i8V Q2 2022 Update
Welcome to our Q2 2022 (AKA “yes, the Summer is here”) update, where we share our latest news and publications on Innovating innovating. For more info see i8.ventures.
Happy spring holidays! Chag Passover Sameach, Happy Easter, Ramadan Karim to all. i8.ventures wishes you happiness, prosperity and good health this holiday season.
Yours Sincerely,
Prof. Yesha Sivan and the team
TEVA - BioMix2022 - Towards the Capstone Event 15-SEP-2022
Bio-Mix is a yearly business program created by TEVA with i8 Ventures as part of Teva’s National Forum for Bio-innovators. The participants are top doctoral and postdoctoral students from leading Israeli universities. The purpose is to bridge the gap between a promising scientific invention and a product or drug entering the commercial market.
In the past quarter, the participants learned about business models (“55 models”), competitive advantage, and IP aspects and experienced the “Blue Ocean” workshop. Each student had to develop a short presentation of an idea for a drug or a product they wished to pursue. They then pitched it to group peers, mentors, and i8 and Teva teams. Out of 30 presented ideas, 9 were selected to be developed in full – for the Bio-Mix Capstone competition.
On September 15, 2022, we will hold the competition with an international jury panel where 5 selected projects will be presented. The best one will be declared the winner. The event will be conducted in English and shared via zoom with active audience participants.
We invite you to join us at the inspiring event. No admission fee but advance registration is required,
2022 Israel Innovation Report of IIA (Israel Innovation Authority)
The Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA) is an independent statutory authority entrusted with promoting innovation as a lever for inclusive and sustainable economic growth in Israel.
The 2022 IIA report lists the significant achievements and challenges the authority is facing, focusing on the Israeli high-tech industry. While showing impressive achievements it emphasizes that the State of Israel was ranked 15th in the Global Innovation Index (GII) in 2021 (down 5 places from the previous year).
You can see another angle on the subject in an interview given by Mr. Dror Bin, CEO of the Israeli Innovation Authority, to Bruce Han on his South Korean show “Global Signs”. Mr. Bin was invited to this interview following a recommendation and contact made by Prof. Yesha Sivan.
Dror Bin spoke about Israel’s “secret recipe” to hi-tech success, the Israeli government’s role in this success, the business model it operates by, and the cooperation between Israel and South Korea.
Mr. Han asked what is the new “wave” on which everyone is expected to “ride”, and how to catch it. To answer, Bin opened with the topic of AI and continued with smart agriculture, food tech, clean energy, and smart transportation.
Tourism at the Metaverse
Thanks to emerging Metaverse technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and edge computing, virtual tours in an immersive environment are already here. The next step may be virtual tourism in the metaverse, where the digital and physical realms merge. In the metaverse, AR and VR can allow people to explore and interact with destinations and resorts they have always dreamed of visiting. With the power of 5G, even the sky is no longer the limit.
Katrina Woznicki has traveled five continents, and her reports and articles have appeared in the National Geographic Traveler, The Washington Post, Lonely Planet, and others. In this article, she explains how 5G technology enables immersive tourism in the metaverse, using augmented or virtual reality, without having to board a plane, cross borders and airports, or stay in expensive hotels. Everything is done from home using a computer, smartphone, and groundbreaking technologies like 5G.
Currently, we interact with our devices primarily through sight and sound. As the metaverse evolves, new 5G technology, with low latency and high throughput, can enable new multi-sensory (immersive) experiences. You may get to hug family members on the other side of the world instead of waving goodbye through a screen, as many of us did during the plague. You can smell freshly baked bread in Parisian cafés or taste fine wine from the vineyards of Tuscany.
According to Prof. Yesha Sivan, there will not be one Metaverse, but many. Nowadays, the metaverse is treated as a single entity, but there are likely to be many metaverses that will, eventually, connect, similar to the way there are an infinite number of websites on the internet. Users will be able to move from one metaverse to another, perhaps like catching the tunnel train (La Manche) from London to Paris for the weekend.
Science Abroad - Blue Ocean Workshop and link to local industry leaders for scientists in preparation to return to Israel
The care for returning scientists is part of a national effort to bring “the brains” back home, i.e back to Israel.
In this context, the Center for Integration in Science and the Business Entrepreneurship Division of the Ministry of Aliyah (immigration) and Integration runs an exposure program for Israeli scientists living abroad. The program is managed by “Science Abroad”
Science Abroad is an international community of more than 4,500 Israeli researchers from all over the world. The organization operates 35 centers in North America, Europe, and Australia, run by volunteer scientists. It provides tools, develops connections, and opens doors for Israeli scientists seeking to return to Israel and bring back their knowledge, talent, experience, and the connections they have accumulated to benefit academia and industry as an engine of growth for Israel.
One of the activities created by Science Abroad was a week-long workshop for its community members who are actively considering returning to Isreal. During that week, Prof. Yesha Sivan held a “Blue Ocean” session.
Prof. Sivan's blog Leading LLL: Five General Factors of Learning — The Case of Learning PHP
We continue to explore the nature of Life Long Learning in a set of posts on the LinkedIn newsletter: Leading Life Long Learning. Here’s one of the posts by Prof. Yesha Sivan.
I’m happy to report that, after 10 hrs today with w3schools, I covered the basics of PHP. It has been a blast. [1] (Note on sources: to facilitate and invite streamed reading all notes, in ‘[ ]’ are in the end).
Here are five reflective points, on this particular learning with a bit of generalization on the factors of learning later.
…learners, teachers, and developers of learning environments should be aware of these factors and strive to build the optimum level of them…
(a) Motivation: A few weeks ago, I noted that it would be good to know a bit of PHP. We are working heavily with WordPress code snippets, and most of them are in PHP. Another motivational point was fully understanding what is possible and with what level of ease with PHP. [2]
(b) Background needed: I have past experience with about five different programming languages, from Z80 Assembler to Basic, Pascal, Object Oriented (good old HyperCard), and Second Life LSL. Later I dabbled with HTML and Javascript, and of course CSS. I have not actively programmed for over ten years.
(c) Time for learning: One needs time to immerse in such a learning endeavor fully; 5 min intervals will not do it. In fact, it took me 10 hrs (with one long break).
(d) Learning environment: W3schools gives you a straightforward yet powerful system to learn. Explicit content, menus, and flow. Best of all, they have a built-in simulator that lets you try your code and test your learning. Needless to say that the Google search, as a companion, can also teach you lots of cool things like why you have “__” before some PHP functions (answer: because they are magic!) [3].
(e) Value of learning: I don’t see myself doing heavy programming. But I do see myself understanding PHP code and imagining what can be done and how nice code is. I will also be better able to explain what is needed and examine the results of what is delivered.
(f) Fun: I had fun. 10 hrs passed like magic (I put in 1 hr walk in between). I was in my zone (of proximal development [4]).
In more general terms, these learning factors of:
(a) Motivation for the specific learning;
(b) Background to the subject matter of the learning;
(c) Time for learning;
(d) Environment (both curriculum, presentation, and delivery);
(e) Value of learning in the future (relate to (a) motivation; and
(f) Fun – and of course, fun that stems from the right mixture of the above.
They are vital in learning in general.
I’m not saying all these factors should be present in all learnings. I am saying that learners, teachers, and developers of learning environments should be aware of these factors and strive to build the optimum level of them to allow people to be in their learning zone
p.s. If you identify more factors kindly me know.
Notes:
[1] w3 school for PHP — https://www.w3schools.com/php/
[2] About PHP — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
[3] Why __ before certain functions in PHP — https://stackoverflow.com/
[4] What is the Zone of proximal development — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Comments are closed.