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The joy of a baby coming into the world is accompanied by fear for this helpless little being, completely reliant on outside help to survive. This trepidation is even greater for a baby born preterm, much more unprepared for the world that welcomes it, and needing help even to breathe. In the womb, the fetus receives oxygen from the mother, through the umbilical cord. Once born, the newborn must breathe independently. Many premature babies with underdeveloped lungs require mechanical ventilation. The more prematurely the baby is born, the longer they will need artificial breathing.

Using a 3D model of the babies’ upper airways, the research team of Prof. Josué Sznitman, of the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, discovered that due to shear forces caused by the air jet from the mechanical ventilator, cells in the airways display stress, and an inflammation process begins. Following this discovery, the researchers successfully tested the use of an anti-inflammatory drug, commonly used to help asthma patients, to prevent the damage caused by the ventilator.

Approximately one in 10 babies around the world is born prematurely. In high-income countries, most premature babies survive. But despite significant advances in the care of preterm babies and improved ventilation technologies, many suffer from lifelong disabilities of varied severity. One problem is offsetting adverse side effects of invasive mechanical ventilation, essential for maintaining the lives of preemies incapable of breathing independently. Today, the impact of ventilation on patient health and the fundamental mechanisms causing damage is still not fully understood, which presents an obstacle to developing solutions. Prof. Sznitman’s team confronts these challenges by combining expertise in physics, physiology, and biology.

In a study published last year in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Prof. Sznitman and (his then doctoral student) Dr. Eliram Nof identified an airflow phenomenon largely unnoticed in medical literature: a jet structure originating in the tube inserted into the trachea during mechanical ventilation. Using a physical (fluid dynamics based) model, they discovered regions of elevated shear stress, potentially incurring damage to the epithelial cell lining of the respiratory tract. Calculations revealed significant risks of injury from these forces, especially worrisome if occurring for lengthy periods in fragile patients such as premature babies.

In a follow-up study recently published in Bioengineering & Translational Medicine, the researchers tested their hypothesis in a new model featuring an artificial human lung epithelium. The team constructed a 3-D model of the upper respiratory tract, including the trachea and several branched airways. They cultured a layer of human lung epithelial cells in the model’s inner lumen, tracking their condition following mechanical ventilation. They observed that the cells displayed stress and released cytokines – signaling proteins that influence inflammation.

Following this discovery, the group looked for means to mitigate or prevent the damage. The medication Montelukast, sold under the brand name Singulair, is commonly used in treating asthma patients. They found that topical delivery of the medication prior to starting mechanical ventilation considerably reduced cell death. It also altered the secretion of inflammation-related signaling proteins (cytokines). Repurposing an existing, fully approved drug saves the vast resources and time required for developing new medication, allowing for faster and easier adoption in other clinical uses.

“Today, we know that artificial ventilation incurs various types of trauma to the respiratory system despite being an established, life-saving procedure,” explained Prof. Sznitman. “Much of this damage has been attributed to mechanical factors such as high pressure and distention of deep (alveolar) lung tissue. In recent years, new insights into more complex processes have emerged. In the current study, we demonstrated in vitro the start of an inflammatory response at the core of morbidity in invasively ventilated infants. We linked the flow-induced shear stresses to inflammation by measuring cytokines, the messengers of the immune system, and tracking epithelial cell health.”

Damage caused by mechanical ventilation, particularly prolonged mechanical ventilation, is not just observed in premature babies. When the COVID-19 epidemic began, countries were racing to acquire ventilators. Soon, however, patients requiring prolonged respiratory support were developing inflammation and dying. Medical personnel started making every effort to postpone putting patients on ventilators, even when the patients were struggling to breathe on their own. The findings of Prof. Sznitman’s group could improve their survival chances and help patients suffering from other conditions, such as COPD, that necessitate prolonged mechanical ventilation.

The methodology used by Prof. Sznitman’s group is of particular interest. Modeling the upper airways, they uncovered the mechanism of a deleterious effect and proposed treatment, all without necessitating animal studies. While animal testing cannot be eliminated from medical research entirely, advanced technologies permit scientists to use other means for earlier stages. Beyond reducing animal suffering, such methodologies permit scientists to obtain results faster, at a lower cost, and with reduced confounding factors, speeding up research.

This study was led by Prof. Josue Sznitman, Dr. Eliram Nof, and Dr. Arbel Artzy-Schnirman, in collaboration with clinical specialists in pediatrics and otolaryngology, including Dr. Liron Borenstein-Levin, a faculty member at the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and an attending physician at the Neonatology Intensive Care Unit at the Rambam Health Care Campus. The work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Dr. Eliram Nof recently began his postdoctoral fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and Dr. Arbel Artzy-Schnirman has been appointed the Head of the Advanced Technology Center for Applied Medical Research at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

Particle image velocimetry (PIV)-based visualization of the air jet in the airways:

For the article in Bioengineering & Translational Medicine click here

Today, January 4th, is World Braille Day, marking Louis Braille’s birthday. Although the Braille tactile writing system was invented about 200 years ago, there have been many technological challenges in adapting it to the computerized age.

A recent breakthrough published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) heralds a new generation of compact and efficient Braille monitors. The findings by researchers at the Technion and Cornell University present a “robotic Braille monitor” with a dynamic silicone surface and small Braille “bubbles” on top of it. The development is based on the flow of methane and oxygen into the silicone surface and the swelling of these “bubbles” using controlled micro-scale combustion and without any need for a pump.

The study’s authors, Prof. Amir Gat and Ph.D. student Ofek Peretz from the Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, are engaged in broader research of soft robotics. This area draws great inspiration from biological tissue and natural organs such as an elephant’s trunk and an octopus’ arm, creating articulated robots, using flexible tubes actuated by internal fluids. The flow of the liquid into different patterns affects the flexible device in different ways, and a well-designed system can lead to precise movement and efficient control.

Louis Braille, born January 4, 1809, lost his sight at the age of five. His father created a wooden board for him with nails in the shape of alphabet letters. At the age of 15, Braille developed the code now known as Braille.

For the article in PNAS click here.

The chairman of the conference’s organizing committee is the Director of IDSI, Prof. Paul Feigin from the Technion. “The conference will be attended by dozens of Technion lecturers and their colleagues from research universities in Israel, from public institutions and from companies,” he said. “The importance of a physical meeting lies in the need to build the data science community to include core researchers and researchers from satellite disciplines. Such a community will promote mutual and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and lead to the informed and ethical use of data science for the benefit of society and industry.”

In recent years, there has been a leap in data science and artificial intelligence, and these are increasingly affecting all areas of life, including transportation, medicine, and education. It was against this backdrop that the national initiative was created in 2020. Established by the Council for Higher Education, the initiative promotes activity in these fields through collaborations within academia, between academia and industry, and between entities abroad. The international conference marks the first year of the program’s activities both nationally and internationally.

The conference deals with a wide range of topics, including computational learning, natural language processing (NLP), statistical learning, bioinformatics, AI and data science in education, computer vision, data science in biology, responsible AI and general welfare, and the mathematical basis for data sciences. The conference’s keynote lecturers are Prof. Yoav Freund and Prof. Trey Ideker from the University of California, San Diego; Prof. Bin Yu from Berkeley, and Prof. Ming Yuan from Columbia University. Alongside the rich professional program, which includes lectures and poster presentations, there will also be social activities, including gala evenings and excursions in and around the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi.

 

Link to the conference website

Link to IDSI website

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is undertaking the necessary preparations and safety measures in face of the coronavirus. This site provides ongoing updates, instructions, tools and additional valuable information concerning the issue:

https://emergency.technion.ac.il/en/

From the Terminator to Spiderman’s suit, self-repairing robots and devices abound in sci-fi movies. In reality, though, wear and tear reduce the effectiveness of electronic devices until they need to be replaced. What if the cracked screen of your mobile phone could heal itself overnight? Or, if the solar panels providing energy to satellites could self-repair the damage caused by micro-meteorites?

The field of self-repairing materials is rapidly expanding, and what used to be science fiction might soon become reality, thanks to Technion – Israel Institute of Technology scientists who developed eco-friendly nanocrystal semiconductors capable of self-healing. Their findings, recently published in Advanced Functional Materials, describe the process in which a group of materials called double perovskites display self-healing properties after being damaged by the radiation of an electron beam. The perovskites, first discovered in 1839, have recently garnered scientists’ attention due to unique electro-optical characteristics that make them highly efficient in energy conversion, despite inexpensive production. A special effort has been put into the use of lead-based perovskites in highly efficient solar cells.

The Technion research group of Prof. Yehonadav Bekenstein from the Faculty of Materials Sciences and Engineering and the Solid-State Institute at the Technion is searching for green alternatives to the toxic lead and is engineering lead-free perovskites. The team specializes in the synthesis of nano-scale crystals of new materials. By controlling the crystals’ composition, shape, and size, they change the material’s physical properties.

Nanocrystals are the smallest material particles that remain naturally stable. Their size makes certain properties more pronounced and enables research approaches that would be impossible on larger crystals, such as imaging using electron microscopy to see how atoms in the materials move. This was, in fact, the method that enabled the discovery of self-repair in the lead-free perovskites.

The perovskite nanoparticles were produced in Prof. Bekenstein’s lab using a short, simple process that involves heating the material to 100°C for a few minutes. When Ph.D. students Sasha Khalfin and Noam Veber examined the particles using a transmission electron microscope, they discovered the exciting phenomenon. The high-voltage electron beam used by this type of microscope caused faults and holes in the nanocrystals. The researchers were then able to explore how these holes interact with the material surrounding them and how they move and transform within it.

They saw that the holes moved freely within the nanocrystal but avoided its edges. The researchers developed a code that analyzed dozens of videos made using the electron microscope to understand the movement dynamics within the crystal. They found that holes formed on the surface of the nanoparticles, and then moved to energetically stable areas inside. The reason for the holes’ movement inwards was hypothesized to be organic molecules coating the nanocrystals’ surface. Once these organic molecules were removed, the group discovered the crystal spontaneously ejected the holes to the surface and out, returning to its original pristine structure – in other words, the crustal repaired itself.

This discovery is an important step towards understanding the processes that enable perovskite nanoparticles to heal themselves and paves the way to their incorporation in solar panels and other electronic devices.

Prof. Yehonadav Bekenstein completed his degrees in physics and chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the Technion faculty in 2018. He has received multiple awards, including the Käte and Franz Wiener Prize (Excellent PhD Thesis Award), the Rothschild Fellowship for postdoctoral scholars, and the Alon Scholarship for the Integration of Outstanding Faculty. In 2020 he was awarded the ERC Starting Grant for early-career scientists.

For the article in Advanced Functional Materials click here

Electron microscopy video displaying the formation of the hole on the surface of the nanocrystal and its movement inwards:

Electricity from the Sea: Researchers from the Technion have developed a new method that harvests an electrical current directly from seaweed in an environmentally friendly and efficient fashion. The idea, which came to doctoral student Yaniv Shlosberg while he was on the beach, has been developed by a consortium of researchers from three Technion Faculties who are members of the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP), along with a researcher from the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute (IOLR).

The researchers have presented their new method for collecting an electrical current directly from macroalgae (seaweed) in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics. The paper describes results obtained from researchers from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, the Faculty of Biology, the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, GTEP, and IOLR.

The use of fossil fuels results in the emission of greenhouse gases and other polluting compounds. These have been found to be connected to climate change, as evidenced by a variety of terrestrial phenomenon that have brought climate change to the forefront of global concerns. Pollution due to use of these fuels starts from their extraction and transportation around the globe, to be used in centralized power plants and refineries.

These problematic issues are the driving force behind research into methods of alternative, clean, and renewable energy sources. One of these is the use of living organisms as the source of electrical currents in microbial fuel cells (MFC). Certain bacteria have the ability to transfer electrons to electrochemical cells to produce electrical current. The bacteria need to be constantly fed and some of them are pathogenic.

A similar technology is Bio-PhotoElectrochemical Cells (BPEC). As for the MFC, the source of electrons can be from photosynthetic bacteria, especially cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae).  Cyanobacteria make their own food from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight, and in most cases they are benign. In fact, there are cyanobacteria such as Spirulina, that are considered “superfoods” and are grown in large quantities. The research groups of Profs. Adir and Schuster have previously developed technologies that utilized cyanobacteria for obtaining electrical current and hydrogen fuel, as published in Nature Communications and Science. Cyanobacteria do have some drawbacks. Cyanobacteria produce less current in the dark, as no photosynthesis is performed. Also, the amount of current obtained is still less than that obtained from solar cell technologies, so that while more environmentally benign, the BPEC is less attractive commercially.

In the present study, the researchers from the Technion and IOLR decided to try to solve this issue using a new photosynthetic source for the current – seaweed (macroalgae).

The research was led by Prof. Noam Adir and the doctoral student Yaniv Shlosberg, from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry and GTEP. They collaborated with additional researchers from the Technion: Dr. Tunde Toth (Schulich Faculty of Chemistry), Prof. Gadi Schuster, Dr. David Meiri, Nimrod Krupnik and Benjamin Eichenbaum (Faculty of Biology), Dr. Omer Yehezkeli and Matan Meirovich (Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering) and Dr. Alvaro Israel from IOLR in Haifa.

Many different species of seaweed grow naturally on the Mediterranean shore of Israel, especially Ulva (also known as sea lettuce) which is grown in large quantities at IOLR for research purposes.

After developing new methods to connect Ulva and BPEC, currents a thousand times greater than those from cyanobacteria were obtained – currents that are on the level of those obtained from standard solar cells. Prof. Adir notes that these increased currents are due to the high rate of seaweed photosynthesis, and the ability to use the seaweed in their natural seawater as the BPEC electrolyte – the solution that promotes electron transfer in the BPEC. In addition, the seaweed provides current in the dark, about 50% of that obtained in light. The source of the dark current is from respiration – where sugars made by the photosynthetic process are used as an internal source of nutrients. In a fashion similar to the cyanobacterial BOEC, no additional chemicals are needed to obtain the current. The Ulva produce mediating electron transfer molecules that are secreted from the cells and transfer the electrons to the BPEC electrode.

Fossil fuel-based energy producing technologies are known as “carbon positive.” This means that the process releases carbon to the atmosphere during fuel combustion. Solar cell technologies are known as “carbon-neutral,” no carbon is released to the atmosphere. However, the production of solar cells and their transportation to the site of use is many times more “carbon positive”. The new technology presented here is “carbon negative.” The seaweed absorbs carbon from the atmosphere during the day while growing and releasing oxygen. During harvesting of the current during the day, no carbon is released. During the night, the seaweed releases the normal amount of carbon from respiration. In addition, seaweed, especially Ulva, is grown for a variety of industries: food (Ulva is also considered a superfood), cosmeticsת and pharmaceuticals.

“It is a wonder where scientific ideas come from,” says Yaniv Shlosberg, the graduate student who first thought of the possibility of using seaweed. “The famous philosopher Archimedes had a brilliant idea in the bathtub, leading to the “Archimedes’ Principle.” I had the idea one day when I went to the beach. At the time I was studying the cyanobacterial BPEC, when I noticed seaweed on a rock that looked like electrical cords. I said to myself – since they also perform photosynthesis, maybe we can use them to produce current. From this idea came the collaboration from all the Technion and IOLR researchers which led to our most recent paper. I believe that our idea can lead to a real revolution in clean energy production.”

The Technion/IOLR researchers built a prototype device that collects the current directly in the Ulva growth vat. Prof. Adir adds: “By presenting our prototype device, we show that significant current can be harvested from the seaweed. We believe that the technology can be further improved leading to future green energy technologies.”

Grand Technion Energy Program Annual Research Day: Innovative Developments in Energy and Sustainability

The Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) held its annual Research Day on December 15, 2021. According to Professor Yoed Tsur, GTEP director, “GTEP’s mission is to advance research and to promote multidisciplinary cooperation in sustainable energy related fields on campus. This year, in addition to GTEP’s direct students, we invited all Technion graduate students who conduct energy related research to participate and present a poster. We are proud of the students’ impressive achievements.”

During the event, graduate students presented their research on posters, and three lectures were given:

• Green hydrogen production using innovative technology – Professor Avner Rothschild, from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, presented the innovative technology developed together with Professor Gideon Grader from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering that led to the establishment of the H2Pro start-up.
• Innovative flow batteries– This presentation explained research by Ph.D. student Rona Ronen-Manukovsky, under the supervision of Associate Professor Matthew Suss from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
• Impact on porous medium through flow pressures–Research by M.Sc. student Arnold Bachrach, under the supervision of Dr. Yaniv Edery from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was covered in this presentation.

The first-prize winners in the poster competition were:

Eliyahu Farber, who developed new methods for the precise production of porous carbon materials. These materials are relevant to a wide spectrum of applications, including batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells.

Inbal Offen-Polak develops low-cost catalysts for urea oxidation – a useful process with applications in water treatment, hydrogen production, and even fuel cells.

Both Eliyahu and Inbal are GTEP Ph.D.students, conducting their research under the supervision of Professor David Eisenberg from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry.

Second prize was awarded to two Ph.D. students:

Emma Massasa from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, under the supervision of Assistant Professor Yehonadav Bekenstein, developed a method for improving properties of proboscites – new materials used in the production of solar energy.

Rona Ronen-Manukovsky from GTEP, who is developing energy storage solutions of a significant size, under the supervision of Associate Professor Matthew Suss from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

The Best M.Sc. Poster Award category was won by GTEP graduate student Joseph (Joey) Cassell, who developed technology for producing solar energy under the supervision of Associate Professor Carmel Rotschild from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Joey and the two first-prize Ph.D. students, Eliyahu and Inbal, will represent GTEP with their research at the Technion’s Jacobs Graduate School Research Day on January 19, 2022.

Who hasn’t sometimes wished for an invisibility cloak? When looking at an object covered by an invisibility cloak, one would see the things behind it, as if light were passing through it, rather than hitting it and bouncing back to the viewer’s eye. The object would thus be rendered invisible. Acoustic cloaking is similar, except that it aims to hide an object from sound waves. Sound goes around the object rather than colliding it and bouncing off it. An acoustic cloak can have multiple applications, from military to oceanography and medical imaging.

Researchers in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion have developed a new physical model that manipulates the propagation of acoustic waves and elastic waves – thus bringing us closer to acoustic cloaking by controlling the waves created by hidden objects. This model that may potentially impact additional applications, including enhanced sensing and energy focusing. The development, which was published in Wave Motion, was headed by Professor Gal Shmuel and postdoctoral fellow Dr. René Pernas-Salomón, in collaboration with Rutgers University Professor Andrew Norris and Professor Michael Haberman of Texas A&M University.

As part of their research, the Technion team developed a new class of metamaterials – artificially engineered materials that exhibit properties not found in natural materials. Metamaterials derive their properties from their engineered microstructure. One example of a metamaterial property is a negative effective mass, which models materials moving in the opposite direction to the force applied to them.

The Technion team’s metamaterials possess a new metamaterial property, which they term electromomentum. In these metamaterials, momentum is coupled to applied electric fields, differently than what occur in natural materials: the metamaterial’s momentum alters when an electric field is applied, as described by the electromomentum property. Since the momentum balance of a body determines how elastic and sound waves flow through it, the electromomentum property offers a new knob to electrically control these waves by controlling momentum.

The research was sponsored by the Israel Science Foundation, the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities, the U.S. – Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Which factors determine how fast a quantum computer can perform its calculations? Physicists at the University of Bonn and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have devised an elegant experiment to answer this question. The results of the study are published in the journal Science Advances.

Quantum computers are highly sophisticated machines that rely on the principles of quantum mechanics to process information. This should enable them to handle certain problems in the future that are completely unsolvable for conventional computers. But even for quantum computers, fundamental limits apply to the amount of data they can process in a given time.

Quantum gates require a minimum time

The information stored in conventional computers can be thought of as a long sequence of zeros and ones, the bits. In quantum mechanics it is different: The information is stored in quantum bits (qubits), which resemble a wave rather than a series of discrete values. Physicists also speak of wave functions when they want to precisely represent the information contained in qubits.

In a traditional computer, information is linked together by so-called gates. Combining several gates allows elementary calculations, such as the addition of two bits. Information is processed in a very similar way in quantum computers, where quantum gates change the wave function according to certain rules.

Quantum gates resemble their traditional relatives in another respect: “Even in the quantum world, gates do not work infinitely fast,” explains Dr. Andrea Alberti of the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Bonn. “They require a minimum amount of time to transform the wave function and the information this contains.”

Quantum marbles in a bowl of light

More than 70 years ago, Soviet physicists Leonid Mandelstam and Igor Tamm deduced theoretically this minimum time for transforming the wave function. Physicists at the University of Bonn and the Technion have now investigated this Mandelstam-Tamm limit for the first time with an experiment on a complex quantum system. To do this, they used cesium atoms that moved in a highly controlled manner. “In the experiment, we let individual atoms roll down like marbles in a light bowl and observe their motion,” explains Alberti, who led the experimental study.

Atoms can be described quantum mechanically as matter waves. During the journey to the bottom of the light bowl, their quantum information changes. The researchers now wanted to know when this “deformation” could be identified at the earliest. This time would then be the experimental proof of the Mandelstam-Tamm limit. The problem with this, however, is that in the quantum world, every measurement of the atom’s position inevitably changes the matter wave in an unpredictable way. So, it always looks like the marble has deformed, no matter how quickly the measurement is made. “We therefore devised a different method to detect the deviation from the initial state,” Alberti says.

For this purpose, the researchers began by producing a clone of the matter wave, in other words an almost exact twin. “We used fast light pulses to create a so-called quantum superposition of two states of the atom,” explains Gal Ness, a doctoral student at the Technion and first author of the study. “Figuratively speaking, the atom behaves as if it had two different colors at the same time.” Depending on the color, each atom twin takes a different position in the light bowl: One is high up on the edge and “rolls” down from there. The other, conversely, is already at the bottom of the bowl. This twin does not move – after all, it cannot roll up the walls and so does not change its wave function.

The physicists compared the two clones at regular intervals. They did this using a technique called quantum interference, which allows differences in waves to be detected very precisely. This enabled them to determine after what time a significant deformation of the matter wave first occurred.

Two factors determine the speed limit

By varying the height above the bottom of the bowl at the start of the experiment, the physicists were also able to control the average energy of the atom. Average because, in principle, the amount cannot be determined exactly. The “position energy” of the atom is therefore always uncertain. “We were able to demonstrate that the minimum time for the matter wave to change depends on this energy uncertainty,” says Professor Yoav Sagi, who led the partner team at Technion: “The greater the uncertainty, the shorter the Mandelstam-Tamm time.”

This is exactly what the two Soviet physicists had predicted. But there was also a second effect: If the energy uncertainty was increased more and more until it exceeded the average energy of the atom, then the minimum time did not decrease further – contrary to what the Mandelstam-Tamm limit would suggest. The physicists thus proved a second speed limit, which was theoretically discovered about 20 years ago. The ultimate speed limit in the quantum world is therefore determined not only by the energy uncertainty, but also by the mean energy.

“It is the first time that both quantum speed boundaries could be measured for a complex quantum system, and even in a single experiment,” Alberti enthuses. Future quantum computers may be able to solve problems rapidly, but they too will be constrained by these fundamental limits.

The study was funded by the Reinhard Frank Foundation (in collaboration with the German Technion Society), The German Research Foundation (DFG), the Helen Diller Quantum Center at the Technion, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

From exciting scientific discoveries and technological innovations to new partnerships and prestigious awards, we have a lot to celebrate, as we prepare to usher in 2022.

This yearend edition of our monthly newsletter connects you to all of our latest research, year-in-review highlights, and a comprehensive report from Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan.

To get the latest news, read the December edition of our e-newsletter, Technion LIVE.

To read previous issues of Technion LIVE, click here. To subscribe, click here.

Learning to communicate: Technion students develop an app for the “Madrasa” project in honor of International Arabic Language Day 

The UN’s International Arabic Language Day is commemorated each year on December 18, which is the anniversary of a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly making Arabic one of its official working languages. Students from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology recently developed an app for the Madrasa project to help people learn Arabic. The app features a voice recognition component that will support tens of thousands of students as they work to develop Arabic pronunciation skills.

Madrasa is a social, technological, community-oriented initiative that advocates for better communication in Israeli society through spoken Arabic courses. It promotes language learning through a platform that includes free online courses, extensive activity through digital channels, and many other collaborations. There are currently more than 100,000 students enrolled in Madrasa courses.

According to Gilad Sevitt, founder and director of Madrasa, “During our seven years of operations, we have seen the need for people to practice their speaking proficiency while learning, while hearing the same question from students over and over again: ‘What about an app?’”

This question led to the recent collaboration between “Madrasa” and the Taub Faculty of Computer Science, as part of an “Industrial Project” course under the guidance of Professor Alex Bronstein. The course is focused on cooperation with industry and in the future will also lead to collaborations with various social organizations.

The project was aided by students Mahmod Yaseen and Rajeh Ayashe, who focused on developing the voice recognition components. Students Noor Hamdan, Rina Atieh, Lina Mansour, and Wadad Boulos, worked on developing the app itself. “Working with the students was very effective and helpful,” Sevitt said. “They came on board and contributed greatly to our project and we enjoyed working together on both the linguistic and technological levels.”

Mahmod and Rajeh created an effective infrastructure for bots to have conversations with students. The bot (voice recognition component) creates a conversation in spoken Arabic and teaches new students to pronounce words and have conversations on various topics. The conversations are written by Madrasa’s pedagogical team, and the students developed an editor that directs the level of conversation and content according to the knowledge gained by each student in the online courses.

IBM has been enthusiastic about the development and is considering moving forward with it. “With the help of Technion students, we were able to develop a voice recognition component that will finally allow tens of thousands of students in our online courses to practice their pronunciation in Arabic and speak while learning,” Sevitt said. “The component will be integrated as soon as possible in the courses alongside all videos, games, and exercises, and will be a kind of conversation bot through which students can practice their proficiency of spoken Arabic.”

This project, in which Noor, Rina, Lina, and Wadad are partners, includes the initial development of the app, as well as making various adjustments and solving any glitches that come up in the future.

The app will upgrade the students’ learning experience, provide alerts, and serve as the basis for many other developments, such as mobile games and more. It is expected to be released on Beta in the coming months.

The Technion recently inaugurated the new Amos Horev Sports Arena, named in honor of the larger-than-life general and former Technion president who pushed through various projects to improve student life during his nine-year tenure.

“The Technion is my home,” said Maj. Gen. (ret.) Horev during an October 28, 2021 ceremony attended by Technion President Uri Sivan, members of the Technion administration and board of directors, Friends of the Technion, and former and current Technion leadership. “I’ve always been involved in education . . . and I always aspired to promote excellence. . . Without excellence, our small country will not survive,” he said. “This new building is an expression of excellence. I thank all of you for your contribution to establishing this arena and am very moved to be here with you today.”

The new 21,500 square-foot arena features a court for handball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, badminton, and gymnastics, plus a 350-seat spectators’ gallery. The arena meets international standards, allowing it to host national and international competitions. Built with the generous support of the Friends of the Technion in Israel and around the world, the arena will be part of the 11-acre Technion Sports Village that provides tens of thousands of Technion students, faculty, and alumni with soccer fields, a running track, gyms, swimming pools, an indoor fitness center, and additional courts for squash, basketball, beach volleyball, and tennis.

Speaking at the inauguration, President Sivan noted that Maj. Gen. Horev was born in 1924, the same year the Technion opened its gates. “Ever since, his life has intertwined with that of the Technion and of Israel,” he said. “During his years as president, the Technion’s status as a leader in fields of national importance, including the development of defense technologies, was greatly strengthened.”

Maj. Gen. Horev served in the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Jewish underground army during the British Mandate for Palestine. He started to study mechanical engineering at the Technion, but his education was cut short with the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1948. He fought in Jerusalem and in the Negev and participated in the Burma Road convoy that broke the siege of Jerusalem. After the war, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then continued his military career as the Israel Defense Forces Chief of Ordnance, Quartermaster General, and Chief Scientist.

From 1973 to 1982, Maj. Gen. Horev served as President of the Technion, while also helping Rafael transform from a unit within the Ministry of Defense to Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. During his Technion tenure, he was instrumental in doubling the size of the campus and constructing the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine building. To support the students’ well-being, he had faculty members give lectures at Army outposts during the Yom Kippur War, and he established the university’s Psychological Services and an audio-visual library for self-study. He hired students for security and cleaning jobs to help make ends meet, and also helped establish student dorms, the university’s first pool, and the sports facilities. Maj. Gen. Horev continues today to serve as a member of the Technion Board of Directors and is Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors.

“You always had a warm place in your heart for the students and looked for ways to support them. That is why we thought that the arena, which will serve many generations of students in the future, is an exceptionally fitting way to thank you for everything you have done for Technion students,” said Technion Vice President and CEO Professor Boaz Golany.

The Technion family thanks donors Robert Polak of Chicago, Ill.; William and Cynthia Marcus of Chestnut Hill, Mass.; former president of both the ATS – New England and National American Technion Society boards Edward Goldberg of Bozeman, Mont.; and Drs. Nathan and Fariba Fischel of Los Angeles, Calif., alumni of the class of 1983, for their generous contributions to building the new arena.