Israel Active

An Audi A7 traveled over 560 miles, from California to Nevada, aided by a high-resolution, wide-angle 3-D video camera from Israel’s Mobileye. For 95% of the 560-mile journey, there was no driver. And then a Delphi Automotive “Roadruner” drove itself nearly all of the 3000 miles from San Francisco to Manhattan, using Mobileye’s Advanced Drive Assistance System.

Israeli startup Eco Wave Power is to build a wave-powered plant on China’s Zoushan Island. The Chinese Government is funding the $450,000 100kw power plant, which is targeted for completion by the end of 2015. EWP is negotiating more projects in Zhejiang Province.

Delegations including up to 20 Nobel Prize laureates and 400 young scientists and thinkers from 60 countries will attend a conference in Jerusalem in August. The five-day event will be the largest such event of its kind ever to be held.

120 students from 11 European countries plus Israel attended a 4-day electron microscope workshop at Israel’s Technion. The workshop was led by Technion graduate Professor Dganit Danino and was free, so that no student would be deterred from participating for budgetary reasons.

8,700 people from 50 countries attended the two-day CyberTech 2015 conference in Tel Aviv on 24 March. The exhibition featured a "Startup Pavilion," where 100 Israeli startup companies displayed breakthrough technologies and products.

Israel’s Ministry of the Economy Office of the Chief Scientist is opening three new hi-tech incubators in Akko, Haifa and the Golan, each running for 8 years. Projects in the incubators’ program receive an 85% grant from a budget of NIS 2 million for the first two years in the incubator.

Researchers at Israel’s Technion and USA’s MIT have developed a suit that offers 40 times more protection than existing body armour. Designed like the scales on a fish and produced on a 3D printer, the suit is resilient to bullets, knives and even radiation. Also in and .

Israel’s Elbit Systems has been awarded a $73.4 million contract from the US Marine Corps to supply a laser imaging system. The Common Laser Range Finder-Integrated Capability system enables soldiers in concealed positions to carry out imaging, range finding and navigation in combat arenas.

Israel continues to hold the world record for wastewater reuse. 90% of its 500 million cubic meters of wastewater is treated. 10% of that is released into rivers to maintain their quality. 325,000 acres of land is irrigated with recycled wastewater - nearly double that of 10 years ago.

Israeli startup Infinity Augmented Reality has developed a software-based Augmented Reality (AR) engine that can turn any device with two simple cameras into a powerful real time 3D platform. Infinity has just raised $5 million of funds, including from SUN Corporation.