Israel Innovation with Yishai Fraenkel

On today’s episode, Yishai Fraenkel, Director General and Vice President at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem joins us to give insight into the interesting topic of Israeli innovation. He has nearly 20 years of experience with Intel, where he worked in new technology, with a focus on artificial intelligence and computer vision and has now been working at the university for over two years. He discusses some of the factors, both socially and culturally, which foster the Israeli ability to innovate, as well as why he is passionate about research and how his university is trying to bridge the divide between fundamental research and industry. He also shares how students have changed over the past decade, why patience is necessary when it comes to innovation and which fields of research most excite him. For all this and much more, join us today!

If you want to learn more about Israel Innovation, check out NEXUS:Israel. This an interactive conference uniting the leading finance, investment and business professionals with the most prolific innovators from the spheres of nanotechnology, computer, health, agriculture, environmental and life sciences, to build capacity for the next generation of technology investment, commercialization and knowledge exchange.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Which three things Israel has that contribute to its innovation success
• How questioning the way things are done can lead to innovation
• Why Yishai believes research to be so important to innovation
• Results from research do not always show right away
• Examples from Hebrew University of how industry and academia have managed to coexist
• Entrepreneurship is important, even for social initiatives
• Things that have changed with students over the past 15 years
• The difference between information and knowledge
• How to find the balance between specialization and cross disciplinary knowledge
• Global initiatives Hebrew University is taking