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This past December, the State of Israel signed off on an allocation of 1.25B ILS in favor of the national program for quantum science and technology. Set under the jurisdiction of TELEM (The National Infrastructure Forum for Research and Development), the program has set several goals, including developing human capital and research infrastructure, building a quantum computer in Israel, and forming international collaborations in the quantum field. We’re answering the call here at the Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan, and starting in the upcoming academic year we’ll be offering the Quantum Engineering program, leading us along with the rest of the world toward the Second Quantum Revolution. “These are brand new contents in local and even international terms. Only a few institutions in the world offer a BSc in quantum engineering,” says head of the program, Dr. Eli Cohen. “We decided to open this program after we’ve identified the growing interest, both in academia and the industry, in developing quantum technologies and utilizing them for computing, communication and encryption, as well as developing new and advanced sensors. Our goal is to train faculty graduates with a founded knowledge of engineering, but also physics, computer science and mathematics, with a strong emphasis on quantum science and technology.”

When it comes to a constantly innovating faculty, even a final project comes with a twist. The final project for the Digital Design Principles (DDP) course reached its apex in a Hackathon held on the last day of June, at the faculty lobby. “We were inspired by a Hackathon we participated in several months prior, in December 2019, focusing on RISC-V and sponsored by Western Digital,” says Dr. Adam Teman, the course’s academic supervisor. “Most participating groups in that Hackathon, winners included, used the PulpEnIX platform developed in Bar-Ilan; a group of BSc students from Bar-Ilan won third place. It was a fun, successful event. People prepared for weeks, slept on the floor – not because someone made them, but because they enjoyed it. We saw how excited people were, and to add some spice to our course (which explored similar issues), we decided to hold an end-of-course Hackathon.”

Microsoft has set up a contest where you are required to solve quantum problems using the Q# programming language.

If you're interested in the world of quantum computing, you may wish to take part in the contest! Undergraduate students from Bar-Ilan University who are among the winners of the contest will receive a monetary prize of 500 NIS (subject to presenting their solution to us).

Please let us know if you plan to attend this event:
adi.makmal@biu.ac.il
emanuele.dalla-torre@biu.ac.il

Apply Now>>

The chip provides protection at a much lower cost – in terms of area, energy consumption and performance – than anything currently offered on the market

Credit purchases via cellphone, saving and processing private information on the server, a pacemaker based on a simple processor, a system of sensors and controllers connected to a factory network – all of these are examples of computer-based platforms with electronic processing. All of them carry sensitive, intimate information, and naturally, the need arises to secure the information they process. “My research focuses on how to design our electronic friends in a way we can trust them,” says Dr. Itamar Levi, who had joined the Computer Engineering program at the Faculty this past October. “In theory, it’s simple: patterns of secret-keeping systems (or any other cryptographic need) always rely on some grain of secretly-kept information, such as a secret key. The problem is that our systems are not theoretical: the very realization of the system in the physical world leads to secret data leakage, whether it is or isn’t being used – and that’s just one of many problems.”

Three faculties lab are hard at work (following the Ministry of Health’s guidelines, of course), conducting research and trying to solve the problems of the Coronavirus pandemic, in diagnosis and treatment

In this technological age, information about each and every one of us – personal and sensitive information – is collected in large databases: medical information is collected in hospitals, financial information is collected by banks and credit card companies, and even our ID and residential address are kept by government offices or the bureau of statistics. Due to the sensitive nature of such information, maintaining its privacy is imperative. 

In these trying times, it’s nice to hear some good news. Last month, Dr. Adam Teman has learned that he is among the winners of the prestigious Krill Prize, awarded by the Wolf Foundation for Excellence in Scientific Research. The prize is given annually to ten young untenured lecturers and senior lecturers in Israel, based on general academic achievements.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, one of the most pressing medical challenges that areas massively affected by the crisis face is the need to test a high number of people who might have been infected in a short amount of time. New technology developed by Dr Amos Danieli at Bar Ilan University might assist them in the mission, drastically cutting the time needed to analyze saliva samples.

Read the full Jerusalem Post report

In January 2019, NoCamels followed up on major Israeli research into revolutionary eye drops that can correct refractive-related vision problems, thereby potentially making eyeglasses obsolete.

During December 16-18 we will have the pleasure to host at the Faculty of Engineering the international conference "QUEST 2" focused on /quantum Science and Technology. Students are especially encouraged to participate and present their posters (the best poster prize will be awarded).

Looking forward to seeing you!

This year, for the second time since the Faculty of Engineering, was founded at Bar-Ilan, one of its PhD candidates is being honored with the Adams Fellowship. The fellowship is annually awarded by the Israel National Academy of Sciences to only eight doctoral candidates of all universities, for personal academic and research excellence.

The 3^RD Workshop on OptoMechanics and Brillouin Scattering: Fundamentals, Applications, and Technologies – WOMBAT was held in March of this year. The event is dedicated to the joint research of sound and light waves. It is held every two years, and the innovator who brought the event to Israel and Prof. Avi Zadok, of BIU’s Faculty of Engineering. “The first workshop was conducted in Australia in 2015, and the acronym for the event is specifically designed as the name of the Australian animal also depicted in the event’s logo,” explains Zadok, 46. “In that first event, we only had one BIU student. By the second event, held in France in 2017, I was invited with 3 students, and it was an incredible experience. It was one of the best conferences we’ve been to, and that motivated us to host the next event here. Therefore, towards the 3^rd workshop, we submitted a proposal to host it here in Israel, and happily, we were accepted.”

Meet Pavitra S R, originally from India, a PhD candidate at Prof. Dror Fixler’s Advanced Light Microscopy Laboratory in the Alexander Kofkin Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University. Pavitra works on developing a novel, non-invasive method to detect and treat atherosclerosis – the leading cause of death and disability in the western world. In research led by her doctoral adviser Prof. Fixler, who is also Director of Bar-Ilan's Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), Pavitra is using gold nanorods and new imaging technology in an effort to diagnose and treat this disease in its early stages, before hardened and narrowed arteries trigger heart attacks or strokes.

In the past decade, Prof. Avi Zadok's students have won numerous acclaims. Five of them were included on the Rector's Honor Roll. So how exactly does a research group produce this many shining stars?

Prof. Avi Zadok's students at the Alexander Kofkin Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University are making a name for themselves. They have won numerous awards and research fellowships, and Prof. Zadok is a proud mentor: "Through the years I have been privileged to work alongside the best of students," he boasts.

Dr. Tomer Lewi, an expert in Nano Photonics and Flat Optics at Bar-Ilan’s University Alexander Kofkin Faculty of Engineering, shares his experience with metamaterials and their applications, which may enable the replacement of classic optical elements with flat ones.

The interaction between light and matter is the focus of research for Dr. Tomer Lewi, of Bar-Ilan’s Faculty of Engineering. “I am interested in the interaction between light and metamaterials or quantum materials,” explains Lewi. “Why? Two reasons. Firstly, because it’s interesting on the physical level.  New phenomena arising suddenly, exciting new functions. Secondly, these materials are used to develop a new type of technology called Flat Optics, aiming to replace all the classic optical elements, such as lenses, mirrors, beam splitters and such, with flat elements – nanostructures designed for specific functions.”