Interview with Prof. Lihi Zelnik-Manor

Prof. Lihi Zelnik-Manor

The Office of the Executive Vice President for Innovation and Industry Relations is dedicated to enhancing the collaboration between the Technion and industry by identifying opportunities and maximizing their potential.

In a recent interview, Prof. Lihi Zelnik-Manor, Executive VP for Innovation and Industry Relations, talks about how Technion researchers have traditionally been at the forefront of cutting edge technologies, leveraging the university’s valuable multidisciplinary approach to create successful partnerships with industry players.

How can the Technion create and maintain fruitful collaborations with industry to ensure these make a real and meaningful impact?

Universities have historically focused their efforts on pursuing academic research, while industry has used its resources to manufacture products. Over the past few decades however, we have seen a spurt of collaborative relationships and a fluidity of roles: many academic institutions are facilitating the inception of companies while corporations have started to set up their own research and development centers. As the relationship between academia and corporations intensifies, universities are presented with different needs and challenges.

Ever since its formation, the Technion has strived to enrich research and academic development, generate valuable human capital, revolutionize knowledge, and impact the Israeli and global industry around the world. The university’s strategic vision emphasizes collaboration with industry, believing it can leave a significant mark on society by transferring the vast amount of knowledge and research it has accumulated within its labs to industry.

Over the years we have formulated and updated collaboration frameworks and plans, to make this knowledge transfer even more effective and impactful, with added productivity. We are formulating one such plan as we speak: we are taking a deep look at what works, what needs to be amplified and finetuned, and where resources should best be allocated. All of this is to ensure that the Technion continues to be the leading technological university in Israel, a pillar of its society and a driving force for industry.

What challenges and setbacks are you facing that could hinder collaborations?

To ensure collaborations with industry are successful we need to make sure that the two sides learn how to talk with each other: researchers tend to ask broad questions, look at the larger picture and deliberate issues for extended periods of time. Those who work at corporations are generally product oriented and focused on bringing the development to market as soon as possible.

One of our jobs is to help bridge these differences and match expectations, so that both sides can work with each other and create a collaborative and productive working environment.

People who work in industry are often so focused on developing a product that they can often be unaware of recent research findings that could impact their work. Since our labs are equipped with the latest technologies and are managed by skilled researchers who track global scientific developments, they can quicky update industry partners with this information. This can help modify products to suit the changing reality or help companies to make the necessary tweaks to resolve an even larger challenge.

Today, a significant part of our staff and students are immersed in research projects that could translate into commercial products. This is a source of pride, as the technologies developed in our labs are those that will make an impact on society and the medical world. Intensifying connections with industry, as is happening now, will only boost these results.

What distinct advantages and expertise do Technion researchers bring to collaborations with industry?

The Technion’s multidisciplinary approach to research is what confers upon its scientists an unprecedented and unparalleled level of flexibility when approaching a problem. Our research teams include members from a wide variety of faculties and fields, including chemistry, biology, medicine, and engineering. This enables them to work together to tackle challenges as varied as sustainability and human health and find solutions to a variety of other pressing humanitarian problems.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a fast-growing field in which Technion researchers have joined forces over the years. Whereas the study of AI first emerged in the 1950s, we have seen a flourishing of this science only in the last few years, made possible by faster chips and the development of cloud computing.

This has triggered a global AI frenzy, with corporations spending billions of dollars and valuable human resources to get an edge over others and create practical tools to best make use of this technology.

Since the very beginning, the Technion has been at the forefront of AI research. Today, the 120 researchers that work in the university’s labs can tap into decades of accumulated experience and experiments to bring that ripe knowledge to the industry that is hungry for new AI-based solutions and applications.

It is the role of the Technion’s tech transfer unit to convert these high-scale projects into strong commercial products.

Another advantage of the Technion is the fact that many of its researchers, including myself, have worked in industry at some point during their careers, and are thus able to understand its needs and unique viewpoints. This background enables us to tutor our students and our fellow researchers with the practical knowledge relevant to industry. It also allows our students to successfully blend into the business world after they graduate, providing their new employers with an all-rounded and better-prepared force to meet the challenges of the future.

One should not forget that there are many similarities between a talented researcher and a talented entrepreneur. Both need to have the ability to be thorough and pay attention to detail, undertake a comprehensive study of the field they wish to explore, ask the right questions, and think independently.

What will impact the Technion’s research going forward?

It has always been in our DNA to perform innovative research and align forces with the industry. This collaboration will expand in coming years, and the ongoing open discussion, flow of information and the sharing of ideas will continue to be beneficial and fruitful for both parties.

We have seen this in the past, we continue to witness it today and we will experience even more of it in the future.