Yearly Archives: 2014
Technion scientists discovered electronic fields “hidden” in plasma channels. This was revealed in the prestigious scientific journal Physical Review Letters.
This discovery, made by Technion researchers from the Faculty of Physics, has far reaching implications for devices built on nanosecond pulsed discharge.
“99 percent of the universe around us is composed of plasma,” explains Dr. Shurik Yatom who conducted the research under the guidance of Professor Yakov Krasik from the Faculty of Physics. “On Earth there is very little plasma and we must produce it in laboratories. It is useful in our attempts to produce energy; it is used in multiple devices such as high-current generators and microwave compressors, in sterilization processes, screens, small satellite engines, and recently we started using it for healing wounds. When it comes to time spans of nanoseconds, conventional wisdom so far has been that there is no great resistance, yet we at Technion discovered powerful electrical fields which translates into considerable resistance and results in energy loss.”
Technion scientists have found the presence of plasma in electric fields of up to several thousands of Volt/cm. Most scientists use optical measures to measure the electric fields without changing the plasma properties. In the described experiment, Technion researchers used two spatially coherent laser beams whose dispersion creates two additional coherent beams, according to the “Raman Scattering” effect. Measuring the intensity ratio between these two new beams allows for the temporary measurement of the electric field at a very high resolution. The electric fields remains in plasma channels due to plasma resistance that lead to significant energy loss, which up till now was considered insignificant.
In the photo: Professor Yakov Krasik from the Faculty of Physics
Photographed by: The Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office
The Broadcast is now finished. While we prepare it for YouTube, please enjoy photos from the visit so far here.
President of Israel Shimon Peres is visiting Technion today.
Highlight: a panel discussion on the future of scientific research, with 4 Nobel Prize laureates: Peres, Avraham Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover and Dan Shechtman, moderated by Yossi Vardi.
You can watch the visit LIVE here! From 11am Israel time.
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What happens when you introduce engineering students to 3rd world communities? Societies change and lives are saved, using engineering. Technion Professor Mark Talesnik, founder of the Israel’s “Engineers without borders” tells us that even “shit” can change the world we live in.
Continuing this tradition of engineering outreach, the Technion International School and Technion-EWB Chapter, in cooperation with Kathmandu University, has launched an ambitious, pioneering program bringing the world’s brightest science and engineering students forward to solve basic development questions in impoverished and communities in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley.
At the same time, students participating in the Engineering for Developing Communities program gain invaluable skills in a variety of subjects as well as practical field experience on the ground, bringing their projects and ideas to life for the benefit of others.
The Technion is at the forefront of Israeli science and the nation’s impressive high-tech, bio-tech and agro-tech industries. But the Technion is also deeply committed to research, development and action in sustainable community development.
Since May of 2008, the Technion has been home to a chapter of the international Engineers Without Borders NGO. Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life.
This partnership involves the implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineers and engineering students.
Prof. Mark Talesnick says, “We teach our students how to think, how to crunch numbers… but nowhere do we teach them anything to do with a social conscience. Nor are we training our graduate engineers as leaders in society.” Now, through EWB, Talesnick offers students “Engineering with a soul,” in hands-on engineering tasks. He says that even small budget projects have a big effect on the community.
“A small push from us can stimulate huge gains for the community and great gains in the development of our engineers,” he says. About 25 students took part in the project and its preparations. A group of three women and three men students together with Talesnick implemented the project on the ground in Nepal.
Hannah Bardin, 27, has been involved in the EWB-Technion initiative since the initial meeting held on campus. “This is a really unique opportunity to combine my engineering education with social values,” says this master’s student who is specializing in water management. She continues, “Being able to apply engineering skills in order to help a community and actually deal with real life engineering challenges was an experience I couldn’t get anywhere else.”
The Technion EWB chapter is actively involved in development projects in Israel’s Negev desert Bedouin community, as well as elsewhere in the Middle East.
Mr. Matanyahu Englman has been appointed the Executive Vice President and Director General of the Technion. He holds a BA (with honors) in Economics and Accounting and an MA (with honors) in Business Administration (majoring in Accounting and Finance) – both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Since 2010, Matanyahu Englman served as the Deputy Director General of the Technion. Some of his previously held positions include CEO of the Shoham Local Council, Deputy Director General of the Jerusalem College of Engineering, and Managing Director of the Jerusalem Branch of the Accounting Firm, Fahn Kanne & Co.
Matanyahu Englman took office this week, on January 1, 2014. He replaces Professor Arnon Bentur who before holding this office, served in a long line of senior administrative positions at Technion (as the Director of the National Building Research Institute (NBRI), Vice President for Research, the Director of the Samuel Neaman Institute, Dean of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chairman of the International School).
The NAM Program (an acronym in Hebrew for Outstanding Arab Youth), part of the “Yedidim Atidim” (Hebrew for “Future Friends”) organization founded and funded by Eitan Wertheimer, brings talented young Arab men and women from disadvantaged backgrounds to the Technion.
The NAM program (an acronym in Hebrew for Outstanding Arab Youth) at the Technion will salute its first one hundred graduates at an event to be held at the Technion, with the central lecture to be given by Nobel Prize Laureate, Research Professor Dan Shechtman, on “The Importance of an Engineering-Scientific Education.” Mr. Eitan Wertheimer, the founder and primary supporter of the program, will also participate in the event, along with Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie, and the heads of high-tech companies where NAM graduates are already working at.
Samar Jamama is one of these graduates, holding a BSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Technion. Today he works at the Nazareth branch of Amdocs. Born and raised in Yafia (located in the Lower Galilee), Samar is the oldest of four children. His father, a construction worker, invests in the future of his children. “Don’t be like me,” he tells them, “I’m 46 years old and already tired.”
Samar studied at the high school in his village. The principal recommended him for the NAM program. He underwent the acceptance tests and interviews, and was accepted. “I always knew that one day I would find myself at the Technion,” he said. “Even if I wouldn’t have been accepted to the program I would have worked for a couple of years and saved up so that I could go to the Technion. NAM paid for my pre-university “Mechina” studies, dorms and tuition, and freed me from financial burden. All of the expenses are paid for by the program. We also received support in preparing for the psychometric exam, as well as access to social workers who helped solve personal problems; I am grateful to Shirley who has become a second mother to me.”
Samar is referring to Shirley Yogev, the program director. Samar also speaks warmly about Eitan Wertheimer who opened for him and his friends the gates of the Technion and an entrance way to higher education. “I volunteer at my old school, giving tutoring lessons. I also represent my Faculty at open days, introducing the benefits of studying at the Technion to potential candidates, on a voluntary basis. This is the least I can do in return and in gratitude to the NAM program for all it gave me. Today I work in development and want to pursue a master’s degree. Of course I’d like to continue my studies at the Technion. It’s true that you study hard here but I love this university. I come here every Sunday, even when I’m not studying. The NAM program is a bridge to the Technion for young Arab men and women. The “Mechina” softens the shock of the transition from high school. Everyone in my village has heard about NOAM and aspires to be accepted to the program.”
NAM opened in July 2006. Currently, some 280 students are enrolled in the program.
PhD student Shani Elitzur with Prof. Alon Gany and Dr. Valery Rosenband demonstrate — at the Fine Rocket Propulsion Center, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering — how to power a model boat and car using just aluminum and water.
The technology is based on a patented novel method, developed at the Fine Rocket Propulsion Center, for aluminum activation to react spontaneously with water. It enables compact, safe, and efficient hydrogen storage which can be used on demand. The combination of this hydrogen production and storage technique with a PEM fuel cell can yield “green”, non-polluting electric energy with specific energy (energy per unit mass) greater by 10- to 15-fold than common lithium-ion batteries used today.
The technology may be applied, for instance, for marine and automotive propulsion, for emergency electric generators, for power supply in remote communication posts, and for civilian and military outdoors operations, providing convenient, safe, clean, and quiet operation.
Prof. Mark Silberstein receives the 2013 Yahoo ACE Award
The competitive Yahoo ACE (Academic Career Enhancement) award is announced yearly, and its recipients are top young professors at leading research universities around the world, conducting Yahoo-relevant academic research.
Prof. Silberstein’s research spans several topics. He is interested in heterogeneous architectures, from different points of view: programming tools, scheduling algorithms, Operating System (OS) abstractions and privacy support in OS. In addition, he conducts research concerning high performance computing on grids and clouds, distributed storage systems, and parallel processing on multicores and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
The award announcement notes that Prof. Silberstein is a specialist in these research topics, and also that “aspects of Silberstein’s research are tightly aligned with areas of interest to the Systems Research team at Yahoo Labs in Haifa. Scientists at Yahoo Labs intend to collaborate with Silberstein on various projects including the scalable implementations of machine-learning algorithms on high-performance hardware (GPGPU, etc).”
“I am looking forward to productively cooperating with the scientists at Yahoo Labs,” says Prof. Silberstein, “in order to achieve groundbreaking research together with applications which will prove useful in the real world.”
Prof. Silberstein recently joined the Electrical Engineering Department at the Technion, after having conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Texas in Austin, under the supervision of Prof. Emmett Witchel. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science at the Technion in 2010, jointly supervised by Prof. Assaf Schuster and Prof. Dan Geiger.