Today the American president was presented with a selection of Israeli technological innovations before going off to Ramallah.
United States President Barack Obama was shown an array of cutting-edge Israeli technological innovations at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on Thursday.
Among the technologies – selected by a special professional committee headed by the chairman of the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister’s Office, professor Eugene Kandel – was an aluminum-air battery developed by high-tech startup Phinergy. Designed to power electric vehicles, the low-cost battery has zero emissions, is fully recyclable and is expected to have three times the capacity of electric car batteries currently on the market.
Another transport-related innovation on display was a camera developed by Mobileye along with the Hebrew University, which warns automobile drivers of potentially dangerous situations and can also operate the brakes. The system has been installed in over a million vehicles worldwide and is used by major automakers like Volvo, GM, Ford and BMW.
Representing the bio-medical sector was a Brain Network Activation system developed by ElMindA, which monitors brain activity and helps doctors diagnose brain damage and plan medical treatment and recovery. Another medical innovation Obama saw was Rewalk, an external skeleton constructed from advanced sensors, which helps victims of paralysis regain mobility and has already helped nearly 200 patients around the world.
There was a robotic snake developed by the Technion Institute in Haifa, which is capable of entering small spaces in collapsed buildings and assisting search-and-rescue operations, particularly in locating people trapped beneath debris.
At the exhibition, Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met young scientists from Israeli high schools and alumni of a program run by Cisco Corporation that has trained over 600 Israeli-Arab engineers for the high-tech sector.
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