In conjunction with signing a research agreement with Google, the Technion recently hosted a senior delegation from the tech giant in order to discuss the partnership. The agreement is part of the Technion’s strategic plan, whose goal is to set up a high-quality cohort of companies with whom the Technion has strong research relationships, and to promote joint multidisciplinary research between academia and industry.
The delegation included high-level executives from both Google and its sister company Verily, both of which are subsidiaries of Alphabet Inc. Verily is Alphabet’s research arm devoted to the study of life sciences. The group included Prof. Yossi Matias, VP of Engineering and Research at Google and Founding Managing Director of Google in Israel; Prof. Avinatan Hassidim, Head of Google’s Research Group in Israel; Ronit Levavi Morad, Head of Research at Google; Prof. Ehud Rivlin of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion, who is also Head of the Verily Center in Israel; and Prof. Michael Elad of the Taub Faculty of Computer Science, who serves as the Head of the Verily Research Group. The delegation met with Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan; Executive Vice President and Director General, Prof Boaz Golany; and Vice President of Research, Prof. Koby Rubinstein.
“The multidisciplinary challenges of the 21st century require us to regroup,” Prof. Sivan said at the meeting. “Scientific and technological breakthroughs now require multidisciplinary research and close cooperation between academia and industry; over the past year, we have worked more closely with industry to build a new ecosystem and promote joint research on campus. We encourage mentors from the industry to participate in academic life at the Technion, to guide and teach students – exposing our students and researchers to the changes taking place in the ‘real world’ and to posing real-life questions.”
Prof. Matias explained why the collaboration with the Technion is valuable for Google: “Today, more than ever, we have an opportunity to harness science and technology to solve problems on a global scale. Research collaborations with academia have significant potential to advance science and technology.”
Prof. Matias and his team also took part in a steering committee headed by Technion Professor Daoud Bshouty to provide Google scholarships to outstanding Arab-Israeli students at the Technion.