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.
Assistant Professor Charlotte Vogt of the Technion Schulich Faculty of Chemistry was recently awarded the first prize of the EuroTech Future Award, which recognizes researchers who have the potential to make a difference in their field and society at large. She was cited for her work on the subject of catalysis, which she believes will be key in solving global warming. Prof. Vogt’s research focuses on carbon dioxide hydrogenation catalysis, which explores the possibility of preventing CO2 produced by large industrial plants from entering the atmosphere, and instead converting it to something useful with the help of catalysts, which accelerate…
Israeli company QD-SOL has quite a few things going for it. Not only is it working to produce completely green hydrogen – the renewable energy’s sector game-changing card and biggest buzzword – but it is also backed by none other than Hollywood star and sustainability entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher. “Almost the entire hydrogen production industry is a polluting industry. After it’s produced, hydrogen is an excellent, green energy provider, but it’s usually made by burning gasses that also release a lot of carbon dioxide together with the desired hydrogen,” QD-SOL CEO Gil Davidman tells ISRAEL21c. “The world’s already decided to take steps toward net zero…
Arab Israeli social entrepreneur Imad Telhami has seen phenomenal success from the Babcom customer-service centers he and partner Dov Lautman established to employ Arab women and men in the north, south and Jerusalem. Babcom (“Your Door” in Arabic) now employs 5,000 people providing outsourced services, including call centers and software development, to Israeli companies. In 2018, Harvard Business School built a case study about Babcom into its curriculum. But Telhami was increasingly troubled to note that no Babcom client companies were owned or managed by Arabs.
Prof. Gideon Grader from Israel’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology was recently awarded the Grand Prix Scientifique research grant by the Institut de France for developing innovative green hydrogen technology. The Institut de France, a nonprofit organization founded in 1795 that unites five French academies, encourages research, supports creativity, and funds many humanitarian projects. Grader has developed a process — dubbed E-TAC — along with his Technion colleagues, which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen by decoupling the production of the two gasses. This is achieved by circulating electrolyte solutions at different temperatures through the electrodes.
Personal sensing data could help monitor and alleviate stress among resident physicians, although privacy concerns over who sees the information and for what purposes must be addressed, according to collaborative research from Cornell Tech. Burnout in all types of workplaces is on the rise in the U.S., where the “Great Resignation” and “silent quitting” have entered the lexicon in recent years. This is especially true in the health care industry, which has been strained beyond measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stress is physical as well as mental, and evidence of stress can be measured through the use of smartphones, wearables…
In a move aimed at revolutionizing the manufacturing sector, the Economy and Industry Ministry, in partnership with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, launched an initiative to enhance the research and development efforts of manufacturing plants across the country. This collaborative endeavor seeks to propel innovation, progress and competitiveness, ultimately boosting production capacity in the industry. In an agreement valued at NIS 4 million, researchers from the Technion will join forces with the Israeli manufacturing industry, addressing the barriers hindering approximately 100 factories, as identified in a preliminary study. The recently signed agreement is poised to make significant strides…
Turning fresh air into water seemed like nothing short of a miracle back in 2012. That was when Israeli startup Watergen revealed its first atmospheric water generator to the world. Watergen cools air, much like an air conditioner, until it condenses and becomes water. But technology moves on apace. And H2oll another Israeli startup, says it can also produce drinking water from the atmosphere – but more cheaply, more efficiently and more sustainably. And in any climate. H2OLL Founder and CTO Ilan Katz is a Technion alumnus.
One of the things that sets the quantum world apart from our everyday classical one is the capacity for entanglement—when two or more objects share an invisible connection that entwines their fates. Entanglement is the most extreme version of a quantum connection, where measuring one particle can tell you everything you need to know about another. Short of that, particles can still sync up in decidedly quantum ways, where measuring one particle will give you some incomplete information about another. Such quantum correlations can be used to make more precise measurements than classical ones. For example, they can help us detect gravitational waves….
Haifa researchers have found a non-genetic cause for alopecia areata baldness, which triggered the surprising incident at the the 94th Academy Awards in which actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock after he joked about Smiths wife’s shaved head because of the autoimmune disease. About one person in 50 – equally in men and women –will suffer from alopecia areata at some point in their life. The condition can develop at any age, although most people are diagnosed for the first time before the age of 30. In recent years, more and more research evidence has accumulated on the source…
Since it was founded nearly 100 years ago, the Technion’s world-class scientists have immersed themselves in developing innovative technologies that have not only been crucial for Israel’s economy, society and security, but have also impacted humanity on a global scale. Well before António Guterres, the U.N.’s Secretary General, stated last month that, “the climate time-bomb is ticking,” Technion researchers were prioritizing projects that could help reverse our planet’s grim prognosis, mainly by reducing the consumption of natural resources and restoring balance to the Earth’s carbon cycle. In a nutshell: by focusing on solutions that promote sustainability. At the Technion, a…
Titanium-air batteries have been recently tested by a team of scientists from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the results are promising. These batteries have the potential to store up to three times more energy than standard batteries, making them a great candidate to replace current zinc-air batteries used in small devices such as hearing aids and other sensors. The breakthrough in utilizing an ionic liquid to enhance the battery’s efficiency and longevity means that these batteries could be a significant upgrade to the zinc-air batteries currently used in hearing aids. These batteries have a limited lifespan and can…
AI-powered writing assistants such as ChatGPT are creeping into everything from office tools to search tools – but using them actually puts ideas into people’s heads. Researchers found that people using an AI writing tool programmed with one idea (that social media is good, for example) are twice as likely to write a paragraph agreeing with the assistant. Maurice Jakesch of Cornell University asked more than 1,500 participants to write a paragraph answering the question, “Is social media good for society?” People who used an AI writing assistant that was biassed for or against social media were twice as likely to write a…