Author: EladAdmin

The first beach volleyball tournament of its kind will be held as part of the Technion cornerstone centennial celebrations: the event will take place between April 1st and 4th, 2012 in the Technion Sports Center on an artificial beach to be built especially for this occasion. The tournament is recognized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), and will be attended by some of the leading players in the world; the prizes will amount to $50,000

The first beach volleyball tournament of its kind will be held as part of the Technion cornerstone centennial celebrations: the event will take place between April 1st and 4th, 2012 in the Technion Sports Center on an artificial beach to be built especially for this occasion. The tournament is recognized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), and will be attended by some of the leading players in the world; the prizes will amount to $50,000.

The tournament will be divided into two parts: an Israel State Cup and the international tournament. The competitors in the Israel State Cup will be students from various academic institutions in Israel, among them the Technion, Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University, and the winning  pair will participate in the international tournament.

Fourteen pairs of men and women from abroad will take part in the international tournament. Among the pairs who confirmed their participation are top ranking players from all over the world: the Brazilian pair Benjamin-Harley, who won first place in the 2011 World Championship as well as 12 gold medals over the years, and Pablo Herrera from Spain, who won a silver medal in the Athens Olympics together with his partner Adrian Gavira, who finished fifth in the two last world championships and who won a bronze medal in the European championship. The women’s tournament will be attended by Hana Klapalova and Lenka Hájec(ková from the Czech Republic, who finished fourth in the last world championship, one place before the Americans Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Hanson, who will also participate in the tournament.

The event will open on April 1^st with a festive ceremony, and the Israel State Cup will be held on this day. The international tournament will be held between April 2^nd and 4^th. The grand final is scheduled to take place on April 4^th, and the event will be concluded with a festive closing ceremony.

During the tournament days, the Technion students will enjoy a performance by the Technion Salsa and Dance Group, a pool party and an earphone party. In addition, players from abroad will enjoy tours to Nazareth and Caesarea.

Beach volleyball is usually played by two players in each group, and most of the game rules resemble regular volleyball rules. The first beach volleyball game was played in 1920 in California. It was introduced in the Olympic Games in 1996 and today there are the beach volleyball leagues in most countries.

The tournament is held in collaboration with the Israel Volleyball Association and the Municipality of Haifa.

Technion Graduate Prof. Judea Pearl has won the Turing Award for a “contribution that transformed artificial intelligence”; he will receive the prestigious Technion Harvey Prize at the end of the month

The Tecnion’s announcement said that Prof. Pearl has “laid, through courageous and far-sighted research the theoretical foundations for the presentation of knowledge and reasoning in computer science. His theories of inference under uncertainty, and in particular the Bayesian Networks approach, have influenced varied disciplines, including artificial intelligence, statistics,  philosophy, health, economics, social sciences and cerebral cognitive processes. The Harvey Prize in Science and Technology is awarded to Prof. Pearl in recognition of the breakthroughs that are  embodied in his researches and their influence on multitudes of spheres of our life.”

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, announced last weekend that Prof. Judea Pearl of UCLA has won the 2011 ACM Turing Award, for innovations that enabled breakthroughs in the partnership between humans and machines that is the foundation of artificial intelligence. He has created the computational basis for processing information under uncertainty – a core problem faced by intelligent systems. “Prof. Pearl’s influence extends beyond artificial intelligence and even computer science – to human reasoning and the philosophy of science,“ said ACM’s announcement.

First and foremost, the Harvey Prize rewards excellence by recognizing breakthroughs in science and technology. The monetary Prize is a banner of recognition for men and women who have truly contributed to the progress of humanity. No less, however, the Prize is a source of inspiration. Serving as stimulus, the award urges scientists and scholars forward to further accomplishment.

The Harvey Prize was awarded for the first time in 1972, from a fund established by Leo M. Harvey, of Blessed Memory, of Los Angeles, in recognition of great contributions to the advancement of humanity in science and technology and  human health, and to the advancement of peace in the Middle East. Every year, the fund awards $75,000 to each of the winners.

Among the recipients of the prestigious Harvey Prize are scientists from the USA, Britain, Russia, Sweden, France and Israel, such as Nobel Prize Laureate Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the USSR, who was awarded the Prize  for his activity towards reducing regional tensions; Prof. Bert Sakmann, Nobel Laureate in Medicine; Prof. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Nobel Laureate in Physics; Prof. Edward  Teller, for his discoveries in solid state physics, atomic physics and nuclear physics; and Prof. William J. Kolff, for the invention of the artificial kidney.

Candidates for the Harvey Prize are recommended by leading scientists and personages in Israel and the world. The prize laureates are selected by the Harvey Prize Council in a stringent process at  the Technion.

Above: Prof. Judea Pearl. Photo: Technion Spokesman

The International Robotraffic Competition was attended by 50 student groups from Israel and abroad

The first places in the various categories were won by students from schools affiliated with World Ort Organization. A group from Ort Dniptopetrovsk in the Ukraine won first place in safe driving category. A group from the Sde Eliyahu school won the racing category. Emek Hahula and Ort Moscow schools won the driving laws test category. A group from Shaab high school won the road safety content and innovations category.

Underlying the competition, hosted by Dr. Evgeny Korchnoi, is an initiative to reduce the involvement of young drivers in car accidents. The competitors were small vehicle-shaped mobile robots that are operated in situations that simulate road traffic. Robotraffic is a unique robotics competition aimed at acquiring safe driving knowledge and skills. The competition makes use of specifically developed “safe roads” employing sensors that communicate with the vehicles (robots) on the roads. The sensors return the automatic response of the vehicle to signals, traffic lights, obstacles, road signs, etc.

The competition requires the competitors – school students from across the country and this year also from abroad – to build a robotic vehicle that will observe road signs and traffic lights, obey traffic laws and avoid accidents. First place in the competition for elementary schools was won by 5^th grade students from the Begin school in Kiryat Motzkin: Adi Ostrov, Eliad Liani, and Gal Gadot. “In the robotics studies, that are held in the afternoon hours by Ytek Company, we work with computers, watch robotics presentations, and program,” says Adi, and Gal adds: “we experimented before coming here, and we might also have been lucky.”

Prof. Moshe Shoham, Head of the Robotics Center, explains that the competition has several goals, among them the study of robotics, road safety and bringing about the development of smart roads and autonomous driving systems. “The requirements are adapted to the various age groups, and the competitors are supposed to deal with issues in programming and control, car assembly and sensor installation, and all this requires close knit teamwork.”

It was the first time in the competition for the delegation that came from Shalom Aleichem school in Vilna, and the trip to Israel was financed by the students’ parents as well as by the World Ort Organization. Mark Kotz, a member of the school board, who accompanies the delegation, says that the contact with the Technion was established in an assembly of World Ort’s Board of Representatives in Berlin, where he met Haim Dribin, a robotics teacher at Misgav school. Dribin told him about the competition, and Shalom Aleichem school recruited Prof. Sergey Borodin, who is currently in charge of the robotics studies there.

Sami, a mechatronics teacher in Shaab high school, near Carmiel, attended the competition with eight of his students. “There are 17 mechatronics students in the class, only four of them boys. The girls have a very technological and creative mind, and they are highly suitable for these subjects. They also understand that the technology opens for them a window to a brilliant future.”

The main goals of the competition are to impart familiarity with driving laws, good driving habits, a positive approach to safe and careful driving and an understanding of the limitations of the car while diving, and to bring about the development of smart roads with sensors that would reduce the number of car accidents and of sophisticated robotic systems for safe driving. During the competition the robots move automatically, carefully avoiding accidents and observing traffic laws. The competition arena is a model of a road with intersections, traffic lights, road signs and obstacles. The guests of honor were: Prof. Oded Shmueli, Technion Executive Vice President for Research; Prof. Moshe Shoham, Head of the Leumi Robotics Center at the Technion; the Director General of World Ort Organization’s Kadima Mada Program in Israel, Avi Ganon and senior representatives of the Ministry of Education.

Avi Ganon, Director General of World Ort Organization’s Kadima Mada Program in Israel: “We do much to enhance science and technology and to maintain contact with the Jewish communities worldwide. This competition connects varied cultures and communities and provides a venue for the exchange of know-how and the development of joint ventures by the countries.”

200 members of the Israel Technion Society – graduates, government ministers, economy leaders and senior executives – convened on Sunday this week at the Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, for a special event held by the Israel Technion Society to commemorate the cornerstone centennial of the historic building at Hadar Hacarmel in Haifa.

Among the many guests at the event held at the Rabin Center in Tel Aviv were Supreme Court Judge Hanan Meltzer, Minister of Science and Technology Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz (former Dean of the Technion Department of Mathematics), Minister of Energy and Water Resources Uzi Landau (graduate of the Technion Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management), Prof. Moshe Arens, four Technion Presidents Emeriti – Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Horev, Prof. Zeev Tadmor,   Lt. Gen. (Res.) Amos Lapidot, Prof. Yitzhak Apeloig, and current Technion President  Prof. Peretz Lavie.

Amos Horev, Israel Technion Society Chairman for the last three decades, and his wife Shoshana welcomed the guests who enjoyed a creative supper prepared by three chefs – Zachi Bukshester, Eyal Lavi and Eran Zino – a tribute to three Nobel Laureates that the Technion has produced in the last seven years – Profs. Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover and Dan Shechtman.

Amos Horev spoke about the years preceding the laying of the cornerstone and said that the decision to establish a university in this remote corner of the Ottoman Empire was in effect made because the Jews were prevented from higher education in Europe (“Numerus Clausus”).

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie spoke about the Technion in the coming years, in Haifa and in New York, and said that it is fortunate for all of us that Hebrew prevailed in the language war that preceded the establishment of the Technion.

Research Professor Aaron Ciechanover advocated creativity and spoke of the birth of medications that save the lives of millions of people every year.

Technion students pleased the audience with music and singing.

Members of the Israel Technion Society in the distant past were also represented in the event. Dr. Micha Levin, grandson of Dr. Shmaryahu Levin who was one of the main founders of the Technion, arrived with his wife, granddaughter of Yechiel Chelnov, who officiated the cornerstone laying ceremony in April 1912, and said in his speech, which he made in German, that the Technikum will be “a peaceful workplace, one that will be a blessing to the country and to the entire nation, and that will benefit the entire population, both Jews and non-Jews”.

The first donation to the Technion, in the amount of 100,000 rubles, was made by a fund set up by Kalonimus Wissotzky. Mr. Shalom Seidler, a descendant of the Wissotzky family and currently Chairman of Wissotzky Tea, arrived at the event with a donation of a different kind – a gift from Wissotzky Tea to the guests, with its blessing.

Above: Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz (on the right) with Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie (on the left) and Dan Propper (in the middle). Photo: Technion Spokesman – Assaf Shilo / Israel Sun

World Ort Organization’s Kadima Mada (Science Journey) Program and the Leumi Robotics Center have joined together to hold the competition that will be attended by 50 student groups from Israel and abroad

World Ort Organization’s Kadima Mada (Science Journey) Program and the Leumi Robotics Center at the Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering will hold Robotraffic, the third international robotics competition aimed at imparting safe driving and road safety habits. The competition will be attended by 50 groups of school students (4^th-12^th grades), eight of which are from World Ort schools in former Soviet Union countries (Ukraine, Lithuania, Moldova and Russia).

Underlying the competition is an initiative to reduce the involvement of young drivers in car accidents. The competitors are small vehicle-shaped mobile robots that are operated in situations that simulate road traffic. Robotraffic is a unique robotics competition aimed at acquiring safe driving knowledge and skills. The competition makes use of specifically developed “safe roads”, employing sensors that communicate with the vehicles (robots) on the roads. The sensors return the automatic response of the vehicle to signals, traffic lights, obstacles, road signs, etc.

The main goals of the competition are to impart familiarity with driving laws, good driving habits, a positive approach to safe and careful driving and an understanding of the limitations of the car while driving, and to bring about the development of smart roads with sensors that would reduce the number of car accidents and of sophisticated robotic systems for safe driving. During the competition the robots move automatically, carefully avoiding accidents and observing traffic laws. The competition arena is a model of a road with intersections, traffic lights, road signs and obstacles.

The competition will be held on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 12:00, at the Churchill Auditorium, Technion City, Haifa. Journalists and photographers are invited.

Was given an editorial in a leading scientific journal under the heading: “Prevention is Better than Cure”; the novel device continuously monitors the breathing function of the premature baby, immediately detects the development of respiratory deterioration and helps in characterizing it, before the onset of distress that may lead to serious irreversible injury to the patients

The researchers, Dr. Dan Waisman from the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Carmel Medical Center and Prof. Amir Landesberg of the Technion’s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering say that the device, called the “Pneumonitor”, continuously and systematically monitors the dynamics of premature babies’ breathing. It was tested successfully on mice, rats and rabbits in different disease models. “We simulated common conditions that occur in premature babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, as well as an animal model for asthma, and compared the operation of our device to that of competing devices”, they say. “We also tried the device in 63 cases in Carmel, Bnai Zion and Rambam Medical Centers. The device is now ready for FDA review”.

It has been reported that 45% of life threatening events that occur in a Neonatal Pediatric Intensive Care Unit go undetected by monitoring devices currently used, and were detected only by staff visual inspection of their patients. Even when the devices do detect a problem, the patient is already in distress, can develop life threatening complications and the event become dramatic, and it still remains for the doctor to identify the cause of the event.

The Pneumonitor has three miniature motion sensors that are attached to the infant on both sides of the chest and the upper abdomen. When respiratory deterioration is detected, the device signals an alarm before the onset of distress, and provides information that can assist in the diagnosis of the nature and location of the problem, and selecting the appropriate treatment. The motion sensors quantify the breathing effort and the symmetry of lung ventilation. The device displays data on the respiratory conditions and indicates changes in the level of ventilation.

Approximately 10% of all births worldwide are preterm, and an additional 10% of full term babies suffer complications and require tight respiratory supervision. Also, 15% of premature babies born under 1500 grams may die and an additional 15% suffer from serious complications such as mental retardation, severe handicaps, hearing and visual problems, and chronic lung disease. A significant percentage of these complications is related to respiratory management and care. That is why the early identification of respiratory distress in premature babies is so important.

Approximately 400,000 premature infants are born every year in the United States, and 30 thousand of these novel devices are needed for the premature baby wards alone.

The Technion has registered a patent for the device and has set up a company called “Pneumedicare”, located in Yokne’am and managed by Dr. Carmit Levy, who earned her Ph.D. from the Technion’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Above: The “Pneumonitor” in action. Photo: Technion Spokesman

Dean of the Technion Computer Science Department, Prof. Eli Biham, has won the 2012 RSA Conference Award.

The RSA conference is the largest cryptography conference in the world, and Prof. Biham has won the prestigious Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics: “Prof. Biham’s work on the cryptanalysis of symmetric-key ciphers is a scientific breakthrough. He developed the technique of differential cryptanalysis together with Adi Shamir in the late 1980s”, said the judges’ decision.

A senior researcher at Mitsubishi, Dr. Mitsuru Matsui, received the award together with Prof. Biham.

A group of students from the Technion Faculty of Aerospace Engineering has won first prize in the student projects competition in the 52nd Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences, which opened yesterday in Tel Aviv and is held today at the Technion.

Under guidance of Shlomo Tsach of Israel Aerospace Industries, the students built a UAV for military ground forces. They entered it in the DBF (Design, Build, Fly) competition in the USA, and won first prize in the large aircraft category as well for the best written report (receiving a score of 98.5, with the  comment: “this is the best paper ever written in the competition”). In the general competition (large and small aircraft) they came in eighth place out of the 88 groups that participated from the USA and worldwide.

The competition in the USA is organized by AIAA, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the principal body which oversees the development of aviation technology and infrastructure in the USA.

“The wingspan of the UAV built by the students is 1.90 meters and it weighs about four kilograms”, says Shlomo Tsach. “The project contributes so much to these students, especially later in their professional life. It is run like an IAI project, with a procurement team, logistics, coordination and a work plan that is updated on a weekly basis”.

Shlomo Tsach graduated from the Techion in 1970 and has been working at Israel Aerospace Industries for 42 years. He has trained hundreds of students. “The generations are not diminishing”, he says. “A group that does such a project – knows development”.

Yossi Yoresh, Gal Klein, Itzhak Shiroky, Yakov Ben Shushan and Itai Strauss, Air Force Major and four soldiers, were awarded in the conference the Neev-Ya Durban Memorial Prize for Best Paper, for the paper “Cable Dynamics under General Excitation Fields”. In their work, the five focused on finding a mathematical solution to the behavior of a destabilized cable under various constraints.

Their project attempted to simulate the dynamics of the behavior of a cable under general excitation fields. For example: an aircraft fueling cable, an Electricity Company cable, the lowering of  an anchor in a flow or even a civil aviation cable that grasps a sign during flight. Their aim was to examine the response of the destabilized cable and to attempt to find solutions for its behavior, and they later intend to experiment in order to attain a solution that would successfully control the cable even while it is subject to a destabilizing influence.

A team representative says: “we have verified the mathematical formulas we proposed vis-à-vis existing models – solutions for a cable under general excitation fields, and our next step is experiments. Ultimately, one of our aims is to identify the speeds in which aircraft can be fueled”.

Each of the soldiers will be awarded NIS 1000. The Neev-Ya Durban Prize is awarded in memory of Air Force officer Neev-Ya  Durban of Blessed Memory, who was murdered nine years ago on a quiet Tel Aviv street by a mugger. His parents, Rachel and Prof. David Durban of the Technion, have set up a fund in his name, to encourage the type of innovation and entrepreneurship papers that had characterized their son. The “TechnoBrain” competition, conceived by Neev-Ya while he was student at the Technion, takes place there every year.

Prof. Ben Zinn of the Georgia Institute of Technology was chosen to receive the Prof. Meir Hanin Memorial International Prize, awarded to leading researchers with significant contributions to the aerospace field. Prof. Meir Hanin of Blessed Memory was one of the founders of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering in 1955.

The attack was part of a student project in the Computer Science Department and has attracted substantial interest in two scientific conferences; the students will be awarded the Technion Amdocs Prize

Alex Kirshon and Dima Gonikman, students in the Technion Computer Science Department, succeeded in hacking the OSPF routing protocol, the most common protocol on the internet. The attack was part of a student project in the Laboratory of Computer Communication and Networking and has attracted substantial interest in two scientific conferences it was presented in. Alex and Dima will be awarded the Technion Amdocs Prize for Best Project in Computer Science. Their supervisors were Gabi Nakibly and Itai Dabran.

Hundreds of thousands of routers work on the internet, linking the different networks. Each router is supposed to “know” all the other routers and to “talk” to them (obtain information about their neighbors and about networks connected to them). The incessant involvement of the routers in the transmission of this information encumbers them and diminishes their effectiveness. Hence, the internet is in fact split into autonomic systems that “talk” to each other. The routers in each such system “know” one another.

The most popular protocol for the transmission of information between routers in autonomic systems is OSPF. If it malfunctions, many messages will not reach their destination. Moreover, there is the concern that these messages will reach the attacker of the protocol. Accordingly, stringent security measures are in place for the protocols of network routers.

One of the important defenses is called “fight-back”. When it is implemented – when a router recognizes that another router has sent data in its name – it immediately issues a correction.

With help from their supervisors, Alex Kirshon and Dima Gonikman “targeted” this correction. They triggered a fight-back from a router on the network, but immediately before it was sent, they sent a fight-back with false data that was received by some of the other routers. When these routers received the fight-back of the compromised router, they rejected it because they supposedly already received a fight-back from it.

The “attacking” students also identified in advance which fight-back the attacked router will send, so that the other routers received it from them “without doubts or questions”. From the moment they received the “fake” fight-back, there are routers on the network that have incorrect routing tables.

Such an attack can disrupt the entire operation of the autonomic system, prevent messages from reaching their destination and unnecessarily create substantial traffic on the network.

Seven groups of students will receive the Amdocs Prize for Best Project in a ceremony that will take place in mid-March in the Technion Computer Science Department.

In The Picture: The attacked router and the mode of attack. Figure: Technion Spokesman

Huttenlocher – Former Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and Computer Science Expert – Will Co-Lead Cornell NYC Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island with Cathy Dove; Technion Professor Craig Gotsman Will Be Founding Director of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that Professor Daniel P. Huttenlocher, Cornell University’s Dean of Computing and Information Sciences, has been named Cornell Vice Provost and founding Dean of the university’s historic tech campus, home of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute. Cathy Dove, currently associate dean in Cornell’s College of Engineering, will co-lead the campus as Vice President, and Technion Professor Craig Gotsman will serve as the founding director of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute. Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement at the headquarters of Tumblr, one of the City’s fastest-growing technology companies, was joined by Tumblr CEO David Karp, Dean Huttenlocher, Cathy Dove, New York City Economic President Seth Pinsky, Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne, Office of Media & Entertainment Commissioner Katherine Oliver and representatives from Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Bitly and YouTube.

“New York City is quickly becoming the center of the digital universe, and today’s announcements will help us get there,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “With this fantastic leadership team in place, the tech campus will help us attract and develop more talent to energize our growing tech sector. And our social media platforms will give New Yorkers the information they need on the channels they want to use.”

“Dan Huttenlocher and Cathy Dove have employed their extensive knowledge and expertise, as well as their acknowledged leadership skills, during every step of the development and promotion of our proposal, and they continue to drive our effort to bring the new campus to fruition for the people of New York,” said Cornell University President David Skorton. “And the addition of Professor Craig Gotsman as director of the campus’s Techion-Cornell Innovation Institute brings added luster to this impressive team. Cornell, Technion and the city are very lucky to have such talented people leading our exciting new campus.”

Huttenlocher, Dove and Gotsman were instrumental in formulating and promoting the winning proposal and working with the city during the selection process for the new state-of-the-art graduate campus, to be operated in partnership with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Inaugural instruction will begin in off-site locations in the city in September of this year, with groundbreaking scheduled for 2015 and on-campus operations slated to begin in 2017. Huttenlocher and Dove will oversee the formation of the environmentally sustainable campus, whose operational costs are expected to exceed $2 billion over 30 years; the building of the campus’s expert faculty, planned to be about 280 strong in 30 years; its highly selective graduate student population, targeted at about 2,500 by 2043; as well as capital construction of the 2 million square-foot campus. The campus’s innovative academic “hub” concept, which Huttenlocher helped develop, will feature curriculum and research organized across multiple disciplines and directed toward particular sectors of New York City’s economy.

As dean, Huttenlocher will have overall responsibility for all programmatic aspects of the new campus, including responsibility for the academic quality and direction of the campus’s hubs and their evolution over time. He will develop strategic plans for the most effective ways of working with companies and early stage investors in New York City, and he will lead the campus’ faculty recruitment and entrepreneurial initiatives. He also will serve as a member of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute Joint Governance Board and oversee the Tech Campus Advisory Committee. Huttenlocher will report to Cornell’s provost, work closely with Cornell’s deans, including Cornell Engineering Dean Lance Collins, and he will serve as a member of Cornell’s senior leadership team. He also will retain his post as Cornell’s CIS dean, until a new dean is appointed.

 As the Vice President for the new tech campus, Dove will be responsible for all development, outreach and operational aspects of the campus, including areas such as human resources, external and student relations, development and facilities, IT, marketing and communications, finances and outreach. She will serve as the campus’s lead on its facility construction team, oversee corporate relations, student services and lead community outreach and programming, including K-12 programs. She will report to Cornell’s provost, will lead the Operating Committee, and she will serve as a member of Cornell’s senior leadership team. Gotsman will lead the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (TCII), a centerpiece of the Roosevelt Island campus, as its founding director. The TCII will confer dual Cornell/Technion Masters of Applied Sciences degrees, based on a curriculum with a unique emphasis on the application of sciences, entrepreneurship and management.

“Cornell and the Technion have outlined ambitious plans for a world-class applied sciences campus in the heart of New York City, and executing on those plans will require outstanding academic leaders like Daniel Huttenlocher, Cathy Dove and Craig Gotsman,” Deputy Mayor Steel said. “Congratulations to Presidents Skorton and Lavie and the entire Cornell and Technion communities on the selection of the NYC Tech leadership team.”

“With the selection of Cornell and the Technion, we were fortunate to find the perfect partners – two world-class institutions which together shared our vision of how to change the City’s economy forever,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President Pinsky. “To fulfill this bold vision will require strong leadership, and there are no leaders better equipped for this challenge than Dan Huttenlocher, Cathy Dove and Craig Gotsman. With this team at the helm, the NYCTech campus will soon begin creating the new technologies and businesses that will ensure our place as the undisputed world capital of innovation.”

“We welcome the appointments of Professor Dan Huttenlocher and Cathy Dove, to which we add that of Technion Professor Craig Gotsman as Founding Director of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute,” said Peretz Lavie, President of the Technion. “We have complete faith that this team can and will efficiently and professionally promote the ambitious program we have planned for New York City.”

“This is an unprecedented opportunity to build a new kind of university campus, focused on technology commercialization rooted in the very best academic research, with educational programs that tie fundamentals to practice, and strong ties to the tech sector of the city’s economy,” said Huttenlocher. “We are already actively working towards identifying leased space for the start-up phase before we move to Roosevelt Island, gaining approvals for degree programs, involving local tech leaders in our planning, and preparing to hire world class faculty.”

“I am incredibly honored to be able to contribute to this game-changing enterprise that will have such a great impact on Cornell, the Technion and New York City,” said Dove. “It is especially meaningful to me as a Cornell alumna, who has always believed that Cornell should have a significant presence in New York City. I’m looking forward to working closely, not only with our faculty, staff and students, but with companies, alumni, our Technion partners and our New York City and Roosevelt Island neighbors. There is a lot of work to do, but I’m excited to be moving forward toward our shared goal.”

“The Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute will be dedicated to fulfilling Mayor Bloomberg’s far-reaching vision for the future of New York City as the high-tech capital of the world. The TCII will become a fertile breeding ground for engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs who will contribute to the city’s tech ecosystem, even before they graduate. The Technion is confident that its experience in building the Israeli high-tech sector will serve it well in New York City. Having a local partner as distinguished as Cornell University, can only guarantee a runaway success,” said Prof. Gotsman.

“Dan Huttenlocher’s leadership has taken Cornell’s Computing and Information Science department to new heights as one of the top programs in the world,” said Eric Grimson, chancellor of MIT. “Dan has a keen sense of how research and education can drive entrepreneurship and innovation, and I can think of no one better to lead the new tech campus going forward.”

 “Dan Huttenlocher is an inspired choice to lead the new tech campus as he has excelled in both the academic world and the entrepreneurial world,” said Jeff Hawkins, Founder of Numenta, Palm, and Handspring. “The Tech Campus’ mission is to train the engineers and innovators who will continue to fuel New York City’s rise as a global technology leader. Knowing Dan and his talents I can think of no one better suited to achieve that goal.”

“Dan is the rare academic leader who knows not only how to cultivate great engineers and innovators, but also understands both the social and technical sides of tech entrepreneurship from his own years of experience working in the tech sector,” said John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist of Xerox Corp and past Director of its Palo Alto Research Center said. “Dan is a brilliant choice to lead the new tech campus forward as its founding Dean, and I am confident that his students and New York City itself will benefit from his unique approach.”

“Dan Huttenlocher is the perfect choice to lead the new technology campus,” said Rob Cook, VP of Advanced Technology, Pixar (Emeritus). “Today’s engineers need both an excellent education in technology and the practical business skills to make a difference in the real world. Dan excels in both areas: he is a brilliant and innovative academic researcher and also a seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur. I’m confident that with Dan as its founding dean, the campus will become renowned for producing technology leaders.”

In addition to his post as Cornell’s dean of CIS, Huttenlocher holds the John P. and Rilla Neafsey Chair in Computing, Information Science and Business. He has been on the faculty at Cornell since 1988, leaving at various times to work in industry, including at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center , where he founded the Image Understanding Group and served on the senior management team, and at Intelligent Markets, a small financial technologies firm where he served as Chief Technology Officer. While his academic interests are rooted in computer science, particularly computer vision, he has worked in a number of other domains including autonomous vehicles, competing in the DARPA Urban Challenge, and analysis of online social networks. He has taught in both the Department of Computer Science and the MBA program at Cornell, and he has been recognized on several occasions for his excellence in teaching, including as the New York State Professor of the year in 1993 by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and as a Stephen H. Weiss Fellow at Cornell in 1996. He has published a number of award winning scientific papers, was named a Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation in 1990, and was honored as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2007. In 1998-99, Huttenlocher chaired the Cornell Task Force on Computing and Information Science, which led to the creation of CIS, for which he was Cornell’s second dean. In 2005-06, he also chaired Cornell’s Task Force on Wisdom in the Age of Digital Information. Huttenlocher currently serves on the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan and his master’s and doctorate at MIT.

Dove most recently was associate dean in the Cornell College of Engineering. Previously she served as Associate Dean for MBA Programs and Administration at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and also served as director of Financial Management Services for the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Throughout her tenure at Cornell, Dove has served on or led a number of institutional initiatives – most recently as co-chair of the university’s Budget Model Task Force. Prior to her arrival at Cornell, she served as Assistant Town Manager for Arlington, Mass.; as a financial analyst and marketing planner for Eli Lilly & Co.; and as a manager of Engineering Systems and Development for Anaren Inc.  She holds a B.S. from Georgetown University, an MBA from Cornell, and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Prof. Gotsman joined the Technion in 1992. As Associate Dean for External Relations, he founded and led the Computer Science faculty’s Industrial Affiliates Program, a successful platform for promoting academic-industrial cooperation. In this capacity he conceived and developed an “Industrial Project” course, which allows students to perform software projects offered and supervised by industrial experts; and the “Lapidim” study program, which identifies and nurtures the next generation of high-tech leaders. He has founded and ran two start-up companies, one based on technology he developed at the Technion, and has consulted for numerous Fortune 100 companies. Prof. Gotsman holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was a visiting professor at Harvard University and ETH Zurich, and a research scientist at MIT. He has published more than 150 papers in the professional literature and has been awarded five U.S. patents.

            Contact:          Stu Loeser/Julie Wood                                    (212) 788-2958

                                    Jonathan Rosen/Dan Levitan (Cornell)           (646) 452-5637

                                    Tova Kantrowitz (Technion)                           (212) 407-6340

The conference will be held this year on February 29th and on March 1st in Tel Aviv and in Technion City in Haifa

The 52nd Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences will be held this year on February 29 and March 1. As in the past, the first day of the conference will take place in Dan Panorama Tel Aviv Hotel and its second day will take place in the Technion City in Haifa. The conference program includes about 90 lectures, including invited lectures by world-renowned lecturers. The conference will discuss a wide variety of topics, from innovative manned and unmanned aircraft configurations through basic research studies on fluid mechanics, structure dynamics, missile navigation and guidance, and combustion, to spacecraft angular position control.

The conference will be opened by Prof. Dan Givoli of the Technion Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, chair of the conference organizing committee. Later, an invited lecture in memory of Prof. M. Hanin of Blessed Memory will be given by Prof. B. Zinn of the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, on smart combustors in aircraft engines. Another lecture will be given by Prof. D. Inman of the University of Michigan, USA, on smart materials for flight applications, and later, Mr. A. Brot of Israel Aerospace Industries will give a lecture on methods of ensuring the structural integrity of aircraft over time.

Prof. C. Amon of the University of Toronto, Canada will open the second day of the conference with her lecture on analyses of multi-scale thermal transport. Another lecture will be given by Prof. I. Kroo of Stanford University, USA, on future aircraft configurations, and will be followed by Mr. Moshe Attar of Israel Aerospace Industries who will lecture on considerations for FBW flight control systems design. The morning sessions will close with a panel on civil applications for umanned aircraft, chaired by B. Davidor of the Israel Civil Aviation Authority and with the participation of representatives of the leading Israeli industries in this field. The audience will be invited to ask questions.

The conference will be attended by world-renowned lecturers. Thus, for example, Prof. J. Ginsberg of the Georgia Institute of Technology will lecture on Aeroacoustics, and Prof. P. Friedmann of the University of Michigan will lecture on Aeroelasticity.

The conference will also host the student projects competition, which includes this year four teams who will present the annual final projects that sum up their studies, highlighting innovative themes and a systemic approach in aerospace engineering.

Reporters and photographers are invited

For additional details: Gila Ghilai, Chair of the Program Committee

Tel: 04-8292395   http://www.aeroconf.org.il

“The residents of New York City and its government are very excited about the planned applied science and engineering campus which Cornell and the Technion are partnering to establish”, said Christine Quinn, New York City council speaker, in her visit today to the Technion. “We have no doubt that this important venture, which will make our city the global high-tech capital, will inject new blood into it and improve all municipal aspects – from affordable housing to cafés and restaurants”.

Quinn, who in 2007 was ranked by the New York Post third in the list of the most influential women in New York, is a member of the Democratic Party, and is considered a leading candidate in the mayoral election that will end next year. She invests substantial resources in improving health care and in promoting affordable housing in New York. “We, as a municipality, cannot create entrepreneurial ventures, but we can and are committed to creating a suitable envelope for them: an efficient transportation system, personal security, housing, quality education and employment – without these, entrepreneurs and high-tech companies cannot be attracted to the city”.

Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie said to the guest that the future is in the interdisciplinary realm, and that this is the rational behind the new campus that will be set-up  on Roosevelt Island in New York. “It may be that Prof. Shechtman is the last scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for research conducted by one person working alone in one laboratory,” said Prof. Lavie. “Nowadays, achieving significant scientific and engineering breakthroughs requires tremendous knowledge that the single scientist does not possess. In light of this, the new campus will be structured as interdisciplinary centers that will intercommunicate and overlap, rather than in the well-known university model of programs and faculties. With time this center will be surrounded by startup companies and extensions of large high-tech companies, just as such companies and extensions historically developed near the Technion. Intel is an example of a giant company that chose to establish here its first research center outside the US, and so whenever I hear the slogan ‘Intel Inside’ I say: Haifa Inside. Our innovative venture will build a bridge of friendship and cooperation between New York and Haifa”.