Israel Active

Veteran of three space shuttle missions, NASA’s Col. William McArthur met cadets at the Israel Air Force Flight Academy when he arrived in Israel for the Seventh International Ilan Ramon Space Conference. Col. McArthur also gave lectures to students all over Israel.

The huge investment by foreign hi-tech companies in Israel has boosted the demand for Israeli computer experts, engineers and scientists. 46 percent of all companies here are multinational ones, compared to only 5% in Japan. Apple recently announced a new R&D centre here, following in the footsteps of Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments and others.

Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz and Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Daniel Hershkovitz have agreed on a huge rise in Israel’s investment in space technologies. The Jewish state will invest 165 million shekels in the space program in the next two years – up from about 10 million shekels for the previous two year period.

Amazing Israeli recognition technology - When you see something interesting on TV, just point your iPhone at the screen. TvTak instantly detects what show or commercial you're watching. You can then send program recommendations to friends or use the data to buy advertised products.

(Thanks to NoCamels) Clothing-size company Upcload was co-founded by Asaf Moses, an Israeli living in Germany. It has been named as German Start-up of the Year for its technology that allows Internet users to comfortably measure their body dimensions at home, using a standard webcam. The details can then be automatically passed on to clothing websites the users want to purchase from.

(Thanks to NoCamels) Israeli start-up Appliz has developed a a free iPhone app called 4Singles that locates a potential partner using common interests and their current location. The app has over 30,000 registered users – about half Israeli and the rest from the United States and Europe.

The Israeli government is encouraging green energy entrepreneurs by allocating NIS 10 million for planning up to 2,000 hectares of future 50 megawatt solar-power plants.

The US Food and Drug Administration has purchased the laboratory information management system of StarLIMS Ltd. Although the company was taken over by a US company in 2010, the systems are still Israeli.

Yeast is actually an animal and reproduces via a mating process. But what happens in zero gravity? Israeli high-school students Ariel Berko and Yoav Levi from Kiryat Ata have been selected from thousands as finalists in a competition to run an experiment on Space Lab. Please watch (2 mins)

Israel’s Technion is developing 3 unique “nano-satellites”, each less than 6kg. They will be launched in 2015 and remain in close formation. Professor Pini Gurfil said the experiment will boost the miniaturisation of electronic components, efficient processing and movement in space and advance a variety of other civilian applications. The Technion launched an 84kg satellite in 1998 that worked for 21 years.