Israel Active

I reported recently that Tel Aviv University (TAU) and 3 Illinois universities are building an innovation center in Chicago. Now TAU and Northwestern Uni are to establish a nanotech program and TAU center, funded by a multi-million donation from Roman Abramovich.

Israel’s Council for Higher Education (CHE) has awarded NIS 10 million to Israel’s Technion Institute to establish “t-hub” - The Technion Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center. It will help connect the Technion’s activities to the new branches of Technion in New York and China.

5,000 people, 175 companies and representatives from over 80 countries will attend the International Homeland Security & Cyber Conference in Tel Aviv starting 19th Nov. 170 Israeli companies will also showcase an extensive array of innovative security technologies.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards attended the signing of a research Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at Ben Gurion University with the Water Institute of the Gulf in Baton Rouge. The two institutions will conduct joint research and exchange research staff and students.

Israel’s Water Authority (Mekoret) has begun work on the $300 million project to pump desalinated water into the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). It is also removing thousands of tons of salt from the lake.

Ben-Gurion University scientists have shown for the first time that human poop can be converted by hydrothermal carbonization into a safe, reusable fuel (biomass) and a nutrient rich fertilizer. It addresses two major worldwide issues of sanitation and fuel for energy.

A group of leading Israeli cybersecurity firms, plus Israel’s Economy and Industry Ministry, have set up a new cyber consortium for the aviation industry. It will offer comprehensive, end-to-end cybersecurity solutions for the commercial aviation industry: airports, airlines and aircraft.

I mentioned previously Israel’s NoTraffic that allows cars with smart sensors to optimize flow through traffic lights. NoTraffic has just raised $3.2 million to fund pilot programs in the U.S.

Israel’s Habana Labs uses artificial intelligence to improve performance of microprocessor chips and lower their costs and power consumption. The processors are aimed at the specific needs of training deep neural networks. Habana has just received $75 million of funding, including from Intel.  

Israel’s OzCode has launched the IT industry’s first Debugging-as-a-Service (DaaS) and raised $3.5 million in seed funding. OzCode focuses app developers on innovation rather than the tedious task of cleaning badly written computer code and fixing bugs.