Israel Active

Busy women entrepreneurs who haven’t time to spend trying on cosmetics can now use the app TryItOn from Israel’s EZ Face. It connects to a database of 25,000 beauty products. Take a selfie in the store and then scan the Universal Product Code (UPC) of any cosmetic to see what it would look like.

The Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Program has awarded second round funding to four innovative joint space-related projects. The Israeli beneficiaries are Micro-gRx, Israel Aerospace Industries, STEMRAD and Elbit Systems Land.

Microprocessor manufacturing giant ARM has bought Israel’s Sansa Security for at least $85 million. Sansa has developed embedded security for microchips – which will be very useful for ARM as the market for Internet-connected devices increases. Sansa will become ARM’s Israeli R&D center.

Israel’s Ninox Robotics and Bluebird Aerosystems are employing Israeli drones with thermal imaging to guard farms from pests such as kangaroos and wild dogs. It saves farmers hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of sheep, plus hours spent defending them.

Israel’s Elbit has launched a new cyber security unit called Cyberbit. It has two separate departments - one, focusing on law enforcement unit and the other being the Cybershield department, for detecting and defending against cyber attacks.

The Technion Israel Institute of Technology topped the list of institutions outside the US with the most Nobel prizewinners this century.

Tel Aviv’s congested Ayalon highway is to be transformed into an oasis of greenery. The Ayalon Roofing Project will create a 593-acre public space for recreation, while enabling traffic to continue flowing below. It will be Israel’s largest municipal project, costing over NIS 2bn.

Israel’s Shikun & Binui and Spain’s Abengoa are to build a massive 121MW solar power plant, costing NIS 4bn ($1.05 bn), in the Negev desert. It is the second of 3 local solar schemes that together will eventually provide up to two percent of Israel’s total electricity needs.

The 40MW solar array at Kibbutz Ketura is now operational, making it the largest solar array to be an active part of the Jewish state’s electric grid. 140,434 solar panels are spread over 134 acres. =

Israeli startup Fixico has been chosen by IBM to export its remote Endpoint Management product to the private market. Now you can download Fixico to check your computer’s functions, disk and programs upon startup. Fixico has free basic features or paid-for advanced service.