Israel Active

Good to see two Israeli hi-tech companies getting together to enhance cybersecurity.  Check Point is installing Mellanox’s 40GbE adapter cards in its 15000 and 23000 series security appliances in order to discover malicious behavior before it enters the network.

US and Israel have signed a new agreement which will automate their sharing of cyber data for the first time.  It will take the speed of sharing to an entirely different level to deal with constantly evolving cyber-attacks on the two countries.

The Defense departments of Israel and the USA together with MIT sponsored the recent Combating Terrorism Technology Conference in Tel Aviv.  It included two $100,000 prize competitions for Israeli security-related startups, won by Duke Robotic Systems and Spectory.

JNF has opened the Center for Water-Sensitive Cities in Israel in the city of Kfar Saba.  It employs a hybrid bio-filter - the first of its kind in the world, purifying dirty runoff rainwater in the winter and performing “aquifer dialysis” to purify polluted underground water in the rainless summer.

Eleven Israeli general hospitals and two psychiatric hospitals are to convert to natural gas for kitchens, sanitation, and heating.  The hospitals spend NIS 150-200 million a year on energy, and the transition to natural gas is expected to save them NIS 60 million.

Israel’s Aleinu aeroponic farm sits on the rooftop of the Mishor Adumim industrial park in the desert between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.  It employs some 20 people - Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, Israeli-born and immigrants.  The herbs and lettuces grow in humid air, without soil or water.

I reported previously on the testing of Gibraltar’s wave-energy plant built by Israel’s Eco Wave Power.  It has now been officially "switched-on" by Fabian Picardo - Chief Minister of Gibraltar.  The project is Europe’s first grid-connected wave energy array.

A formidable array of Israeli speakers will be presenting at this year’s Cybertech conference and startup exhibition in Beverley Hills on June 30.

Jerusalem was this year's hosting city for the annual Wikimedia Hackathon. 120 participants from 17 different countries gathered for a weekend dedicated to developing new features in Wikimedia technology, to help reach more countries and more languages.

A group of Israeli scientists and architects, including Nobel Prize-winner Professor Dan Shechtman, have created “Life Object: Merging Architecture and Biology,” a large-scale structure inspired by a 3D scan of a bird’s nest.  It is displayed at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, Italy.