Tom had the honor of being chosen as one of just 10 members of this year’s “LAPIDIM entrepreneurship” Faculty Excellence Program, geared toward first-rate computer science students with the potential for leadership or entrepreneurial pursuits.

As part of his current studies, Tom is working on a project that revolves around the classification of cancer types as part of a research group in the Geometric Image Processing Lab (GIP). In this research, Tom trains various models with the objective of providing physicians with better diagnostic tools.

Alongside his research, Tom is pursuing his entrepreneurial bent, working in an Israeli startup that strives to change the world of databases. He also spent this past summer at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, interning under the mentorship of Institute Director Professor Ron Brachman. There he researched different architectures for training and building deep learning models that incorporate “common sense.” The work could eventually provide autonomous cars, for example, with an understanding of what to do in unexpected scenarios such as approaching a non-functioning traffic light.

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Tom was twice awarded the President’s Award for academic achievement, meaning he was among the top 3% of students on the Dean’s list, achieving an average of 95.1%. He led a Technion team in the MindState Ideation Sprint, an international collaboration between multiple universities and major Israeli hospitals that encourages students to work with the medical staff to solve complex medical oriented challenges. Tom is also involved in the Technion Student Association, where he not only responds to the needs of students but plays volleyball on his faculty’s team. He also skis and participates in other sports.

Tom was born in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan and raised in the less urban area of Emek Hefer. Through elementary and middle school, he was part of an Israeli national program for gifted students that offered numerous extra-curricular options. Tom served in the Israel Defense Forces from 2015 to 2020 as a Ground Core Special Units Commanding Officer, where he led training and operational activities to empower soldiers and officers with personal and professional skills. He is also involved with a project for “Lone Soldiers, soldiers in the IDF with no family in Israel.

January 2023