The First Bi-annual International Workshop of Zimin Institute

On the 7^th of April 2019, the Industrial Affiliate program of the Faculty of engineering had the pleasure of  hosting Dr. Zimin, Founder of Zimin Foundation and Zimin Institute along with his entourage and the Zimin team at the University of Tel Aviv for the First Bi-annual International Workshop of Zimin Institute for Engineering Solutions Advancing Better Lives.

About Zimin Institute

Zimin Institute was established by the Zimin Foundation, a unique organization that plays a role in making our world better. Tel Aviv University was selected to host the first "Zimin Institute" following the vision of Dr. Zimin, the Founder of Zimin Foundation that significant technologies for better world should come from academic institute. Zimin's vision is to focus on significant research projects that combine excellent science, close to market status and potential to make the world better.

Last year winners

In the first round, the Zimin's Scientific Board selected 5 winners out of 29 applications. Today the first round is about to complete a year of research and the excellent results are provided in the booklet that we distributed today. The following projects topics were selected:

• Innovative Artificial Intelligence Algorithms for Heart Medical Procedures - By Prof. Rami Haj-Ali, School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
• Development of a multimodal Brain-Computer Interface based on AI for rehabilitation of people with motor disorders - By Prof. Jason Friedman, Physical Therapy, Sackler Faculty of Medicine 
• Individualized closed-loop sensorized virtual reality for behavioral change - By Prof. Yael Hanein, Electrical Engineering and Dr. Tom Schonberg, Life Sciences
• Identification of intraperitoneal free cancer cell during surgical procedure for disease management - By Prof. Noam Shomron, Sackler Faculty of Medicine
• 3D printing of cardiac patches with integrated sensors and actuators to regenerate the infarcted heart - Prof. Tal Dvir, Faculty of Life Sciences

Bi-annual International Workshop of Zimin Institute 

The Bi-annual International Workshop of Zimin Institute, hosted by Prof. David Mendlovic, Head of Zimin Institute, commenced with greetings by Prof. Joseph Klafter, President of Tel Aviv University. It carried on with an impressive list of highly respected speakers: Two Nobel Prize Laureates – Prof. Shechtman and Prof. Warshal, Prof. Varda Shalev from the School of Medicine, Prof. Yossi Matias from The exact Science Faculty and Google Israel, two Zimin winners from last round Profs. Tal Dvir and Noam Shomron, and a promising young scientist from the Engineering Faculty – Dr. Ines Zucker. 

During the afternoon session, 2019 Zimin's projects were selected and announced by Prof. Yoav Henis VP R&D and Head of the Zimin selection committee:

• Prof. Tal Dvir, Faculty of Life Sciences - 3D printing of cardiac patches with integrated sensors and actuators to regenerate the infarcted heart
• Prof. Noam Shomron, Sackler Faculty of Medicine - Identification of intraperitoneal free cancer cell during surgical procedure for disease management: a multidisciplinary engineering solution using a deep learning and real-time-repaid sequencing technology
• Prof. Tamir Tuller, Biomedical Engineering - Automatically Deciphering Silent Cancerous Mutations based on Computational Models of Gene Expression and Molecular Evolution
• Prof. Irad Ben-Gal, Department of Industrial Engineering, & Dan Yamin, Department of Industrial Engineering - Early detection of infectious diseases using large-scale sensory data from mobile devices
• Dr. Ayelet Lesman, School of Mechanical Engineering & Prof. Nahum Kiryati, school of Electrical Engineering - Spatio-temporal image analysis of biomechanical interactions as markers of metastatic potential
• Prof. Uri Nevo, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, & Dr. Merav Catalogna, Rahav Boussi-Gross, Prof. Shai Efrati, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center - Passive sensing of behavioral changes using smartphones in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

The workshop demonstrated nicely the artificial intelligence revolution that happens in many of the research fields as well as the dimensions of life science, exact science, academy and industry.

Thank you all for participating in this gathering as guests and as lecturers and for seeking to improve lives with means of innovative technology and extraordinary ideas.

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From right to left: Dr. Mark Shmulevich, Dr. Haim Ben-Yakov, Mr. Augie K. Fabela, Dr. Dmitry Zimin, Mr. Boris Zimin, Mr. Amos Elad