Future Leaders - Google’s Global PhD Fellowship awarded to Technion doctoral students Tomer Even and Eilam Shapira
Each of the winners will receive $50,000 in funding and a personal mentor from Google – “in keeping with the company’s commitment to fostering the academic community and cultivating future leaders”
Doctoral students Tomer Even from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science and Eilam Shapira from the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences have been awarded the prestigious Global Google Ph.D. Fellowship, which supports outstanding doctoral students conducting groundbreaking research in computer science and related fields, expected to influence the technologies of the future.
In addition to the financial support—$50,000 per fellow—the award provides each recipient with a personal mentor from Google, “in keeping with the company’s commitment to nurture the academic community and cultivate future leaders.”
Prof. Uri Peskin, Dean of the Graduate School, said: “We are proud of the Technion’s award recipients. The Technion is committed to being responsive to the needs of industry, taking initiative, and partnering in advancing scientific knowledge and technological capabilities, both in basic research and in applications that transform our lives.”
Tomer Even, a PhD student at the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science under the supervision of Prof. Keren Censor-Hillel, conducts research in algorithmic theory. His work focuses on designing algorithms for analyzing relationships between elements within massive data collections. Key examples include identifying patterns of connections among data elements or identifying dominant groups of elements that are connected to all others. Such problems lie at the heart of the field because of their significance and their occurrence in a wide range of large-scale data analysis scenarios. The algorithms Tomer develops are particularly efficient, and his unique contribution lies in developing new tools for designing and analyzing such algorithms.
Eilam Shapira, a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences supervised by Prof. Roi Reichart and Prof. Moshe Tennenholtz, researches Strategic Multi-Agent Communication – the study of strategic communication between humans and artificial intelligence systems. His work explores how language influences decision-making in economic and interactive settings using large language models (LLMs). One of his key findings shows that advanced language models can sometimes predict human decisions more accurately than models based on empirical experimental data – an insight that opens new avenues for behavioral research and applications in behavioral economics and AI. His research deepens understanding of how language shapes interactions between intelligent agents and proposes a novel approach to integrating AI into economic and behavioral research.
Shapira earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees at the Technion’s Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, during which he served as Chair of the Faculty Student Committee and as a member of the Executive Board of the Technion Student Association (ASAT). During his studies, he worked at Augury, a company founded by Technion alumni, and at IBM.
