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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

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology recently hosted Professor Jeff Hoffman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who talked about his journey to fulfill his childhood dream to become an astronaut. “As a child, my father bought us a telescope to watch the stars,” he said in his lecture, “and ever since, I was captivated by the magic of astrophysics.” A significant part of the lecture addressed NASA’s Mars landing mission and the project that Prof. Hoffman has been working on in recent years, MOXIE, which is a system for producing oxygen on Mars.

The system, which is the size of a small toaster, was placed on Mars to demonstrate the possibility of supplying oxygen to the humans arriving there in the future. In 2021, NASA reported the first production of oxygen from carbon dioxide on Mars using the MOXIE system installed on the Perseverance spacecraft. Last year, Prof. Hoffman reported on the success in producing oxygen in seven different experiments under different conditions and at an average rate of six grams per hour. His results were published in the journal Science Advances. At the Technion, Prof. Hoffman explained, “The rate of oxygen we’ve been able to produce so far on Mars is enough for a dog, but not yet for humans. Our goal is to produce three kilograms of oxygen per hour. Such a process consumes a lot of energy, which will probably come from a nuclear source in the future.”

Prof. Hoffman, born in 1944, earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Harvard University. He was one of 35 astronauts accepted by NASA out of 8,000 applicants in 1978.  Since then, he has accumulated more than 1,200 space hours, during which he amassed 34.5 million kilometers of space travel.

Over the years, he participated in five space missions, including the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope, a mission that required him to specialize in space walking. In 2007, he was inducted into the American Astronaut Hall of Fame.

During his lecture at the Technion, Prof. Hoffman said: “Being an astronaut is the hardest profession in the world. That said, we astronauts are human beings, and when we go on a journey in space, we bring our history and culture with us. In the Jewish tradition that I grew up on, ‘Tikun Olam’ is of great importance, and I feel that the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope was my personal ‘Tikun Olam.’  It was the most significant thing I did in my life and is my biggest contribution to science and astrophysics. At that event, I was privileged to perform the first unplanned spacewalk in history.”

On his trip to space in 1993, which took place around Hanukkah, Hoffman brought with him a special dreidel that he spun in the spacecraft. Three years later, he brought a special Torah scroll into space and read its first verses in front of the cameras that broadcasted the event to Earth. Now, some seven years after his previous visit to the Technion as part of the events of the International Space University (ISU), Prof. Hoffman returned to the university for the premiere of the film Torah in Space, documenting the same journey that took place in 1996. The film was presented by Rachel Raz, who initiated and produced the film. Technion students, high school students, and faculty members took part in the festive screening. The event opened with a welcome by Prof. Adi Salzberg, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion. After the event, Prof. Hoffman toured the Asher Institute for Space Research at the Technion and met with the head of the Institute, Prof. Yoram Rozen.

Professor Avner Rothschild from the faculty of Material Science and Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology was awarded the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant, of about €3 million. The ERC Advanced Grant is given to the best proposals by researchers who have a track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years.

Prof. Rothschild will develop a transformative water electrolysis process (splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen) for green hydrogen production. The project aims for high efficiency in a process that supports membraneless electrolysis with minimal energy losses, going far beyond other electrolysis processes. These goals will be achieved by dividing the oxygen evolution reaction into two sub-reactions, carried out in different cells. It is this separation that would eliminate the necessity of a membrane, making the process safer, as well as more cost- and energy-efficient.

The development of the innovative process poses challenges, addressing which requires multidisciplinary research in materials science, electrochemistry, catalysis, and process engineering. The preliminary proof of concept was he Master Thesis research of Ilya Slobodkin (2022, summa cum laude), working together with Dr. Elena Davydova, from Prof. Rothschild’s group.

Progress in this field will lead the way to a competitive solution for green hydrogen production to fight global warming and advance the science of catalysts and electrodes for advanced water electrolysis and related technologies.

The annual conference of Tech.AI, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Hub, was held on March 2 with the participation of about 500 experts, students, and guests. The conference focused on prospects and risks in the field and on ways to translate AI theories into useful applications. It was held with the support of Mobileye, Nvidia, Harel Technologies, IBM Research, and the Zimin Institute at the Technion for AI Solutions in Healthcare.

The opening session panel, titled “Generative AI: Evolution or Revolution,” was moderated by journalist Hila Korach, and included Dr. Tomer Simon, chief scientist at Microsoft Israel R&D, Dr. Yoav Levin, chief scientist at AI21 Labs, and Professor Karin Nahon, head of the Data, Government, and Democracy program at Reichman University. The panel examined whether recent developments in Generative AI reflect a natural development of human-machine interface, or a real revolution that changes the rules of the game and will change academia, industry, and the labor market. Where are the new AI based tools taking us? Where does ethics fit into the integration and operation of these models? And what does the future of generative AI hold for us?

“For thousands of years,” said Dr. Levin, “our way of working with texts has hardly changed – one person writes the text word by word, another person reads it word by word. Despite the invention of the printing press and the invention of word processors, the format remained the same. Now, with texts being written by artificial intelligence, there is a potential for a significant new revolution.”

Prof. Nahon referred to the democratization brought by the new AI tools – technologies that are open for use by the general public. She warned that there are also dangers in AI, and that countries must take care of the introduction of appropriate regulation that will not slow down the technological development, but at the same time will not allow the new AI tools to harm people and society.

Dr. Simon said that AI is revolutionizing many fields, for example medicine: “In the medical field, there are thousands of studies published every day, and no doctor can cope and absorb the volume of studies and all of the data. AI will not replace doctors, but it will result in doctors who use it, replacing doctors who do not.”

 

Following the opening session, hundreds of conference participants dispersed among seven simultaneous content sessions. Dozens of senior executives from the leading companies in the high-tech industries and from Israel’s leading academic institutions, lectured in seven parallel sessions on the hottest topics from the forefront of AI in fields of medicine, core research and basic science, robotics and autonomous systems, natural language processing, transportation, and more.

The academic management of the conference was led by Tech.AI’s three co-directors, Technion faculty members Professor Shie Mannor from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor Assaf Schuster from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science, and Professor Shai Shen-Orr from the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine.

According to Prof. Mannor, “The AI and BEYOND Conference aims to bring Technion audiences and conference participants the best of AI from the forefront of academia and industry. To realize this goal, we have made considerable efforts to bring the best researchers and professionals who deal with the hottest topics on the forefront of AI, and in addition, we have created a format through which participants chose their own personal course of lectures throughout the day, so that they can deepen their knowledge in their field of activity and in other fields as well.”

“One of the main goals of Tech.AI,” added Prof. Schuster, “is to serve as a base for constant enrichment for the thriving and ever growing AI community at the Technion, which today numbers about 150 researchers in various fields of artificial intelligence. The AI and BEYOND Conference allowed us to have leading researchers from the Technion community lecture in all conference sessions, and at the same time provide the entire Technion AI community with a platform for quality networking with the community of AI experts in Israeli academia and industry.”

“The Technion Artificial Intelligence Hub is in the midst of an accelerated development process,” concluded Prof. Shen-Orr. “As part of this process, we have already established several new centers under the Tech.AI umbrella in the past year, and many more new initiatives and programs are in the process of establishment. The AI and BEYOND Conference gave us an excellent platform to expose Tech.AI’s partners to conference participants, and to present Technion’s AI capabilities, ranked number one in Europe in AI according to CSRankings, to potential partners.”

Tech.AI thanks the hundreds of conference participants for taking part in the event, and invites companies, organizations, and individuals interested in promoting collaborations with the Hub to contact Gady Paran, Tech.AI’s marketing director, at: gparan@technion.ac.il.

Technion- Israeli Institute of Technology Professors Shulamit Levenberg and Avi Schroeder were inducted into the AIMBE College Fellows, in a ceremony held in Washington on March 27^th. Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.”

Prof. Levenberg was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows “for leading biomedical engineering research and translational projects applying stem cells and tissue engineering for regenerative medicine and food production.”

Prof. Levenberg, of the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Department, conducts interdisciplinary research on stem cell-based tissue engineering. Her lab’s main focus is on creating complex tissues for regenerative medicine. The group has successfully produced vascularized muscle and heart tissue, and recently – ear implants. She is also the CSO of Aleph Farms startup, which has recently succeeded in producing a cultured entrecôte steak. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Rappaport Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Sciences and the Michael Bruno Memorial Award.

Prof. Schroeder received the induction into the AIMBE College of Fellows “for outstanding contributions to the development of clinical nanotechnologies including precision nanomedicine and in cancer and orthopedics.”

Prof. Schroeder is a member of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering. He leads the Laboratory for Targeted Drug Delivery & Personalized Medicine Technologies. The lab focuses on targeted drug delivery systems to treat cancer more effectively and improve patients’ quality of life. The group’s research spans personalized cancer treatments, targeting metastases, bringing medication across the blood-brain barrier, and more. Prof. Schroeder has received 20 national and international innovation awards and is a successful scientific entrepreneur, having launched five Technion spin offs.

AIMBE Fellows are among the most distinguished medical and biological engineers including 3 Nobel Prize laureates: Frances H. Arnold (Chemistry, 2018), Paul C. Lauterbur (Physiology or Medicine, 2007) and Norman E. Borlaug (Peace, 1970).

Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich have developed and successfully lab-tested a novel titanium-air battery in cooperation with researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. This is the first time that experimental results of such a battery have been published, in which titanium is used as an active material. The metal is of interest as an electricity storage material because each atom can donate up to four electrons for charge transfer, while at the same time being relatively light and extremely resistant.

Scientific Results

Titanium is known as a passive, stable material. The researchers succeeded in utilizing its electrochemical potential for the storage of electrical energy by applying an ionic liquid called EMIm(HF)_2.3F. Ionic liquids consist of salts with an atypical, very low melting point, which are used in a variety of applications due to their special electrical and material properties.

Titanium-air batteries theoretically have two to three times the energy density of zinc-air batteries, which are used today as standard button cells in hearing aids, control modules, and sensors. The theoretically achievable voltage of the titanium-air-battery is in a similar range to that of zinc-air batteries. In experiments, an average cell voltage of up to 1.2 volts and relatively high discharge currents of up to 0.75 mA cm^-2 could be measured.

Social and Scientific Relevance

In metal-air batteries, the contained metal reacts with the oxygen in the air to release electrical energy. This type of battery thus occupies a special position among batteries, since one of the two reaction partners, oxygen, is obtained from the ambient air via a special electrode and does not have to be kept in the battery. Therefore, significantly higher energy densities can be realized with these systems than with common battery types, at least in theory.

For this reason, metal-air batteries are particularly suitable for applications where a compact size is important. Another potential area of application is in large-scale stationary storage systems that use low-cost, common, and non-toxic materials. For example, titanium, although known as an expensive material, is much cheaper than lithium in terms of material costs but is more expensive than aluminium. Titanium is the ninth most frequently occurring materials in the earth’s crust, so the available resources are correspondingly abundant.

Further Details

Zinc, aluminium and iron for metal-air batteries, and silicon for silicon air batteries, are the main focus of research in anode materials today. Titanium, on the other hand, has hitherto hardly been considered as an active material, and experimental results had not yet been available.

The development of the new battery concept was carried out in close cooperation between Dr. Yasin Emre Durmus from the Jülich Institute for Energy and Climate Research (IEK-9) headed by Professor Rüdiger-A. Eichel and Professor Yair Ein-Eli from the Technion, who spent a seven-month-long sabbatical at IEK-9 as part of the Umbrella Cooperation between Forschungszentrum Jülich, the Technion, and RWTH Aachen University.

Original Publication

Yasin Emre Durmus, Marcel Kaltenberg, Krzysztof Dzieciol, Maximilian Schalenbach, Danny Gelman, Boris Shvartsev, Hermann Tempel, Hans Kungl, Rüdiger-A. Eichel, Yair Ein-Eli
Breaking the passivity wall of metals: Exempli gratia non-aqueous Ti–air battery
Chemical Engineering Journal, Volume 461, 2023, DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2023.141903

Dear Technion Family,

The coming hours, days, and weeks are crucial for the future of the State of Israel – the most significant cusp since the Yom Kippur War, 50 years ago. If the current legislative process isn’t stopped, the judicial system will be subordinate to the executive and the legislative branches, and the character of the State of Israel will be changed for many years to come. The separation and balance between the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive branches are the essence of democracy.

Conducting a dialogue and reaching broad agreements is the only way to make changes in the essence and nature of the constitutional basis on which a state relies. Calls for dialogue from the President of Israel, academia, industry leaders, economists, lawyers, present and past heads of the National Security Council, national security services, Benyamin Netanyahu’s former advisors, reservists, and the majority of the Israeli public, have fallen on deaf ears.  This is tearing the delicate fabric of our society apart and damaging our connection with the diaspora.

Over the past two months, Israeli universities have worked with great restraint. However, we saw a disappointing turn of events yesterday evening when the Prime Minister fired the Minister of Defense for his concern and integrity regarding the State of Israel, when he suggested to halt the legislation process. It became clear that the Prime Minister is not interested in dialogue but in a legislative takeover, aiming to subordinate the judiciary branch to the executive branch and alter the character of the State of Israel.

The character of the state is at the forefront of our concerns, as is the continued existence of a liberal and democratic society that is essential for the prosperity of academia and its integration into the global academic community. Government conduct in recent weeks raises deep concerns about its intentions and the nature of the regime to which it is headed.

Following the declaration of the Senate and the Technion Council last month, we must ask ourselves whether the definition in our constitution: “the institution will act to further the aforementioned goals (education, research, supporting Israel’s economy) without discrimination of any kind based on race, religion, nationality or gender” will remain relevant? Will we retain our success, which is rooted in the universal values of openness, tolerance, academic freedom, equality, and absence of discrimination, on which our membership in the global academic community is based?

This concern is real. In a declaration of the presidents and rectors of the Israeli universities two months ago, we expressed concern about the expected harm to the strength of the universities. Sadly, these predictions are coming true. Postdoctoral fellows hesitate about coming back to Israel, Israeli researchers are considering immigration, an international conference was cancelled last week due to international scientists’ refusal to visit Israel. Yesterday, I was informed that a key speaker at a conference planned for June cancelled his participation due to the situation, international scientists taking part in evaluation committees have cancelled their participation, and a philanthropic foundation has let me know that should the legislation on the appointment of judges pass, they will limit their support of the Technion. I must also mention the reduction in investments in Israeli start-ups, and the reluctance of international companies, whose share in Israeli R&D is dominant, to invest in Israeli R&D.

Last Thursday I returned from an extensive fundraising tour in Boston, New York and Florida. I met with hundreds of true friends of the Technion and of the State of Israel, from the USA, Canada, and Brazil, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. There wasn’t one who did not express his/her deep concern about the current affairs in our country and about the growing rift between the Jewish North American community and Israel on the subject of democratic values. As one of our most loyal donors summed it up, “I’m afraid that the State of Israel and I may no longer share the same values.”

As a result, the Israeli research university presidents decided last night, in a difficult and extraordinary step, to halt studies in the universities and to urge the Prime Minister again: stop the legislative process before we fall into the abyss of a constitutional crisis. Launch, with genuine intent, an in-depth discourse, and allow its results to decide the character of the State of Israel.

To the Technion Family, I call on all of you to unite around the statement of the Senate and the Technion Council, to focus on the values that unite us as a community. Discourse, tolerance, inclusivity and adherence to the truth have been an integral part of the Technion for 100 years. They were our guiding star when the skies were clear and they were our beacon in raging storms. I call on all of you to speak your opinion in a voice that is loud and clear, without fear or trepidation, remembering that the Technion is home to a variety of opinions, and that we share one country, and one Technion.

Finally, in these tumultuous times, I would like to wish you all a Happy Passover, Happy Easter, and Ramadan Kareem.

Uri Sivan

President of the Technion

 

The Technion mourns the passing of Distinguished Professor Jacob Ziv, one of the most renowned scientists in the field of information theory, who passed away on March 25, at the age of 91.

Prof. Ziv, Technion Alumnus and one of the greatest researchers in the history of the Technion, joined the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering 53 years ago. He had held senior positions in the Technion and the Israeli Academy. In 2021, he became the first Israeli scientist to receive the IEEE Medal of Honor for Fundamental contributions to information theory and data compression technology, and for distinguished research leadership

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan said “the scientific contribution of Distinguished Professor Jacob Ziv changed forever the way we store, process, and transfer information. He was an inspiration to all of us – a beacon of scientific excellence, a symbol of science’s great potential to ignite technological revolutions that affect all of mankind.  For me, Prof. Ziv was not only an example and a role model, but also a mentor and a friend who walked beside me on my academic path at the Technion. May his memory be a blessing.”

“Prof. Ziv was a great scientist and a great man,” said Prof. Idit Keidar, dean of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “He left his mark not only on the way information is transmitted over computer networks and stored in files around the world, but also on the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, by his scientific path and his personal conduct. He taught and mentored researchers who followed in his footsteps. He led the faculty, in the capacity of dean, on the path to academic excellence. His research approach was characterized by combining deep theory with important practical applications. Prof. Ziv was an inspiration to us all. He will be missed. Together, we will continue in his path. May his memory be a blessing.”

Born in 1931, Prof. Ziv, completed a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering at the Technion, followed by a doctorate at MIT (1962). After some eight years of research and development at Raphael and Bell Labs in the United States, he joined the Technion faculty. Over the years he held senior positions including Vice President of the Technion for Academic Affairs, Chairman of the Planning and Budgeting Committee, and President of the Israeli Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dist. Prof. Ziv won many prestigious awards, including the Israel Defense Award (twice), the Israel Prize in Exact Sciences (1993) the Marconi Award (1995), the Richard Heming Medal (1995), the Shannon Award (1997), the Frontiers of Knowledge Award from the BBVA Foundation (2009), and the EMET Prize (2017).

In 1977, Prof Ziv and Prof. Abraham Lempel of the Taub Faculty of Computer Science published the initial version of the Lempel-Ziv algorithm, and in 1978 the second version. Both versions served as the basis for essential compression technologies including PNG, TIFF, ZIP and GIF and played a major role in PDF (for documents) and MP3 (for music) formats. This is an information compression algorithm that enables lossless compression, regardless of the structure of the data and without prior knowledge of the statistical properties of the data. Based on this algorithm, many of the compression technologies currently used today in memory devices, computers and smartphones were developed.

The Lempel-Ziv algorithm has opened the way for unprecedented technology, enabling the transfer of visual and other information at high speed without loss of information. In 2004, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) announced that the Lempel-Ziv algorithm is “a milestone in electronics and computer engineering” and that it “made a significant contribution to making the internet an effective means of global communication.”

Dist. Prof. Ziv also participated in the development of the Wyner-Ziv algorithm in Bell Laboratories. This algorithm, which is now part of Microsoft’s operating system, allows the compression of many images from different cameras, and their simultaneous transmission (for example in sports events).

In addition to his scientific achievements, Prof. Ziv was a beloved teacher and mentor to countless students throughout his career. He will be remembered not only for his groundbreaking contributions to science, but also for his kindness, generosity, and dedication to the next generation of scientists.

Professor Jacob Ziv’s contributions to the field of information theory have left an indelible mark on the world, and his legacy will continue to inspire generations of scientists to come. He will be deeply missed by his colleagues, students, and all who knew him.