Israel Active

190 Israeli companies presented at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Israel’s PointGrab won “most innovative app” with CamMe that lets users make gestures to take “selfies” (photographs of themselves) from their iPhone from up to 16 feet away. Israel’s EverythingMe was also one of five finalists.

In its most severe drought since 1977, California looks to Israel for expert water advice and technology. Israel’s IDE Technologies Ltd. is already helping to build what it says will be the largest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s Evogene has launched PoinTar, a computationally based target discovery platform for generating new herbicides. It identifies key molecules responsible for essential biological processes in weeds, which have the potential to be chemically inhibited in order to cause weed death.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has boosted the power of sodium-ion batteries with a new type of anode. Also Israel’s EnStorage received a $1 million grant for its HBr flow battery development. Meanwhile Professor Doron Aurbach of Bar Ilan University won the prestigious 2014 International Battery Association Yeager Award for developing super (EDL) capacitors and rechargeable magnesium batteries.

In 2008 Israel relocated its Eilat fish farms to the Mediterranean port of Ashdod to prevent further damage to the Red Sea ecology. Studies have now shown that previously endangered Eilat marine species have recovered and no adverse affects have been reported regarding the Ashdod environment.

Israeli cyber-security companies received eleven awards at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco. Votiro won gold in the “Innovations in Next Generation Security” category for its software that “sanitizes” any form of data that enters an organization via the Internet. Covertix won two awards - silver for its database security and bronze for “Awesome Product of the Year”.

CleanTech 2014, the 18th annual international event for Clean Technologies at Airport City focused on environmental quality, infrastructures and green building, renewable energy and water technologies.

Israel’s Defense Ministry has successfully completed final testing on the “Sky Shield” system that protects commercial planes from missile attacks. A thermal camera integrated with laser technology deflects missiles. European authorities reported eight attempts to launch missiles at airplanes last year.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Another revolutionary new Israeli keyboard – this time from SnapKeys. It’s simple to use, with only two fingers or thumbs and is available on Windows and Android operating systems.

Prestigious American magazine, Fast Company has ranked Israel’s Water-Gen number 21 in its list of fifty Most Innovative Companies. Water-Gen has developed a unique patented technology that produces drinking water out of air, plus a mobile water purification solution.