Israel: Assisting Both Customers and Retailers Alike

Many times, a call to a representative requiring assistance on a certain product or service can result in being anything but useful. Customers can become even more bewildered after completing the call than before they began it. Enter Israeli start-up CallVU, founded in 2012 by Ori Faran, Doron Rotstein and Roee Halfon, who have created a system where a customer requesting help can see what advice the person on the other end of the phone is offering. Designed for mobile phones, the system operates in the following way: customers who call a help agent submit their names and wait for an agent to answer. If they do not wish to remain on the line, they are given the alternative of a callback. When the "help" call begins, the customer reports their problem and the agent can not only reply verbally, but also with texts and pictures-sending images and further directions on how to solve the problem directly to the customer's screen.

The company is said to possess so much potential that they recently won $25,000 in the second annual MasterCard Israel Technology Award, a competition that included 45 start-ups vying for the coveted prize awarded to emerging companies with novel ideas that can both help customers and retailers.

Below is the link to the article:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/an-israeli-start-ups-solution-for-the-customer-service-blues/

Ori Faran and Doron Rotstein accepting the MasterCard Israel Technology Award in a ceremony in Tel-Aviv.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/an-israeli-start-ups-solution-for-the-customer-service-blues/

Israel: Tikun Olam, One Child At a Time

In central Africa, the Kairo School and Orphanage serves as a place of refuge for children whose parents have died, many of them from AIDS. The orphanage allows the children to continue to develop in a safe environment. However, up until the implementation of Innovation: Africa, the orphanage suffered from an energy issue. Due to the location having no electricity, the only manner in which the orphanage could illuminate the rooms at night was by using kerosene gas or candles. However, this was extremely dangerous, especially for kids, and the faint quality of the light was damaging the children's vision.

Enter Innovation: Africa, founded by Sivan Ya'ari, which installed an Israeli-developed solar energy system in these areas. These systems have provided light to not only the 500 children of the Kairo School, but to hundreds of thousands of residents in the region as well. The project is distinctive in Africa and it recently won a prestigious award from the United Nations. With this new-found light, the children in the orphanage can now have more prolonged days, with extra evening programs teaching them to how to read and write.

In addition to light, the Innovation: Africa projects supply 20,000 liters of clean water a day (due to the solar water pumps they have installed), and drip irrigation systems have produced sources of food and income for farmers and their families. Solar energy units yield not only light for schools, but refrigeration for hospitals, which for the first time can stock and store medicines safely. Also, because of the solar-powered refrigerators, vaccines for many diseases that are prevalent in Africa have been administered to over 300,000 people.


Below is the link to the article and an interesting video featuring Sivan Ya'ari:
1) http://www.timesofisrael.com/lighting-up-africa-with-israeli-technology/
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh3D2j-pnYg

Sivan Ya'ari being presented with an award for Innovation: Africa at an awards ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/lighting-up-africa-with-israeli-technology/

Onavo: Optimizing Mobile Devices

Recently, Facebook acquired Israel-start up Onavo, a Tel Aviv-based mobile analytics company, for estimated sums of 100 million to 200 million dollars. The company, founded in 2010, focuses on two aspects. One is developing consumer-concentrated software to help optimize devices, app performance, and battery life on iOS and Android devices. The other is an analytics business for mobile companies to chart how well their own apps are faring, and to compare that against apps of their competitors. It had raised nearly $13 million in venture funding from investors that included Sequoia, Horizons Ventures, Motorola and Magma Venture Partners.

The acquisition of the company has been seen as a manner in which to boost Mark Zuckerberg's  Internet.org, an initiative to bring the entire world online. Facebook can also use the company to track  user activity data and target trends in apps that exhibit potential, giving them the ability to spot, at a very early stage the types of apps that are gaining favor with the public. This company can also allow  them an immense amount of insight into how people are utilizing their smartphones.

Links to further information:

1) http://allthingsd.com/20131015/facebooks-120-million-onavo-buy-comes-with-lots-of-upside/

2) http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/13/facebook-buys-mobile-analytics-company-onavo-and-finally-gets-its-office-in-israel/

Onavo's logo.
http://www.internap.com/wp-content/uploads/Onavo_logo_big_BoW.png

Waze: Outsmarting Traffic

Being stuck in traffic can be an exasperating and often infuriating experience. The endless amount of cars that do not appear to be moving at any significant rate is enough to make anyone irritated. Enter Israeli-startup company Waze Mobile, which produced Waze, a GPS-based geographical navigation application for smartphones with GPS capability. The app consists of screens which offer turn-by-turn information and user-submitted travel times and route specifics, downloading location-relevant information. The company was purchased by Google in 2013 for an estimated price of 1.3 billion dollars.

Waze emerged with Best Overall Mobile App award at the 2013 Mobile World Congress, and when it was acquired by Google on June 11, 2013, all of Waze's 100 employees received an average of about $1.2 million, which constitutes the largest sum given to employees in the history of Israeli high tech. Below are some recent advances the app has made over the years:

2011: Waze Mobile updated the software to include community-centered events of interest, such as local functions that ranged from street fairs to protests, that were occurring in real-time.

June 2012: Waze launched an update to display fuel prices. 

June 2013: Waze implemented a global project that would allow future road closures and real-time traffic updates during significant events in a certain country, for example, the Tour de France.

Waze's website: https://www.waze.com

Link to article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waze

Waze's logo and slogan.
http://www.internap.com/wp-content/uploads/Onavo_logo_big_BoW.png

Israel: Innovative Irrigators

Due to a contributing number of factors, the fields of Europe are having a difficult time staying watered. Climate change, a population increase, urbanization, and government demands have transformed areas once teeming with fresh water into areas that struggle immensely. Farmers in locations such as the Po Valley are abandoning the wide range of crops they once raised for soybeans and corn in order to take advantage and receive EU (European Union) subsidies for crops to be used in bioenergy production.

Israel has already taken an impressive leap into improving the situation. The Israeli drip-irrigation developers, Netafim, are leading an international coalition to develop new precision technologies that will refine irrigation control and maintenance, therefore increasing water availability for crops that require a larger amount of water. Named FIGARO (Flexible and Precise Irrigation Platform to Improve Farm Scale Water Productivity), the €6 million project will “build a system to enable precise irrigation based on humidity, climate conditions, plant needs, and other factors, all based on a smart computerized system,” said Adriano Battilani, scientific manager of the FIGARO project and a collaborator and pioneer of the plan, which is being managed together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FIGARO will consist of a computerized model that will track and direct water activity, thus reducing the dearth of water some areas face.

Paired with recycling technologies and water conservation projects the EU is instituting, the Israeli-developed technology being provided by Netafim will have a significant effect on European farming in the years to come. The program has already been implemented at nine sites in Europe and Israel as a pilot program. If the trials achieve their goals, FIGARO will be extended to the rest of Europe.


Below are some links in which Israeli irrigation has assisted in other aspects, more information about FIGARO, and a video describing FIGARO.

1. http://www.thetower.org/advances-in-israeli-water-technology-assisting-in-worldwide-food-production/

2. http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/israeli-firm-heads-international-team-to-reduce-agricultural-waste/11241

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-jAKvKcWP0#t=191

4. http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-water-tech-comes-to-rescue-of-eu-farmers/

European farmers observing FIGARO.

http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/israeli-firm-heads-international-team-to-reduce-agricultural-waste/11241

FIGARO in action.

http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/israeli-firm-heads-international-team-to-reduce-agricultural-waste/11241

ImMucin: Targeting and Destroying Cancer Cells

Israel, in the past recent years, has been making incredible progress in targeting one of the world's deadliest diseases, cancer. One of these innovations has been produced by an Israeli company, Vaxil BioTherapeutics. Vaxil is developing ImMucin, a therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of cancer, composed of a distinct 21 amino acid peptide. It essentially stimulates the patient’s immune system to identify and destroy cells on which the cancer marker MUC1 appears. As it is usually visible only on cancer cells and not on healthy cells, the concept behind the drug is that the immune system will target and kill the cancer cells but leave healthy cells unharmed.

The ImMucin vaccine possesses several defining characteristics. First, approximately 90% of all cancers are thought to have this particular marker, thus providing ImMucin the capacity for enormous potential. Second, the specific sequence is only found on the cancer cells and not in soluble form in the blood, (thereby increasing the strength of the immunological response). Furthermore, ImMucin can activate a combined initiation of multiple subcategories of immune cells. Also, ImMucin can be provided to a very wide section of the population with no need for complex and expensive personalization or prior selection based on the patient's immune system. In addition to this, ImMucin has a unique property that may allow it to control the inclination of the tumor to elude the immune response (TAP deficiency) and develop resistance to treatment.

In 2013, ImMucin successfully completed a Phase I/II study in patients with Multiple Myeloma at the Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem and Rambam Medical center, Haifa, Israel, meeting all the study's stages and requirements. Vaxil is preparing a Phase II study in Myeloma and another study in  solid tumors (e.g. breast or lung cancer).

Below are some links in which the idea behind the vaccine have been featured:

1. http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2013/06/20/israeli-cancer-vaccine-immucin-shows-optimistic-results/

2. http://www.vaxilbio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&Itemid=27

3. http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2013/04/09/536849/10027839/en/Vaxil-Reports-Positive-Results-From-a-Phase-I-II-Clinical-Trial-Using-Its-Therapeutic-Cancer-Vaccine-ImMucin-In-Patients-With-Multiple-Myeloma.html

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21570434

5. http://www.myeloma.org.uk/about-muk/news/myeloma-news/immucin-a-potential-vaccine-for-myeloma/

The ImMucin Vaccine
http://www.myeloma.org.uk/files/4013/3536/1218/vaccine1.jpg

The ReWalk: Remarkable Inventions, One Step At a Time

Recently deemed one of TIME 2013's "The 25 Best Inventions of the Year," the ReWalk is nothing short of extraordinary. Developed by Argo Medical Technologies in Haifa, Israel, the ReWalk is essentially an exoskeleton suit that uses technology with motorized legs that power knee and hip movement. The ReWalk is controlled by on-board computers and motion sensors, allowing users to engage in self-initiated walking without requiring ropes or switches to begin stepping. ReWalk controls movement using slight changes in balance, imitates natural gait and pace, and provides practical walking speed. A forward tilt of the upper body is sensed by the system, which activates the first step. The ReWalk also sits, stands, allows turning and has the ability to climb and descend stairs.

The original ReWalk is available in two versions – the ReWalk I and the ReWalk P. The ReWalk I is  for use by medical institutions for research or therapy, under the supervision of a healthcare professional, such as a physical therapist. The ReWalk P is a personal unit, intended for personal use by patients at home or in public. The ReWalk was approved for hospital use in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2011 and underwent clinical trials in MossRehab in Philadelphia.

Quite recently, on May 8th 2012, a paralyzed British woman, Claire Lomas, used a ReWalk to become the first person ever to finish a marathon using a bionic assistance suit. Lomas, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a 2007 riding accident, completed the London Marathon in 17 days with her ReWalk system. Later on in 2012, Lomas became the first person to take the ReWalk suit home to help her in everyday tasks.

Below are some videos and links that include more information about this fascinating device:

1. http://rewalk.us/rewalk-2-0-on-abc-10news/

2. http://rewalk.com

3. http://rewalk.us

4. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=9322025

5. http://techland.time.com/2013/11/14/the-25-best-inventions-of-the-year-2013/slide/rewalk/

The ReWalk in action.
http://images.gizmag.com/hero/rewalk.jpg

An overview of the ReWalk.
http://cdn.medgadget.com/img/robodudes.jpg