Israel Active

I reported previously about Israel's Percepto – an autonomous drone camera system with multiple applications. Percepto’s new “Sparrow I” provides 24-hour aerial monitoring of complex environments where security is imperative, such as oil and gas refineries, power plants, ports and sea terminals.

Israel has opened a new 1.5 km stretch of Road 531 north of Herzliya for two months, exclusively for five companies to test their technology for autonomous cars. The five are Nexar (dashboard camera), GM (autonomous car). Mobileye, Innoviz (LIDAR sensors and Argus Cyber Security.

While the motor industry is watching Israel developments in driverless cars, Ben Gurion University scientists have developed HydroCamel II, Israel’s first Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The 2.5-meter vehicle will assist the security, oil & gas and marine research sectors.

Intel Israel is hiring dozens of new employees to work in a new artificial intelligence (AI) center being established by the company at its Ra’anana and Haifa campuses. Intel Israel already has 10,000 employees in Kiryat Gat, Yakum, Ra'anana, Jerusalem, Petah Tikva, and Haifa.

This new short video could have summarized my latest blog “Harvest for the World”. It features three Israeli companies previously featured in my newsletters – Water-Gen (water from air), Genie (one-minute kitchen) and Evogene (high-yield, resistant crops).

In 1989, Professor Tsvi Piran of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem predicted (in the journal Nature) that the merger of two Neutron stars would produce a burst of gamma rays. He was either ignored or met with skepticism. Now 28 years later, his prediction was proved correct. (1989 article)

Israel’s Precognize uses artificial intelligence to detect glitches in pipelines and prevent leaks by sending out clear alerts. The predictive maintenance technology translates the raw information from sensors into timely warnings.

When I reported previously on the successful launch of Israel’s VENµS environmental satellite, I missed the fact that the same rocket put another Israeli satellite into orbit. The second one was IAI’s advanced observation Optsat 3000 satellite, for use by the Italian Ministry of Defense.

SpaceIL - Israeli representative in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition -  is busy constructing the spacecraft to be launched next year. They have completed the skeleton and the eight engines.

Beersheva's High-Tech Park Bridge was the winner in the long span category of the triannual Footbridge Awards at the Footbridge 2017 conference in Berlin. The 75-meter bridge, in the shape of a double helix, is also known as the DNA or spectacles bridge.