Israel Active

Formally incepted in 2007, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Israel Program recruits, selects, and places qualified MIT students in internships across Israel.

This video highlights Israeli technology presented at the 66th international astronomical congress in Jerusalem. Tech that will help NASA fly to Mars and Europe to study Venus. New Israeli satellites will provide Internet access to remote areas of Africa and help research into alleviating global drought.

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro tried out Israeli company MobilEye’s driverless car on Jerusalem roads - and was impressed. Shapiro said, “it’s probably safer than if a driver was in control of the vehicle, because drivers can be distracted but this vehicle cannot.”

The 2,000 people at the Microsoft Israel’s “Think Next” event in Tel Aviv, including CEO Satya Nadella, had a video call from the man who started it all, Bill Gates. Gates said that Israeli developments in tech areas like analytics and security were “improving the world.”  

Israel’s Controp has teamed up with USA’s Pharovision to develop the Interceptor and Sentinel detection systems. They are designed to warn of potential collisions between airplanes and either airborne birds or foreign object debris on the ground.

Israel’s SimilarWeb has launched SimilarWeb Portrait - smart software that builds up a (non-identifiable) profile of a human computer user. This allows app developers to tailor their apps to give a friendlier user experience, from the moment they are installed.

Israel’s Anagog, developer of the world’s largest crowdsourced parking network, won the ‘Best Mobile Innovation in Automotive Award’ at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Anagog can detect if a smarphone user is at home or at work, walking, driving, riding a bus, where he parked and more.

Israeli job-matching start-up Woo matches the right people with the right job via an anonymous employment platform that provides tailor-made offers for each user. Woo’s platform recognizes that 75-80% of people don’t actively look for new jobs, but would accept a better job if offered.

The Aurora, a seedless papaya from Israel, was crowned winner of the Fruit Logistica Innovation Award (FLIA) 2015. It began as an accidental mutation which breeder Assaf Avizohar spent 12 years developing hybrids with better taste and color.

Israel has invested 2 billion Shekels ($505 million) in its firefighting service since the 2010 Carmel forest fire. Hundreds of new firefighters helped reduce average response times from 14 minutes in 2010 to six minutes in 2015. There were 70 fatalities in 2010; 23 in 2011; 17 in 2013 and 9 in 2015.