Israel Active

Israel’s Volcani Center Agricultural Research Organization, the brainchild of, Yitzhak Elazari Wilkanski, has helped turn Israel into one of the world’s champions for agricultural innovation. Today it encompasses Animal and Plant sciences, Soil, water & environment, Agri-engineering, & Postharvest.

Intel has selected 10 more Israeli startups for its 8th Ignite accelerator cohort, covering tech areas of AI/ML, cybersecurity, hardware, and Web 3.0.  They are Akooda, Hossted, InsidePacket, , Pelanor, Phononics, PVML, Speedb, Tweed, and VOCAI.

Mobility 360 is the theme for the 11th annual EcoMotion Week (May 22 – 24) at Expo TLV. It is where the smart mobility sector intersects with the development of smart cities, transportation, connectivity, automobiles, infrastructure, logistics, supply chain and much more.

The first Israeli mission to the Moon ended in a crash landing. But the new generation of Moon landers for SpaceIL’s Beresheet 2 is inspiring a new generation of Israelis.

Israel’s Deci (see previously) has developed YOLO-NAS – a deep learning computer vision model to detect objects in real time much faster than other models. YOLO (You Only Look Once) technology allows driverless cars to distinguish between people and inanimate objects.

Hebrew University scientists have found that “Vertical green-living walls” (VGWs) - plants growing vertically on a wall - can save up to 20% of the energy used for air circulation in closed offices and spaces. They reduce carbon dioxide levels and cool the air around the green wall.

Israel’s Freedom Farm rescued Yossi as a piglet from a pig farm but the factory farming conditions had made him grossly overweight, needing constant painkillers. Then a new diet of Cordyceps mushrooms from Israel’s Mycospring gave Yossi a new lease of life. They also work on humans.

US tech giant Microsoft has partnered with Israeli non-profit Start-Up Nation Central to help Israeli agrifood tech startups augment their AI-powered models for sustainable farming solutions and get exposure to global markets.

Israel’s Satori (see previously) won the Data Security Solution of the Year Award in the fourth annual Data Breakthrough Awards program. Satori automates “just-in-time” data access while enforcing security policies and offering real-time visibility into the location of sensitive data.

A rare BBC non-bias report on Israel’s NT-Tao (see previously). It hints at some of the features of the company’s nuclear fusion technology, specifically its methods of magnetic plasma containment (tokamak plus stellarator). Also, denser plasma allows a smaller reactor core.