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Professor Peyman Milanfar from the University of California Santa Cruz, at the Technion Conference:

To improve the quality of digital photography in small cameras it will be necessary to take a number of pictures and merge them together into one good image – Google Glass are the first to do so.

“Those of you with a keen eye and even those of you without can distinguish between a photo taken with a high quality camera than from one taken with a cell phone, but this will not be the case for long,” asserted Professor Peyman Milanfar from the University of California Santa Cruz, an expert in image processing and artificial vision who has been working for Google over the past year. He spoke at the Fourth Annual International Conference held by TCE Technion Computer Engineering Center named after Henry Taub at the Technion. Professor Milanfar is working with the team developing the Google Glass software.

Professor Oded Shmueli, the Technion’s Executive Vice President for Research, said at the opening of the conference: “We are at the brink of a process which will usher in a new era. The areas of research discussed at the conference, such as artificial intelligence, computer vision and image processing, affect all aspects of our lives.

Within a decade from now cars will travel on roads equipped with computer, sensors and navigation and radar systems which will allow them to travel alone without the intervention of a driver.”

Prof. Oded Shmueli

The TCE Technion Computer Engineering Center was inaugurated three years ago and since then has become a leading center of excellence in groundbreaking research,” said Professor Assaf Schuster, the Head of TCE. “We have been successful at creating here a new model for collaboration between academia and industry.”

According to Professor Milanfar it will be hard and nearly impossible to achieve the level of next generation camera with the simple cameras installed today in cellular phones and tablets, and which in the near future may also be used as part of wearable computing devices. It is because they lack all the moving parts and the complex heavy lenses that professional cameras have. Even the need of not overburdening the user, which has prompted planners to make them lighter and smaller, doesn’t let them compete with the big cameras without encountering physical limitations. The

Professor Peyman Milanfar wearing the Google Glass

miniaturization of devices makes it very difficult to bring light into the device, so what remains is to use sophisticated algorithms to compensate for the size reduction.

“My job at Google is to develop the field of computerized photography that can merge a number of former disciplines such as image processing, photography, computer graphics and computer vision. It includes the development of algorithms, hardware Optics and image processing techniques (Rendering),” explained Professor Milanfar. “The principle is quite simple – instead of taking only one image you shoot a series of images and then merge them together into one image. This can be in the form of a high resolution picture, a trivial feature that allows intensified use of multiple photos, or making use of other ‘tricks’ such as shooting several pictures from different angles and calculating the distance to objects, so that you will be able to decide in which area of the picture to focus and what part of the image will remain vague to achieve a sense of depth. Another ‘trick’ that can be used is to capture images that cannot be detected by the naked eye, such as night vision (by using infra-red sensors),and the ability to detect changes that occur very quickly or very slowly, distinguishing fine details (for example, the motion of a baby’s breathing through cameras installed in a child’s bedroom).”

Scientists (and high school students alike) that use microscopes are surely aware of the phenomenon that occurs when looking at a sample – where only the central portion of the image appears very sharp while the rest of it remains vague. Merging the images will produce one photo where all of the parts of the specimen are sharp and clear. “Google Glass is the first device that contains a camera that at every snapshot photographs a series of pictures and merges them,” added Professor Milanfar.

Professor Amnon Shashua from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Co-founder, Chairman of the Board and CTO of Mobileye and the startup company OrCam, described another approach to wearable computing based cameras. OrCam developed a system that includes a camera and microphone that fasten onto regular eyeglasses. The system allows the visually impaired to point at bobjects such as street signs, traffic lights, buses or restaurant menus, and reads it back to them (the menu, color at traffic light, street sign, etc…).

“The OrCam concept differs from Google Glass – as it doesn’t shoot a photo each time the user requests a picture but rather shoots a continuous video and performs immediate processing. This requires a completely different deployment in terms of hardware and particularly with regards to energy consumption,” said Professor Shashua.

PTC signed an agreement with the Technion to establish a center for robotics and digital content

The agreement includes the option to expand the cooperation in the future to include the Technion institutions in the USA and China

The scope of the investment is 7 million dollars

X May, 2014 PTC Inc. signed an agreement with the Technion to support the establishment of a center for robotics and digital content in the department of Education in Science and Technology, investing 7 million dollars. Within the framework of this agreement, PTC will finance the creation of the center and its operational costs for the first 3 years. PTC has been operating in Israel for over 20 years. The Israeli branch is one of 3 worldwide development centers. PTC employees will take part in various activities of the Robotics Center. In addition, PTC will make its software available to Technion students in the new center. Both sides favorably view the possibility to expand the cooperation and include Technion institutions in the US and China.

PTC Inc. is an American company based in Boston (Needham, MA) and traded on the NASDAQ. The company has over 6,000 employees and sales in 2013 of a billion and three hundred million dollars. PTC customers are some of the largest manufacturers in the world, including: Toyota, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Audi, Caterpillar, General Electric, Raytheon, EADS, Samsung, Dell, Toshiba, Motorola, and more.

PTC’s office in Israel was established in 1991 as the first development center outside of the US. Today this development center employs about 250 professionals in Haifa and Herzliya. Outside of the US, it is the second largest PTC development center in the world. In recent years, PTC has named the Israeli office a strategic development center and as a result the office has tripled in size in less than a decade. The Israel office is responsible for developing PTC’s leading products that are sold worldwide.

With PTC’s software clients can design products in 3D. They can manage all aspects of the product life cycle starting with concept and design and ending with production and support. The software allows PTC’s clients to digitally design the product, visualize it in three dimensions, and examine how each of its components fit together. Clients and vendors can test the product during the design and easily modify it before going to production.

Ziv Belfer, Manager of the PTC Israel development center states: “We are excited about signing the agreement with the Technion and about taking part in the establishment of the new center. As a company that develops new technologies, we value technological education. The Technion is considered one of the leading academic institutions in the fields

of engineering and technology and such cooperation is another step in the advancement of technological education in Israel and abroad.”

Prof. Boaz Golani, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development at the Technion, stated that: “The Technion welcomes partnerships with technology companies that enrich the curriculum and contribute to the students learning experience. The agreement is a further step in an extensive range of existing connections between the Technion and educational institutions in the State of Massachusetts. PTC’s contribution is yet another evidence for the Technion’s reputation and international recognition as one of the leading institutions in the world in science and technology.”

For more information: Idit Rosenberg, Media-PR, 052-8527125

“Pharmacological Trojan Horse” Fighting Cancer and Resistance to Anticancer Drugs

Technion researchers develop a novel approach for potential treatment of cancer cells that are resistant to chemotherapy

Technion researchers have discovered that multidrug resistant cancer cells frequently produce a large number of lysosomes. Taking advantage of this unique feature of the production of multiple lysosomes and the dramatic irreversible accumulation of certain lipid-soluble drugs bearing light-sensitive properties in these lysosomes– a “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” has been developed  that results in the destruction of drug resistant cancer cells.

For this groundbreaking research achievement, Professor Yehuda Assaraf, the Dean of the Faculty of Biology, will be awarded the Hilda and Hershel Rich Innovation and Entrepreneurship award in June 2014. This innovative new technology has been registered as an American patent, and has stirred a great deal of interest among major international pharmaceutical companies. Its potential therapeutic approach was published in the journal “Cell Death and Disease” and received wide coverage in a “Spotlight of Cell Press” article.

“Cancer cells acquire a wide range of sophisticated mechanisms to overcome cytotoxic drug therapy (i.e. chemotherapy) directed against them,” explains Professor Assaraf. “This phenomenon, known as ‘multidrug resistance’ (MDR) often stems from the fact that cancer cells possess an abundance of pump proteins, located in the membrane of cancer cells, that act as efficient pumps which expel a multitude of anticancer drugs from the cancer cells. This is an important mechanism by which malignant tumors become resistant to chemotherapy.”

Two types of MDR are known– inherent drug resistance that exists prior to drug therapy as well as acquired drug resistance that is provoked by drug treatment. Therefore, Professor Assaraf and members in his research team, including Dr. Michal Stark, Dr. Eran Bram and Yamit Adar, made it their primary goal to develop innovative therapeutic strategies in order to overcome the MDR phenomenon, which is a major hindrance to the development of curative drug therapies of cancer.

The researchers searched for the “Heel of Achilles” of MDR cancer cells which would constitute the weakest point through which these chemoresistant cancer cells could be defeated. They discovered that MDR cancer cells often contain a large number of microscopic intracellular organelles called lysosomes. Lysosomes were first discovered in 1974 by Nobel Laureate, Professor Christian de Duve. Lysosomes are intracellular acidic vesicles that contain dozens of hydrolytic enzymes capable of breaking down virtually all kinds of cell components, including proteins, fats, sugars, DNA and RNA. The role of lysosomes is to break down these cell components and other cells that have reached their end, to safeguard the proper physiological functioning of body cells.

The researchers discovered that light-sensitive, lipid-soluble drugs bearing weak basic features, selectively concentrate to very high levels within the multiple lysosomes present in MDR cancer cells. “MDR cancer cells are frequently equipped with two complementary defense systems,” explains Professor Assaraf. “One is the drug extrusion pump proteins located in the cell membrane that efficiently expels different anticancer drugs. The other is the multiplication of lysosomes; many anticancer drugs are lipid-soluble drugs with attributes bearing weak basic features. In other words, in an acidic environment such as inside lysosomes, these drugs become positively charged, get irreversible captured by lysosomes and accumulate to very high concentrations. Drugs capable of escaping one of the “guardians”- that is – the pumps that expel anticancer drugs, will be efficiently “vacuum-cleaned” by the numerous lysosomes found in the resistant cells and thereby prevent the drug from damaging its targeted site in the cancerous cell, resulting in high drug resistance.”

“We took advantage of this unique feature as an “Achilles Heel” and devised a “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” to kill MDR cancer cells,” explains Professor Assaraf. “When we illuminated light upon the MDR cells containing the light-sensitive drugs trapped in the lysosomes, it created oxygen free radicals that destroyed the lysosome membrane and as a result, all of the contents of the lysosomes was spilled into the cancerous cell. This resulted in a massive release of the above enzymes, and rapid digestion and destruction of MDR cancer cells.”

In collaborative efforts with other researchers, among them Professor Griffioen, Dr. Nowak-Sliwinska, Professor van den Bergh, Professor Skladanowski, and Professor Sarna from Holland, Switzerland and Poland, it turned out that in live model experiments using multidrug resistant tumors of human ovarian cancer origin, the core of the tumor was destroyed upon exposure to light, after having accumulated vast amounts of anticancer drugs inside the lysosomes. Moreover, due to the free oxygen radicals that were created after light exposure, the blood vessels nourishing the tumor were destroyed and others were occluded (i.e. blocked). As a result, the blood supply to the remaining cells in the malignant tumor was cut off, and this led to the destruction of any malignant cells that remained.

Professor Assaraf and his research team are diligently working towards developing a second generation of “Pharmaceutical Trojan Horse” selectively targeting cancer cells only by homing protein receptors that are selectively present on the malignant cells without harming healthy body cells. These receptors will deliver the “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” into the lysosomes, which will then be activated by light irradiation from optic fibers. This and much more – the researchers are also developing an alternative “Trojan Horse” that will be activated by ultrasonic waves that would be possible to target any cancerous tissue or metastasis of cancerous cells in a patient’s body without using any invasive procedure.

However, Professor Assaraf emphasizes that the way to develop a “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” for the practical treatment of malignant tumors in humans is still a long way off.

In the image: MDR lung cancer cells containing large amounts of lysosomes (vesicles marked in red) shown on the bottom line of resistant cells as compared with the top line showing sensitive cancer cells with small amounts of intracellular lysosomes). The green fluorescent drugs which are sensitive to light accumulate to very high concentrations in the multiple lysosomes in multidrug resistant tumor cells (the vesicles marked in green) and after exposure to light the multiple lysosomes explode due to the abrupt formation of oxygen free radicals, and the lysosomes enzymes become released into the cells, hence digesting the contents of the cancer cells and killing them.

Technion Students Find a Loophole in Security in the World’s Most Popular Internet DNS Protocol

Following the discovery, algorithms will be replaced in the next software version release

Technion students, Roee Hay and Jonathan Kalechstein from the Faculty of Computer Science discovered a new weakness (loophole), which had not been previously documented in the world’s most widely used DNS software – BIND. “We were very surprised to find a loophole in the protocol,” said Kalechstein. “We reported it to the authorities responsible for its implementation, they responded that they were unaware of this problem, and added that they will replace the algorithms in the next software version release.”

 Roee Hay presenting his research project on the day of the competition held by the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion
Photograph: Shiatzo Photography Services, the Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office

The project was carried out at the Laboratory of Computer Communication & Networking in the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion, and was led by Dr. Gabi Nakibly from Rafael (Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.). It won the faculty wide competition, the Amdocs Best Project Contest. In August 2013, the project was publicized at an academic conference on information security ‘Usenix WOOT,’ held in the US.

“We devised an attack on DNS, a protocol that is one of the cornerstones of the Internet, and we identified a weakness in one of its implementations,” explained Roee Hay. “The DNS protocol has been around for several years and has been investigated by researchers from all over the world. We knew in advance that the chances of finding a loophole in the software would be very small, but we like challenges.”

DNS (Domain Name System) is one of the most basic Internet protocols. It allows access to a decentralized database enabling computers to translate the names of websites to web addresses (IP addresses).

“During the resolution of name to IP address, DNS servers look for the server storing the corresponding IP address,” explains Dr. Gabi Nakibly. “The weakness that the students found allows hackers to compel a DNS server to connect with a specific server chosen out of a set of potential servers. If that server is controlled by the attacker, that DNS server  will receive a false IP address. This type of cyber attack gives hackers an advantage, by causing computers to ‘talk’ with network stations that they alone control without being able to detect the occurrence of the fraud.”

 Seeing by Hearing

Technion Students Develop Seeing Application for the Blind

The invention is based on a Kinect camera, mobile phone application and headphones

Three undergraduate students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion developed a seeing application for the blind, based on a Kinect camera, mobile phone application and headphones.

The application is based on images from the surrounding area obtained from the depth camera, which helps the blind navigate inside a building, warning them of obstacles through voice indication, while identifying and directing them to studied objects in the room.

The idea for the project was instigated by an undergraduate student, Tzahi Simkin. “The idea came to me while I was driving, where right before me I saw a blind man having trouble crossing the road. I thought to myself that if I could only describe to him, through technological means, a snapshot of the surrounding area, I would make it much easier for him and build his confidence in getting better oriented with his surroundings. I wanted to combine technological development with social assistance, and this is how this product was born; it connects a depth camera and cellular application, and integrates two different technological systems.”

Koby Kohai with students Tzahi Simkin and Gal Dalal

Tzahi partnered up with two undergrads, Gal Dalal and Danny Zilber, and together the trio began working on the project. “The technological advantage of the Kinect camera lies in its ability to take very good depth images and that it is relatively cheap,” added Tzahi. “This field is continually evolving, with cameras becoming smaller and less expensive all the time. Our project connected the depth images received from a smart phone application, to guide the blind within a given space.”

“The camera sits on a belt and takes depth images of the surrounding area,” explains Gal. “The wireless device processes the information received from the camera and gives a voice indication to the user through the application. The application we developed helps blind people navigate inside a building, warning them of obstacles through voice indication that identifies studies objects and directs the user to them. Studied objects refer to items such as keys or handbag that the application is previously programmed to recognize. In other words, there is an element of recognition and learning.”

“When there is an obstacle before someone who is blind, the application warns him/her to stop and directs them right or left to bypass the barrier,” says Tzahi.” We haven’t yet tested the product with blind people, but we tested it ourselves when blindfolded, and it worked. Recently, we contacted the Association for the Blind in Haifa, so that we could test the application on site from people who are blind, our end users, and obtain feedback for needed improvements.”

Koby Kohai, who heads the Control Robotics & Machine Learning Laboratory at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, guided and mentored the students throughout the project. “The project received a grade of 100 and has been submitted for a competition for outstanding faculty projects,” said Kohai. “The project was initiated by students, and I instructed and steered them towards technologies currently available on the market. The concept of the project was to test a technological concept that could in the future integrate from a technological standpoint, developing hardware into something more advanced. Every year we suggest ideas for project development to our undergraduate students, coming from industry or research of graduate students at the Faculty. We do our best to provide students with a broad space with which to encourage their creativity and their ideas in their chosen projects.”

“From my point of view, we succeeded with this project,” summarizes Tzahi. “I am interested in continuing to develop the product, so that it can be used by the blind one day. Our motivation for the project was to help those who needed help. There are over 150 million blind and visually impaired people in the world, yet the number of technological solutions offered to them today is very limited. Despite advances in technology, the best means of guidance remains through a Seeing Eye cane or Guide Dog. Our product is not yet perfected, and we intend to continue to develop it.”

Pictures: Koby Kohai with students Tzahi Simkin and Gal Dalal.

Photographed by: Shiatzo Photography Services, Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office

Technion Professor Dan Shechtman Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Professor Dan Shechtman from the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the Technion, was elected as a new member to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2011, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Among the Academy’s Fellows are Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious awards including the Pulitzer Prize, Wolf Prize, MacArthur Award, Guggenheim Award, Grammy, Emmy and Oscar Awards, and Fulbright Scholars.

Two other newly elected members to the 2014 class are Israeli natives – Neta Bahcall, astrophysicist and cosmologist, and Daphne Koller who co-founded with her colleague Andrew Ng the online learning platform ‘Coursera.’ A newly elected member from the public affairs domain is Martin Indyk, former US ambassador to Israel and now US envoy in diplomatic negotiations in the region.

“It is a great privilege to honor these men and women for their extraordinary individual accomplishments,” said Don M. Randel, Chair of the Academy’s Board of Directors. “The knowledge and expertise of our members give the Academy a unique capacity – and responsibility – to provide practical policy solutions to the pressing challenges of the day. We look forward to engaging our new members in this work.”

The newly elected members of the 2014 class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 11, 2014, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Margaret Meade and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the twentieth. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Medicine of the Future: British-Israeli Conference at the Technion

The Technion hosts the second BIRAX conference, focusing on collaborative research in regenerative medicine and stem cells

This morning the second BIRAX Regenerative Medicine Conference opened at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. The conference is focusing on British and Israeli collaborative research in the field of regenerative medicine and medicine based on stem cells. About 300 people will be attending the conference, over 80 of them from Britain. Among the delegates are recipients of seven large scale groundbreaking joint research projects  , which were awarded funding following first call for proposals of the BIRAX Regenerative Medicine Initiative.

Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie, conveyed that in 1997, when he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Joseph Itzkovitz requested funding for the amount of $10,000 to bring Professor James Thomson from the University of Wisconsin. “Professor Itzkovitz explained that he was a leading stem cell researcher. At the time this research sounded to me like science fiction, but I agreed to his request. Professor Thomson came to the conference and the rest, as they say, is history– stem cell research has evolved into a key area in medicine, and a field with enormous potential. I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to play a small role in promoting this important field – by allocating $10,000 of the Faculty’s budget. Today, Technion researchers play a major role in this research area.”

דיקן הפקולטה לרפואה ע”ש רפפורט, פרופסור אליעזר שלו

“Without a doubt, we are living in a fascinating age,” said Professor Eliezer Shalev, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. “Medicine is changing and evolving right before our eyes. Regenerative medicine is one of the most important areas of medicine, and it gives new hope to patients that until now had no cure for their ailments. Regenerative medicine offers compensation for the deterioration of bodily functions within a lifetime, and is of great importance in view of today’s aging population and the shortage of organs for transplantation. It may also help reduce animal testing.”

“It is a great privilege to hold this joint conference here,” said Matthew Gould, the British Ambassador to Israel, and one of the key founding figures of the BIRAX Regenerative Medicine program. “For me this is much more than a conference focused on regenerative medicine; it’s a wonderful model of scientific collaboration and exchange between countries. This is how I would like to see the relationship between Britain and Israel: bound by positive and fruitful connections, and founded on excellence stemming from both countries in specific scientific areas. The Government of Israel and the Government of Britain are seriously committed for this type of cooperation at BIRAX conferences, and British leaders voiced this sentiment during their visits to Israel: William Hague, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, at his visit a year ago; our Prime Minister, David Cameron, at his visit two weeks ago; and David Willetts, the Minister for Universities and Science who is with us today at the conference.”

Britain’s Minister of Science and Universities, David Willetts opened the conference by saying that this is his second visit to Israel. “I’ve been in Israel for almost a week along with a delegation of senior representatives from leading British universities. BIRAX is a wonderful way to promote scientific exchange between our two countries, and through its framework we advance research of global significance, which carry considerable British and Israeli contributions. We invest in different fields, such as energy and advanced materials, but most of our focus is on life sciences, in which we invest hundreds of millions of pounds.”

Professor Saul Tendler, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Nottingham , has visited Israel a number of times, as he has been involved in long term scientific cooperation with Professor Ehud Gazit from Tel Aviv University. In an exclusive interview Professor Tendler said that no British university has ever boycotted Israel and that top universities from the countries are interacting. “ “In reality, talks of boycotts are baseless, there they may be academics here and there who choose not to work with Israel, just as there are those who refuse to work with China.”

Professor Paul Curran, Paul Curran, Vice-Chancellor , City University , added that, “In the five years I’ve served as the university president there have been no anti-Semitic nor anti-Israel incident. As part of the ‘Olive Tree Scholarship we bring students from Israel and Palestine to City university where they take part in discussions sometimes hosted by journalists from theBBC,. Unfortunately, the media focuses on the  negative,.”

In connection with British-Israeli exchange Professor Curran said that, “We are two small countries who are very strong in science, and therefore cooperation is not accidental. When our Prime Minister, David Cameron, visited here two weeks ago, the first thing he did was to sign a cooperation agreement between our two countries.”

“The number of Israeli students in the UK has been declining, and it is important for us to alter this trend. We hope that BIRAX will help reverse this trend and that more students from Israel will choose to study in the UK..”

In the photos:  Dean of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Professor Eliezer Shalev. Photographed by: Avishag Shaar-Yeshuv.