A large delegation of presidents from the U15 Group of research universities in Canada visited the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa at the end of August. They were accompanied by Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Dr. Ronen Hoffman. The guests were welcomed by Technion President, Professor Uri Sivan and Vice President for Foreign Relations and Resource Development Professor Alon Wolf. Prof. Sivan presented the Technion’s history and the Technion’s significant contributions to the development of the State of Israel.
“The Technion is undergoing a significant change from a field-oriented approach to a challenge-oriented approach,” Prof. Sivan told the guests. “In this process, we lower the walls between the faculties to promote fruitful and useful interdisciplinary research.”
The Technion President added that “we are also working to lower the barriers between industry and academia so we can help industry in carrying out long-term research and connect through it to the main challenges facing humanity. We are proactively working to commercialize our research to impact society and the economy. This year, the Technion will establish 16 new startups based on the research of our researchers. We are also undergoing a fundamental change in the pedagogical aspect that will introduce humanistic subjects into the training of students so that they leave the Technion with a worldview that will help them understand the consequences of their professional decisions.”
The visitors met with the management of the Technion, including Rona Samler, General Manager of T3 – Technion Technology Transfer Office, Distinguished Professor Ilan Marek, head of the Center for Catalysis and Sustainable processes, Professor Noam Ziv, head of the Technion Human Health Initiative, Prof. Ezri Tarazi, Head of the T-Hub and Professor Shai Shen-Or, Director at the Tech AI center. They also visited the modern Mehoudar Center for Inventors, which was inaugurated this summer.
The heads of the following universities participated in the visit: McGill, British Columbia, Waterloo, Calgary, Montreal, Simon Fraser, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Western, York, Ottawa, Carleton, Concordia, Laval, and Dalhousie, as well as a representative of the Canadian Research Universities group.