Israel Active

By the year 2030 Israel will not be using polluting fuels such as coal, diesel or fuel oil in electricity production, transportation, and industry, says Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources Dr. Yuval Steinitz.

Israeli marine biologist Shimrit Perkol-Finkel is the founder of ECOncrete, which develops environmentally sensitive concrete products. ECOncrete attracts marine life, increases the structural stability, longevity and aesthetics of urban waterfronts and coastal structures.

Israel’s Aurora Labs has developed a self-healing platform for connected cars. It detects anomalies in sophisticated automobile software including airbags, steering, brakes etc. Fixes can be applied remotely, avoiding expensive recalls.  Aurora has just raised $2.7 million of funding.

Israeli startup Guardian Optical Technologies develops sensors that monitor the safety devices inside automobiles. Its new automatic sensor system combines video image recognition, 3D depth-mapping, and motion detection. It can also prevent small children and pets being forgotten in vehicles.

The Rooster is a new robot from Israeli startup RoboTiCan that can help reach injured victims of natural disasters where it’s not safe to send a human rescue worker.  Like its biological namesake, the Rooster mostly walks, but when necessary it can hover and fly over obstacles.  

Israeli startup Inuitive specializes in vision processing and sensing technologies. It uses deep learning algorithms to develop chips and processors that support 3D imaging for uses in robots, drones, augmented reality and virtual reality. Japan’s Softbank is to integrate Inuitive’s chips into its IoT products.

Israeli startup Muvix says it is the first in the world to provide movies on-demand in a public space. The Muvix “living lab” in South Tel Aviv had partitioned-off spaces, each with a large TV screen. Viewers watched their chosen film in their chosen language without disturbing others.

International Space Station astronaut Paolo Nespoli is making a National Geographic documentary “One Strange Rock” using a virtual reality (VR) camera developed by Israeli startup Human Eyes. The camera will take 3D, 360-degree shots of life and work aboard the ISS.

Israel was the only Middle East country mentioned in Reuters’ annual list of the World’s 100 most innovative universities. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was 82nd, up 12 spots from last year. Tel Aviv University was ranked at 88 and the Technion Institute of Technology was at 89.

Assaf Natanzon, Vice President of advanced technology and investment evaluation for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Dell EMC, is the top Israeli on Wikipedia’s list of Prolific Inventors. He has 205 registered patents as at the time of writing (up from 202 in the Israel21c article).