Israel Active

Israel is teaching its children the basic building blocks of the web. Sagy Bar of the Rashi Foundation, a philanthropic group running Israel’s new cyber education center said “first grade they learn the letters, then how to read and how to write. We are building the next level of knowledge - how to code”.

The partners of the Leviathan natural gas reservoir have announced that they will invest $3.75 billion in its development. The three-year project constitutes both the largest energy project and largest financial investment in Israel’s history and secures its energy future.

The ultimate in smartphone photo-capture. Israel’s SELFLY is a $100 pocket-sized remote camera for your phone that you send up into the air to capture amazing aerial photos. It reached its $125,000 crowdfunding goal in just 5 days and now is close to raising half a million dollars.

The latest version of Iron Dome passed a series of recent complex tests, improving the system’s capabilities. Its Tamir interceptor intercepted multiple targets fired simultaneously at different ranges.

When I reported on Israel’s Corephotonics in its innovative dual camera technology hadn’t attracted major smartphone manufacturers.  However, latest investors include Samsung Ventures and Foxconn (makers of Apple’s iPhone). I think we’re getting the picture!

Thanks to a $6.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, one of the world’s largest independent plant science institutes, has selected Israel’s NRGene to advance the breeding of staple African crops such as grain sorghum.

Israel-based startup Insights.US is using its crowd-consulting software to help reform US passport issuing process. The US Government engaged Insights to ask the public about how to simplify its on-line procedures and improve accessible. Nearly 1000 responses were received.

I reported previously that Israel’s Liquid Crystal Glass (LCG) developer Gauzy had been selected for Mercedes-Benz’s AutoBahn Accelerator program. Gauzy presented its LCG message projection prototype to 1200 people at the Accelerator’s Expo Day in Stuttgart. Hundreds of Daimlers will now be fitted with the technology.

Jerusalem is installing free wi-fi into all four quarters of the Old City to benefit millions of tourists, merchants and residents. The pilot near Jaffa Gate and the Christian Quarter will be rolled-out to the entire Old City, adding to existing free wi-fi in the German Colony and Ben Yehuda street.

The Indian Space Agency has just launched two Israeli satellites into orbit. SpacePharma’s DIDO contains the world’s first “nano satellite laboratory” under the control of researchers who will conduct medical experiments. Meanwhile, Ben Gurion University’s BGUSAT will study Earth’s climate.