The name given to the family of beetles known as click-beetles aptly reflects their unique ability to jump: a unique  mechanism enables them to jump in the air without using their legs. This mechanism allows them to evade potential predators – or simply to turn over in the case when they get “stuck” on their back.

This mechanism has been studied in the past and its basic mechanics were known: when a beetle lies on its back, a locking mechanism is activated that preserves the beetle’s elastic potential energy and release of this mechanism bounces the beetle into the air, to a height of about 30 cm.

Nevertheless, up until the present research conducted by Dr. Gal Ribak and Distinguished Professor Daniel Weihs of the Technion, scientists did not understand how much control the click-beetle had over the jump.

Dr. Ribak and Prof. Weihs, who also investigated the bio-mechanical constraints on the jump, discovered that even though the click-beetle controlled some elements of the jump, its “launch angle” barely changes. A launch with such an angle – approximately 80 degrees – exerts the majority of the jump energy (98% of the energy) on the vertical axis, that is, to overcoming gravitational pull.

Based on a combination of theory (a mathematical-physical model of the jump) and experiment (tracking the jumps of real click-beetles), the researchers concluded that the click-beetle controls the launch speed but not the launch angle.

“The issue of the energetics of the jump especially drew me,” explains Dr. Ribak. “We are dealing with insects that propel their body upward with enormous acceleration – more than 300 times the gravitational acceleration (the acceleration of a free-falling object) – and it was unclear why so much energy is required to execute such a simple action as turning over. Taking a second look, I noticed that the click-beetle does its somersaults in the air and I wanted to understand how much control the beetle itself has over its aerial acrobatics.”

The subject of controlled movement is an important issue in autonomous systems (autonomous robots); for example, an unmanned vehicle that capsizes while carrying out a task. It is very important that this type of vehicle be able to right itself even in difficult terrain so as to continue its mission. Design of such a complex task requires a sense of the environment and spatial orientation.

 “As we are learning from the click-beetle, evolution has supplied us with its own solution to this problem,” says Dr. Ribak. “The jump will successfully turn the beetle over only 50% of the time. In other words, the chances of a successful jump are the same as a failed jump.  Therefore, it is possible that the beetle may have to make several jumps in order to, at the end, land on its feet. It is true that an engineer who designs such a mechanism would not get a lot of compliments but as an evolutionary solution, it has proven itself, and the simplicity of the mechanism is an enormous advantage.”

It is likely that following the research of Dr. Ribak and Prof. Weihs, it will be possible to design tiny vehicles that will be able to jump over obstacles.

Another possible application is a mechanism to turn over sensors. “Suppose that we are interested in dispersing a lot of sensors over a certain area,” explains Dr. Ribak. “The most logical way is to toss them from the air. However, it is clear that some sensors will fall on the ground wrong side up. Using a joint based on a similar mechanism to that of the click-beetle, we can get the sensor to jump up into the air and keep jumping until it lands right side up.”

Dr. Gal is a research biologist studying the eco-physiology of swimming and natural flight, with the focus on natural, evolutionary solutions to engineering problems. “Nature provides us with relatively simple solutions for many engineering problems, which to us seem very complex,” he explains.

The present research is part of Dr. Ribak’s post-doctoral work being carried out in the framework of a Technion program for autonomous systems and under the supervision of Distinguished Professor Daniel Weihs of the Faculty of Aeronautical Engineering.

In his doctoral research (at the Technion, under the supervision of Prof. Zeev Arad of the Faculty of Biology and Prof. Danny Weihs), he studied the diving mechanism of birds such as cormorants, using a theoretical model and computer analysis of underwater video. Dr. Ribak showed that diving birds exploit “negative lift”, which works against the force of buoyancy and enables them to stay under water, just as “regular” (positive) lift opposes gravitational pull and allows airplanes to fly.

Above: Monitoring the click-beetle. A photograph demonstrating a single jump, in intervals of 100th/second. Technion spokesman.

The annual training camp held at the Technion produced outstanding results for Israel:

They won two gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal; Dr. Eli Raz, head of the training program for the Olympics: “Our creativity is our big advantage over the Chinese and the Americans.”

The result of this year’s competition constitute an unprecedented achievement by the team and by the Technion in Haifa, which is the body that trains the hundreds of participants hoping to reach the Olympics and prepares the five-member team for the Olympics. This is an especially exceptional accomplishment given that each member of the team won a medal.

Every year there are two global Physics Olympics: the first is the Asian Olympics to which every country sends eight competitors, and the second and more important one is the International Olympics to which every country in the world sends five competitors.

The competitors are high school students who undergo rigorous selection and intensive preparation for many weeks at the Technion in Haifa, which as noted is the body responsible for preparing and training them for the Olympics. Dr. Eli Raz, a visiting professor in physics at the Technion and the head of the Department of Physics and Optical Engineering at ORT Braude College and responsible for preparing the delegation, said that “the uniqueness of the Israeli team was that we were able to solve questions in a non-standard way and manner. Our guys used their creativity, which is our weapon, and so Gal Dor, one of the two who won a gold medal, was able to get 29.5 points out of 30 on the theoretical part and pass the four Chinese participants in a competition in which the Chinese usually take first place. Dor also scored higher that the five members of the American team. If you think about the fact that every country sends five competitors, try to imagine what a tremendous advantage the Chinese have when choosing the top five from among a billion and a half people, compared to us who only have seven million residents and we must choose the best five.”

Dr. Raz noted that “in the preparation process we do not see the Olympics as the end in itself but rather as the means to advance professionally; therefore, we challenge our team members during the preparations with questions that will help them advance professionally in the field of physics during their studies and questions that require them to crack and solve complex problems.”

The two gold medals were won by Gal Dor, a student from the Ahad Ha’am High School in Petach Tikvah, and Asaf Rosen, a student in the Motte Gur Ironi 3 High School in Modi’in. The silver medals were won by Ben Finkelstein of Rabin Ironi 2 High School in Modi’in and Gur Peri of Rabin High School in Mazkeret Batya. The bronze medal was won by Aviv Frankel of Leibovitch Memorial Ort in Netanya.

The team members underwent long weeks of difficult training and rigorous selection that began with tests taken by 2,500 outstanding students selected by physics teachers in high schools around the country. Of these, 350 students went on to take regional exams prepared by Technion people. In the third stage, 35 outstanding students came to the Technion for a two-week training camp and after this, during Passover, an additional training camp was held at the Technion. Following this, eight students were chosen to represent Israel at the Asian Physics Olympics. From among these eight students, five were chosen to represent Israel at the International Physics Olympics that were held in Bangkok. According to Dr. Raz, “those who prepare the students in the camp are members of a professional team who have all participated in the past in the Physics Olympics and have a lot of experience in competitions. Alex Finkelstein, who is about to complete his graduate degree in physics at the Technion, heads this team.”

Gal Dor who beat the Chinese sounded very restrained when the delegation landed at Ben-Gurion Airport: “It was nice to win the medal. The truth is that I didn’t expect to beat the Chinese and in reality I was even surprised.” In his words, “we are tired from the plane trip and the competition and now we need to rest. Afterward we will think about how to celebrate the victory.” As to the future, Gal said that “physics really isn’t part of my plans for academic studies, but mathematics is.”

Above: The Israeli Physics Team. Photo by: Technion Spokesman

“Nature” reveals:

How is long-term coexistence possible between bacteria in the oceans and the viruses that infect them? This question has intrigued researchers for many years. Now Technion scientists from the Faculty of Biology provide an answer, reveals the prestigious journal “Nature”. This coexistence is enabled by a high level of variability within bacterial populations for the genes used by viruses to attach to and infect the bacteria.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria that carry out photosynthesis in a manner similar to plants. Their ecological importance lies in the production of sugars that are the basis of the food web in the oceans, and in the production of oxygen that all organisms on earth breathe. Furthermore, cyanobacteria take up carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas responsible for climate change, and in this way help reduce its level in the atmosphere.

Coexistence between large numbers of cyanobacteria and the viruses that infect them has been going on for millions of years, enabling the cyanobacteria to continue fulfilling their important ecological role. This is despite the fact that, in theory, viral populations should have caused the collapse of such large populations of cyanobacteria.

One of the hypotheses that can explain the coexistence of both cyanobacteria and viruses is that the population of cyanobacteria consists of individuals resistant to viruses as well as those that are sensitive to them. However, the mechanism that enables this was not previously known.

“We looked for cyanobacteria that are resistant to viruses in order to determine what facilitates their resistance”, said the researchers, Doctor Debbie Lindell and the doctoral student Sarit Avrani. “We used new technology that enabled us to sequence the entire genome of the resistant cyanobacteria at a reasonable cost, which allowed us to carry out an in depth study by assessing many strains”.

They took strains of cyanobacteria and viruses and mixed them together. “Most of the cyanobacteria die because the viruses kill them”, explains Sarit. “The few that survive are cyanobacteria that the viruses couldn’t infect. We extracted and sequenced their genomes and found the mutations and their position in the genome that lead to resistance. Most of the mutations were in genes that are responsible for the formation of proteins that affect the structure of the outer surface of the cyanobacteria. These mutations prevent the viruses from entering the cyanobacteria cell.”

The researchers worked in collaboration with Dr. Itai Sharon, a post-doctoral fellow at the Technion, and with Dr. Rotem Sorek and the doctoral student Omri Wurtzel from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

The researchers found that most of the mutations were located in a specific region of the genome called a “genomic island”. This is one of five “genomic islands” known in this group of cyanobacteria. These islands are regions of the genome made up of genes that are entirely different between the different individuals in a population in nature. This concoction of genes originates, not from their ancestors but from other organisms entirely. In contrast, most of the genome is made up of the same genes organized in the exact same order in all the individuals in a population.

The significance of the position of these mutations in the genomic island is that only a small part of the population contains genes that enable a particular virus to infect it, and a different part of the population contains different genes that enable a different virus to infect them, and so on. As such, the cyanobacterial population is made up of many sub-groups, each of which can be infected by a different part of the viral population. In this situation, chances are low that a virus will be able to infect a suitable cyanobacterium during its life. In this manner, the collapse of the cyanobacterial population is prevented and long-term coexistence results.

Additional implications of these findings are that through this mechanism, viruses “encourage” the presence of a high diversity of genes in the genomic island in the cyanobacterial population, and in this way influence their genome evolution. This diversity is likely to enable cyanobacteria to adapt to changing environmental conditions.

The free-flying satellite modules will form a fractionated satellite in space

The European Research Council (ERC) will provide €1.5 million for research by Prof. Pini Gurfil of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Technion, who proposes launching satellites in parts, so that a complete satellite whose components communicate with each other wirelessly will be constructed. The ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant is considered Europe’s most prestigious research award. Its aim is to encourage pioneering frontier research in any field of science, engineering and scholarship.

 “In unexpected situations, such as damage from space debris, a satellite might not react well and could discontinue its original task; functional and financial damages are thus unavoidable,” explains Prof. Gurfil. “For example, if the payload is damaged, the entire system becomes unusable, and in order to complete the task, the entire instrument must be replaced. This procedure is very expensive and time-consuming. It is much easier to change a payload module than launch a new satellite.”

This idea led to a new concept in space engineering termed disaggregated spacecraft. In disaggregated space architectures (DSA), several separate modules communicate with each other via wireless communication links, thus forming a single virtual platform. Each module has its own designated function or functions: navigation, attitude control, power generation and payload operation. The independent modules are able to distribute resources among themselves and do not have to be very close to each other to operate. They only have to be in relative proximity, such that they form a cluster.

DSA constitutes a new type of space engineering, which is expected to be more efficient in terms of responsiveness; responsiveness is the ability to adapt to unexpected scenarios resulting from several sources of uncertainty at different levels of task design and execution. The final goal of the proposed research is to develop innovative technology that will enable actual flight in a DSA formation; specific objectives include (a) development of algorithms for long-term semi-autonomous maintenance of the cluster and the cluster network, while allowing for the addition of new modules or removal of such modules; (b) finding methods for reconfiguration that guarantee cluster safety and mission-critical functionality; (c) design of distribution/gathering of the cluster, with the purpose of avoiding collision with space debris; (d) development of logic and ways to share resources within the flock network, with the ability to react in real-time; and (e) verification of these algorithms and methods in the Distributed Space Systems Laboratory, a research laboratory developed by Prof. Gurfil. The proposed research will create the necessary infrastructure for a space demonstration circa 2016.

Technion President: “Technion friends from around the world thoroughly understand the enormous contribution the fields of engineering and computer science make to the state’s economy. Unfortunately, the list of national priorities does not reflect the support due these areas.”

Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie, reported today to the 224 members of the Technion Board of Governors that an additional three contributions totaling $60 million have been made. The contributions are intended for the recruitment of new faculty members and the laboratories of the Faculty of Computer Science ($30 million from the Taub Foundation), for medical research ($20 million from the Rappaport Foundation) and additional purposes ($10 million from the American Technion Society delegation that recently visited Israel).

Prof. Lavie noted with satisfaction the lively participation of the governors at the annual board meeting, which had been absent for the past several years. He reported about the new study program in Petroleum and Gas Exploration to be offered at the Technion next year, in light of the discovery of gas fields off the coast of Israel. “Israel does not have enough experts in these areas and the Technion has once again volunteered, together with the University of Haifa and government ministries, to address this national need,” he said.

The Technion President updated the Board of Governors regarding the details of the tender to establish a scientific-engineering research center in New York in which the Technion, by personal invitation of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is participating together with leading universities in the U.S. and around the world. “The Technion is expanding its international activities,” he emphasized. “The International School of Engineering has doubled itself within a single year and in 2010 we signed cooperative agreements with 36 universities around the world (recently with five of the leading universities in China), in addition to the 80 already-existing agreements and this year we have a record number of registered post-doctoral fellows on campus.”

At the end of his remarks, the Technion President reported about the new research centers in the areas of energy, computer engineering (the largest such center in the country) and autonomous systems. “It is unfortunate that the list of national priorities does not reflect the support due the fields of engineering and computer science, whose contribution to the state’s economy is enormous,” said Prof. Lavie. He emphasized that in 2010 the Technion recruited 26 new faculty members, which since 2001 is an unprecedented number. “We are offering our new faculty members residence in our new graduate students village, a generous absorption basket for setting up advanced laboratories, and a Technion mentor who can guide them during their initial period at the Technion. Reversing the brain drain is at the top of the Technion’s list of priorities.”

“The governments of Israel believe that the country’s universities are “an expense” and do not understand that they are a risk-free investment that produces a return of more than 60%,” said Prof. Shlomo Meital of the Samuel Neaman Institute at the Technion, who participated in a panel of experts at the opening of the meeting of the Technion’s Board of Governors. Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie, who opened the discussion, said that the central theme of this year’s meeting is “How do we do this,” and indeed – this is a question that gets asked by many people – how is it that despite its abundance of problems, the state of Israel has become a successful technological superpower?

Inbal Kreis, the head of the Arrow 3 development project at Israel Aircraft Industries, said that the innovative missile will be ready “as soon as possible,” and described it as a “bullet meant to hit a bullet.”

Dr. Ed Mlavkay, founding partner of Gemini Israel Funds, who also served as Executive Director of the Israel-US Bi-national Industrial Research & Development Foundation (BIRD) for 13 years, said that BIRD began operations out of the understanding that Israel does not have any neighbors to whom it can sell its hi-tech products, and therefore, the target audience that it must cultivate is the American market. The fund encourages Israeli and American companies to collaborate, and between the years 1979 and 2007, $255 million were invested in more than 776 projects, which produced direct sales of $4.5 billion. “This activity in reality opened up Israel to the U.S.,” he stressed. “Among the implications of this process – the purchase of Israeli companies by American companies and their development in Israel as divisions of American companies.”

Prof. Meital presented research examining the Technion’s contribution to the Israeli economy. “The governments relate to the Technion as a place that burns money,” he said. “This is a mistake – the investment in Technion research produces a guaranteed annual return of 60%, and more.”

According to the research that was conducted by Prof. Meital together with Amnon Frankel of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion, in 2010 about 2,500 undergraduate students received degrees from the Technion. “The state invested a cumulative sum of about a billion dollars in these graduates. The return for the state for this investment, according to the contribution of these graduates to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) relative to the average citizen, is $1.759 billion – a return of 76%.”

Prof. Meital noted the contribution of Technion graduates to both the Israeli and global economies. “59 out of 121 of the companies traded on NASDAQ are managed or were founded by Technion graduates,” he said. “And despite all this, the Technion even today continues to struggle for its budgets, as it struggled in the 1930s, 1950s and the 1970s.”

Prof. Marcel Machluf of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering of the Technion chaired the discussion.

Above (Right to left):  Prof. Marcel Machluf, Dr. Ed Mlavsky, Prof. Peretz Lavie, Inbal Kreis, and Prof. Shlomo Meital. Photo by: Yoav Bechar, Technion Spokesman

The world’s largest yo-yo competition: A yo-yo to be released from a 30 m high crane

The crane will have a compartment in which the yo-yo will be placed. The compartment’s floor will open and the yo-yo will be released downward. Competitors are not allowed to use an external energy source and the dynamic rope will be supplied to them by the competition organizers. Winners will receive 10,000 ₪, 5,000 ₪, and 3,000 ₪ (1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places, respectively).

The “Technorosh” competition is held at the Technion in memory of Neev-Ya Durban, who first envisioned and then established the competition. Neev-Ya was a student and outstanding Technion graduate. Neev-Ya was an officer in the IDF when he was murdered during a mugging on a quiet street in Tel Aviv in March 2003. The competition and the prizes are funded by Dr. Robert Shillman (who everyone knows as “Dr. Bob”), who did his graduate work at the Technion.

The competition will be held on Wednesday, June 15^th, 2011, starting at 12.00, on the Technion campus’ central square.

Photographers and journalists welcome.

Technion President: 76% of Technion Graduates Find Jobs in the Israeli Hi-tech Industry

Speaking at the Founding of the Forum for Senior Technology Managers and Researchers of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion

“Today the approach to research is interdisciplinary,” stressed the Technion President. “The Russell Berrie Institute has changed the face of the Technion, both from an individual perspective (by adding outstanding research personnel) and from the physical aspect (by adding advance equipment such as the “Titan”, the most advanced microscope in the world). The bond with industry is important to the Technion, the collaboration with it will advance us all,” added Prof. Lavie.

The head of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Prof. Yeshayahu Talmon, said that in the first stage $78 million was invested (of which $40 was allocated for infrastructure). In 2010, the second stage began, during which an additional approximately $80 million will be invested over five years.

Ofer Greenberger, vice president of global KLA Tencor, who advises the institute on the issue of tightening relations with industry, said that this bond is fruitful and productive, and that all the leading universities around the world foster such relations. “From here Israel’s next start-up companies will emerge,” he stressed.

Later on Berrie Institute researchers presented their work to the conference participants.

Among the companies represented at the conference by their managers were Given Imaging, Intel, Philips, Elbit Systems, IBM, Dexcel and Rafael.

Above: Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie (standing, on the left), welcoming the members of the new forum. On the right (in the first row) – Prof. Yeshayahu Talmon. Photo by: Yossi Shrem, Technion Spokesman.

The agreement is the product of academic cooperation that began as part of the Fulbright Program

Since then Prof. Friedman and his colleagues at the Technion, among who are Prof. Israel Sidon and Prof. Avinoam Kolodny, have worked to promote collaboration between the two institutions as well as organize several student exchanges using Fulbright Program alumni grants. Thanks to their initiative, and with the help of semi-conductor companies in Israel (among which are Intel, Marvell, Melanox, and Zoran), the Advanced Circuit Research Center was established in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The center is involved in developing the field of electronic design of silicon chips. Recently Prof. Friedman initiated the upgrading and expansion of relations into additional areas, with funding by the Fresh family of Rochester. The Fresh family intends to make a long term donation in educational, research and economic development programs aimed at tightening community ties between Rochester and Israel. The agreement will increase the mobility of faculty members and students, and advance collaborations between the Technion and the University of Rochester in additional engineering fields such as electro-optics, nano-electronics, renewable energy, and biomedical engineering.

The president of the University of Rochester, Prof. Joel Seligman, said at the signing ceremony, “We are proud of our students and faculty members who come to the Technion and we are sure that now the pace will only increase.”

Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie, said that “with this signing we are taking the first step of a long journey of collaboration between our two institutions.”

Also present at the ceremony were the Dean of the Hajin School of Engineering and Applied Science, Prof. Robert Clark, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion, Prof. Adam Schwartz, Vice President for Resource Development and External Relations at the Technion, Prof. Raphael Rom, Deputy Senior Vice President for International Academic Relations, Prof. Anat Rafaeli, Dr. Neal Sherman, Executive Director of the Fulbright United States-Israel Educational Foundation, and those who initiated the collaboration between the institutions – Prof. Eby Friedman and Prof. Avinoam Kolodny.

About the Fulbright United States-Israel Educational Foundation:

The Fulbright Foundation was the first inter-governmental program charged with promoting scientific relations between Israel and the U.S. Israel’s participation in this program is overseen by the United States-Israel Educational Foundation.

In 1956 the two governments signed an agreement to set up the Fulbright United States-Israel Educational Foundation Authority. The primary goal of the Fulbright Program is to strengthen the basis for peace by strengthening mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the peoples of partner countries around the world.

Since its establishment, the United States-Israel Educational Foundation has awarded approximately 1500 scholarships to Israelis studying in different frameworks in the U.S. and about 1150 scholarships to American lecturers and students who have come to Israel. The total dollar value of the scholarships awarded in 2011 comes to $1,350,000.

The Fulbright Program has made its mark on academic research in Israel as well as on other central fields in the country. Among the program’s most prominent alumni who are also Technion faculty members are:

Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

Prof. Moshe Sidi, Vice President for Academic Affairs,

Prof. Anat Rafaeli, Deputy Vice President for Resource Development and External Relations at the Technion

Above: Prof. Joel Seligman, Prof. Peretz Lavie and Prof. Robert Clark – signing the agreement. Photograph by: Yoav Bechar, Technion Spokesman

700 scientists and heads of industry from Israel and abroad will inaugurate the Center at a scientific conference at the beginning of June

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion have joined forces with leading companies in Israel and abroad to set up the country’s largest center for computer engineering. Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie said that the center will cooperate with industry in Israel and abroad, advance the field of computer engineering in academia and industry in Israel, help bring back to the country researchers and scientists working in this field, draw leading experts from abroad to come and give guest lectures, and attract outstanding students who will continue their graduate studies here.

The Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Prof. Adam Schwartz, and the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, Prof. Eli Biham, said that this will be a state-of-the-art research center, facilitating cutting edge research in software, hardware and what lies between them, including cloud computing, computer networks and imaging sciences (image processing and computerized vision).

The center will be inaugurated at a large scientific conference that 700 scientists and heads of industry from Israel and abroad will be attending. Among the scientists who will be participating and giving lectures are: Prof. Mark Horowitz, Dean of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Yale Patt and Guri Sohi – world recognized scientists at the forefront of the field of computer architecture, Mateo Valero, who transformed Barcelona into a global center for computer architecture, Prof. Mark Snir and Yuanyuan (YY) Zhou, leaders in the field of advanced performance computing, Prof. Guillermo Sapiro, who, thanks to a development by him and his colleagues, enabled the Mars’ pictures to reach earth, and Prof. Stéphane Mallat of the École Polytechnique (designated “the father of modern signal processing”). Invited speakers from industry are: Dadi Perlmutter, Executive Vice President and director of architecture worldwide, Intel, Justin Rattner, CTO, Intel, Pat Gelsinger, President and COO, EMC, and the heads of research in Israel of leading companies such as Microsoft, Amdocs, Sisco, Checkpoint, RAFAEL, Elbit Systems, SAP, HP and Qualcomm.

The conference will be held on June 1-5 at the Technion.

The result of a geometric distortion of a wire composed of coupled nanoantennas

The researchers developed a new optics based on geometric distortion of the space in the nanoscale. They designed an optical nanoantenna and created a system of such antennas linked to each other. Each antenna, 10 nanometers in size, was built using ion focusing. “I was driving in my car, I looked at the antennas on the cars around me and asked myself the question – what would happen if I distorted the antenna?” explains Prof. Erez Hasman of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. “We coupled the nanantennas and produced a straight wire of antennas that behave like one antenna. We then bent the antenna and distorted its space so that the wire looked like a twisted snake. We measured the light exiting from the twisted wire and found that by using a twisted wire, we could shape the light flexibly. We demonstrated this in the lab by having the light spin like a top, which could be used as a nanomotor, and to switch the light in a nanoscale.”

In the second stage, each nanoantenna  (nano-rod shape) continued to “run” on the wire, but in its own direction – which enabled the researchers an additional degree of freedom to design a new optics based only on geometric distortion of space and not on the optical differences as in conventional optics, for instance, lenses and prisms. This ability opens up the possibilities for building nanoscale components for information processing, and logic gates that will enable the production of much faster nano-optic chips.

The vision of Prof. Hasman, which appeared in Nature Nanotechnology, described miniature motors, operated only by light, turning DNA and opening it – in order to repair it.

The development was made in the Nanooptics Laboratory at the Technion with the participation of Dr. Vladimir Kleiner and research students, Nir Shitrit, Itay Bretner and Yuri Gorodetski.

Above: A twisted wire composed of optical nanoantennas. In Case A, the antennas have a circular shape – a “pretzel”; and in Case B, the antennas have been shaped into nano-rods, with their direction enabling an additional degree of freedom in controlling the light.

The Technion program for autonomous systems held an unmanned autonomous model design and building competition among undergraduate students. The winners of this competition were Erez Horev of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who developed a magnetic car that floats in the air, and Doron Le’or of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who developed a motorized toolbox that follows its owner.

The model constructed by Erez simulates a magnetic toll road for private cars. The car travels both on the road and on magnetic rails (without its wheels touching the ground). “Because of the high speeds that can be reached using this technology, the project can compete not only against existing toll roads but even against domestic air and train travel,” stresses Erez. He worked in the past on Route 6 and then on the Metronit Project (the Haifa light rail system) and it was then that the idea popped into his head. It took him half a year to build the model, having to overcome challenges presented by magnetic fields and magnetic stabilization. He used four vehicles: one works by propulsion and another by attraction. One model was equipped with a controller that switches between travel with or without the use of a magnetic field. Each vehicle had a propeller and a sensor that communicated with a sensor on the road.

 “The vehicle can travel at speeds of 400 k/h while its driver can go to sleep,” says Erez. “It suits long roads without exits. True, the cost of such a road and the vehicle is high, but on the other hand, there is an enormous saving in fuel and especially of human life, given that the chances of having an accident are zero. When the magnetic road ends, the driver engages the wheels and continues driving normally.”

Doron Le’or built a model of toolbox that follows its owner. He had worked in the past as a maintenance man in the Dan kibbutz factory, and lugged his heavy toolbox around for him. This toolbox weighed 100 or more kilos. Le’or made the toolbox that follows its owner electric, with an electro-mechanical sensor. “The model was built according to several guiding principles,” says Doron. “First, we focused on the main technological problem, and avoided as much as possible other knowledge gaps. Second, the integrated propulsion and steering system has implications for the world of cars and had to be studied accordingly. Third – the model had to be built within four days and without going overbudget so a way had to be found to replace the expensive electrical components with less expensive parts that can do the same tasks, as for instance a multi-rotating potentiometer connected to a simple measuring meter that converts the distance a person is from the toolbox into electrical tension as a substitute for an ultrasonic sensor or a solid state relay that works at intervals and propels the motors at varying speeds as a substitute for a current regulator.”

In order to operate the model, Doron together with his friends in the factory, built a metal skeleton on top of which the toolbox was installed. At one end, they installed a pair of distance measurers and underneath it, they attached four wheels. The two front wheels moved independently and were attached to each other by a steering rack. When the maintenance man attaches the distance meter to his belt and activates the instrument, an industrial controller reads the potentiometer tension and activates the motors so that the distance between the toolbox and its operator stays fixed. The difference in speeds between the motors creates the steering and directs the toolbox directly to the maintenance man.

Above: The magnetic car and the toolbox. Photo: Erez Horev and Doron Le’or