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March 5, 2004/Adar 12 5764, Vol. 56, No. 24
Technion highlights advances
BARRY COHEN
Editor
Three representatives from the Technion - Israel's MIT - explained the university's inroads in aerospace engineering and biomechanical and medical research during a visit to the Valley on March 1.
Aerospace engineering is vital to Israel because "if you have a strong air force and a strong aerospace community, you can keep a small army," said Professor David Durban, member of the Technion faculty of aerospace engineering since 1975. "The size of our air force is equivalent to France or Britain" in absolute numbers, he noted.
Durban, engineering student Adi Gurfinkel and doctoral candidate Itay Shafat met in a private home in Scottsdale.
Durban also highlighted that Technion has played a role in developing the Arrow missile.
"This is the only operational anti-ballistic missile on earth," and sends a message to Iran that Israel is prepared for any threat, he explained.
Additionally, Technion's space research led to Israel's becoming only one of eight countries that has satellites orbiting the earth, he said.
Gurfinkel explained that one of her research fields is "training machines to think in a human way."
She also has conducted research to treat paralyzed patients through bypassing where electrical signals from the brain are blocked, she said.
Shafat highlighted Technion's stem cell research, treatments for Parkinson's disease and cancer research.
Technion, established in 1924, is the oldest university in Israel. Located on 300 acres in Haifa, it has 9,000 under-graduate students and 3,000 graduate students.
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