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.
An Israeli startup is on a mission to bring the benefit of natural sunlight indoors into our homes, workplaces and even hospitals. Solight addresses the issue of lack of sunlight in indoor spaces by creating a solar lighting system that takes the natural light of the morning and afternoon hours and channels it into desired spaces, providing health benefits to those stuck inside and cutting exposure to artificial light. The company was founded in 2012 by brothers Ofer and Dror Becker, who recognized the energy-saving advantages of sunlight but also realized that its health benefits shine brightest. Solight Founder and…
An estimated 200 million women suffer the pain of a “forgotten” disease. Endometriosis is, in many cases, triggered by their first period, and it’s likely to stay with them until menopause. It’s a chronic and progressive condition characterized by the growth of tiny lesions in the pelvic cavity. It’s the number one cause of infertility and can spread to other organs, sometimes with fatal consequences. It is, however, widely seen as a neglected disease. The symptoms – painful and heavy periods, pain during or after sex, pain going to the toilet during a period, difficulty getting pregnant – are easily…
Student teams from eLab, Cornell’s student startup accelerator, and Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute Runway Startup Program at Cornell Tech pitched their innovative ideas at San Francisco’s Autodesk Gallery on March 28. The event brought together Cornell Silicon Valley, eLab, Runway Startups, Entrepreneurship at Cornell and the Student Agencies Foundation to highlight innovation throughout the Cornell community. Cornell Silicon Valley connects alumni in the Bay Area to resources like venture capital, financing, legal services, recruitment and publicity. Ken Rother, managing director of eLab and lecturer in the Cornell S.C. Johnson College of Business, welcomed guests to the showcase and said, “A word…
Nvidia has agreed to acquire Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) company Deci. According to estimates obtained by Calcalist, the value of the deal is $300 million. In Deci’s last fundraising round in July 2022, it was valued at an estimated $200 million. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close during the second quarter. Nvidia confirmed the deal to Calcalist, stating that “NVIDIA’s expertise in AI will be complemented by Deci’s capabilities in NAS, which automates the design of deep learning models to improve performance. Deci’s engineering team has knowledge in NAS, Foundational Models, Inference and in…
It’s not just humans – plants get stressed too. And like the rest of us, when they get stressed they tend to “shut down” and simply not produce. The most common kind, abiotic stress, is from intense heat or cold, prolonged dry spells or unhealthy levels of salinity due to rising sea levels and the intrusion of seawater into agricultural fields. How bad is it? More than 830 million hectares of agricultural land is now overly salty. Heat stress is expected to threaten nearly three-quarters of the world’s food production over the next 20 years, according to the research group Verisk…
Undergoing major gastrointestinal (GI) surgery can be challenging enough for a patient without the worry of a grave yet common aftereffect that requires urgent corrective surgery and a lengthy hospital stay – or worse. Israeli startup Exero Medical has come up with a way of keeping tabs on the surgical site after such a procedure, looking for a localized rupture that has hitherto been extremely difficult to detect. Every year, millions of people undergo surgery in the digestive tract – in most cases, for the removal of a part of the digestive system due to issues such as cancer or diverticulitis, Exero…
An Israeli foodtech startup that makes milk and other dairy products from mushrooms has partnered with one of America’s biggest biotech companies, Ginkgo Bioworks, to scale-up and produce affordable animal-free non-whey dairy products. Haifa-based ImaginDairy has bioengineered milk protein to create a wide range of dairy products using mushrooms but no cows. Through a process called precision fermentation, ImaginDairy recreates these milk proteins in the lab and can use them to generate any kind of dairy product. The partnership aims to improve cost-effective production of non-whey dairy proteins. Ginkgo will utilize its AI capabilities to create biological systems that reduce the cost of production,…
No idea is too big in Start-Up Nation, and resilience and motivation are what make Israel’s bustling tech economy so successful. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Omer Schneider, former CEO and co-founder of cybersecurity company CyberX, about his time at the Technion and how he took his big idea all the way to an acquisition deal with the largest tech company in the world. His dedication to his work in every stage of life gave him the confidence to believe in himself and make an impact on millions of people throughout his career. Omer’s story is also…
Programs, apps and websites are all built using code that tells a computer, phone or other device what to do and how to do it. Actually creating that code is a tricky and complicated process, where even the smallest error can cause entire platforms to fail. Finding a mistake in rows of letters and numbers can be even harder and is extremely time consuming. In fact, software developers can spend up to 50 percent of their working hours testing and debugging code, according to well-respected trade magazine ACM Queue. But now an Israeli company has developed an AI “team member”…
Israeli startup Wearable Devices is collaborating with US-based Qualcomm Technologies to integrate its touchless control solution into the latter’s development platform. The Mudra Band – an AI-powered wristband created by Wearable Devices – can be paired to any device via Bluetooth, and uses a combination of unique sensors and artificial intelligence to support touchless control of the Apple Watch. Users can toggle and switch between connected devices, including Mac computers, Apple TVs, smart glasses, and various mobile gaming systems. Mudra will be integrated into Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, which allows developers to create applications for devices that use virtual and augmented reality…
Buying produce, and then having it quickly go bad, is a common disappointment for many. One Israeli startup has developed a solution that keeps fruits and vegetables fresh for longer without changing or adding anything to the produce themselves. Ness Ziona-based Liva has developed a sticker that when applied to the package, can extend the freshness of fruits and vegetables for up to another seven days. The sticker was created by Ifat Hammer, co-founder and CTO, drawing on her expertise in food engineering and biotechnology. She figured that instead of modifying the produce itself, “good” bacteria that was already present in the…
Hours in surgery, weeks in hospitals and months of recuperation – or a five-minute procedure under local anesthesia and straight back home with no side effects. That’s the difference that AI (artificial intelligence) developed in Israel will now be making for patients diagnosed with liver cancer. Techsomed, a medical imaging startup, allows physicians for the first time to see exactly what’s happening in real time while they destroy (or ablate) a tumor using targeted heat through a needle. Thermal ablation therapy, a minimally invasive procedure for small tumors, has huge benefits over surgery or chemotherapy for the patients.