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In an age of self-driving cars, industrial robots, and intelligent systems that help humans in a variety of situations, time and computational resources are valuable assets. These systems are required to react quickly to circumstances in a changing environment, and under conditions in which information is lacking (i.e., conditions of uncertainty). Furthermore, economic constraints limit the complexity of elements such as hardware, and the systems must be cheap enough for potential consumers to be willing to pay for them.

Research conducted at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and published in the International Journal of Robotics Research presents a theoretical and computational breakthrough in this context: the simplification of planning problems and decision-making under uncertainty in a way that reduces the amount of data that the computer is required to analyze.

The study was headed by Professor Vadim Indelman, head of the Autonomous Navigation and Perception Lab (ANPL) in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, and Khen Elimelech, who recently completed his doctorate in the Technion Autonomous Systems Program (TASP).

“We demonstrate that we can significantly reduce computation time, without harming the successful execution of the task,” explained the researchers. “We also demonstrate that computation efforts can be reduced even further if we accept a certain loss in performance – loss that our approach can evaluate online. In an age of self-driving cars and other robots, this is an approach likely to enable autonomous online decision-making in challenging scenarios, reduce response times, and achieve considerable savings in the cost of hardware and other resources.”

Prof. Indelman’s research deals with autonomous decision making under uncertainty – a fundamental problem in AI and robotics. This capability is particularly essential for autonomous agents that are required to perform reliably over time, under conditions of uncertainty and in a changing environment. Furthermore, in many cases the agent does not have direct access to the problem’s state variables, and it functions based on a probability distribution or “belief”. This belief reflects the knowledge that the agent possesses about itself and its environment, based on probabilistic models, actions performed, and measurements obtained from its sensors.

One of the key directions explored by the research group is computationally efficient decision-making under these conditions, also known as “belief space planning” (BSP). Solving this problem (i.e., calculating the entire set of optimal actions or policies necessary to achieve the goal) requires that potential actions be evaluated under a reward or cost function, such as the distance to the goal or an “uncertainty” measure. According to the researchers, this challenge requires the prediction of how the “belief” will develop in the future for different possible actions, while predicting different future scenarios. As a result, decision-making under these conditions is computationally costly, which challenges the autonomous action of intelligent agents in real time. Additionally, in problems with numerous state variables (for example, when the environment changes or is not known in advance), the computational challenge is even greater. All the above are accompanied by economic considerations, time constraints, and computation time, which mandate a reduction in the necessary computational resources. Therefore, the simplification of decision-making under uncertainty problems is an important goal in these research directions.

Prof. Indelman’s research group refers to all these aspects in the development of simplification approaches, which enable these problems to be solved in a way that is more computationally efficient, for example, through the sparsification of matrices. Crucially, these approaches are accompanied with performance guarantees that quantify the worst-case degradation in performance as a result of the simplification process; such guarantees are of key importance in safety-critical applications such as autonomous driving.

The researchers’ findings lay the foundations for solving decision-making problems through simplification and demonstrate that these approaches are able to lead to considerable savings in computation times, without significant loss in terms of outcomes.

Recently, it was announced that doctoral student Khen Elimelech, who led the study, will receive the Outstanding Ph.D. Research Award, The Israeli Smart Transportation Research Center (ISTRC).

The study was sponsored by the Israel Science Foundation.

For the full article in the International Journal of Robotics Research click here.

 

On June 30th, 2022, we held the graduation ceremony of the Technion’s 93rd cohort, awarding 1869 students with their university degrees; 40% of the graduates were women. Our guest of honor, Dr. Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, gave the commencement speech. The graduation ceremony was preceded by the Honorary Doctorate Conferment Ceremony for Dr. Bourla.

Watch the full graduation and honorary doctorate ceremony:

Dr. Bourla’s commencement speech:

To watch the film on Dr. Bourla we aired at his Honorary Doctorate Conferment Ceremony on June 30, 2022, click here (a subtitled film is also available):

The festive ceremony – the first in almost 3 years because of the COVID-19 pandemic – took place during the annual Technion Board of Governors meeting, and three distinguished individuals received an Honorary Fellowship. The ceremony was held in the presence of Technion President Professor Uri Sivan, Chairman of the Board of Governors Mr. Scott Leemaster, members of the Technion management and Faculty deans.

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan expressed his joy at being able to finally hold the ceremony in-person again and talked about the transitions to digital teaching that were forced upon them during the pandemic and the new challenge of using digital mentoring technologies. Despite great leaps in this area, he went on to say that no matter how advanced we are in digital terms, students love to be on campus. “Person to person interactions are near and dear to our hearts, as they clearly are to our three awardees celebrating here with us tonight.”

Scott Leemaster, Chairman of the Board of Governors, also expressed his joy in being able to meet in person with like-minded Technion supporters from all over the world. And reminding everyone that we are approaching the 100^th anniversary of the Technion, he identified (with the help of former President Peretz Lavie) five remarkable individuals who had an extraordinary impact on the Technion. From Dr. Paul Nathan who established the Technion in its first building; to Eliezer Kaplansky, Technion’s general manager from 1931 to 1950; General Yaakov Dori, the first President of the Technion; Prof. Sydney Goldstein, the first Dean of Aeronautical Engineering and as Academic Vice President; and finally Major General Amos Horev, whose life is intertwined with the Technion’s to this day.

Mr. Leemaster also congratulated Prof. Adi Salzberg, on taking up her senior position as Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, a new post created by Prof. Uri Sivan to safeguard the fundamental principles of the Technion as being open to all, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, or gender.

Finally, he reminded us that the Technion makes history every single day with its innovations and achievements. He spoke of the historic Abraham Accords which are already leading to new collaborations with our neighbors, and mentioned the next Space-IL’s mission to the moon, which will be a joint Israeli-Emirates project.

 

Robert (Rob) Polak

With gratitude for your enthusiastic support of Israel and the Technion; in honor of continuing your rich family legacy while creating your own niche; in appreciation of your vision to advance Technion’s most commercially promising research; in recognition for all you do for students and soldiers; and in thankfulness for the many contributions that have made you a Technion Guardian.

Ira Taub

In appreciation of your passionate concern for Israel and advancing Technion’s global impact; in honor of furthering your parents’ historic vision; in recognition of your active leadership in the American Technion Society and your community; and in gratitude for your pivotal role in directing philanthropic funds to priority areas across the Technion, especially computer science, and institutions throughout Israel and the United States.

Gal Haber

In recognition of your achievements as an entrepreneur, innovator, and industry leader; in gratitude for your contributions to the Technion and to Israeli society, in particular to the education and personal empowerment of youth; and in appreciation of your position as a role model who continues to inspire Technion students and graduates as they embark on their professional journeys.

On June 26, the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science held its Project Fair at the Technion, with the participation of dozens of undergraduate students. Diverse projects in various fields were presented under the following categories: Internet of Things (IoT), Android applications, software engineering, and computer communications.

Many of the projects at the fair – led by Itai Dabran and Tom Sofer of the Interdisciplinary Center for Smart Technologies (ICST) in computer science – utilize various technologies to benefit society; for example, a smart hospital bed that warns of the danger of falling off, a swimming prosthesis for amputees, a system for organizing clothes sold in second-hand stores, a robot that solves a Rubik’s cube based on voice commands, a home monitoring app for air pollution, and apps to support various non-profits.

Elinor Ginzburg, a student who volunteered for a time in the Neurosurgery Department at Rambam Health Care Campus, learned that brain surgery and related treatments often cause blurring and confusion. As a result, patients sometimes try to climb over the bed railings and fall off. Together with Leon Kosarev and Tomer Ron, Elinor developed a system that provides medical staff with advance warning of such dangerous attempts.

Students Noor Shbat and Nawal Sheikh have developed a system that analyzes the performance of Olympic surfers and provides data analysis to help them win. The system is built on sensors and computerized analysis of the information received and operates even in places with no cellular reception. It was developed in collaboration with the Wingate Institute and the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering.

Students Nadav Kiri, Ben Shani, and Noa Rosenthal developed a smart prosthesis that helps amputees swim, using sensors that detect the position of the arm and a neural network that learns the user’s behavior.

Dina Alexandrovich, Racheli Chepovetsky, and Maya Stein developed an app that helps run second-hand clothing stores. The app allows you to enter any incoming item into the system, manage inventory, and allow customers to easily find the clothes they want.

The Technion Social Hub, which specializes in research and education for technological involvement in the community, collaborated with the Interdisciplinary Center for Smart Technologies on five projects. They included “Paamonim,” a system for managing employees at the social non-profit; an app that helps collect electronic equipment for recycling; a communication board that helps people with cerebral palsy; a support system for the “Women’s Courtyard,” a multicultural space for at-risk girls and women; and an IoT system to support the disabled and visually impaired at the Migdal-Or factory. This system was also incorporated into one of the students’ final projects as part of “Seeds of Innovation” in the Faculty of Industry and Management.

For the full list of projects: click here

On May 23, 2022, the Technion awarded 212 Ph.D. degrees to its latest cohort of doctorates in a moving ceremony hosted on campus and attended by friends and family of the graduates. Professor Oded Rabinovitch, the Technion’s Senior Executive Vice President, opened the event with his remarks, followed by words from the Dean of the Graduate School Professor Dan Givoli. The ceremony was moderated by Professor Irad Yavneh of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science and the Director of the Samuel Neaman Institute.

Technion Senior Executive Vice President Oded Rabinovich expressed words of thanks “to the families, parents, partners, friends and children, and to all those who without your support, these achievements would not have happened.” He went on to say that “the nature of innovative, deep, leading, and groundbreaking research is that it is difficult to identify the final chord. You probably know better than all of us that every research question that is answered, generates at least three or four new questions. None of these give a sense of completion or closure. On the contrary, the final chord of the doctoral dissertation is an opening chord to a world of professional research that invites curiosity and a striving for truth, realizing your ability to delve into a complex and complicated problem and break through it, and harnessing your ability to face the real challenges facing society. All of this turns that elusive doctoral graduation chord into the opening chord of a wonderful path, through which you as newcomers join the family of doctoral graduates at the Technion. We wish you luck!”

Dean of the Graduate School Prof. Dan Givoli continued with his congratulatory remarks, stating, “The two main components of the Technion’s success are faculty and doctoral students. All of you, doctoral students, were one of the cornerstones of the Technion during your studies here and we are proud of you for that – and proud of your future achievements.” Prof. Givoli noted some statistics related to the degree recipients, and wished them well, saying, “The 212 graduates were supervised by 276 advisors. The number of advisors is greater than the number of doctorates because much of the research is interdisciplinary and requires more than one advisor. The youngest graduate is 28 and the oldest is 76 – which shows that it is never too late to start studying for a doctorate. Good luck.”

40% of the graduates are women

This year’s group of doctoral graduates is particularly diverse in both their backgrounds and the range of research fields and specialties. Nearly 40% of the graduates are women, and nearly 45 of the graduates come from international backgrounds outside of Israel including locations such as the former Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia (29), China (7), India (4), and the United States (4). 75 students took the Direct Ph.D. track. The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine leads with the highest number of doctoral graduates (33).

Natalie and Oren Rizansky, who completed their Ph.D. studies in Biology and Mechanical Engineering respectively, spoke at the ceremony on behalf of the graduates. “Studying for a PhD is a rollercoaster with highs and lows and is a herculean task,” they said. “What all graduates have in common is the challenge to discover something they didn’t know before.”

The couple met during military service in the training section of the Combat Engineering Corps. After the army, Oren began studying for a bachelor’s degree in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion and Natalie attended the Faculty of Biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After graduating, Natalie joined Oren in the Technion dorms, and they both began studying at the Technion for a master’s degree that soon turned into a direct doctoral track. In her doctoral dissertation, Natalie, under the supervision of Professor Emeritus Arie Admon from the Faculty of Biology, researched “the identification of mutant and unique peptides in cancer cells,” while Oren researched the mechanical reaction of metal plates under load under the guidance of Professor Danny Rittel from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. While studying for their doctorates, they brought two children into the world, Tomer, who is now 5, and Yuval, who is 3. They are currently expecting their third child.

The oldest graduate to receive their degree was Dr. Rinat Baor, who carried out her research in the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology. She said that after working for 20 years as a math teacher and 13 years as a teaching assistant, “I wanted to do a Ph.D., and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to afford it and didn’t have time. The Technion gave me the opportunity to do a doctorate in a faculty with a really nice atmosphere. I received excellent guidance and enjoyed a good relationship with my supervisor, Associate Professor Einat Heyd-Metzuyanim. The research group I joined also helped me develop my research and encouraged Ph.D. thinking.”

In total, 212 Ph.D. degrees were awarded to graduates from all Technion faculties, for their research work across various interdisciplinary fields, including: calculations using an engineered bacterium (Dr. Natalia Berger, under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Ramez), flow in coral reefs (Dr. Shai Asher, under the supervision of Prof. Uri Shavit), assessing the accessibility of urban spaces for the visually impaired (Dr. Ahituv Cohen under the supervision of Dr. Sagi Dalyot and Dr. Asia Netapov), research into the development of water waves under wind constraint (Dr. Almog Shani-Zerbib, under the guidance of Prof. Dan Liberzon), from start-up beginnings to entrepreneurial success (Dr. Moran Lazar, supervised by Prof. emeritus Miriam Erez and Prof. Ela Meron-Spektor), biomaterials – complex designs (Dr. Noam Attias, led by Prof. Noam Grubman and Prof. Ezra Tarazi), using diverse sources of information for the re-labeling of drugs (Dr. Galia Nordon, under the guidance of Prof. Benny Kimelfeld and Dr. Kira Radinsky), repairing DNA fragments. Dr. Ines Abu Zahya, led by Prof. Nabieh Ayoub), muscle tissue engineering to increase insulin sensitivity in diabetics (Dr. Margarita Beckerman, under the guidance of Prof. Shulamit Levenberg and Prof. Emeritus Eddy Karnieli), and stretch sensing systems for the development of electronic skin (Dr. Yehu David Horev under the supervision of Prof. Hossam Haick), among many others.

 

 

 

Thank you, President Sivan and the entire Board of Governors for conferring upon me this honorary degree. It is a great honor to be a part of the Technion Institute community.

To all of today’s graduates — congratulations!

As a scientist and a Jew, I can’t overstate how much it means to me to receive this degree and to be invited to address this year’s graduating class.

Since first opening its doors in 1924, the Technion has been a beacon of light not only for Israel, but for the entire world. The story of the Technion, like that of my company, Pfizer, is a one of innovation, but also of courage and optimism – all of which have helped give birth to technological and scientific breakthroughs aimed at making the world a better place.

Researchers at the Technion have driven advances in alternative fuels that are helping mitigate climate change. Professors Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko’s Nobel Prize-winning work in ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation led to a better understanding of human health. And the Technion’s first-of-its-kind collaboration with Cornell University is pursuing breakthroughs in the areas of connective media, health technologies and urban engineering.

But none of these successes would have been possible without courage and optimism – the courage of Paul Nathan, who endeavored to establish a university in Israel that would improve the lives of Jews while they were largely banned from studying scientific and technological subjects in Europe … and the optimism of Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Albert Einstein who refused to let the school die after the financial difficulties brought on by World War I.

Innovation, courage and optimism are three things that define my colleagues at Pfizer, as well. It took courage, for example, to make the counterintuitive decision to use mRNA technology in the COVID-19 vaccine we developed with BioNTech. This courage not only helped us deliver a safe and effective vaccine in only nine months, but it may also prove to be an important step in unlocking the great promise that the technology holds for many other therapeutic areas, including cancer and rare disease. Our successful vaccine journey showed us we can make the impossible possible – and our colleagues are now taking this newfound optimism to their work in other areas.

If you are anything like I was on my graduation day, you are thinking about all the hard work it took to get you to this day. But guess what … that was the easy part. There was a curriculum and you did what you needed to do to complete it.

What makes the next chapter more challenging – but also more exciting – is there is no set curriculum. The next chapter is all electives – and your choices will define your future.

Now, I can’t tell you what choices to make because we are all different people from different backgrounds with different circumstances. What I can do is share a few simple truths I have learned along the way that might help you make choices that are right for you – and that just might help you change the world (or at least your little corner of it).

First, setting extremely ambitious goals that are seemingly impossible based on conventional wisdom does not restrain human ingenuity, it liberates it. That’s why you should always aim high. If you aim for incremental change, you may improve upon something someone else has done, which is great. But it’s only when you aim for step changes – aim to do the seemingly impossible – that you can unlock the full potential of your creativity, discover completely new ways of solving a problem and deliver true breakthroughs.

Of course, aiming high does not guarantee you will hit your target. The truth is the first time you pursue an ambitious goal, you are more likely to fail than to succeed.

This brings me to the second truth: Resiliency is as important as getting it right the first time. Our failures can teach us even more than our successes. So, when something you set out to do doesn’t go as planned, don’t choose to walk away and give up; rather choose to find out why it didn’t work and let that knowledge inform your next attempt. That’s how the world moves forward.

The third truth I will share is that optimism is infectious. I learned this from my parents – particularly my mother – and it has been one of the key ingredients in inspiring my colleagues at Pfizer to shoot for the moon and make the impossible possible.

Of course, with our world facing several threats – war, the pandemic and racial hatred, to name just a few – you may find yourself asking: “How can we feel optimistic in a world that feels so dark?”

There are many reasons to be optimistic, including …

Human ingenuity. Humans have a proven ability to solve problems, and the convergence of advances in digital technologies and biology have us poised to make significant progress in the battle against disease.

Human compassion. As I was reminded again during my visit this week to Yad Vashem, the compassion of those who helped Jews escape the Holocaust was awe-inspiring and can be seen today in those welcoming refugees from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world.

And human courage. There’s that word again. It’s a powerful thing to have the courage to try something new, to challenge the status quo, to speak out against injustice. And even the smallest acts of courage can have a transformational impact on our world.

I will close with a quote from the man many have called the greatest philosopher of all time – the namesake of the university from which I proudly graduated – Aristotle – who said:

“Excellence is never an accident. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice not chance, determines your destiny.”

As you approach the many alternatives that lie ahead in your journey, always remember to aim high, be resilient and remain optimistic in all you do. If you do, you just might be surprised with what you can accomplish – and the lives you will impact.

Thank you again for inviting me to be a part of this celebration. I wish you all tremendous success.

Congratulations and good luck.

To watch the film on Dr. Bourla we aired at his Honorary Doctorate Conferment Ceremony on June 30, 2022, click here (a subtitled film is also available):  

Dr. Albert Abraham Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO, received an honorary doctorate yesterday from the President of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Professor Uri Sivan, during the graduation ceremony of 1,869 Technion undergraduates. Dr. Bourla received the award “in acknowledgment of his exceptional leadership in advancing the rapid development of a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19; with gratitude for spearheading this monumental feat in the face of a global crisis; and in admiration of his steadfast commitment and pioneering ingenuity, which embodies the highest values and standards of excellence in scientific innovation.”

Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan said: “As Chairman and CEO of the Board of Pfizer Inc., Dr. Bourla headed the trailblazing effort to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The development of the COVID-19 vaccine is an extraordinary biotechnological achievement that exemplifies the importance of science and multidisciplinary research. The vaccine helped rescue the world from the crisis that began at the end of 2019, with the epidemic outbreak. Dr. Bourla’s family history, as a son of Holocaust survivors from Thessaloniki, is a symbol of the remarkable vitality of the Jewish people and their renewal capacity in the wake of the Holocaust.”

Dr. Bourla addressed the students in a moving and inspiring speech. “As a scientist and a Jew, I can’t overstate how much it means to me to receive this degree and to be invited to address this year’s graduating class. Since first opening its doors in 1924, the Technion has been a beacon of light not only for Israel, but for the entire world. The story of the Technion, like that of my company, Pfizer, is one of innovation, but also of courage and optimism – all of which have helped give birth to technological and scientific breakthroughs aimed at making the world a better place.

“Innovation, courage, and optimism are three things that define my colleagues at Pfizer. It took courage to make the counterintuitive decision to use mRNA technology in the COVID-19 vaccine we developed with BioNTech. This courage not only helped us deliver a safe and effective vaccine in only nine months, but it may also prove to be an important step in unlocking the great promise that the technology holds for many other therapeutic areas, including cancer and rare disease. Our successful vaccine journey showed us we can make the impossible possible – and our colleagues are now taking this newfound optimism to their work in other areas.”

He ended by citing human ingenuity, compassion, and courage, as values for the graduates to aspire and hold on to. “As you approach the many alternatives that lie ahead in your journey, always remember to aim high, be resilient, and remain optimistic in all you do. If you do, you just might be surprised with what you can accomplish – and the lives you will impact.”

Dr. Albert Abraham Bourla was born in Thessaloniki in 1961 to a Jewish family, part of which perished in the Holocaust. His family, who arrived in Greece from Spain following the Alhambra Decree, dealt in jewelry and diamonds, and their business spread across many countries. The Thessaloniki Jewish community, once the largest in Greece, had a population of approximately 80,000 in the 1930s. Approximately two-thirds of them perished in the Holocaust.

Dr. Bourla completed all his academic degrees at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and holds a Ph.D. in veterinary medicine and reproductive biotechnology. In 1993 he joined Pfizer, one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies, where he went on to hold a series of positions. He oversaw antibody development and served as Group President of VOC – Pfizer’s Global Vaccines, Oncology, and Consumer Healthcare business. In October 2018 he was appointed Pfizer’s Chief Operating Officer, in 2019, he was appointed CEO, and in 2020 he became Chairman of the company.

In recent years, Dr. Bourla has led Pfizer in strengthening ties with technology companies and in adopting technologies such as artificial intelligence. At the beginning of 2020, following the global outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, he harnessed most of the company’s resources to develop a vaccine, meeting challenging schedules. Throughout the process, Dr. Bourla promised there would be no compromise regarding the safety of the vaccine, and approval was obtained after an extensive study that included more than 40,000 subjects.

An honorary doctorate is the highest honor bestowed by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology upon the few who distinguished themselves through their outstanding scientific work or their leadership and public service to the benefit of Israel, the Jewish people, and humanity at large. Some notable examples include Chaim Weizmann (1952), Albert Einstein (1953), Niels Bohr (1958), David Ben Gurion (1962), Yitzhak Rabin (1990), Margaret Thatcher (1989) and Dr. Angela Merkel (2021).

The Aviva and Andrew Goldenberg Architecture Studio Pavilion – the result of a generous donation by Technion Guardians and alumni Dr. Andrew and the late Aviva Goldenberg – was inaugurated.

The lives of Dr. Andrew and Aviva Goldenberg (Z”L) have long been intertwined with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Both are distinguished Technion alumni and Technion Guardians – a title reserved for the University’s most generous supporters. In June 2018, both Andrew and Aviva Goldenberg were awarded Technion Honorary Doctorates and announced their gift for the Goldenberg Pavilion.

In a moving ceremony held in the Technion, Dr. Andrew Goldenberg said: “Together with my daughters, we are happy to participate in the opening of the Pavilion that is part of the Technion faculty. My wife Aviva had a vision in respect to teaching and training architects. An accomplished architect, professor of architecture, and founder of an architecture firm, she was a successful and committed professional. Aviva and I committed to help the Technion – and the plan is now nearly completed.”

The couple’s twin daughters, Maya and Keren Goldenberg, also attended the ceremony.

Maya Goldenberg: “My parents met in 1967 as students of the Technion. Now they are helping a new generation of architecture students attain their education in the Technion and become outstanding professionals. My mom would be very happy to see her dream realized.”

Keren Goldenberg: “The link is both professional and emotional. It’s hard to focus on this wonderful event as we are grieving our mother’s recent passing. We wish she was here to witness the recent realization of this dream.”

Andrew and Aviva Goldenberg began their studies at the Technion in the mid-1960s. Andrew went on to graduate from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering under the supervision of Professor Emeritus Julius Preminger, while Aviva graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.

In the early 1970s, Andrew and Aviva Goldenberg travelled to Canada so that Andrew could continue his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto. He was made a professor in 1982 and has remained there ever since. His long robotics-focused career path includes working in an elite team with NASA and Canada’s National Research Council to build robotic components for the space shuttle. Aviva Goldenberg was a renowned architect, who founded her own architectural firm and was a professor and program coordinator of Architectural Technology at Centennial College AAT.

Professor Alona Nitzan-Shiftan from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning said: “I will start by speaking about a very special person … the late Mrs. Aviva Goldberg. She was a highly respected architect, wife, mother, and grandmother. She studied here and graduated in 1971. This is a powerful way to honor Aviva’s legacy for many years to come and will be a reminder for generations. The Pavilion is not only a legacy in name but also a place where students will acquire tools they need for the world of architecture.”

Technion President Professor Uri Sivan said: “It’s sad I never had the chance to meet Aviva. We will remember her through this Pavilion, which will enable the best and brightest students to achieve excellence in a modern studio workspace. We’re very grateful for your tremendous generosity over the years. Aviva will never be forgotten. Her memory and legacy will continue at the Technion, and we look forward to your future visits – where you will be able to see this place flourishing and full of life.”

Professor Yasha Grobman, dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning: “It’s a great honor to participate in this inauguration. It’s very symbolic that the new building is opening almost 100 years after Einstein’s visit in 1923. This wonderful pavilion is the first studio space for master’s degrees in Israel. As Eileen Gray once said: ‘to create, one must ask questions.’ This pavilion is the result of such questions. We realized that we need to reinvent ourselves. We’re confident this new model will be a beacon and role model to the profession. All this would not have happened without the vision and generosity of the Goldenberg family and especially Aviva. Thank you. Architecture should speak for a time and place but yearn for timelessness. It’s a small step towards a better world.”

The Pavilion was designed by Mochly Eldar Architects – set up by Dagan Mochly, himself a Technion architecture graduate, together with Reuven Crimow.

Mochly has built a successful company for Urban Planning and Architectural Design of Buildings for commerce, medical facilities, offices, industry, high-tech, universities, research centers, pharmaceutical industry, retirement homes, residential properties, and hotels.

Watch, video created when Andrew and Aviva Goldenberg received Technion Honorary Doctorates :

Click here for the Technion website of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning

The first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan was performed on a live patient nearly 50 years ago. Since then, the method has become indispensable for performing non-invasive imaging of internal bodily structures and the brain. While the conventional radiological imaging technique is already well established around the world, many advanced methods and other MRI applications are being developed and investigated for the purpose of medical diagnoses.

This summer, the Technion’s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering joins in the global scientific effort to improve the field of MRI by opening the May-Blum-Dahl MRI Research Center on the main campus. The Center will be located underground, in its own 200-square-meter facility housing a brand-new Siemens 3T MRI scanner delivered directly from Germany.

According to Dr. Moti Freiman of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering and the Center’s academic director, the arrival of such a critical research tool has been long-awaited by the university’s scientists, who currently rely on extrapolated data and other MRI facilities to conduct their studies. The machine will be accessible to researchers from a wide range of fields at the Technion and the surrounding area, in addition to industry players interested in deepening their research and development capacities with MRI.

Expanding MRI research capabilities

The Center’s researchers will investigate a wide range of topics with various demographics, such as research into learning disabilities and language processing disorders in infants and children, conducted by Prof. Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus of the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, among other research fields. The Center is the ideal place for conducting such a study as it includes a mock scanner, making it possible to acclimate children and infants to the imaging process prior to entering the actual device.

Advanced cognitive neuroscientific studies will be conducted by Dr. Yoed Kenett’s lab in the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management using machine learning and MRI to investigate the complexity and organization of higher-level cognition, including creativity, associative thought, knowledge, and memory search.

Motor disability research, carried out by Prof. Firas Mawase’s lab in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, will seek to improve health outcomes for the victims of traumatic brain injuries by looking into the neural mechanisms that govern human movement.

Using artificial intelligence to improve treatment

An internationally recognized expert in biomedical imaging, including computational radiology and MRI, Dr. Freiman eagerly awaits the opening of the Center to continue expanding his extensive body of radiological research. Dr. Freiman will look for clinical imaging phenotypes that describe tissue physiology, which can be characterized as “imprints,” using artificial intelligence to improve treatments for breast cancer and Crohn’s disease diagnoses, among other applications.

Dr. Freiman is also thrilled about the potential to study the science of MRI technology: “The Center is unique in that, unlike other universities where the MRI centers are not part of the engineering faculty, at the Technion, the vision is to leverage the enormous capabilities in engineering to develop MRI innovations at the forefront of research and technology, while addressing unmet clinical needs. For that, we have made sure that our center will be open for computer science, electrical engineering, signal processing, artificial intelligence and physics research to improve the image acquisition process itself, adding to its capacity to generate positive outcomes for human health.”

Manifestation of a multidisciplinary scientific approach

The Center’s staff will encourage multidisciplinary research and collaborative efforts between faculties and fields. As Dr. Daphna Link-Sourani, the Center’s manager, puts it: “The nature of MRI research is itself multidisciplinary, involving the fields of biology, physics, and chemistry on the one hand, and electrical, computer and materials engineering – on the other. The Center is a living example of MRI’s robust scientific approach.”

Ahead of the Technion’s centennial, Drs. Freiman and Link-Sourani believe the opening of a one-of-a-kind MRI research facility is another reason to celebrate: “The opening of the Center represents the evolution of the Technion from a small class of engineering and architecture students to an internationally recognized research university contributing to the betterment of human health.”

New material developed in a joint study between the Technion and the University of Chicago paves the way for restoring damaged nerve tissue and heart pacing through an external light source on the body. It is based on the concept that light projected into the body (near-infrared) will hit a membrane made of the new material, which will photo-activate the damaged nerve tissue or heart. The study, published in Nature Materials, was led by Assistant Professor Hemi Rotenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion and Professor Bozhi Tian of the University of Chicago.

Nerve tissues are the biological platform that transmits information between different areas of the body. Most of them are found in the two control centers of the central nervous system: the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system stems from the central nervous system, controlling many physical activities, including muscle activation and the transmission of sensory information.

Damage to the peripheral nervous system can lead to limitations such as paralysis, numbness and chronic pain. Although peripheral nerves can undergo regeneration, this is a slow process with limited outcome. However, some medical interventions may enhance rehabilitation.

One solution for the treatment of damaged nerves is electrical stimulation, the effectiveness of which has been demonstrated in many studies. The problem is that this method usually involves invasive procedures that can damage the body’s tissues. The development by Prof. Rotenberg may eliminate the need for electrode transplantation.

Researchers at the Technion and the University of Chicago created a new semiconductor device in a flexible, ultra-thin membrane configuration that interfaces well with biological tissues. The idea is to use this membrane to wrap the damaged nerve tissue or in the case of heart pacing – wrap the heart itself. This step will be carried out as part of the surgery that is necessary in any case in the event of such vulnerabilities.

“Our development is a photovoltaic material, that is, material that converts light energy into electrical energy that affects nerve tissue,” explained Prof. Rotenberg. “In the article, we demonstrate the efficacy of the new substance in two different contexts – heart pacing and the activation of the peripheral nervous system. In the context of heart treatments, for example, such a device can allow temporary cardiac pacing for post-operative rehabilitation and avoid the use of a temporary electrode to be inserted into the heart. Because the membrane we developed is made of a silicon-based material, which absorbs in the body without any toxic effect whatsoever, there is no need for further surgical action to remove it from the body.”

The uniqueness of the material developed by the researchers is the formation of a semiconducting diode junction from a single type of silicon. This is highly unusual, as diodes are usually made by interfacing two types of silicon. Semiconductors are based on energetic gaps that determine their level of conductivity; they are usually made up of n-type materials, which contribute an electron to the material, and p-type materials that take an electron from the material (leaving a hole instead). The connection between the two materials creates an efficient interface called p-n junction, the building block of electronic devices and solar cells.

The connection between the two different materials is a very complex technological challenge, hence the importance of the discovery presented in the new article; a diode made only of p-type silicon, and the junction is built of ordinary silicon and porous silicon.

According to Prof. Rotenberg, the creation of the new material was unexpected. “I accidentally used a metal tweezer in the laboratory, which provided iron ions to the solution – something I did not plan to happen. The iron ions turned out to catalyze the creation of nanopores on the surface of silicon.”

He also says the new material is a window that allows the medical team to have an external impact on the tissues of the patient’s body. Outside the medical field, the new development is expected to contribute greatly to various applications, for example, in the field of renewable energies. Since renewable energy sources such as the sun are volatile and do not operate at constant intensity throughout the day, energy storage becomes a major challenge in promoting the use of these energies. One of the trends in this regard is the production of hydrogen using the decomposition of water by the power of solar radiation, because the hydrogen produced is a storable energy source. Prof. Rotenberg estimates and hopes that the new material he developed with his colleagues will accelerate the development of more advanced and efficient solar devices.

Video: An isolated heart that spontaneously contracts. On the wall of the heart, you can see the silicon membrane (on the right). By projecting light on the membrane, you can change the heart rate in case of an arrhythmia (for the video we used a green light because infrared light does not show up well to the human eye). Similarly, limb movements can be affected by pulses of light.

For the full article in Nature Materials click here.

The Zisapel Electrical and Computer Engineering Building was inaugurated last week at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology during the Board of Governors meeting. The eight-story, 5,400 square-meter building will house the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Its construction was made possible thanks to a generous donation from the Zohar and Yehuda Zisapel, who are both alumni of the faculty. Last week, the brothers were awarded the Technion Medal – the most prestigious award bestowed in recognition of life-long support of the Technion.

“We enrolled at the Technion 50 years ago because it was the best engineering school in Israel – and actually also the only one,” said Zohar Zisapel. “Now we must preserve the Technion’s elite stature, which is why we are pleased that we are able to help.” His brother Yehuda Zisapel said that “The Faculty’s first building, where we studied, was donated by Fishbach, an American Jew, and was named for him. It’s a big honor for us that the new Faculty building was donated by us – Israelis who studied at the Technion.”

“It is rare for an institution of higher learning and research to make such a huge impact on a society and a country as the Technion did for Israel,” wrote President of Israel Yitzhak Herzog to Yehuda Zisapel. “Thanks to your many years of work, Zisapel brothers, there is today a bustling state-of-the-art research center that serves dozens of research groups from the Technion and elsewhere, enabling the faculty to boost its standing at the forefront of global research. In this way, the Technion will continue to train the best engineers and researchers for Israel’s high-tech industry, which needs the best engineers in order to enable its continued growth and prosperity.”

Technion President Professor Uri Sivan said, “Every time I visit the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, I am aware that this is a unique Faculty with an enormous impact on the State of Israel. Zohar and Yehuda gave an important push to the field of nanotechnology, which led to a revolution in Israel’s technological capabilities. They identified the importance of this field at a very early stage and generously contributed to its development at the Technion. The new building will help us continue to develop the faculty.” Prof. Sivan thanked Yehuda and Zohar for their support, their partnership, and their friendship.

“Israel suffers from a severe shortage of engineers and technological workers,” said Yehuda Zisapel. “Our donation to this building reflects our vision of helping the Faculty and the Technion increase the number of faculty members as well as the scope of research and teaching fields, and to train more young engineers for the benefit of Israel’s high-tech industry.” He added that, “We began studying at the Technion before the term ‘Israeli high-tech’ was coined. We are proud to play a part in the faculty’s development, and we hope that the new building will not only be used to expand the faculty but also to tighten the connection between the Technion and industry.”

Professor Idit Keidar, dean of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said that “The new building will enable us to carry out the quantum leap that the Faculty needs – recruiting brilliant faculty members and advanced-degree students, entering new research fields such as quantum technologies and AI applications in a wide range of fields, and building an improved computer infrastructure, which is necessary for new breakthroughs. On behalf of all of us, I would like to thank Zohar and Yehuda Zisapel. I promise the new building will be buzzing with activity and teeming with life.”

“Yehuda and Zohar are role models of Technion alumni who not only became pioneers of Israel’s elite tech industry, but also spearhead the Israel Friends of the Technion,” said Professor Peretz Lavie, chair of the Israel Friends of the Technion. “Their support of the Technion, and especially of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering where they studied, is consistent and long-standing. The Zisapel Building joins the Nanoelectronics Building that is named after their parents Moshe and Sara Zisapel, which they donated previously. The Israel Friends of the Technion thanks Yehuda and Zohar and hopes that many others will follow in their footsteps.”

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology inaugurates the Mehoudar Center for Inventors – a center for creative engineering design. The center will encourage inventors from all over the country, school children, university students, and faculty members to dream and imagine. Most importantly, the center will provide them with the necessary engineering tools for building and testing prototypes – with the assistance of a highly skilled technical team and the resources to plan and execute their designs. The Mehoudar Center for Inventors will also be home for cross-faculty collaborations, for example the development of multidisciplinary final projects.

The center is named in honor of Technion graduate Raphael (Rafi) Mehoudar, graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion (1966) and the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the Technion (2014). On Israel’s 67th Independence Day (2015), Mehoudar was given the honor of being selected as one of the torchbearers, in acknowledgement of his contribution as “a successful, world-renowned engineer and entrepreneur who developed the drip irrigation technology that became an international success.”

Technion President Professor Uri Sivan stated that “The Mehoudar Center for Inventors offers a new and innovative approach to the challenge of maintaining and fostering the spirit of ingenuity in our students, faculty, high school students, and anybody interested in building and testing a prototype. The center will allow its users to transform their creative ideas and innovations into models and prototypes using its advanced new facilities, as well as experienced mentors. A hands-on approach will provide them with access to a productive space to explore and test their ideas and research before taking them to scale. We are confident that this approach will greatly inspire current and future creators to turn their inventions into practical technologies and follow the example set by Rafi and others.”

Prof. Peretz Lavie, Chairman of the Israel Friends of the Technion and former Technion president, noted that ” Raphael (Rafi) Mehoudar will be remembered in history as the person who has made one of the most important contributions to modern agriculture and by that changed the life of millions around the world. Mehoudar’s drip technology enables farmers to achieve greater yield of quality crops with reduced use of water, soil, and fertilizer resources, and with little impact on the environment. Millions of farmers currently use these systems in more than 110 countries around the world.”

Prof. Ezri Tarazi, Head of t-hub – the Technion Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, said that “Hundreds of millions of people around the world owe Rafi Mehoudar the very food that is laid on their table every day. The global climate crisis and the desertification process affecting large parts of the planet only reinforce the vital need for Mehoudar inventions, for the purposes of sustainability and survival.”

At the age of 20, while still at the Technion, Raphael Mehoudar developed the dual flush toilet mechanism, currently in-use in almost every bathroom in Israel. At the same period, he developed also a unique sprinkler for watering square areas – as opposed to the standard 360° sprinkler. The Standards Institution of Israel was very enthusiastic about the young inventor, and after his release from the IDF, they recruited him for a part-time job within the institute. ‘Netafim’, which heard about the pressure regulator that he had developed, contacted him, and the rest is history: Mehoudar went on to invent and develop the drip irrigation technologies that changed the world of agriculture, and today he has about 400 patents registered to his name.

The new center will cover an area of about 1,000 square meters on the lower floor of the Danziger laboratories building, which was built in 1966 and is located next to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.