Tag: Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University Commemorates the Fallen Members of Our University Community

Written by AUFTAU on 10 October 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

TAU mourns with and shares the sorrow of the families who have lost loved ones in Operation Iron Swords

Roy Negri, a computer science and management student

Roee Negri, a computer science and management student

Yuval Ben Yakov, son of Dr. Haim Ben Yakov

Yuval Ben Yakov, son of Dr. Haim Ben Yakov, From the Department for Foreign Relations

Dan Ariel, son of Prof. Meir Ariel

Dan Ariel, son of Prof. Meir Ariel

Omri Belkin, Law student

Omri Belkin, Law student

Bruna Valeanu, a communication and sociology student

Bruna Valeanu, a communication and sociology student

Amnon Bezalel, father of Liat Bezalel, MA student in computer science

Amnon Bezalel, father of Liat Bezalel, a graduate student in computer science, and Sapir Rivka Bezalel, a computer science student

Yahav Winner, husband of film and television student Shai Lee Atari

Yahav Winner, husband of film and television student Shai Lee Atari

Nitai Amar, son of Revital Amar, a master's student in social work

Nitai Amar, son of Revital Amar, a master’s student in social work

Tzur Tzaidi, Mia Tzaidi's brother, a student in the completion program for social work

Tzur Tzaidi, Mia Tzaidi’s brother, a student in the completion program for social work

Major Eliran Abarjil, Eden Ben Lulu's partner, a master's student in social work

Major Eliran Abarjil, Eden Ben Lulu’s partner, a master’s student in social work

Elhanan Clemanzon, Uri Clemanzon's brother, student for a degree in biology and psychology

Elhanan Clemanzon, Uri Clemanzon’s brother, student for a degree in biology and psychology

Sapir Rivka Bezalel, computer science student

Sapir Rivka Bezalel, computer science student

War in Israel – An Update from the TAU President

Written by AUFTAU on 9 October 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

My dear Governors, Friends, Alumni, and other members of the Tel Aviv University community in Israel and around the world,

As I write these lines, the media is reporting that over 700 individuals have tragically lost their lives in the horrendous terror attack on the State of Israel. Unfortunately, it seems this number may rise. Reports suggest over 100 people have been taken captive, and even here, the number is not final.

It is hard to describe the magnitude of the pain each and every one of us is experiencing these days. The images of grandparents kidnapped with their grandchildren, of a father left without his wife and children, of young children witnessing the murder of their parents – these pictures remind us of other bloody events in our people’s history. The determination to respond is stronger than ever, mixed with shock, tears and agonizing sorrow. Today, we are all united in our resolve that such an event should never happen again.

We suspect there are victims from our university community, although it is still difficult to assess their number. The Dean for Student Success is working with the faculties and schools to establish contact with students and faculty members living in Israel’s South, or serving in the IDF and other security forces. TAU, along with the other universities in Israel, is postponing the start of the academic year by at least a week. We are significantly expanding the scope of psychological services we provide to the university community. TAU is also exploring ways to assist families from the south of the country, both with psychological counseling and with finding alternative housing until the war concludes.

In recent days, many of our supporters and others have reached out to me to express their terrible grief and participation in our sorrow. We feel deeply that all of you are with us. We are one family. I hope that the war in which we find ourselves will end quickly and that calm will return. We do not cease to think about the Israeli hostages being held by the enemy. This situation is very distressing. We pray for their well-being.

The State of Israel is the home of the Jewish people, not only for those who live in it. Your support during this difficult time is more important to us than ever.

Yours sincerely,

Ariel Porat

Tel Aviv University ranked first outside the USA in the number of unicorns established by alumni

Written by AUFTAU on 16 August 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

A new study from Stanford University ranks Tel Aviv University first in Israel and first in the world outside the USA in the number of unicorns (privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion) established by its alumni. According to the study, led by entrepreneurship researcher Prof. Ilya Strebulaev from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University is first in the world in the number of unicorns founded by its alumni and Tel Aviv University is first outside of the USA with 43 unicorns. The ranking, counting the total number of unicorns regardless of university size, is based on a dataset of 1,100 startups that have raised over $1 billion from venture capital funds in the USA.

“Prof. Strebulaev’s findings prove once again that TAU is Israel’s entrepreneurial university, nurturing more startups, and specifically more unicorns, than any other university in the country,” says Prof. Moshe Zviran, Chief Entrepreneurship & Innovation Officer at TAU, and former Dean of the Coller School of Management. “We have attained this status because we serve as home to the best students in a wide range of disciplines, and also because in recent years, under the leadership and vision of Prof. Ariel Porat, President of TAU, we have become proactive in the entrepreneurship and innovation arenas. We no longer wait for the ‘magic’ to occur. We incorporate entrepreneurship into the curriculum – in the classic disciplines like Computer Science, Engineering, and Management, but also in the Faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, and the Arts. In fact, most students at TAU can now include an entrepreneurship cluster as an integral part of their studies for a degree, thereby acquiring tools for establishing their own startups, which in the future may become unicorns.”

Prof. Moshe Zviran

Prof. Strebulaev’s new index joins a long series of entrepreneurship rankings, all of which rank TAU as the leader in producing entrepreneurs outside the USA. Thus, for example, in 2022, Pitchbook ranked TAU 7th in the world and 1st outside the USA in the number of venture-capital-backed startups founded by alumni. Startup Genome also ranked TAU among the leading universities, right after Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and Berkley, and 1st outside the USA.

“There are many entrepreneurship rankings, each based on different parameters,” explains Prof. Zviran. “All, however, indicate that TAU is the best entrepreneurship incubator in the world outside the USA. We made a strategic decision to position TAU as Israel’s main entrepreneurial university, and proactively buttress our technological and business advantage as a means for producing startups and unicorns. If so far these achievements have been based solely on the outstanding quality of our faculty, students, and curriculum, the focused activities of our Entrepreneurship & Innovation Ecosystem are expected to bring even greater accomplishments.”

Barbie Buzz: Mattel CEO Shares Branding Wisdom with Tel Aviv University Students

Written by AUFTAU on 23 July 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

The movie Barbie, based on the iconic doll created by American toy company Mattel, premiered this weekend in movie theaters worldwide to much critical acclaim. The movie’s release marks a significant point in the transformation that the long-established company has undergone in recent years under the leadership of Ynon Kreiz, Mattel’s Chairman and CEO.

Ahead of the premier, Kreiz, a Tel Aviv University alumnus, met with the University’s students to discuss the power of transformative leadership and share his personal story. “It’s an honor and a privilege for me to speak here today, having come full circle,” he said.

Kreiz began his career in the world of media after completing his undergraduate studies at TAU’s Coller School of Management and an MBA at UCLA. “The studies at TAU were of the highest level—they prepared me for graduate school […] and helped me to continue the journey onwards from there,” Kreiz told his audience at the beginning of the talk, explaining the reasons he chose TAU after his military service.

“The studies at TAU were of the highest level—they prepared me for graduate school […] and helped me to continue the journey onwards from there.” – Ynon Kreiz

From Barbie the Doll to Barbie, the Movie

Kreiz went on to discuss the transformation that Mattel has undergone under his leadership in recent years, going from a manufacturer of toys to a media company that offers its well-known and beloved brands on a broad range of platforms. He emphasized that the key to success in leading a large towards change is the correct choice of the management team and creating an environment that enables the team to excel.

“No CEO can know everything in every area and take care of every issue,” he explained. “My most important function is to choose a strong management team, to lead them, to encourage them to respond quickly to events in the market, and to build together with them a flexible and fast-moving organization that will know how to compete and change. You have to believe in the talents of the team and let them work, but at the same time if you feel that something is not working – you have to make cuts quickly and not leave people in positions for which they are not suited.”

Ynon Kreiz met with TAU students to discuss the power of transformative leadership and share his personal story

“My most important function is to choose a strong management team, to lead them, to encourage them to respond quickly to events in the market, and to build together with them a flexible and fast-moving organization that will know how to compete and change.” – Ynon Kreiz

Kreiz was the fourth CEO at Mattel in almost five years, which indicated the difficulties the company experienced at the time, with years of stagnancy and heavy losses. “Mattel has strong brands. In the area of children’s toys it comes right after Disney in my opinion,” he said, “and my challenge was to lead it from being a company that perceives itself as a manufacturer of toys to being a company that manages brands; from a company that sells to customers, to a company that manages relations with supporters. We did it without giving up on the core business of toys, by expanding into television, movies, parks, and music, and in general into customer experiences based on our brands.”

Kriez discussed the organizational and structural challenges he and his management team faced, having to cut many workplaces, close factories and massively reorganize the company’s structure. “Yet we made sure to keep the morale of the employees who were retained high and committed to the new goals,” he said. “We did it by defining a clear and simple goal for the company: creating innovative and entertaining experiences for children. I cut down the vision statement of the company to a single page, so that every employee could relate to it. In addition, we gave the employees freedom and responsibility, for instance in choosing unlimited vacations for themselves, coordinated with the manager.”

According to Kreiz, another important message that he imprinted at Mattel was that alongside the financial goals, the company had to operate responsibly: “We have a real influence on society,” he said. “We work with children and we help in forming the future.”

The Personal Story

Kreiz also talked about what it takes to succeed in today’s business world. He said that one of the most important things he learned over the years was to be prepared to acknowledge his mistakes and to correct them quickly – without dwelling on the past. “You failed? Correct it and move on. And that also applies to success. I don’t think it is right to dwell too much on what has happened because time changes very quickly. The important thing is to focus on the present and plan for the future, in accordance with the current situation. You can’t win every battle. The important thing is to keep going.”

“It doesn’t matter what you are doing or at what level. You can always do things better, in a more innovative way. That’s the way to stand out and move forward.” – Ynon Kreiz

Kreiz said that despite his many years in the USA he still brings to his job traits that many perceive as Israeli. “I am a ‘tachles’ person–and you won’t find a word for it in English. The closest I can think of is ‘goal-oriented’. I strive to define goals and to work to achieve them, to make things happen. I don’t know if that’s because I am Israeli, but that’s the way I am.”

Kreiz recommended to students in the audience that they plan their future with a focus on innovation. “It doesn’t matter what you are doing or at what level. You can always do things better, in a more innovative way. That’s the way to stand out and move forward.”

Tel Aviv University Introduces Tuition-Free Teaching Certificate Program

Written by AUFTAU on 29 June 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

Tel Aviv University is dedicated to enhancing Israel’s education system and addressing the critical shortage of teachers. To tackle this challenge, the School of Education has launched an innovative program that allows students to seamlessly integrate their existing studies with a teaching certificate program, completely free of charge. This groundbreaking initiative presents students with a unique opportunity to pursue their passions while actively contributing to the future of education.

TAU’s Unique Advantage

“In response to the concerning decrease in the number of aspiring teachers across Israel, Tel Aviv University has taken a proactive and socially responsible approach. Driven by the vision of empowering students to pursue teaching alongside their academic degrees, the University has introduced a significant measure – full exemption from tuition fees for those undergraduate and graduate students who wish to pursue a teaching certificate,” says Dr. Yehuda Jacobson, Head of the Teaching Training Unit at the School of Education.

“Since the pilot program was announced, we have been thrilled to witness a substantial surge in the demand for teaching studies.” – Dr. Yehuda Jacobson

“Since the pilot program was announced, we have been thrilled to witness a substantial surge in the demand for teaching studies,” shares Dr. Jacobson. He further highlights Tel Aviv University’s unique advantage as the most diverse university in Israel: “With a blend of science, engineering, humanities and arts programs, the diversity here at Tel Aviv University presents an exceptional opportunity to train high-quality teachers in various fields that currently face significant shortages. Operating as a pilot program for the next two years, its success has the potential to pave the way for a permanent and impactful initiative in the future.”

Pick Your Track!

The program comprises two distinct training tracks, catering to both humanities and social sciences, as well as mathematics and sciences. By uniting students with esteemed researchers and lecturers who possess extensive expertise in the field of education, the program offers a unique blend of advanced research skills and practical knowledge. Participants will acquire innovative teaching approaches, supplemented by substantial hands-on experience in the field. Empowered by this comprehensive training, they will be well-equipped to initiate transformative change among the future generation.

“The diversity here at Tel Aviv University presents an exceptional opportunity to train high-quality teachers in various fields that currently face significant shortages.” – Dr. Yehuda Jacobson

The program welcomes both undergraduate students, beginning from their second academic year, and graduate students to participate. The flexibility of the program allows students to pursue their teaching certificate studies concurrently with their degree studies, spreading the coursework over a period of one or two years. This inclusive approach ensures that students can seamlessly integrate their educational journey, maximizing their potential and paving the way for a successful career.

To explore the teaching certificate options in the fields of humanities, social sciences, languages, and arts, feel free to reach out to Eden Yeshua at [email protected]. For further information regarding teaching certificates in sciences, please don’t hesitate to contact Chen Levi at [email protected].

Tel Aviv University 1st in Israel in QS World University Ranking 2024

Written by AUFTAU on 28 June 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

Tel Aviv University and the Sackler Family Agreed to Remove the Name Sackler from the Faculty of Medicine

Written by AUFTAU on 22 June 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

The Secret Sauce of Academic Growth

Written by AUFTAU on 22 June 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

Post-doc researchers propel cross-pollination of ideas around the globe.

How do universities worldwide expand academic ties, develop new research approaches, and tap into emerging ideas? One of the best ways to achieve these goals is to attract a talented and diverse group of recent PhD graduates for post-doctoral positions, which have long been considered as powerful engines for growth.

The main purpose of a post-doc is to develop the professional and academic skills of new PhDs, while providing them a “home” under the mentorship of an experienced researcher. The skills, experience and networking ties the young researchers gain at this stage can be key in helping them secure tenure-track faculty positions in the future. At the same time, the innovative ideas the researchers develop and pursue, and the academic ties they provide, position the hosting institution ahead of the curve in academic progress.

Recognizing the importance of supporting post-doc researchers’ foundations and private donors have created fellowship programs offering sponsored positions in various disciplines and creating a pool of talented young scientists and thinkers at the world’s top universities.

Tapping into the Expertise Network

Dr. Joshua Barrow is a post-doc scholar supported by the binational US-Israel Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program. He holds a joint appointment at Tel Aviv University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working at the intersection of nuclear and particle physics research.

Dr. Joshua Barrow hooking up cables for a new experiment at the MicroBooNE data acquisition subsystem

“In the field of particle physics specifically, collaborative work proves absolutely necessary. The experiments we build to study the most fundamental properties of matter—our colliders, accelerators, and detectors—are gigantic machines that require a team effort deep with cooperative knowledge. We bounce ideas off a lot of people and expertise is distributed throughout our large networks,” he says.

“Meeting other like-minded people allows us to fast-track the development of ideas and cross-pollinate them across disciplines.” – Dr. Joshua Barrow

Originally from Tennessee, Barrow “caught the research bug” in college, when he decided that physics was the optimal discipline that combined “philosophy, logic, and the ultimate question of how things work in the universe.” He works with Prof. Or Hen at MIT and with Dr. Adi Ashkenazi at Tel Aviv University’s Raymond & Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy. “These professors were interested in working together. I aligned with both of their research interests and provided a bridge between principal investigators in both countries,” he explains.

Barrow, who started his Zuckerman Fellowship in the fall of 2021, met the 2021 cohort of Zuckerman Scholars in Israel from other fields and universities. “Meeting other like-minded people allows us to fast-track the development of ideas and cross-pollinate them across disciplines,” he muses.

Barrow, who hopes to continue working at national laboratories or as a university professor, plans to continue collaborations with TAU into the future, wherever he lands professionally. “The problems we’re trying to solve at TAU are interesting, and the undergraduate students are very bright.”

Discovering the Local Perspective

Post-doctoral exchange is no less vital in social science than in hard sciences. Dr. Lior Birger [featured on the article’s main image] is a Bloomfield post-doc researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Bob Shapell School of Social Work. She researches best practices in working with displaced populations, refugees, and asylum seekers. As part of her PhD research, Birger conducted fieldwork in Germany, where she initiated contact with the Alice Salomon University (ASH) School of Social Work in Berlin. Thanks to this connection and the support from the German-Israeli Future Forum, Birger and her colleague at the Bob Shapell School, Dr. Nora Korin-Langer later created two joint courses in migration between ASH and TAU.

“The post-doc is a critical phase for all scholars, but for women, especially. Women and mothers face more intense challenges that require additional flexibility and compromises.” Dr. Lior Birger

“Our students, both graduate, and undergrads, Jews and Arabs, get to learn about forced migration and meet displaced populations on the ground in both countries, which helps broaden their horizons and grasp the problem as a global issue, while providing different perspectives on the challenges of social exclusion and marginalization,” Birger says. The courses include a two-day preparation in Tel Aviv and then a week in Berlin.

In September 2022, Birger started another post-doc position in Sussex, UK. “The post-doc is a critical phase for all scholars, but for women, especially. Women and mothers face more intense challenges that require additional flexibility and compromises,” she says. “Programs providing post-doc fellowships alleviate some of the financial burdens on young researchers and allow them to develop independently – providing flexibility and much-needed support at this challenging stage,” she concludes.

Nurturing Ties

Prof. Ralf Metzler, the current Chair for Theoretical Physics at the University of Potsdam, Germany, arrived in Israel in 1998 for his post-doc at Tel Aviv University after connecting with TAU chemistry professor Joseph Klafter after a seminar.

“Post-doc positions prevent you from steaming in your own juice. The best post-docs are the ones where you get really different perspectives, both in science and society,” he says.

“The best post-docs are the ones where you get really different perspectives, both in science and society.” Prof. Ralf Metzler

Metzler spent two and a half years at TAU, where he met some of his “best friends in science,” and he continues his collaboration with Israeli scientists today, and even hopes to come back to Israel to work sometime.

“I’ve become an advocate for Israel—I love the place,” he says. Metzler transfers his admiration of Israel to his students, many of whom come from countries such as China and Iran. “I hope that they go back changed, in a way,” he concludes.

Prof. Ralf Metzler (left) and Prof. Joseph Klafter

Moving Forward

Boosting the number of post-doctoral positions on campus has been one of Tel Aviv University’s organizational priorities. The number of post-doc fellows at TAU has risen 25% over the last five years to 477 fellows in 2022. 

“In contrast to science in the US and Europe, Israeli science traditionally relied on Ph.D. students and not on post-docs,” explains Prof. Yossi Yovel, the head of TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and senior lecturer at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, who is always on the lookout for strong post-docs.

“In the past few years, however, we are observing a change in this pattern with more and more Israeli and international candidates looking to do their post-doc fellowship in Israel. The value and contribution of a strong post-doc can be instrumental in propelling progress at TAU, and in Israel, in general,” he adds.

Source: TAU Review

Introducing Tel Aviv University’s Student Success Center

Written by AUFTAU on 18 June 2023. Posted in Newsroom.

Student services get a welcome refresh.

Until today, TAU’s Student Services Division has been dedicated to providing students with a vital range of services including financial aid, academic counseling, tutoring, mentoring, career guidance, and psychological support. With our increasingly networked world and today’s expectations of a more seamless and hands-on experience when seeking services, the University is reinventing the Division as a much broader and expanded Student Success Center.

Unique Challenges

Israeli students have unique challenges that are atypical to their counterparts in, for example, America and Europe. Israeli students tend to begin their higher education studies 4-6 years later than other university students around the world because of the compulsory army service that starts at age 18. Added to this delay to their career trajectory are several responsibilities that students, now in their early-to-mid 20s, must assume, such as holding down 1-2 jobs to pay for their tuition and living, or even to help support family. Many students also perform military reserve duty which affects their annual school schedules. For many, it is a challenging balancing act.

“The Center is a conduit for ensuring everyone can successfully complete their degrees and pursue their professional dreams with as much support and guidance as possible.” – Prof. Drorit Neumann

A Supportive Framework

Prof. Drorit Neumann, who has been serving as the Dean of the Student Success Center since October 2021, says the goal of the Center is to “enhance the student experience by providing a streamlined, holistic support framework, one that is not entirely focused on students in need, but more so on every student, in general. These are Israel’s most precious resources – future leaders, educators, and innovators – and the Center is a conduit for ensuring everyone can successfully complete their degrees and pursue their professional dreams with as much support and guidance as possible,” Neumann says.

TAU’s entire student body of 30,000 students is eligible for assistance, with 8,000 students per year receiving need or merit-based financial aid. Through the Student Success Center, 15,000 hours of tutoring are available to any student who needs it, including designated support for students doing army reserve duty and those with learning disabilities. Students whose mother tongue is not Hebrew have access to specific programs before courses begin that include intensive Hebrew lessons and working on their soft skills and basic knowledge to ensure they have a solid educational foundation before the academic year starts. Additionally, students have access to subsidized psychotherapy and psychiatric treatment hours.

A One-Stop-Shop for Success

The new Center is envisioned as a one-stop-shop for every aspect of the student campus experience – from before students even enroll through to graduation: Helping students choose their academic direction and study program; assistance in the admission process; identifying and supporting students with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders; facilitating academic and personal mentoring; offering career guidance and job placement services in cooperation with the faculties, and much more.

“On the one hand, our student success center provides a package of services. On the other, it empowers students to be socially involved citizens in Israeli society with a thriving career.” – Prof. Drorit Neumann

A key new feature is the Center’s wide range of proactive student retention activities, which educational counselors mediate in the various faculties across campus. Counselors aim to identify students who are falling behind in their studies at as early a stage as possible, to offer them the support they need and prevent them from dropping out altogether.

Empowering Social Activism

The Center also operates a ground-breaking initiative that embeds social activism into the teaching curriculum. The initiative, named TAU Impact, offers undergraduate students accredited workshops that combine theoretical knowledge with hands-on social activity, in collaboration with NGO’s, government bodies, and the local community. The result is a critical mass of students who apply their newfound knowledge for the good of the community and serve as catalysts of positive social change.

“Our goal is to offer a one-stop, accessible space for students. On the one hand, our student success center provides a package of services. On the other, it empowers students to be socially involved citizens in Israeli society with a thriving career. This is what success means to us,” concludes Prof. Neumann.

The Tel Aviv University Alumnus Super-Driving the Future

Written by AUFTAU on 14 June 2023. Posted in Alumni News, Newsroom.

Mobileye CEO and trailblazing technologist Prof. Amnon Shashua on what fuels his work and philanthropy.

As an undergraduate at Tel Aviv University in computer science and math, Prof. Amnon Shashua first cultivated his skills in the discipline of scientific thinking.

This approach to problem-solving was foundational to his subsequent academic career and meteoric rise as the CEO and founder of Mobileye. The driver-assist and autonomous-driving technology company is recognized as one of Israel’s biggest high-tech success stories. Its $15.3 billion acquisition by Intel in 2017 remains the largest ever for an Israeli tech company.

Alongside Mobileye, Shashua helms several other businesses based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology, including OrCam, which develops ‘smart’ assistive devices for the visually impaired; Israel’s first digital bank, One Zero; and AI21 Labs, which raised $64 million in 2022 to augment human writing with its AI systems for computer-generated text.

“Scholarships at TAU are part of promoting the economic success of Israel—academia plays a very strong role in this success.” – Prof. Amnon Shashua

TAU Alumnus to Benefactor

Parallel to his zeal for advancing technology, Shashua is passionate about advancing society. To date, he and his family have donated about $60 million to philanthropic causes, including scholarships at TAU.

Together with his wife, Anat, and three grown children, Shashua seeks to promote economic opportunity and movement toward high-tech among Israel’s underrepresented populations. These include the country’s ultra-Orthodox, Israeli-Arabs, women in STEM, and periphery communities.

“The biggest challenge we have worldwide, not just in Israel, is the widening wealth gap which threatens to cause social unrest and disorder,” he says of the impetus behind his giving. “Scholarships at TAU are part of promoting the economic success of Israel—academia plays a very strong role in this success,” he adds.

In another example of their philanthropic contributions, the Shashua family established a $35 million fund to aid some 2,000 new small businesses that suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic. Shashua hopes the so-called WE-19 program will further help even the playing field for new generations of entrepreneurs and innovators.

“AI’s ability to sense the world will change everything we know about mobility” – Prof. Amnon Shashua

AI: Full Throttle Ahead

Sitting at the intersection of academia and the business world, Shashua has a prime vantage point when it comes to the future of AI.

“It’s easy for a human to have common sense, but hard to program it into a machine,” he explains. “Now it’s starting to happen.”

He sees three primary areas where AI is expected to make leaps and bounds in the next five years: pattern recognition and sensing, or understanding the world through sensors; decision-making that affects the actions of others; and natural-language understanding which uses advanced software to enable computers to comprehend and respond to human text or speech.

When it comes to sensing and decision-making, autonomous driving is one example of AI’s progress.

“AI’s ability to sense the world will change everything we know about mobility,” Shashua says. “With autonomous vehicles, cars will become safer, there will be fewer cars on the roads, and lower costs in transporting people.”

“Even though I’m responsible for some 4,000 employees among all my businesses, I’m a scientist at my core,” – Prof. Amnon Shashua

Scientist at the Core

Shashua explains that his businesses are an expansion of his work as a professor of computer science at Hebrew University.

“I thought it would be nice to build startups because then you can solve bigger problems at a larger scale than in academia,” he says. “I never imagined it’d grow into something as big as it did.”

While he wears many professional hats, Shashua maintains an underlying passion for research.

“Even though I’m responsible for some 4,000 employees among all my businesses, I’m a scientist at my core,” he says.

Shashua continues to teach, too. Once a week, he hosts his advanced degree students for sandwiches and research sessions at his Mobileye offices in Jerusalem.

“Staying in academia keeps me sharp,” he adds, smiling.

Prof. Shashua addresses a 2018 ‘Meetings with Inspiring Alumni’ event hosted by the Tel Aviv University Alumni Organization

“Take the tough courses, take the long road, and enjoy the journey not just the destination.” – Prof. Amnon Shashua

Scholarly Foundations

From an early age, Shashua planned to pursue a scientific trajectory. “Becoming an entrepreneur surprised me,” he explains.

Shashua grew up in the Tel Aviv area. In high school, he studied in a program for gifted students in computer science. His academic journey began at Tel Aviv University in 1982, a week after his discharge from the IDF’s Armored Corp, where he’d recently served in the First Lebanon War.

“The tools I acquired through my math studies at the University really captivated me,” says Shashua of his time at TAU.

He then earned a master’s degree in computer science from the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed his PhD and postdoctoral training in fields related to brain and computational sciences at MIT.

For his pioneering contributions to the field of AI, Shashua has earned numerous accolades, most recently the 2020 Dan David Prize, headquartered at TAU, and his 2022 induction to the Automotive Hall of Fame in Michigan, US.

For students aspiring to become innovators and entrepreneurs, he encourages them to “take the tough courses, take the long road, and enjoy the journey not just the destination.”

By Julie Steigerwald-Levi