Category Archives: News

Technion Nanocrystals for Solar Power

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Technion researchers polarize a nanometric-sized crystal by changing the composition of surrounding molecules. In the future, this could improve efficiency of 3G solar photovoltaic cells.

Technion researchers from the Sara and Moshe Zisapel Nano-Electronics Center successfully polarized a nanocrystal by changing the composition of the molecules surrounding it. This finding was just published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature Materials.
Doctoral student, Nir Yaacobi-Gross, under the supervision of the head of the Zisapel Center, Prof. Nir Tessler, exchanged some of the molecules attached to the surface of the nanometric-sized crystal with different molecules whose chemical or atomic group anchoring them to the crystal’s surface was different. The researchers discovered that the lack of uniformity in the molecular covering caused the crystal to partially polarize. The research group led by Prof. Asher Schmidt of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry also contributed to understanding the molecule-crystal connection process. 
As the paper shows, this discovery will likely have far-reaching consequences in as far as significantly improving the efficiency of solar cells. These are 3G photovoltaic cells that are being intensively developed around the world due to their relatively low cost (and therefore, their suitability for mass production). The solar cells used today are mostly silicon based and are expensive both in terms of production costs and in the energy required to manufacture them. The discovery by the Technion researchers changes the ability of nanocrystals to receive or give electrons to material surrounding it, which essentially means that they have changed the crystal’s characteristics.


 “Nano crystals of different materials are used to develop new light sources and solar cells.”

 “Nano crystals of different materials are used to develop new light sources and solar cells,” explains Prof. Tessler. “The nanocrystal is produced in a solution, is about 2-8 nanometers in diameter and covered by an organic molecule that stabilizes it and allows the nanocrystal to be dissolved in the proper fluids. In this case the solution is actually an ink containing opto-electronic materials and hence today there is a lot of activity going on around the world designed to integrate these materials in the field of printed electronics that will produce sheets of lights or sheets of solar cells.”
Prof. Nir Tessler
The researchers emphasize that in order to enable the integration of these new materials in opto-electronic devices, it is important to achieve control over their characteristics so as to be able to relate to them as building blocks to be used in engineering an advanced device.
In the early stages of the research in the Zisapel Center, it was found that organic molecules could be used to move the relative location of the particle’s level of energy. What surprised the researchers at this stage was the fact that the most important factor in this move was the atom found at the end of the molecule, which connects to the nanocrystal. The researchers showed that not only can the energy levels of the nanocrystal be moved relative to materials or to other nanocrystals, but that it was possible to change areas of this tiny crystal (approximately 4 nanometers in size) relative to other areas. “This study showed that we had a crystal that is inorganic but surrounded by organic molecules such that it constitutes an entity that is a hybrid of organic and inorganic material,” stresses Prof. Tessler. This distinction requires a change in the theoretical approaches that analyze these crystals and ignore their organic part (the organic molecules attached to them), mostly because “it just contributes to creating a solution.”

A New Nazereth

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“This is an impressive and inspiring achievement for the Technion,”

25 October 2011

Technion graduates win first prize in the Innovativeness in Architecture and Sustainability Buildings Competition held in Italy. The contest included students and architects from 36 countries from around the world

 
Rosan Qubti and Samer Hakim with their award, in Bologna, Italy. Photo: Technion Spokesman
Conceptualization of the architectural project. Photo: Technion Spokesman

Graduates of the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning Rosan Qubti and Samer Hakim, have won first prize in the SAIE (International Building Exhibition) architectural competition recently held in Bologna, Italy. In the three-day long competition, 200  innovative architectural projects were presented by students and young architects from 36 countries around the world.

The winning project, C-Park, won in the category of Planning in Concrete for Students – beating 70 other entries. The reasons cited for the project’s winning were its innovations in using concrete, and the way the design functions on a number of different levels.

The two graduates, both residents of Nazareth, conducted an extensive geographic study of the area of Nazareth and Nazareth Elite and consequently drew up an urban and architectural plan for the seam between the two cities that includes a conference center, a train station, walking trails, a hotel and a parking lot, all of which are intended to improve the lives of residents and “bring life to the area.”

“Between the cities, there is a continuum of open spaces, most of which are abandoned and neglected, between the road skirting Nazareth and the city’s municipal border,” explains Rosan Qubti, the architect designer. “These areas are characterized by their lack of identity; neither of the two cities has any plans to build there and our project proposes to transform this continuum into an open city – a new type of space – that is open and inviting and that will function at many levels, in order to bring people to metropolitan Nazareth and make it more central.”

The project was executed in the framework of a joint studio between the Technion and the University of Leuven in Belgium, organized and conducted by the architect Els Verbakel, who chose to focus on Nazareth and Nazareth Elite. Students from the two countries proposed new ideas for developing sites in the area and the studio was held in cooperation with the municipality of Nazareth. As already mentioned, the project by Qubti and Hakim was chosen to represent the studio in the competition. “This is an impressive and inspiring achievement for the Technion,” sums up Els Verbakel.

The two intend to present the project to the municipality of Nazareth Elite, in whose jurisdiction most of the sites fall, in order to see it implemented.

A New Nazereth

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“This is an impressive and inspiring achievement for the Technion,”

25 October 2011

Technion graduates win first prize in the Innovativeness in Architecture and Sustainability Buildings Competition held in Italy. The contest included students and architects from 36 countries from around the world

 
Rosan Qubti and Samer Hakim with their award, in Bologna, Italy. Photo: Technion Spokesman
Conceptualization of the architectural project. Photo: Technion Spokesman

Graduates of the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning Rosan Qubti and Samer Hakim, have won first prize in the SAIE (International Building Exhibition) architectural competition recently held in Bologna, Italy. In the three-day long competition, 200  innovative architectural projects were presented by students and young architects from 36 countries around the world.

The winning project, C-Park, won in the category of Planning in Concrete for Students – beating 70 other entries. The reasons cited for the project’s winning were its innovations in using concrete, and the way the design functions on a number of different levels.

The two graduates, both residents of Nazareth, conducted an extensive geographic study of the area of Nazareth and Nazareth Elite and consequently drew up an urban and architectural plan for the seam between the two cities that includes a conference center, a train station, walking trails, a hotel and a parking lot, all of which are intended to improve the lives of residents and “bring life to the area.”

“Between the cities, there is a continuum of open spaces, most of which are abandoned and neglected, between the road skirting Nazareth and the city’s municipal border,” explains Rosan Qubti, the architect designer. “These areas are characterized by their lack of identity; neither of the two cities has any plans to build there and our project proposes to transform this continuum into an open city – a new type of space – that is open and inviting and that will function at many levels, in order to bring people to metropolitan Nazareth and make it more central.”

The project was executed in the framework of a joint studio between the Technion and the University of Leuven in Belgium, organized and conducted by the architect Els Verbakel, who chose to focus on Nazareth and Nazareth Elite. Students from the two countries proposed new ideas for developing sites in the area and the studio was held in cooperation with the municipality of Nazareth. As already mentioned, the project by Qubti and Hakim was chosen to represent the studio in the competition. “This is an impressive and inspiring achievement for the Technion,” sums up Els Verbakel.

The two intend to present the project to the municipality of Nazareth Elite, in whose jurisdiction most of the sites fall, in order to see it implemented.

Technion + Cornell = NYC

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Cornell and the Technion will partner in groundbreaking NYC Tech Campus
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 
Cornell University and The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology announced today a new partnership to create a world-class applied science and engineering campus in New York City, as outlined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The NYC Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island will combine the full spectrum of both institutions’ academic strengths, as well as Cornell’s entrepreneurial culture and deep connection to the city’s emerging tech sector and the Technion’s global leadership in commercialization and technology transfer. This partnership will transform New York City into a world hub of innovation and technology commercialization.
Cornell President Skorton and Lavie
Cornell University President David Skorton (left)  and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology President Peretz Lavie
“By joining forces in this groundbreaking venture, our two great universities will employ our demonstrated expertise, experience and track record of transforming new ideas into solutions to create the global avenues of economic opportunity and tech leadership that Mayor Bloomberg envisions,” said Cornell President David Skorton. “The Technion is the driving force behind the miracle of Israel’s technology economy. Its academic rigor in computer science and engineering and its leadership in technology transfer has helped create one of the largest concentrations of start-ups anywhere and attracted the world’s leading technology companies to Haifa to leverage Technion’s research and its outstanding graduates.”
“We are very proud of the many strengths we bring to this endeavor, and we are excited to be a partner with another of the world’s great research universities,” said Technion President Peretz Lavie. “Cornell‘s globally recognized research and graduates are fueling new technologies and innovative start-ups at the center of New York City’s current tech boom. Cornell is uniquely positioned by its deep connection to the city’s emerging tech sector to serve as a catalyst for the creation of new technologies, jobs and industries in New York City.”
The key attributes of the partnership between Cornell and the Technion underscore the distinctive and practical dimensions of the proposed NYC Tech Campus and its specific focus on strategies to spur innovation and commercialization. An integral part of the campus will be the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (TCII), a 50-50 collaboration between the two universities to form a graduate program that will focus on commercialization of immediate relevance to the city’s economic growth.  Second, the campus’ academic hubs will provide an interdisciplinary environment to better prepare students for careers in tech companies, large and small, where the problems to be solved involve using technical knowhow and also expertise in other domains at the heart of the city’s key industries.  Finally, for their degrees, students will be required to take courses that prepare them to be entrepreneurs and early stage investors, fueling the rapid expansion of the tech ecosystem in New York.
The partners will be joining in a full-scale campus – not a satellite of either school – to open in 2012, initially in either leased space or existing Cornell facilities in New York City. The NYC Tech Campus will eventually grow to more than 2 million square feet on Roosevelt Island, accommodating, at full build-out, nearly 2000 graduate students and 250 faculty, as well as visitors and corporate researchers. Cornell and the Technion will collaborate in teaching, educating and advising students. The sustainable campus will include academic and commercialization space, as well as housing and community gardens.
Initially, the NYC Tech Campus will offer Cornell degrees in technical fields such as computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and information science., but the academic programs for these degrees will have unique interdisciplinary requirements related to each of the campus’s academic hubs. Once the proper New York State approvals are received, students also will be able to pursue a dual degree from both the Technion and Cornell.  These programs will provide students with an unparalleled breadth of studies from which they may choose.
More details of the partnership will be outlined in the universities’ proposal to the city, due Oct. 28, said presidents Lavie and Skorton.
“I launched Qualcomm’s first international R&D Center in Haifa, Israel, in 1992, staffed entirely with Technion graduates and purposely located near the campus to take advantage of its great education and research,” said Irwin Jacobs, the founding chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. “Technion, with its many contacts, was a great help in our subsequent worldwide expansion. The Technion’s demonstrated success in translating basic and applied research to job creation complements Cornell’s deep academic strengths and translational activities, providing an extraordinary partnership for the benefit of New York City. Technion and Cornell, working in close collaboration on the new campus, will inspire a next generation of entrepreneurs to pursue innovations by forming start-ups and expanding existing businesses.”
Technion is a global leader in applied research, technology transfer and commercialization and a major force behind Israel’s emergence as the home of one of the greatest concentrations of high-tech start-up companies anywhere in the world.  In partnership with a strong community of incubators, private investors, venture capitalists, angel groups and entrepreneurs, the Technion’s tech transfer arm, Technion Technology Transfer (T3), has filed 300 average annual patents and nurtured scores of innovative startups in sectors such as clean-tech, cell therapy, drug delivery, nanotechnology and others. Companies including Intel, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Yahoo! and Hewlett-Packard have established their operations near or on the Technion campus, where they can take advantage of the Technion’s research power and outstanding students and graduates.
Technion graduates head 59 of 121 Israeli companies on the NASDAQ, and these companies have a combined market value of over $28 billion.  More than 70 percent of Technion graduates are employed in the high technology sectors that drive Israel’s economic growth.  Today, Israeli companies headed by Technion graduates employ 85 percent of Israel’s technical workforce. And the Technion also has an established presence in New York City with the American Technion Society (ATS) , which maintains a national network of thousands of alumni and supporters and has raised more than $1.65 billion since its founding in 1940, the majority raised in the last decade.
Cornell is known worldwide for its top programs in engineering and computer science, and for its interdisciplinary approach to technology that spans fields from the social sciences to the arts and humanities. Cornell’s entrepreneurial culture and deep connection to every aspect of New York’s tech sector – start-ups and entrepreneurs, existing industry leaders, and venture capital – will make the NYC Tech Campus uniquely positioned to serve as a catalyst for the creation of new technologies, jobs and industries in New York City.
Cornell’s portfolio in New York City includes the world-class Weill Cornell Medical College – where Cornell is now engaged in a $1 billion capital project that includes construction of a new state-of-the-art medical research facility – as well as Cornell Cooperative Extension-New York City, Cornell’s Industrial and Labor Relations in NYC in Midtown and its Architecture, Art and Planning Center in Chelsea, Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan off Wall Street, Cornell-sponsored Food and Finance High School on the West Side, and various programs in disciplines ranging from labor and employment law to human ecology. The city is now home to almost 50,000 Cornell alumni – including thousands already working in the tech sector – and about 5,000 Cornell employees.

Technion + Cornell = NYC

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Cornell and the Technion will partner in groundbreaking NYC Tech Campus
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 
Cornell University and The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology announced today a new partnership to create a world-class applied science and engineering campus in New York City, as outlined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The NYC Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island will combine the full spectrum of both institutions’ academic strengths, as well as Cornell’s entrepreneurial culture and deep connection to the city’s emerging tech sector and the Technion’s global leadership in commercialization and technology transfer. This partnership will transform New York City into a world hub of innovation and technology commercialization.
Cornell President Skorton and Lavie
Cornell University President David Skorton (left)  and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology President Peretz Lavie
“By joining forces in this groundbreaking venture, our two great universities will employ our demonstrated expertise, experience and track record of transforming new ideas into solutions to create the global avenues of economic opportunity and tech leadership that Mayor Bloomberg envisions,” said Cornell President David Skorton. “The Technion is the driving force behind the miracle of Israel’s technology economy. Its academic rigor in computer science and engineering and its leadership in technology transfer has helped create one of the largest concentrations of start-ups anywhere and attracted the world’s leading technology companies to Haifa to leverage Technion’s research and its outstanding graduates.”
“We are very proud of the many strengths we bring to this endeavor, and we are excited to be a partner with another of the world’s great research universities,” said Technion President Peretz Lavie. “Cornell‘s globally recognized research and graduates are fueling new technologies and innovative start-ups at the center of New York City’s current tech boom. Cornell is uniquely positioned by its deep connection to the city’s emerging tech sector to serve as a catalyst for the creation of new technologies, jobs and industries in New York City.”
The key attributes of the partnership between Cornell and the Technion underscore the distinctive and practical dimensions of the proposed NYC Tech Campus and its specific focus on strategies to spur innovation and commercialization. An integral part of the campus will be the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (TCII), a 50-50 collaboration between the two universities to form a graduate program that will focus on commercialization of immediate relevance to the city’s economic growth.  Second, the campus’ academic hubs will provide an interdisciplinary environment to better prepare students for careers in tech companies, large and small, where the problems to be solved involve using technical knowhow and also expertise in other domains at the heart of the city’s key industries.  Finally, for their degrees, students will be required to take courses that prepare them to be entrepreneurs and early stage investors, fueling the rapid expansion of the tech ecosystem in New York.
The partners will be joining in a full-scale campus – not a satellite of either school – to open in 2012, initially in either leased space or existing Cornell facilities in New York City. The NYC Tech Campus will eventually grow to more than 2 million square feet on Roosevelt Island, accommodating, at full build-out, nearly 2000 graduate students and 250 faculty, as well as visitors and corporate researchers. Cornell and the Technion will collaborate in teaching, educating and advising students. The sustainable campus will include academic and commercialization space, as well as housing and community gardens.
Initially, the NYC Tech Campus will offer Cornell degrees in technical fields such as computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and information science., but the academic programs for these degrees will have unique interdisciplinary requirements related to each of the campus’s academic hubs. Once the proper New York State approvals are received, students also will be able to pursue a dual degree from both the Technion and Cornell.  These programs will provide students with an unparalleled breadth of studies from which they may choose.
More details of the partnership will be outlined in the universities’ proposal to the city, due Oct. 28, said presidents Lavie and Skorton.
“I launched Qualcomm’s first international R&D Center in Haifa, Israel, in 1992, staffed entirely with Technion graduates and purposely located near the campus to take advantage of its great education and research,” said Irwin Jacobs, the founding chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. “Technion, with its many contacts, was a great help in our subsequent worldwide expansion. The Technion’s demonstrated success in translating basic and applied research to job creation complements Cornell’s deep academic strengths and translational activities, providing an extraordinary partnership for the benefit of New York City. Technion and Cornell, working in close collaboration on the new campus, will inspire a next generation of entrepreneurs to pursue innovations by forming start-ups and expanding existing businesses.”
Technion is a global leader in applied research, technology transfer and commercialization and a major force behind Israel’s emergence as the home of one of the greatest concentrations of high-tech start-up companies anywhere in the world.  In partnership with a strong community of incubators, private investors, venture capitalists, angel groups and entrepreneurs, the Technion’s tech transfer arm, Technion Technology Transfer (T3), has filed 300 average annual patents and nurtured scores of innovative startups in sectors such as clean-tech, cell therapy, drug delivery, nanotechnology and others. Companies including Intel, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Yahoo! and Hewlett-Packard have established their operations near or on the Technion campus, where they can take advantage of the Technion’s research power and outstanding students and graduates.
Technion graduates head 59 of 121 Israeli companies on the NASDAQ, and these companies have a combined market value of over $28 billion.  More than 70 percent of Technion graduates are employed in the high technology sectors that drive Israel’s economic growth.  Today, Israeli companies headed by Technion graduates employ 85 percent of Israel’s technical workforce. And the Technion also has an established presence in New York City with the American Technion Society (ATS) , which maintains a national network of thousands of alumni and supporters and has raised more than $1.65 billion since its founding in 1940, the majority raised in the last decade.
Cornell is known worldwide for its top programs in engineering and computer science, and for its interdisciplinary approach to technology that spans fields from the social sciences to the arts and humanities. Cornell’s entrepreneurial culture and deep connection to every aspect of New York’s tech sector – start-ups and entrepreneurs, existing industry leaders, and venture capital – will make the NYC Tech Campus uniquely positioned to serve as a catalyst for the creation of new technologies, jobs and industries in New York City.
Cornell’s portfolio in New York City includes the world-class Weill Cornell Medical College – where Cornell is now engaged in a $1 billion capital project that includes construction of a new state-of-the-art medical research facility – as well as Cornell Cooperative Extension-New York City, Cornell’s Industrial and Labor Relations in NYC in Midtown and its Architecture, Art and Planning Center in Chelsea, Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan off Wall Street, Cornell-sponsored Food and Finance High School on the West Side, and various programs in disciplines ranging from labor and employment law to human ecology. The city is now home to almost 50,000 Cornell alumni – including thousands already working in the tech sector – and about 5,000 Cornell employees.

Technology for underground tunnel detection

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Never again?


The scientific challlenge of detecting underground tunnels – such as those used in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Picture of Gilad Shalit, speaking to his parents for the first time since his release.

Gilad Shalit (rank at the time: Cpl.) was kidnapped early on Sunday June 25, 2006. A terrorist cell attacked Shalit’s tank that was defending the security fence near the southern Gaza Strip. The terrorists crossed the border using an underground tunnel dug near the Kerem Shalom crossing. During the attack, the tank commander, First Lt. Hanan Barak, and another soldier in the tank, Staff Sgt. Pavel Slotzker were killed. Four of the soldiers in the post were injured and terrorists kidnapped Shalit into the Gaza Strip, using the tunnel they dug.
In response to the kidnapping, the IDF began Operation Summer Rains in the Gaza Strip on June 28, 2006 and lasted through November 26, 2006. Ground forces entered the Gaza Strip for the first time since the unilateral disengagement was executed.
Sgt. 1st Class Shalit was 19 years old at the time of his abduction. He is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit and the brother of Yoel and Hadas. Sgt. 1st Class Shalit excels in math, graduating with distinction from the science class of Manor Kabri High School. He is also a major sports fan, with a passion for playing basketball.

The Technological Challenge of Underground Tunnels.
Beneath the nine-mile border between Gaza and Egypt lie an estimated 300 makeshift tunnels, according to a Jan. 12 article in Asia Times. And Israel insists that without them, Hamas would not be able to stockpile rockets and mortars. Thus, permanent monitoring and destruction of these tunnels is a key sticking point in the struggle in the region.
During the SPIE’s Defense, Security and Sensing Conference (April 13-17, Orlando, FL), researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology will present a method of detecting creation of just these kinds of tunnels and pinpointing their locations. Principal researchers Assaf Klar and Raphael Linker, both of the Technion Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, say the system, based on fiber-optic cables, can locate even narrow tunnels at depths greater than 60 ft (see figure).
The research lays the groundwork for the initial stages of an underground fence based on Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry (BOTDR) that makes it possible to measure fiber distortion along 15 miles using one device. The proposed system is based on “wavelet decomposition” of the continuous BOTDR signal, a process that breaks down the signal profile into simpler shapes, and then filters out noise. The signals that remain are then characterized by a neural network that has been trained to locate tunnels using computer simulation of tens of thousands of profiles, including disturbances (such as raindrops) not related to tunneling.
The system consists of conventional single-mode fiber optics, a BOTDR analyzer, and the computer software. Klar says the researchers considered two layout schemes for the fiber optics: one involved burying the fiber at a shallow depth along the border (“we call that the horizontal configuration,” he notes) and the other based on embedding the fiber in a vertical “mini-pile” (the vertical configuration).
Essentially, the BOTDR technology allows evaluation of Brillouin shift along an optical fiber, says Klar. (The portion of light traveling along a fiber that is backscattered experiences a frequency shift called the Brillouin shift). “As the Brillouin frequency shift is well correlated with the strain in the fiber, this information can be used to evaluate deformation in the soil,” he says.

With Technion-Israel’s “underground fence,” each 15-mile section is monitored by one BOTDR analyzer. The system can pinpoint tunnel-digging activity to within 6 to 9 ft. (Courtesy of Technion-Israel)

He notes that the BOTDR does a combined time- and frequency-domain analysis, in which the time-domain information shows the location of measurement along the fiber, and the frequency analysis reveals the Brillouin frequency shift.

“Using the correlation between Brillouin shift and strain, the distortion of the fiber is measured,” Klar says. “The excavation process is associated with stress release in the soil which causes small static displacements in the soil. These displacements strain the fiber. The geotechnical aspects of how the tunnel induces displacement in the soil and how the fiber is strained due to those were all taken into account in the research.”
10 to 15 m detection range
Recommendations for spacing and depth of the fibers depend on variables such as soil condition and tunnel size. “However, we found that for soils (not rocks) we can detect very small tunnels even when the fiber is 10 to 15 m away from the tunnel,” says Klar. “This implies that if you use the vertical configuration and space the piles a distance of 20 m from each other, you have a very good coverage.”
While the BOTDR has a spatial resolution of about 1 m, the algorithm divides the continuous BOTDR signals into sections of 25 m, to which the wavelet decomposition and neural network classifications are applied. “The system first infers a tunnel being excavated within a section of 25 m. A detailed inspection of that section can probably pinpoint the tunnel to an accuracy of 2 to 3 m,” Klar explains.
The Technion researchers created the database of sound profiles themselves. “Geotechnology is my field of expertise,” says Klar, explaining that his group used continuum mechanics models, empirical relations, and discrete-element models–and conducted small-scale experiments in a centrifuge facility, which allows creation of similitude models. He says their goal was to create a broad range of input data, both for training the neural network and for testing its robustness against imperfect modeling. The system does extremely well in the robustness test, he reports, “probably because the tunnel excavation induces a very distinct–and wide–strain profile along the fiber, which the algorithm recognizes.”
Klar says his team has discussed the tradeoff between detection rate and false alarms with army officials, who have indicated a preference for missed detections over false positives. Klar’s presentation at the SPIE conference will include a comprehensive study on this tradeoff–but briefly, his group can produce zero false alarms with a detection rate of 70% (that is, 30% missed tunnel evacuations). Klar and his team have worked hard to understand the triggers for false positives, which include measurement error and surface activities that affect the fiber. 

Technology for underground tunnel detection

Leave a comment
Never again?


The scientific challlenge of detecting underground tunnels – such as those used in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Picture of Gilad Shalit, speaking to his parents for the first time since his release.

Gilad Shalit (rank at the time: Cpl.) was kidnapped early on Sunday June 25, 2006. A terrorist cell attacked Shalit’s tank that was defending the security fence near the southern Gaza Strip. The terrorists crossed the border using an underground tunnel dug near the Kerem Shalom crossing. During the attack, the tank commander, First Lt. Hanan Barak, and another soldier in the tank, Staff Sgt. Pavel Slotzker were killed. Four of the soldiers in the post were injured and terrorists kidnapped Shalit into the Gaza Strip, using the tunnel they dug.
In response to the kidnapping, the IDF began Operation Summer Rains in the Gaza Strip on June 28, 2006 and lasted through November 26, 2006. Ground forces entered the Gaza Strip for the first time since the unilateral disengagement was executed.
Sgt. 1st Class Shalit was 19 years old at the time of his abduction. He is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit and the brother of Yoel and Hadas. Sgt. 1st Class Shalit excels in math, graduating with distinction from the science class of Manor Kabri High School. He is also a major sports fan, with a passion for playing basketball.

The Technological Challenge of Underground Tunnels.
Beneath the nine-mile border between Gaza and Egypt lie an estimated 300 makeshift tunnels, according to a Jan. 12 article in Asia Times. And Israel insists that without them, Hamas would not be able to stockpile rockets and mortars. Thus, permanent monitoring and destruction of these tunnels is a key sticking point in the struggle in the region.
During the SPIE’s Defense, Security and Sensing Conference (April 13-17, Orlando, FL), researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology will present a method of detecting creation of just these kinds of tunnels and pinpointing their locations. Principal researchers Assaf Klar and Raphael Linker, both of the Technion Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, say the system, based on fiber-optic cables, can locate even narrow tunnels at depths greater than 60 ft (see figure).
The research lays the groundwork for the initial stages of an underground fence based on Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry (BOTDR) that makes it possible to measure fiber distortion along 15 miles using one device. The proposed system is based on “wavelet decomposition” of the continuous BOTDR signal, a process that breaks down the signal profile into simpler shapes, and then filters out noise. The signals that remain are then characterized by a neural network that has been trained to locate tunnels using computer simulation of tens of thousands of profiles, including disturbances (such as raindrops) not related to tunneling.
The system consists of conventional single-mode fiber optics, a BOTDR analyzer, and the computer software. Klar says the researchers considered two layout schemes for the fiber optics: one involved burying the fiber at a shallow depth along the border (“we call that the horizontal configuration,” he notes) and the other based on embedding the fiber in a vertical “mini-pile” (the vertical configuration).
Essentially, the BOTDR technology allows evaluation of Brillouin shift along an optical fiber, says Klar. (The portion of light traveling along a fiber that is backscattered experiences a frequency shift called the Brillouin shift). “As the Brillouin frequency shift is well correlated with the strain in the fiber, this information can be used to evaluate deformation in the soil,” he says.

With Technion-Israel’s “underground fence,” each 15-mile section is monitored by one BOTDR analyzer. The system can pinpoint tunnel-digging activity to within 6 to 9 ft. (Courtesy of Technion-Israel)

He notes that the BOTDR does a combined time- and frequency-domain analysis, in which the time-domain information shows the location of measurement along the fiber, and the frequency analysis reveals the Brillouin frequency shift.

“Using the correlation between Brillouin shift and strain, the distortion of the fiber is measured,” Klar says. “The excavation process is associated with stress release in the soil which causes small static displacements in the soil. These displacements strain the fiber. The geotechnical aspects of how the tunnel induces displacement in the soil and how the fiber is strained due to those were all taken into account in the research.”
10 to 15 m detection range
Recommendations for spacing and depth of the fibers depend on variables such as soil condition and tunnel size. “However, we found that for soils (not rocks) we can detect very small tunnels even when the fiber is 10 to 15 m away from the tunnel,” says Klar. “This implies that if you use the vertical configuration and space the piles a distance of 20 m from each other, you have a very good coverage.”
While the BOTDR has a spatial resolution of about 1 m, the algorithm divides the continuous BOTDR signals into sections of 25 m, to which the wavelet decomposition and neural network classifications are applied. “The system first infers a tunnel being excavated within a section of 25 m. A detailed inspection of that section can probably pinpoint the tunnel to an accuracy of 2 to 3 m,” Klar explains.
The Technion researchers created the database of sound profiles themselves. “Geotechnology is my field of expertise,” says Klar, explaining that his group used continuum mechanics models, empirical relations, and discrete-element models–and conducted small-scale experiments in a centrifuge facility, which allows creation of similitude models. He says their goal was to create a broad range of input data, both for training the neural network and for testing its robustness against imperfect modeling. The system does extremely well in the robustness test, he reports, “probably because the tunnel excavation induces a very distinct–and wide–strain profile along the fiber, which the algorithm recognizes.”
Klar says his team has discussed the tradeoff between detection rate and false alarms with army officials, who have indicated a preference for missed detections over false positives. Klar’s presentation at the SPIE conference will include a comprehensive study on this tradeoff–but briefly, his group can produce zero false alarms with a detection rate of 70% (that is, 30% missed tunnel evacuations). Klar and his team have worked hard to understand the triggers for false positives, which include measurement error and surface activities that affect the fiber. 

Google eyes on Technion, Israel’s 1st.

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Google

A Google ‘first’ for the Technion


Jerusalem Post
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
10/17/2011 05:26

Prof. Dan Shechtman’s Nobel Prize, Google Street View putting Haifa, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on the map.

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has become the first Israeli university to be photographed for Google Street View.

Dr. Avital Stein, the Technion’s deputy president and director-general, said that “the Nobel Prize announcement again put the university on the map, and now Google arrives and actually puts us on the map with magnificent photographs.

“Many Technion graduates are working at Google, and the Technion has many cooperative projects with it,” she said.

The photographers intended to remain on campus for one day but because of its size, had to continue for another full day.

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Google

A Google ‘first’ for the Technion


Jerusalem Post
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
10/17/2011 05:26

Prof. Dan Shechtman’s Nobel Prize, Google Street View putting Haifa, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on the map.

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has become the first Israeli university to be photographed for Google Street View.

Dr. Avital Stein, the Technion’s deputy president and director-general, said that “the Nobel Prize announcement again put the university on the map, and now Google arrives and actually puts us on the map with magnificent photographs.

“Many Technion graduates are working at Google, and the Technion has many cooperative projects with it,” she said.

The photographers intended to remain on campus for one day but because of its size, had to continue for another full day.

You might also like:
Google sponsors Technion research.
Is smart being greedy? Tomorrow’s internet.
Microsoft partners with Technion.

Breath-test for MS (Multiple Sclerosis) – JPOST

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MS can be diagnosed early with ‘electronic nose’

Ariel Miller and Hossam Haick
Ariel Miller, Prof. Haick

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH 
Jerusalem Post

10/14/2011 03:18

Young chemical engineer and colleagues at Technion has been proven to detect lung and other cancers from breath, also multiple sclerosis.

The “electronic nose,” developed by a young chemical engineer and his colleagues at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, has been proven to detect lung and other cancers from breath. It has also succeeded in diagnosing in the same way multiple sclerosis.

The non-invasive technique using sensors, which has been called a “breakthrough” in early diagnosis of the disease that first appears in young adults, was reported in the latest issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

Prof. Hossam Haick, who still in his 30s has received numerous prestigious scientific awards, developed the electronic sensor in the Technion’s chemical engineering faculty and the Russell Berrie Institute for Nanotechnology Research, together with Prof. Ariel Miller of the Technion’s Rappaport Medical Faculty and Carmel Medical Center in Haifa.

While no cure has yet been found for MS, in which the immune system of the body mistakenly regards the myelin coating of nerves as a “stranger” and attacks it, a number of medications – most of them, like Copaxone, developed in Israel – can slow and reduce the neurological attacks that can cause loss of muscle function, paralysis and pain.

Conventional diagnosis of MS, which first appears as numbed nerves, has been via expensive MRI scanning and the examination of spinal fluid. But in their first clinical study, Haick and Miller identified organic compounds in the breath that are a sign of MS. They developed nanometric sensors and tested them on 34 MS patients and 17 normal volunteers. The results were found to be accurate.

The NaNose is also being developed to detect cancer & kidney disease.

The researchers predicted that MS could be diagnosed at an early stage and non-invasively using the sensors.

“It is a very early stage, and the research will continue with the aim of developing speedy diagnosis for MS and other chronic neurological diseases. The sensors could also detect neurological attacks after the disease is diagnosed so treatment to halt the attacks can be given.”

Haick is the founder and chief scientific officer of the Nanose Ltd., a leading developer of advanced nanotechnology for cancer detection by breath analysis.

He received his BSc. from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and completed his PhD in chemical engineering at the Technion in 2002. After a two-year period at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he went to the California Institute of Technology-Caltech for postdoctoral research and returned to the Technion in 2006. He has received a Fulbright fellowship, the Science and Technology Ministry award, Prof. Avrahami prize, and CNR-IMIP prize.