Technion Graduates 1st at BizTEC

Technion Graduates Who Developed Technology for Analyzing the Preferences of Internet Users Won First Place in the BizTEC Entrepreneurship Program

The program, run by students at Technion’s Bronica Entrepreneurship Center, has accompanied companies that have cumulatively raised more than $300 million over the years.

NowTecc won first place at BizTEC 2017, which was held last week at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The three group members are Technion graduates: Anastasia Logvinenko, a graduate of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering; Tal Yahav, a graduate of the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management; and Taly Bonder, a doctoral student at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management under the guidance of Prof. Ido Erev.

The three developed a technology that provides real-time insight into network behavior while maintaining the privacy of users. “We offer a deep analysis of users’ preferences at any given moment,” explained Bonder. “The computational algorithm learns the digital body language and visual choices made by users in real time, thus providing economically valuable insights to website owners. The system reports the behavior of users in real time and predicts their behavior, without linking to their personal profile, which protects their privacy.”

“Today, internet advertising works based on segmenting the market, dividing people into groups,” said Logvinenko. “We, on the other hand, present a customer-oriented approach based on individual behavior and predict it based on digital behavior and an artificial intelligence algorithm.”

NowTecc received the first prize – $10,000, donated by David Cohn from Phoenix – from Prof. Boaz Golany, Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development. Prof. Golany wished success to all the participants and said, “We need to learn from American academia, whose graduates return to their alma maters and invest in them. Its community of alumni is the most important resource for the future of a university, and therefore it is appropriate that you, who benefited from mentors at the Bronica Center for Entrepreneurship and Technion in general, should help us support other students after you ‘make it big.’”

NowTecc, first place winners – from right to left: Prof. Boaz Golany, Taly Bonder, Tal Yahav, and Anastasia Logi

Three groups placed second and received a prize of $3,300:

Neshima – from right to left: Prof. Boaz Golany, Avital Frenkel, and Yan Ostrovski

Neshima

(‘breath’ in Hebrew) offering an innovative method for the treatment of the pulmonary disease Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Yan Ostrovski developed the new device under the guidance of Prof. Josué Sznitman of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Technion and is working on the venture with Avital Frenkel. The problem with existing drugs for the disease is that they are produced as a fluid and therefore accumulate at the bottom of the lungs. The new device turns the medicine into foam, resulting in a uniform distribution of the drug in the lungs – an improvement in clinical measures.

Foresee Genomics – Prof. Boaz Golany (right) and Dr Roy Feingersh

Foresee Genomics

An innovative test for the identification of cancer mutations (markers) in a process based on advanced molecular biology and bioinformatic analysis developed by Technion graduate Dr Roi Feingersch. The test allows for a significant reduction in the cost of infrastructure, equipment, and the test itself, as compared to any similar genomic test, and in fact makes it unnecessary to operate a genomic center. The test, designed specifically for laboratories in hospitals and the private sector, is simple and quick and does not require sophisticated and expensive equipment.

Suricatta – from right to left: Yehuda Bronicki, Prof. Boaz Golany, Adi Ezaguy, Leeoz Avni, and Ido Hauzer

Suricatta 

A system for fire detection and evaluation of future fire risk. This is accomplished by deploying a smart sensor network that provides live information from the field: the chances of a fire breaking out, instant detection of arson, and monitoring fire progress. The information is transmitted to a control room or smartphone. The team members are Technion graduates Leeoz Avni, Ido Hauzer, and Adi Ezaguy.

BizTEC, a leading technological entrepreneurship program in Israel, was founded in 2004 and is part of Technion’s Bronica Entrepreneurship Center. Its goal is to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among students and graduates of academic institutions in Israel. This is accomplished, with BizTEC’s partners Poalim High-Tech and Pearl Cohen Law Firm, through a program in which the participants benefit from lectures given by key figures in the high-tech industry, workshops, and guidance from mentors from academia, industry, and the venture capital industry. The highlight of this process is Demo Day, which took place at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this year.

One hundred and twenty teams of students and alumni of academic institutions from all over Israel applied for BizTEC 2017, 12 of which reached the final stage. These groups presented their developments to a panel of judges that included representatives from various organizations including New Generation Technology (NGT); Dov Moran’s venture capital fund, Grove Ventures; Qualcomm Ventures; Poalim High-Tech; and the Perl-Cohen law firm.

The event was attended by the founder of Ormat, Yehuda Bronicki; Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, Prof. Boaz Golany; Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Orit Hazzan; Director of Technion’s business unit, T3, Benny Soffer; and several prominent BizTEC graduates.

Technion’s entrepreneurship leader, Rafi Naveh, said, “During the ‘final judgement’, a week before Demo Day, we asked the teams what they will take away from the process and everyone said: Validation. It is indeed an important lesson, because engineers tend to fall in love with their inventions and force them on every potential client and situation. These teams have understood that in order to succeed they must operate differently – they need to start with the problem space and not with the solution space. Validation means that you do not hypothesize and speculate, but go out into the market and meet the customers and users and listen to them and their needs.”

“The BizTEC entrepreneurship program is a flagship program of the Technion’s Bronica Entrepreneurship Center,” said Executive Director, Dr. Dana Sheffer. “This is one of the first, and definitely the best, program of its kind in Israel. At the Technion we are constantly advancing and developing new initiatives- an example is the excellent  Runway program at Cornell Tech, and a $200 million venture fund established this year for companies based on Technion knowledge.”

Technion graduate Ran Korber, environmental engineer and co-founder of BreezoMeter, who won the BizTEC competition four years ago, spoke about the process of establishing the company. “The problem is that air pollution is invisible, and therefore technology is required in order to identify it. As part of the BizTEC entrepreneurial competition, and since then, we have developed BreezoMeter – a big data platform that provides information on local air pollution through an application and without the need for additional hardware. The information comes from a wide range of sources: government and municipal sensors, millions of cars, six satellites, and weather forecasts. Dyson uses our product in order for their air purifiers to operate according to the actual level of pollution. The car company HELLA incorporates our technology in their cars so that the car chooses a less polluted route and closes the windows automatically when there is pollution outdoors.

“In the beginning, we wanted to monitor all environmental hazards – soil pollution, earthquakes, and more – but at BizTEC we learned the importance of validation. We realized the importance of understanding what it is that the market needs and to narrow down our goal; otherwise, we would not get anywhere. Thus, we arrived at air pollution and had to decide on the product and how we would benefit from it. We formulated a vision to help billions improve their health by monitoring accurate air pollution information. In other words, we want to democratize information about air pollution.

“BreezoMeter was officially founded in February 2014, and has grown rapidly since. It is worth noting that we are located in Haifa, with 23 employees, about half of whom are Technion graduates.”

BizTEC 2017 – Group photo of program participants
Photos: Assaf Shilo / Israel Sun, Technion Spokesperson Unit