Unprecedented success for the 10th edition of the Annual Mission at the TECHNION, Israel Institute of Technology, held by Muriel TOUATY, Technion France General Director from May 15 to May 18, 2015 in Israel: “Applying BIG DATA [la suite]”.
60 participants at the highest level were part of this edition, including Veolia, Sanofi, Safran, Microsoft Ventures, Dial-Once, Groupe Lafarge, ALMA Consulting, l’Université Paris-Saclay, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Mines-Télécom, Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), CEA LIST, Groupe Freevy/Edenvy, FB&Cie, JEMS Group, EDIS Consulting, Quantmetry, Connected Health Monaco, Université du Luxembourg-LCSB, Mulhouse Town Hall, INRIA, Métropole Nice Côte-d’Azur, France Embassy in Israel, SHD Conseil, Prolog Ingénierie, SIGT… Edith Cresson, former Prime Minister and Docteur Honoris Causa of the Technion, was part of the delegation.
CPU delegation at Technion
This edition was focused around the following themes: Personalized Medicine, Mobile Health, E-Health, Smart Cities, Smart Grids, Green Tech, Connected Objects, Digital Media and Telecom, Humanitarian, Social and Personalized Education.
For 3 days, from Friday 15 to Monday 18 May, the members of the delegation benefited from a high quality program allowing them to discover the Technion campus through Technion key actors, in multidisciplinary scientific and technological fields.
Saturday started with a spiritual and cultural approach to Jerusalem with the visit of Mount Olivet, the church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall. Then the delegation went to Naztech (Nazareth Business Incubator Center NBIC) in Nazareth and attended a presentation from Fadi Swidan, CEO, on the NBIC and particularly on its Acceleration Program targeting the Arab community and aiming to close the “gap of technology entrepreneurship” between Arabs and Jews in Israel. The delegation also listened to pitches from start-ups incubated at the NBIC.
Sunday was dedicated to the visits on the Technion campus. The day began with a general presentation of the Technion by Prof. Wayne Kaplan, Vice President for Research followed by conferences around the theme “From the lab to the market place” for the rest of the morning.
The visits at the Technion research centers took place in the afternoon around three theme-linked groups;
“Smart Cities and Green” visited among others VizLab, the laboratory headed by Prof. Dafna Fisher.
The “EHealth, Mobile Health and Personalized Medicine” group visited the immunological systems laboratory of Prof. Shai Shen-Orr and met with Prof. Hossam Haick from the Chemical Engineering department and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute.
The “Big Data & Healthcare Analytics “ group notably met Prof. Avigdor Gal of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management.
On Monday, the delegation visited startups and leading companies in their fields in Herzliya and Tel Aviv. They attended a presentation from Itai Levinson Business Development Director at ReWalk Robotics, the startup that developed an exoskeleton helping paraplegic people to walk again. They then visited the R&D center of Microsoft Israel and the company Infinidat in Herzliya. Finally, the delegation had a last visit on the Azrieli Technion Sarona campus in Tel Aviv, which hosts the “International MBA startup program” of the Technion.
Personalized appointments were organized in parallel to the program according to the desiderata of the delegation participants.
A Gala dinner on Sunday, May 17 – in presence of the Technion Governance, the Mayor of Haifa, Mr. Yona Lahav, the Ambassador of France in Israel, Mr. Patrick Maisonnave and distinguished guests including the delegation of the CPU (Conference of University Presidents) invited by Technion France –closed this exceptional mission.
This mission aimed to put in direct interface, TECHNION best experts with the members of the delegation on issues of common interest in order to develop and implement strategic partnerships between the French ecosystem and the TECHNION.
This mission was a great success as evidenced by the many testimonies gathered, including:
Matthew Somekh, Ecole Polytechnique: “A fabulous institution where the entrepreneurial spirit is everywhere … .very inspiring!”
Michèle Lutz –Haut, Town Hall of Mulhouse: “Stay and organization of very high quality.”
Nicolas Coudière, Microsoft Ventures: “Discovery of a country resolutely looking to the future, of a university of excellence and of a nation where risk-taking is part of every citizen and every entrepreneur.”
Eric Bachelet, Safran: “A remarkable institution, one of the very first in global alliance between Fundamental Research, Applied Research and Innovation.”
Gilles Bloch, Paris-Saclay Campus: “[the Technion] Discovery of an exceptional institution in a warm and open atmosphere.”