And also: a private company will allocate NIS 5 million for research in the field of cyber defense more–>
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the University of Michigan, USA, recently signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the development of renewable technologies. The agreement was signed by the Vice President for Research of the University of Michigan, Prof. Stephen Forrest and the Vice President for Research and Development of Ben-Gurion University, Prof. Moti Hershkowitz.
As part of the agreement, each of the universities committed to invest half of the total of one million dollars intended to drive the move over three years. The purpose of the partnership is to create an exchange of knowledge in order to promote advanced technological solutions in the field of fuels for vehicles, solar energy and thermoelectric materials, which will convert heat into electricity. Joint teams from the two universities will be able, from the beginning of March 2013, to submit proposals for receiving research grants for projects in one of these three fields.
"We live in a global world," said Forrest, "and universities must make their activities global, as we must face challenges that are too difficult for a single country to solve. When researchers from different universities from around the world work together, they bring with them a different culture and a different point of view, and when you combine them, you get much more than the sum of all the parts."
Prof. Hershkowitz noted that Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has been at the forefront of energy research for over 30 years. Recently, the university hosted a joint workshop with the University of Michigan in the field of renewable energy, with an emphasis on solar energy, liquid fuels and thermo-electricity. "We are eagerly awaiting the collaboration with researchers from the University of Michigan on challenging issues in the field of renewable energy and believe that the agreed upon model for collaboration has the potential to create a new scientific technology with applied potential."
During the first year of mutual cooperation, up to six projects will be funded. The results of the scientific studies will be presented every year in a joint workshop held by researchers from the two universities.
A record for a scholarship for a humanities and social sciences student in Israel: over a quarter of a million shekels
The Shalem Academic Center, which will open its doors this fall, will operate a BA program. Special for those who excel in the social sciences and the humanities to be held at the Kiryat Moriah campus in Jerusalem. Only 50 candidates will be accepted for the first study cycle, where the cost of tuition is NIS 36 per year over the four years of study.
In the last year, following targeted fundraising efforts, an agreement was reached from donors to fund generous scholarships for the recipients. The decision to create generous scholarships for particularly outstanding students is intended to put the student's excellence, motivation and intellectual curiosity in the first place and with the aim of making studies a priority and enabling full-time study. In addition, they wanted the Shalem Academic Center to act to receive as wide a variety as possible of Israeli society and for this purpose, some of the scholarships are "marked" as scholarships for the northern and southern periphery, taking into account the distance from the campus. The center also notes that there is a desire to convey the message that a lack of resources will not stand in the way of a student with appropriate data.
The total scope of the scholarships reaches millions of shekels, where the 50 accepted will receive generous assistance both in tuition fees (funding of most of the tuition fees) and living expenses, at a rate unmatched in Israel for this type of studies. The center emphasizes that any student who is found suitable for the program will receive the scholarship.
The scholarships will include assistance in the amount of NIS 30 per year from the tuition fees, as well as assistance of between NIS 2000 and NIS 3000 per month for living expenses. The maximum number of scholarships that will be personally approved by the president of the center will reach an amount that amounts to NIS 288 (according to the financing of all tuition and assistance of NIS 3000 per month over four years) - a record amount in Israel for this type of scholarship.
A complete academic center, is the first academic institution in Israel, which will operate on the inspiration of the "liberal arts" method, a school of thought that was established about two hundred years ago in England and the United States in the prestigious colleges of Oxford, Yale and Columbia, and includes a "humanistic curriculum" - structured core studies in the social sciences And the spirit to a small and select group of outstanding students who will include subjects such as philosophy, the basics of physics, history, geography, literature, the Bible, Islam and the Middle East, research methods and statistics, culture and music. The admissions process to the academic institution will also be unique and will not be based on grades psychometric but on a special test developed and implemented in Cambridge, which will be joined by a personal interview and writing a text.
Only 50 students will be admitted to the study program in the current cycle. The cost of tuition is about NIS 36 per year over about four years. The institution operates in Jerusalem, Kiryat Moriah.
The president of Afka College received an honorary member certificate of the Israeli Association for Systems Engineering
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A ceremony that took place recently was part of the Israeli Association for Experimental Systems in honor of the president of Afka College, Prof. Moti Sokolov.
Prof. Sokolov will receive the certificate of honorary member of the Israeli Association for Systems Engineering, as part of the association's annual international conference. The certificate is awarded to Sokolov for his many years of contribution to the promotion of systems engineering in academia and the training of systems engineers in Israel.
Prof. Moti Sokolov has been the president of Afka College for the past ten years. During his tenure in 2010, Afka College received the approval of the MLA to open the Department of Systems Engineering and award an M.Sc. in systems engineering.
The purpose of the program is to provide graduates with an academic and practical foundation in the field of systems engineering, and to train them to use the latest development and control tools. The theoretical studies and practical experience within the program are aimed at developing the abilities required of the systems engineer - systemic thinking, team work, an integrative multidisciplinary approach while being oriented to details - which will give the graduate leadership and technological management skills.
Magellan Information Protection Technologies established a program to fund offensive cyber research in the amount of approximately NIS 5 million
The Magellan Information Protection Technologies Group, which provides consulting, testing and research services in the fields of cyberwarfare, announced the establishment of a program to fund cyber-offensive research in the amount of approximately NIS 5 million. This amount will be allocated to support practical research in the field of cyber and network intelligence, the products of which may help in the development of weapons and operational technological platforms.
In 2012, Magellan invested over five million shekels in internal R&D activities designed to preserve the company's technological innovation in the arena of cyber warfare. For the first time, it was decided at Maglan to formalize this activity and establish, in addition to the annual investment in the internal R&D activity, a research funding program that is open to all and is not limited by geographic location. The research proposals will be examined by Magellan experts according to criteria of innovation, creative thinking and in particular operational applicability.
Shay Blitzblau, CEO of the Magellan Group: "The accelerated development in the field of cyber warfare presents us with short-term defense and intelligence challenges of dealing in cyberspace. There is a constant need to locate and develop innovative and ground-breaking technologies and tactics in aspects of defense, attack and cyber intelligence gathering. Academic research is almost irrelevant in operational cyber warfare. We hope that this initiative of establishing a program to fund practical research will provide a flexible and effective platform for the promotion of R&D in the field, in particular for any entity that is not actually from the classical academy. As we expand our technological knowledge base based on current research tools, we will be able to provide more innovative "combat efforts" for the defense of the developing cyber space.
