Israel Active

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.

Israel’s Inception XR has launched “Bookful” - a new app that will let readers add augmented reality features to specific books published by Penguin Random House LLC. Initially, 6 books, including “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, will come to life, enabling children to interact with the characters.

I reported previously on Israeli startup Reporty, now renamed Carbyne, and its emergency services video distress platform used by Magen David Adom. Carbyne and its C-Now app is used in 30 cities in the US, Mexico, Europe, Israel and Singapore. It could save your life.

This is good news.  The European Research Council (ERC) funds research into invisibility by Professor Ulf Leonhardt of Israel’s Weizmann Institute. The ERC has made the research more accessible to the public by featuring “And the Invisible” in its popular ERCcOMICS series.