The Technion’s story has been intertwined with Israel’s for more than a century, from laying the foundations for a new nation to shaping its future.
Israeli startup H2OLL has launched its first complete system to produce high-quality and affordable water from the air. The system was installed at the Wadi Attir initiative in the Negev, a groundbreaking project led by Israel’s Bedouin community to create a model of sustainable farming. H2OLL’s technology started as a project by Eran Friedler and David Broday, two professors from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. They were joined by Dr. Khaled Gommed from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering as they sought to find ways to provide clean drinking…
Children and teenagers with pneumonia seem to spend less time in hospital if they are visited by a medical clown, who helps to reduce their heart rates and encourage independence. Visits from a medical clown, who may help children role-play or distract them during treatments, have previously been linked to reduced stress and anxiety among young people in hospital. Now, Karin Yaacoby-Bianu at the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, and her colleagues have specifically studied their effect among children who were hospitalised with pneumonia, which is inflammation of the lungs. The team randomly assigned 26 children and teenagers, aged…
The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has entered into a collaboration with global computational intelligence firm Altair. The new partnership will grant the Haifa-based university’s faculty, researchers, and students training and unlimited access to Altair’s data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) platform, RapidMiner. Headquartered in Michigan, Altair has an Israel office is at the high-tech park in Yokneam Illit, in the north of the country. “Altair enables students to expand their skills and be real-world-ready with our best-in-class technologies and support,” said Altair Israel Managing Director Ariel Hadar. “Collaborating with Technion’s faculty will foster greater synergies between academia and…
For many people around the world, a doctor’s visit can be exceptionally fraught due to a language barrier in a scenario where accuracy and the ability to understand and be understood are of utmost importance. But four former and current students of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have developed a new tool that could mean an end to such situations, with an automatic translation platform that is designed specifically for encounters between patients and their physicians. “It is a simultaneous translator between doctors and patients who have both language and cultural challenges,” explains CommU CEO Hadar…
Researchers studying artificial intelligence training data, better predictions of extreme weather events and treatment of swelling linked to breast cancer are among the eight Cornell assistant professors who recently received National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Awards. Each will receive a minimum of $400,000 over five years from the program, which supports early-career faculty “who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization,” according to the NSF. Each funded project must include an educational component.
Two health institutions in the United States have added an Israeli wearable device to their roster of treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder. The FDA-approved Prism device – an electrodes-laden cap that fits snugly over the head – was developed by GrayMatters Health, a Haifa-based company that develops digital training therapies to help the brain regulate mental health care. Home Base, the largest private US clinic of its kind treating veterans and service members, is adding Prism to its existing PTSD programs at the National Center of Excellence in Charlestown, Massachusetts, while New York-based Fermata interventional psychiatry practice is offering the…
With the strict laws limiting human rights for asylum-seeking refugees, this story illustrates how volunteers can use their professional skills to provide essential services for these refugees. Artie Jacobowitz made aliyah with his wife, Karen, in January this year. They have two sons and four grandchildren living in the US. Artie lost no time as a retired biomedical equipment engineer in searching for volunteer work. He contacted the Yahel Social Change Fellowship, which matches volunteers and their skills with the needs of the local communities. And indeed, there was a great need for Artie’s professional skills at Ruach Hadashah, a…
A hunch by a respected Israeli biochemist about a molecule found in papaya has opened the door to revolutionize the treatment for metabolic and respiratory disorders, including cystic fibrosis (CF) in children. Inspired by the hunch, Israeli biotech startup ODE Pharma was founded with the mission of developing safe and cost-effective treatments for children suffering from the genetic disease. CF is caused by a defective gene that makes the body produce thick and sticky mucus in the lungs and other organs, which leads to a variety of serious lifelong issues, including chronic respiratory problems and recurrent lung infections. There is…
On Friday evening, Boeing Co.’s Starliner capsule will undock from the International Space Station, marking another chapter in the saga of the troubled spacecraft. Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed, with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — the NASA astronauts it transported to the orbiting space lab in June — forced to wait for a ride home with their rival SpaceX in early 2025. NASA’s decision to choose SpaceX to bring the astronauts home amid Starliner’s problems was a blow to Boeing. So what’s next for the Starliner program? Technion Professor Ehud Behar is quoted in this article.
Israeli company DeepDense, which specializes in AI medical imaging, has teamed up with US firm Spectrum Dynamics Medical, a leading innovator in digital imaging, to develop innovative applications for analysis of cardiac and spine diseases. By working together, the two companies aim to use DeepDense’s advanced AI technology to improve diagnostic accuracy, streamline workflows, and improve patient care. The DeepDense AI applications will be added to Spectrum Dynamics’ portfolio of solutions, along with the former’s unique 3D labeling tools. “The integration state of the art digital SPECT technology with advanced AI features will open the path to new capabilities in…
A new Israeli study has determined that processed food is not bad for us – despite its long-standing poor reputation – and with the right addition of proteins can actually give our bodies a boost. Processed food is actually a blanket description for any foods that have been changed in some way during their preparation. This could be drying, preserving (which is what we usually think of when we hear the term) or even cooking itself. And while we imagine processed foods to be ones that have undergone a more drastic treatment like breakfast cereal, ready meals, canned meat or…
The oldest and leading Arab-owned med-tech company in Israel started in a city in the Israeli periphery known more as Jesus’s hometown than a high-tech hub. But for Reem Younis, 59, who grew up in a working-class Christian family in Nazareth, there was no better location to found what has become a giant in Israel’s med-tech industry. In 1993, alongside her husband, Imad, she established Alpha Omega, one of the world’s top manufacturers of electrodes and other medical devices that record the activity of neurons from within the brain. Today, researchers and neurosurgeons worldwide use Alpha Omega equipment to guide…