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Technion Team Wins Discovery Award as Part of Nesta’s £10 Million Longitude Prize

Team Prismatix – a collaboration between Prof. Ester Segal’s research group at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering and clinicians from the Bnai Zion Medical Center – has been awarded with the Discovery Award for their promising developments in rapid diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance.

Team Prismatix developed a technology that provides a determination of antibiotic resistance in less than three hours. Using minimal volumes, bacteria are grown on small photonic silicon chips. Technion Ph.D. student Heidi Leonard, who leads the research effort, explains that “By measuring how light reflects off the surface of these “bio-chips”, we can determine whether bacteria are growing or dying in the presence of certain antibiotics and specific antibiotic concentrations. Importantly, our results are in excellent agreement with existing laboratory techniques.” The preliminary findings and concepts were recently published in the prestigious journal ACS Nano (“Unraveling Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Bacterial Networks on Micropillar Architectures Using Intrinsic Phase-Shift Spectroscopy.” ACS Nano, 2017, 11 (6), 6167-6177).

In Europe alone, it is estimated that more than four million people per year acquire hospital-associated infections. Determining the correct antibiotic for an infection in a timely manner is critical for both a patient and to prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance; however, a typical laboratory workup procedure requires 24 hours to confirm the presence of bacteria, and another 24–36 hours to identify the correct antibiotic to use. In total, the routine hospital lab time can take 1–3 days, during which time incorrect antibiotics may be administered, which can facilitate the growth of resistant strains. It is estimated that by the year 2050, antimicrobial resistance will be the cause of 10 million deaths per year worldwide, surpassing cancer to become the leading cause of death.

In addition to Heidi Leonard, Team Prismatix is comprised of Liran Holtzman, a graduate of the Technion Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering; Prof. Ofer Nativ, chairman of the Department of Urology at Bnai Zion Medical Center; Prof. Sarel Halachmi, vice chairman of the Department of Urology at Bnai Zion Medical Center; Prof. Ester Segal, professor in Biotechnology and Food Engineering at the Technion; and Prof. Leigh Canham, a UK representative from the University of Birmingham.

Governor Bruce Rauner and University of Illinois President Timothy L. Killeen signed a memorandum of understanding for academic research cooperation with the Technion

A memorandum of understanding for cooperation between the Technion and the University of Illinois was signed at Technion last week. The agreement was signed by Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan, Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner and President of the University of Illinois Timothy L. Killeen. “Just as you want to improve the lives of the residents of Israel, we want to improve the quality of life of our residents,” said the Governor of Illinois at the ceremony. “The new cooperation will serve all of us, and the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. We have a very broad common denominator; a long history, an ambitious vision and a desire to advance humanity.”

Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan said: “It is clear that the development of significant technologies is not possible without the broad foundation of basic science. The Technion’s goal is to maintain a balance between basic research and implementation, with the good of the State of Israel being a key component in our research and development strategy.” He presented Technion’s global strategy, centering on the establishment of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in New York and the Guangdong Technion Institute of Technology, which will be inaugurated in China next month.

After the ceremony, the Governor met with Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav and other senior Technion officials, including Senior Executive Vice President Professor Adam Shwartz, Dr. Gabriel Shemer of the Business Unit (T3), Prof. Carmel Domshlak of the William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, and Prof. Eli Biham, Head of the Technion Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center.

The University of Illinois System is actually a group of universities and institutes where some 700,000 graduates have studied and more than 80,000 students are currently enrolled. University President Timothy L. Killeen said during the visit: “This MOU pairs two giants of discovery. Like Technion, we strive for excellence. We enjoy economies of scale and you have other advantages, such as the speed at which you translate research into applications and bring products to the market. I have no doubt that all parties involved will benefit from our cooperation.”

 

Distinguished Prof. Jacob Ziv of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering has been chosen as laureate for the 2017 EMET Prize in the category of ‘Exact Sciences: Computer & Electronic Engineering.’

The prize is awarded annually under the auspices of the Prime Minister of Israel, and consists of five categories of academic or professional achievements that have significantly benefited society. Prof. Ziv is being recognized for his game-changing contribution to the fields of information and communications.

Over the years, Prof. Ziv has won prestigious awards including the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award, Israel Prize in the Exact Sciences, Israel Defense Prize (twice), Marconi International Award, IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, and Claude E. Shannon Award. He has held positions including President of the Israel Academy of Sciences, Chair of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Israeli Council for Higher Education, and has been a member of leading American and European societies.

The Lempel-Ziv algorithm, which Prof. Ziv developed together with Prof. Abraham Lempel of Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science, is an algorithm for compressing information that enables lossless compression regardless of the structure of the data and without prior knowledge of its statistical properties. Many of the compression technologies currently used in memory devices, computers, and smartphones were developed based on this algorithm.

The award ceremony is scheduled to take place on November 9, 2017.

Lessons from Marine Sponges Could Lead to Novel Glass Technology

HAIFA, ISRAEL (November 8, 2017) – The technology for glass forming and shaping requires heat treatment at high temperatures of about 1000o C. So it has long been a mystery how it is that certain marine organisms are able to form glass architectures (called spicules) in cold water.

Now, a paper published recently in Science Advances by Professor Emil Zolotoyabko, of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and colleagues in Germany, headed by Dr. Igor Zlotnikov from TU Dresden, is helping to unravel that mystery. Using the most advanced X-ray methods, nano-tomography and focused X-ray diffraction, available at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, Grenoble, France), the group uncovered the principles of spicule morphogenesis in certain kinds of marine sponges.

Marine sponges are one of the oldest multicellular organisms, with a fossil record that stretches back more than half a billion years. Demospongiae and Hexactinellida, two classes of sponges, synthesize mineralized silica-based skeletal elements, called glass spicules, which provide the animals with structural support and mechanical strength and help protect them from their environment. The spicules are microns to millimeters long and exhibit a diversity of highly regular three-dimensional branched morphologies that are an example of symmetry in biological systems (Fig. 1).

During spicule formation, the process of silica deposition is templated by an axial organic filament. The filament, up to 3 mm in diameter, is predominantly composed of enzymatically active proteins, silicatein and its derivatives, which catalyze bio-fabrication of silica, the process being genetically controlled by specialized cells, called sclerocytes.

According to the researchers, the most intriguing finding is that protein blocks in the axial filament are arranged in a crystal-like three-dimensional structure having hexagonal symmetry. The pores within this structure are filled by amorphous silica. This highly regular spatial arrangement of nano-metric amorphous blocks gives rise to very sharp spots in the X-ray diffraction pattern (Fig. 2), which bring comprehensive information on the spicule symmetry and the branching process.

For example, the researchers found that the main shaft of the spicule grows perpendicular to the base hexagon plane of the protein lattice. At some point, the branching of the shaft occurs, directed by pyramidal planes inclined by about 66o with respect to the hexagon plane. In that way, the tetrapod shape of the spicule (Fig. 1) is produced being guided by the symmetry properties of the protein crystal in the axial filament. Further splits (fork-like in Fig. 1) are also determined by particular planes in the hexagonal lattice.

“By using the crystalline axial filament, nature has mastered the fabrication of extremely complex glass structures at low temperatures that is far beyond the abilities of current human technology,” says Prof. Zolotoyabko. “Further understanding of how the organisms regulate the branching events in the filaments has the potential to be adopted in the production of technologically relevant nano-crystalline materials of complicated shapes for nano-electronics. Mimicking natural recipes in the lab will allow us to develop novel glass technology working at room temperature.”

Twenty two years have passed since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The annual ceremony in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin will take place today, Wednesday, Nov. 1^st ,at 12:30 PM in the Shalom Zielony Student Union building cinema.

Yitzhak Rabin wanted to become a water engineer. He received an Honorary Doctorate from Technion in 1990:

“In recognition of his invaluable contribution to the defense of the State of Israel and for his endeavors to strengthen the state of Israel and its image at home and abroad.”

To view on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dXuBVyyNzU0

Ammonia production is vital for future sustainability, in areas from agriculture, to alternative energy. Yet clean, effective and safe storage and transport of ammonia is critical. In November 2017, a confluence of global experts will gather at Technion to address present challenges and future needs.

On November 15-16, a conference on “New and Old in the Ammonia World” will take place at the Technion. The event is hosted by Technion president, Peretz Lavie, and organized and chaired by the Technion Chemical Engineering professors Gideon Grader and Danny Lewin. Global experts will cover topics that include: safety and risk assessment; ammonia transport in the atmosphere; ammonia production; and the global market. The conference includes a virtual reality 3D presentation of an ammonia production plant developed by the German company Linde.

Modern agriculture would be impossible without ammonia, which increases yields by hundreds of percent, as it is a fundamental source of nitrogen. About 90 percent of ammonia produced today is for crop fertilization. The conference will address the important topics of ammonia import and storage, featuring five international experts in the field.

• Prof. Thomas Spicer, Head of the Chemical Hazards Research Center (CHRC) at the University of Arkansas – on the safe storage and risk assessment of ammonia
• Norman Olson, Director of the Iowa Energy Center (IEC) – on the effective use of ammonia for propulsion, fertilizer, and energy storage
• Balan Karthikeyan of Madras, India – A global expert on HAZOP analysis and process safety in chemical plants.
• Robert Tikovsky of Linde, Germany – on the safe and effective design of ammonia plants
• Kent Anderson, USA – and expert on ammonia accidents and former president of the Ammonia Refrigeration Association

For the full conference program click here.

Data modeling is the way we, scientists, believe information should be explained and handled. Indeed, models are central in almost every task in signal and image processing and machine learning. Sparse representation theory (Sparseland) presents a highly effective and universal model, which has been shown to lead to state-of-the-art results in numerous applications. 

We are delighted to announce a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on sparse representations, constructed by Prof. Michael Elad from the Technion’s Computer Science Department. This new edX course is made up of two sessions, each running five weeks: the first session presents basic theoretical ideas of sparse representations, and the second connects this model to applications in image processing.

If you are interested in advanced topics in signal and image processing, please join us in this course. Note that registration has already opened, and the course will begin on October 25. In a format that is unique worldwide, we plan to run this edX course in parallel to a formal academic Technion’s course that will be taught in this winter semester.

Technology in the Service of the Future of Banking Technion and Bank Hapoalim inaugurate TPADS, a joint research center “This is a definitive and optimistic occasion, in which a major bank partners with a leading technological university to connect the world of economics with the digital domain,” said Prof. Boaz Golany, Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, at the inauguration of the Technion-Poalim Data Science center (TPADS). The new Center was established by Bank Hapoalim and Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, with the aim of harnessing new technologies for the development of the bank of the future. Researchers from Technion and bank analysts collaborate to address the major challenges of the technological-banking world. According to Prof. Golany, “This pairing between Bank Hapoalim and Technion may be strange at first glance, but it is based on the innovation that characterizes both partners. The digital revolution changes perceptions that we have become accustomed to and will cause banks to look completely different within a decade. Academia, like the financial world, must adapt itself to the digital revolution.” The cooperation between Bank Hapoalim and Technion is carried out by the bank’s innovation division, and as part of a joint initiative with the Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management led by the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Avishai Mandelbaum. Avi Kochva, Deputy CEO of Bank Hapoalim and the Head of the Innovation Division, said at the ceremony, “A year ago we announced this collaboration and I am pleased that we have reached this festive day of inauguration. The bank of the future is a proactive one, committed to understanding customers’ needs and adapting to them. A key part of this is the development of information and data analysis, and therefore we partnered with Technion – to strengthen these capabilities of ours.” “This is an innovative project based on intra-organizational entrepreneurship and creativity on both sides,” said Prof. Mandelbaum. “This is a partnership between equals – the bank provides data and full partnership in analysis and Technion develops advanced theories and related data analysis tools, so as to apply to the bank’s data. Progress made in the past year has been significant, and we continue along the delineated path to benefit from the fruits of our joint research.” The Center is led by Profs. Avigdor Gal and Oren Kurland of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at Technion, together with Noam Zeigerson, Director of Information and Analysis at Bank Hapoalim’s innovation division.

2,000 New Students Commence Studies at Technion The most sought-after faculties for undergraduate degrees are medicine, electrical engineering, computer science, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering For the first time at Technion: 40% of undergraduate students are women The 2017-18 school year began at Technion on Sunday (22.10). This year, 14,000 students will study at 18 faculties on campus in Haifa, of which 9,236 will be undergraduate students and the rest graduate students, of whom 1,142 will be doctoral students. This year, Technion also commenced the academic year at its international branches in New York and China. Last month, the permanent campus of the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute for applied scientific-engineering research in Manhattan was inaugurated. At the same time, 220 students began their studies at the Guangdong-Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) in China. The Technion-Guangdong Institute, the first Israeli university in China, will be officially inaugurated this December. Established near the Shantou University campus in the Guangdong province of southeastern China, the Institute will be a research university, and teaching and research programs in the initial years will focus on environmental protection. In the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the percentage of female students who choose to pursue academic studies in the sciences and engineering, and this year the percentage of women among undergraduate students at Technion is 40%. The rate of new female students is particularly high among minorities – 53%. Karina Pletoshin from Ashkelon begins her studies at the Faculty of Biology this year. “I chose Technion because of its international reputation and the opportunities its degrees provide. I hope to make new friends, earn high grades, and complete my degree successfully. I don’t know what I’ll do as a career but I plan to complete a Master’s degree.” For Michal Dubzik from Kfar-Saba and Gal Sidi from Modi’in, this is the first day of computer engineering studies at the Faculty of Computer Science. Both are excited about their first day at Technion. Michal said, “I chose Technion because of its prestigious status and top-notch curriculum. I know that it will be difficult but I hope I’ll manage.” “Today you join the Technion family, a strong family that has thrived for four generations,” said Technion’s Senior Executive Vice President, Prof. Adam Shwartz, at the opening ceremony. “Technion was founded with the goal of training engineers who would build this country, and later expanded its activities based on the realization that basic engineering training is not sufficient and that strong scientific foundations are needed. Thus, Technion became a leading research university both nationally and globally.” “A new world needs new tools,” added Prof. Shwartz. “This is a digital world in which computers are essential in every field, not only in computer science, and success in the technological world is based not only on talent but also on a wide variety of human capital. The essential resources we will give you are the ability to think, cope with problems, and the drive to spend all night on something you have not yet been able to solve. Technion is home to thinking and curious people who will lead the Israeli economy and the world at large. It is true that you are only at the beginning of your Bachelor’s degree, but I urge you to begin thinking about graduate studies. Each year, about half a million people complete engineering studies in China and India. Many of them are just as smart as you, but our added value is the graduate degrees that provide deeper research and broader comprehension – advantages reflected in the labor market.” The ceremony was mastered by Prof. Orit Hazzan, Technion’s Dean of Undergraduate Studies, who told the students, “Today an important chapter in your life begins, not only in the academic sense but also in many other ways. You have joined an academic institution which leads the world in engineering and the sciences, and here you will receive the best training. We have found that students prefer to study at Technion for three main reasons: its reputation, level of study, and the atmosphere on campus. It’s important to us that you focus on your studies, but occasionally look away from the computer, enjoy the range of activities offered, and consider where you can contribute.” The Dean of Students, Prof. Benny Natan, said, “You come to a Technion that is different from what it used to be. Today’s Technion offers a diversity of activities other than the academic ones, and a social life. It is important that you remember that we at the Dean’s office are here for you. True wisdom includes knowing when to ask for help, and if you need help with any issue – dormitories, scholarships and loans, academic support, personal counselling, etc. – you are welcome to come to us.” Omer Amit, chairman of Technion’s Student Union, said, “Technion is a wonderful place, as shown by a national student survey. Satisfaction at Technion is the highest in Israel, and it is also the institution most Israeli students recommend studying at. Technion’s sports teams come out on top at intervarsity competitions, we have the best gym in academia, and the only Olympic swimming pool in northern Israel. You are invited to enjoy the sports activities, music performances, pub at the Student Center, and the other wonderful things Technion has to offer you. Your studies will not be easy and occasionally you’ll experience failures, but you will learn to overcome them and succeed.

What Do Your Eyes Say? Device Can Diagnose Diseases Based on Eyelid Motion

HAIFA, ISRAEL (October 15, 2017) – Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering have developed a device that can diagnose diseases by means of an eyelid motion monitor (EMM). The project was published recently in Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.

Already in its developmental stages, the device has won several international awards, and was ranked in the top 20 in the Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge (TIIC) – Europe Design Contest. Over the past two years, the device has been used in clinical trials at Haemek Medical Center in Afula, Israel.

The device was first developed by Technion Prof. Levi Schachter and doctoral student Adi Hanuka, who began working on it as an undergraduate. Hanuka continued working on it during her graduate studies, with the help of a team of students working under her supervision.

“Eyelid motion provides us with meaningful information about the health of a patient,” explained Hanuka. “This motion can indicate not only eye diseases, but also neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, and autoimmune diseases such as Grave’s. We developed a device that can be installed on the standard refraction glasses used in eye tests, at the request of Dr. Daniel Briscoe, Chairman of the Haemek Medical Center Department of Ophthalmology.”

Glasses are fitted with a hardware and software system that monitors and interprets eyelid movements. With approval of the Ethics Committee Regulations for Research Work Involving Human Participants, measurements of approximately 100 subjects have been collected in order to define the eyelid motion patterns (blinking speed and frequency) of a healthy person. Eyelid motions were analyzed using a signal-processing algorithm written by students Tal Berkowitz, Michal Spector, Shir Laufer, and Naama Pearl.

The team first examined blepharospasm dystonia, a disease characterized by involuntary contraction of the muscles responsible for closing the eyes. The researchers found a statistically significant quantitative relationship between a person’s eyelid pattern and the disease, which means that the device could be used to diagnose it. The system was also used to examine the effect of Botox injections, the conventional treatment for the disease, and it was found that within 15 minutes contractions decrease and the blinking pattern begins to match indices that exist among healthy people.

The researchers are also gathering information about other groups, including patients with dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

“Along with designing the product for purposes of commercialization, we are working in several directions: developing the device as a platform for multidisciplinary research on various topics such as the effect of emotions on blinking patterns; eyelid communication amongst the paralyzed; and automatic diagnosis through machine learning and based on a computerized comparison between the specific monitoring and an extensive database,” said Hanuka.

According to the researchers, the device has the potential to diagnose every disease that is expressed neurologically, including many ocular and systemic such as Ptosis, Thyroid eye disease, Parkinson’s disease, Myasthenia Gravis, and neurologic diseases such as third and seventh cranial nerve palsy.

Technion congratulates the 2017 Nobel Laureates in physics: Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, Professor Emeritus Kip Stephen Thorne, and Prof. Barry Barish, who headed the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 as part of the LIGO experiment. The prize will be awarded to them “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.”

Four months ago, Technion’s Harvey Prize was awarded to three LIGO researchers: Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, Professor Emeritus Kip Stephen Thorne, and Professor Emeritus Ronald Drever, who died shortly before the award ceremony. The Harvey Prize in Science and Technology was awarded “for the first direct detection of gravitational waves, confirming a central prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity and opening a new window to the universe.”

According to Prof. Ehud Behar of Technion’s Faculty of Physics, “The LIGO facility and the discovery of gravity waves provide us with unprecedented information on black holes, information that is not available to us in any other way.” The Nobel Prize winners in physics revealed the physical processes occurring in the last moments before the fusion of black holes as well as processes that occur in neutron stars.”

Technion Graduates Who Developed Technology for Analyzing the Preferences of Internet Users Won First Place in the BizTEC Entrepreneurship Program

The program, run by students at Technion’s Bronica Entrepreneurship Center, has accompanied companies that have cumulatively raised more than $300 million over the years.

NowTecc won first place at BizTEC 2017, which was held last week at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The three group members are Technion graduates: Anastasia Logvinenko, a graduate of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering; Tal Yahav, a graduate of the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management; and Taly Bonder, a doctoral student at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management under the guidance of Prof. Ido Erev.

The three developed a technology that provides real-time insight into network behavior while maintaining the privacy of users. “We offer a deep analysis of users’ preferences at any given moment,” explained Bonder. “The computational algorithm learns the digital body language and visual choices made by users in real time, thus providing economically valuable insights to website owners. The system reports the behavior of users in real time and predicts their behavior, without linking to their personal profile, which protects their privacy.”

“Today, internet advertising works based on segmenting the market, dividing people into groups,” said Logvinenko. “We, on the other hand, present a customer-oriented approach based on individual behavior and predict it based on digital behavior and an artificial intelligence algorithm.”

NowTecc received the first prize – $10,000, donated by David Cohn from Phoenix – from Prof. Boaz Golany, Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development. Prof. Golany wished success to all the participants and said, “We need to learn from American academia, whose graduates return to their alma maters and invest in them. Its community of alumni is the most important resource for the future of a university, and therefore it is appropriate that you, who benefited from mentors at the Bronica Center for Entrepreneurship and Technion in general, should help us support other students after you ‘make it big.’”

Three groups placed second and received a prize of $3,300:

Neshima

(‘breath’ in Hebrew) offering an innovative method for the treatment of the pulmonary disease Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Yan Ostrovski developed the new device under the guidance of Prof. Josué Sznitman of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Technion and is working on the venture with Avital Frenkel. The problem with existing drugs for the disease is that they are produced as a fluid and therefore accumulate at the bottom of the lungs. The new device turns the medicine into foam, resulting in a uniform distribution of the drug in the lungs – an improvement in clinical measures.

Foresee Genomics

An innovative test for the identification of cancer mutations (markers) in a process based on advanced molecular biology and bioinformatic analysis developed by Technion graduate Dr Roi Feingersch. The test allows for a significant reduction in the cost of infrastructure, equipment, and the test itself, as compared to any similar genomic test, and in fact makes it unnecessary to operate a genomic center. The test, designed specifically for laboratories in hospitals and the private sector, is simple and quick and does not require sophisticated and expensive equipment.

Suricatta 

A system for fire detection and evaluation of future fire risk. This is accomplished by deploying a smart sensor network that provides live information from the field: the chances of a fire breaking out, instant detection of arson, and monitoring fire progress. The information is transmitted to a control room or smartphone. The team members are Technion graduates Leeoz Avni, Ido Hauzer, and Adi Ezaguy.

BizTEC, a leading technological entrepreneurship program in Israel, was founded in 2004 and is part of Technion’s Bronica Entrepreneurship Center. Its goal is to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among students and graduates of academic institutions in Israel. This is accomplished, with BizTEC’s partners Poalim High-Tech and Pearl Cohen Law Firm, through a program in which the participants benefit from lectures given by key figures in the high-tech industry, workshops, and guidance from mentors from academia, industry, and the venture capital industry. The highlight of this process is Demo Day, which took place at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this year.

One hundred and twenty teams of students and alumni of academic institutions from all over Israel applied for BizTEC 2017, 12 of which reached the final stage. These groups presented their developments to a panel of judges that included representatives from various organizations including New Generation Technology (NGT); Dov Moran’s venture capital fund, Grove Ventures; Qualcomm Ventures; Poalim High-Tech; and the Perl-Cohen law firm.

The event was attended by the founder of Ormat, Yehuda Bronicki; Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, Prof. Boaz Golany; Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Orit Hazzan; Director of Technion’s business unit, T3, Benny Soffer; and several prominent BizTEC graduates.

Technion’s entrepreneurship leader, Rafi Naveh, said, “During the ‘final judgement’, a week before Demo Day, we asked the teams what they will take away from the process and everyone said: Validation. It is indeed an important lesson, because engineers tend to fall in love with their inventions and force them on every potential client and situation. These teams have understood that in order to succeed they must operate differently – they need to start with the problem space and not with the solution space. Validation means that you do not hypothesize and speculate, but go out into the market and meet the customers and users and listen to them and their needs.”

“The BizTEC entrepreneurship program is a flagship program of the Technion’s Bronica Entrepreneurship Center,” said Executive Director, Dr. Dana Sheffer. “This is one of the first, and definitely the best, program of its kind in Israel. At the Technion we are constantly advancing and developing new initiatives- an example is the excellent  Runway program at Cornell Tech, and a $200 million venture fund established this year for companies based on Technion knowledge.”

Technion graduate Ran Korber, environmental engineer and co-founder of BreezoMeter, who won the BizTEC competition four years ago, spoke about the process of establishing the company. “The problem is that air pollution is invisible, and therefore technology is required in order to identify it. As part of the BizTEC entrepreneurial competition, and since then, we have developed BreezoMeter – a big data platform that provides information on local air pollution through an application and without the need for additional hardware. The information comes from a wide range of sources: government and municipal sensors, millions of cars, six satellites, and weather forecasts. Dyson uses our product in order for their air purifiers to operate according to the actual level of pollution. The car company HELLA incorporates our technology in their cars so that the car chooses a less polluted route and closes the windows automatically when there is pollution outdoors.

“In the beginning, we wanted to monitor all environmental hazards – soil pollution, earthquakes, and more – but at BizTEC we learned the importance of validation. We realized the importance of understanding what it is that the market needs and to narrow down our goal; otherwise, we would not get anywhere. Thus, we arrived at air pollution and had to decide on the product and how we would benefit from it. We formulated a vision to help billions improve their health by monitoring accurate air pollution information. In other words, we want to democratize information about air pollution.

“BreezoMeter was officially founded in February 2014, and has grown rapidly since. It is worth noting that we are located in Haifa, with 23 employees, about half of whom are Technion graduates.”