit Keidar. “He was one of the faculty’s most prominent graduates, a man of vision and a pillar of Israeli high-tech industry. His and his brother’s generosity enabled the faculty’s growth for years to come. May his memory be a blessing.”

In 2001 the Technion awarded Mr. Zohar Zisapel an honorary doctorate, “in appreciation for his long-standing affinity and manifold contribution to the Technion as one of its outstanding graduates, in acknowledgement of his leadership and pioneering endeavors for the development of Israel’s high-technology industries, and in recognition of his remarkable conviction and unfailing commitment to attain economic stability and prosperity for the State of Israel.”

Recognizing the future importance of the field of nanotechnology, the cornerstone of the Sara and Moshe Zisapel Nanoelectronics Center, named after Zohar and Yehuda’s parents, was laid in 2003. Prof. Uri Sivan, who was then the head of the Russel Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, said at the inauguration event that “the center will boost Technion research in this field for decades to come.” At the same event, the 9^th President of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres Z”L said, “my mentor, Ben Gurion, said that all experts are experts in what has already come to pass, but there are no experts in what’s to come. Zohar and Yehuda are just that – experts in what the future holds.”

In 2019, the Zisapel brothers made a large donation to the construction of the new Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering building, to be named in their honor. At the laying of the cornerstone, Zohar Zisapel said “when we studied here, there were discussions in the faculty over whether it should focus on electricity or electronics. But today, I understand that you must focus on both, and also be open to many other areas. The Technion always knew how to respond to the needs of the industry and it’s important that it continues to stay up to date and enter areas that are expected to develop in the future.” At the building’s inauguration ceremony last year, he said “about 50 years ago we applied to the Technion because it was the best engineering school in Israel, and really the only engineering school in Israel. It remains to maintain the Technion’s leading status, and we are happy that we can contribute to that.”

Last year, the Technion Medal was awarded to Zohar and to his brother Yehuda. This is the highest honor given by the Technion in recognition of a lifetime’s work dedicated to the Technion, and for contributing to the advancement of humanity, to the welfare of the Jewish people, and to the State of Israel. The Medal has only been awarded to 16 outstanding individuals so far. The medal was awarded to Zohar Zisapel “for being one of the pillars of the Startup Nation and an outstanding role model among generations of Technion alumni. For his generous and devoted support of the Technion and his alma mater, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. For his educational, social, and philanthropic activities, focused on cultivating young people from the periphery and promoting excellence in Israeli education. For his vision and endeavors laying the foundations for training the utmost engineers and researchers in the Israeli high-tech industry, which requires supreme human capital to ensure its continued prosperity.”

The Technion is home to Northern Israel’s first research MRI. Located in the May-Blum-Dahl Human MRI Research Center, it is a symbol of the Technion’s ongoing commitment to scientific excellence and human health advancement.

Until now, Technion researchers had no choice but to visit other facilities to use an MRI scanner — an essential tool for gathering extremely valuable data in a risk-free environment. Scientists and students can now conduct in-house multidisciplinary research using novel capabilities, providing highspeed structural and functional imaging.

Beyond the MRI machine, the facility itself is special because it is set up to explore childhood development. A mock scanner makes it possible for children and infants to preview the imaging process prior to entering the actual device for a more comfortable experience.

Thanks to this vital gift from Barbara and William Dahl of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and many other generous donors, Technion researchers from a wide range of disciplines now have this invaluable device close to home. The facility is also available to industry scientists who aim to deepen their research and development efforts via MRI technology.

An utterly unique feature of the May-Blum-Dahl Human MRI Research Center is its proximity to the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering—recognized as a global leader in innovative research, which spans a lengthy list of engineering-based fields. This will significantly advance research and solve some of the most pressing challenges in healthcare. Activities at the May-Blum-Dahl Human MRI Research Center will also allow us to improve MRI technology, leading to more accurate imaging in a shorter amount of time.

This project will undoubtedly lead to significant advances in biomedical imaging and human health research, especially when it comes to diagnostics and our ongoing quest to unlock more information about a variety of debilitating diseases and disorders.

On Wednesday, May 24, the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering will host the pre-ISMRM symposium, organized by the Israeli Chapter of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) ahead of the global ISMRM symposium. In previous years, the symposium was hosted by the Weizmann Institute of Science. We are excited to bring it to the Technion, to mark the inauguration of the Technion Human MRI Research Center (TecH MRC).

The symposium will bring together leading Israeli MRI experts, including primary investigators students, and industry representatives. About 100 professionals from the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Reichman University, the University of Haifa, and of course the Technion, are expected to attend.

The symposium is generously sponsored by Siemens Healthineers, the Technion Human Health Initiative (THHI), and the Israel Research Core Facilities (IRCF).

See full program here: https://ismrm-israel.github.io/#events

“Topology and Physics on Mount Carmel” conference took place last week at the Technion. The conference, organized by Professors Ari Turner and Eric Akkermans from the Technion Department of Physics, was dedicated to Prof. Emeritus Joshua Zak, recipient of the Israel Prize. Its aim was not only to discuss the most recent developments in the field of topological physics, but also to allow as many students and young researchers as possible to attend and to learn from some of the best researchers in this field worldwide.

Topology, like group theory, is an elegant field of mathematics that allows one to describe geometrical forms, wherever they occur. It is surprising how dramatic the implications of some of its concepts can be for physics experiments. The conference aims to bring together many of the physicists contributing creatively to the “topological revolution” in condensed matter physics, in honor of one of its pioneers, professor Joshua Zak.

Prof. Zak was awarded the Israel Prize in 2022 for his development of ‘Zak Transform’, an advanced mathematical operation that studies quantum phenomena in crystalline solids, and his discovery of ‘Zak Phase’, a unique 1D crystal phase. Zak Transform is already being used in signal processing, and the Zak Phase has been widely cited and verified in numerous experiments. These tools pave the way to build and predict the capabilities of electronic devices using materials with unique properties.

Among the speakers at the conference was Prof. Immanuel Bloch from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Prof. Bloch was the first to show experimentally the ‘Zak Phase’, discovered by Prof. Zak.

Joshua Zak, 93, was born in Vilnius in 1929. Aged twelve, he was placed in a ghetto together with his family. Later, he found himself in concentration camps, where he lost both parents and two brothers. After the war, Zak studied physics in the University of Vienna, and graduated Cum Laude in 1955. In 1957 he made Aliyah, and in 1960 completed his PhD at the Technion. After some time at MIT, Prof. Zak returned to the Technion, where he received tenure and was among the establishers of the Solid State Institute.

Conference Program: https://phsites.technion.ac.il/topology-and-physics-on-mount-carmel/program/?fbclid=IwAR3VdutZ5wNr707Rib4t1UGpdTsCB1u7mf5ZtzfWxNd6JMsPWc_r32-SVXU

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is proud to announce that Dr. Vesna Bacheva is one of just 32 global recipients of the prestigious Schmidt Science Fellows postdoctoral program.

Dr. Bacheva, a native of the Republic of North Macedonia, completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). In 2018, she was recruited to the Technion’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering as part of a unique Ph.D. program established by Professors Moran Bercovici and Govind Kaigala (formerly of IBM Research, now of the University of British Columbia) that enabled her to split her time between the Technion and IBM Research in Zürich. During her Ph.D., Dr. Bacheva focused on developing novel methods for reconfigurable platforms by using electric fields and light to create programmable flow fields and structures at small scales. “Vesna was one of the most prolific students I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with,” says Prof. Bercovici.  “Her Ph.D. was distinctly multidisciplinary with deep contributions to basic physics, analytical chemistry, and microtechnology.”  Prof. Kaigala adds: “We were very happy to hear that Vesna was announced as the recipient of the Schmidt Science Fellowship, but not at all surprised.”

Dr. Bacheva has received numerous awards during her short career, including the Best Young Innovator Award given by the President of North Macedonia, best talk prizes at multiple prestigious conferences, the Kavli Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the Postdoc Mobility Fellowship awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. When we asked Dr. Bacheva for her advice for future students, she said: “When I was young, I thought science was all about equations and experiments. It was only over time that I realized science is about finding the right people to work with. I was extremely lucky in that sense, and I am very grateful to both the Technion and IBM Research for giving me the support and facilities to conduct research that is at the very forefront of science. But the true strength of these institutions lies in their people, and I’m forever grateful to my amazing team members, my collaborators, and of course my outstanding advisors.”

Beyond the lab, Dr. Bacheva is a passionate athlete, having recently completed the 70.3 Ironman, consisting of 1.9 km of swimming, 90 km of biking, and 21.1 km of running. “An important drive in my research and life is my passion for endurance sports. Training for long-distance triathlons taught me the importance of dedication and commitment that is needed in achieving long-term goals in life,” she says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Bacheva is now a postdoctoral researcher at Prof. Abraham Strook’s lab at Cornell University. She still relies on her expertise in microfluidics, but now applies her knowledge to a completely different field: plant physiology, a field of plant sciences that focuses on understanding how plants work. She aims to develop new technologies and models to study the transport of nutrients in plants and hopes that her research will enable progress in the productivity and substantiality of crop-based agriculture in an increasingly food-insecure world. Moreover, Dr. Bacheva hopes that her research will inspire more engineers to pivot into plant sciences, which currently lacks the involvement of the engineering community and transdisciplinary training needed for fundamental biological discoveries.

Dr. Bacheva aspires to start her own research group and train the next generation of scientists while conducting cutting-edge research on society’s most pressing challenges.

Professor Bernard Lucas Feringa, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016, recently gave a special lecture at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, as part of the Apeloig Distinguished Visiting Lectureship Series. Prof. Feringa was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry together with Profs. Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Sir J. Fraser Stoddart for their work on the design and synthesis of molecular machines. Sir J. Fraser Stoddart had visited the Technion and gave the Apeloig Lecture in 2018.

Molecular machines exist naturally, and play important role in our body. Some examples include the retinal – a molecular switch in our eyes that responds to light and enables us to see; the myosin motor which contracts our muscles; the ATP Synthase rotary motor, involved in the production of all the energy our body uses; and many more. Figuring out how these motors work, and following nature’s examples to design and synthesise such molecules, is a field which Profs. Feringa, Sauvage, and Stoddart pioneered.

As part of his visit, Prof. Feringa planted a tree in the Technion’s Nobel Trail in the Lokey Park, where over 20 trees have already been planted by visiting Nobel Laureates. He signed a plaque on the Nobel Laureates’ Wall of Fame in the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry and gave a lecture to a hall full of attentive students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty.  Prof. Feringa also had a lunch with eleven PhD students. He answered their questions, discussed with them how one chooses a research topic and gave advice about the next steps in their careers.

“Fundamental science should not be neglected,” Prof. Feringa told the attendants. “It is this kind of research that has the potential to lead to applications that change the way we live. Consider the smartphone, and the effect it has had. It was made possible by fundamental research into transistors and liquid crystal materials.” He explained his own fundamental research into molecular switches and motors, and mentioned some of the potential future applications of the technology, which are currently in their proof-of-concept stage: self-cleaning and self-repairing materials, tuneable filters, catalysts, and more. “We need chemistry to build a sustainable future,” he said. “Molecular machines are part of that.”

Prof. Feringa also spoke extensively about the teachers who encouraged and inspired him, from his chemistry teacher at highschool to his PhD advisor in the University of Groningen. “Teachers open windows to the future of society,” he said. “Then their pupils go out and make it a reality.” Being a PI himself now, he expressed his gratitude to his students: “I wouldn’t be where I am now without their hard work, their creativity and their dedication.”

The Yitzhak Apeloig Distinguished Visiting Lectureship was established by the American and Canadian Friends of the Technion societies to honor the leadership and achievements of Prof. Yitzhak Apeloig during his eight-year tenure (2001-2009) as Technion President. The lecture endowment enables an annual visit to the Technion of a world-leading scientist, such as Nobel Prize laureates.  Prof. Feringa’s lecture was the sixth in the series, and all previous lecturers were Nobel prize laureates- making it one of the world’s most prestigious lectureships.

The 62^nd annual Israel Conference on Aerospace Sciences (IACAS) took place last month in Tel Aviv and at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. It dealt with a variety of scientific aspects of aviation and space, including drones, cyber threats, rocket propulsion, and improving aircraft.

The conference was opened by a lecture from Major General (Res.) Amikam Norkin, who was the commander of Israel’s Air Force from 2017 to 2022, on the topic: “The Middle East as seen from the cockpit.”

According to Major General (Res.) Norkin, “In the last decade, the reality relevant to Israel has changed in all circles – domestic, Middle Eastern, and global. Israel is currently in a changing sphere of threats by organizations and other actors and is also affected by the wide range of global events – relations between the U.S. and China, the war in Ukraine, and the fight against ISIS. Faced with this reality, we must decide which threats we should focus on and invest in. Will we focus on the terrorist threats in Gaza? On the danger in Lebanon? And maybe the Iranian threat? These are fateful and weighty decisions.”

Over the two-day conference, more than 120 lectures were held on a variety of topics, including propulsion, navigation, autonomous systems, missile avoidance, engine-propeller coordination, flexible wings, computational learning in the world of aviation, hypersonic aviation, and developments in wind tunnels. Numerous renowned lecturers from leading institutions around the world participated in the conference.

The second day of the conference, which took place at the Technion, was opened by Professor Tal Shima, dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. He said that “the conference brings together the best experts in academia and industry, in Israel and abroad, and is a platform for promoting knowledge and joint projects. This year we invited some 100 high school students to the conference, and we hope that many of them will come to study at the Technion and lead the world of Israeli aeronautics in the future.” He then thanked the conference organizers, the Chairman of the organizing committee, Brigadier General Shlomi Konforty, Head of Materiel Directorate at the Israeli Air Force, and the Chairman of the program committee, Technion Professor Beni Cukurel.

The opening lecture on the second day was given by Dr. Judith Hocherman-Frommer, who holds three degrees from the Technion, and who is the current executive vice president for Research and Development at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. She talked about the challenges facing Israel and Rafael in particular. She also addressed the 100 high school students in attendance, and said that “aeronautics is an amazing interdisciplinary field that is changing the world, and we invite you to join this community.” When asked by an audience member when the pilot’s course will no longer be needed, she replied, “unmanned vehicles will continue to improve and replace pilots in many and varied tasks, but they will not be able to replace the human pilot completely, certainly not in the near future.”

The IACAS Conference is an annual event that brings together the aeronautics and space community in Israel and leading experts from abroad. The conference is supported by the Technion, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the Israel Aerospace Industry, Elbit Systems, and Lockheed Martin.

A new collaboration, focusing on the use of AI in the field of medicine, is taking shape these days. It will connect the University of Toronto’s leading Center for AI in Medicine (T-CAIREM) to the Technion’s Artificial Intelligence Hub (Tech.AI), specifically to Tech.AI.BioMed, Tech.AI’s branch for the field of medicine. The collaboration will bring together faculty members and research students from both institutions, to develop advanced responses to the medicine of the future around challenges of common interest. T-CAIREM is the meeting point for the University of Toronto’s community of over 1,000 researchers, research students and professionals, connected to all hospitals in the Toronto area.

Tech.AI, is in the midst of an accelerated development process focusing on the use of AI in the field of medicine. Tech.AI.BioMed, headed by Associate Prof. Shai Shen-Orr, a Tech.AI Co-director from the Rapaport Faculty of Medicine, places a strong emphasis on establishing new programs and collaborations.

The new collaboration will be launched in a joint workshop attended by dozens of scientists and research students from the two institutions. It will take place on May 8-10 this year in Ein Gedi. The workshop is to serve as a starting point and accelerator for the new collaboration. The two institutions will present their capabilities in the field of AI for medicine, discuss areas with potential for growth and common interest for both institutions, and discuss the types of collaboration that will allow joint teams from both institutions to receive support for the new activity.

The bulk of the joint workshop will be devoted to the consolidation of researchers from both institutions into work teams around issues of common interest. The new teams will start working on proposals for research collaborations, the creation of new methodologies, initiatives that promote education in the field, and initiatives to share existing data and the creation of new data.

“The Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) of the University of Toronto is very excited to work with the excellent clinicians and researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology on this highly collaborative and interdisciplinary initiative,” said Prof. Muhammad Mamdani, director of T-CAIREM. “Our goal is to advance innovative research in AI in medicine that will serve as the foundation for transforming medicine and delivering the best possible care for the patients we serve.”

“The new collaboration with the University of Toronto” Prof. Shen-Orr says, “is a necessary and desirable addition to the accelerated development process of the Technion’s Artificial Intelligence Hub. Just this year we have established several new programs around the use of AI for the improvement, acceleration and accuracy of medicine. We have launched the Zimin Institute for AI Solutions in Medicine, awarded research grants to leading research programs in which we see commercialization potential, and now we are laying down another broad foundation for the Tech.AI.BioMed activity that promotes the use of AI in medicine. We are certain that this collaboration will add depth and richness to our toolbox for creating new responses that will shape the medicine of the future”.

Finger dexterity is a highly developed skill among humans, and it is essential for an enormous range of activities, including tying shoelaces, typing, playing the piano, and eating with a knife and fork. This ability is based on the unique anatomy of the human hand, but also on complex brain capabilities.

The brain controls finger dexterity through intricate mechanisms that have long challenged scientists from different fields. A study conducted at the Technion sheds light on this subject and is likely to lead to the development of innovative rehabilitation strategies, adaptable to individual patients’ needs. The research was led by Professor Firas Mawase, head of the Sensorimotor Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory in the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, and graduate student Gili Kamara. Their results were published in the journal Cell Reports.

In the course of their research, Prof. Mawase and Ms. Kamara developed a unique ergonomic device that enables in-depth testing of the strength of a patient’s fingertips. They used this device to analyze the ability to learn and generalize finger motor skills. The study’s focus was on two main types of motion: flexion (closing the fingers inward) and extension (opening the fingers outward) – two movements which are necessary for most of the fingers’ actions.

Kamara recruited three cohorts of young, healthy subjects: one group that underwent only finger flexion training, one group that was trained only in finger extension, and a control group that did not undergo any training. She checked their dexterity in the direction that was learned as well as generalization in the other direction.

The results revealed that finger extension training improved abilities in the other direction (flexion), but the opposite was not true: finger flexion training was not generalized in the other direction (extension). These findings indicate that the control circuits responsible for finger dexterity are interactive and partially transmitted, but are not symmetric in the two directions.

The results of this study may improve the techniques used for rehabilitating patients suffering from brain damage, including conditions such as Hemiparesis – a condition that harms mobility on one side of the body and leads to difficulty walking and grasping, loss of balance, etc.

תרשים סכמטי של המחקר, משמאל לימין: תנועות האצבעות בנגינה, אימון בכפיפה/פשיטה, גילוי האי-סימטריה של השפעת האימון

The research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF).

Prof. Firas Mawase is an assistant professor at the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering. He completed his PhD at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In his research lab, Prof. Mawase develops behavioral experiments on both healthy subjects and patients suffering from brain damage, using engineering and computational tools and functional imaging of the brain, in order to determine the neural base that controls motor skills in humans.

Gili Kamara made Aliyah from the United States in 2010. She completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, and worked in the industry for two years between degrees.

For the article in Cell Reports click here