•

May the coming year be filled
with health, happiness and prosperity
for all our family and friends.

Cheryl & John Slaim,
Eric Slaim Sr Anne Eidelman Er Julian Slaim,
Jennifer Sr Michael Rasansky
Leila

May the coming year be filled
with health, happiness and prosperity
for all our family and friends.

CLAIRE ST MARV TAMAROFF

May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all our family and friends..
L'Shanah Tovah!

Gloria (oldie) &
Marvin Bookstein

30

September 2 • 2010

Brave New World

Technion professor envisions
a future driven by robots.

Charlotte Dubin
Special to the Jewish News

F

uture world technology. It's a
world where robots fight ter-
rorists, perform surgery and
prevent automobile accidents.
But at the Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology in Haifa, it's
not science fiction. Many intelligent
machines are already reality and
others are in the works at what is
often called the MIT of Israel.
In the best sense,
the Technion is
offering a brave
new world, accord-
ing to Daniel Weihs,
one of Israel's
foremost experts in
aerospace engineer-
ing. In mid-August,
Prof. Weihs
Weihs delivered
three talks in the
Detroit area as part of a speaking
tour for the American Technion
Society in the U.S. and Canada.
It was a week that marked his
50th year at the scientific and
technological university — a half-
century in the same building he
entered as a 17-year-old student. He
has since served as provost, dean of
the graduate school and of the fac-
ulty of aerospace engineering, direc-
tor of the Samuel Neaman Institute
for Advanced Studies in Science
and Technology and director of the
Norman and Helen Asher Space
Research Institute. Most recently,
he has been selected to direct the
university's planned Center for
Autonomous Systems.
Weihs, who admits he has no time
for gadgets that text and play games,
has been involved in the develop-
ment of unmanned aerial vehicles
— UAVs popularly known as drones
— since 1974. They evolved out of
a bitter lesson learned during the
Yom Kippur War when there was a
major loss of pilots. Weihs headed
a Ministry of Defense group that
developed these aerial vehicles
now used by every Air Force in the
world."
Devices have became smaller
and smaller. Next was the robotic
helicopter the size of a floor tile that

,(

could fly through an open window
and send back information on a
dangerous situation within. Then
came the 5-milimeter UAV carry-
ing a camera so small it couldn't be
detected by the enemy in a hostage
situation. Much of the Technion's
nanotechnology has been taken on
by industry.
When things get complicated,
Weihs says he learns much from
nature. Several years ago, his studies
of fish enabled him to improve sub-
marine design. He also studied birds
to find ways to improve piloted and
UAV performance. Dandelion seeds
were the model for nano-sized para-
chutes that can identify toxic gases
in the air.
Weihs says autonomous systems
— intelligent robots that operate
with little or no human interven-
tion — increasingly will define the
Technion's contributions to human-
kind. A robotic surgical assistant, for
example, allows a doctor to operate
from his office while the machine
does the "hands-on" work.
Robots can be programmed as
caregivers for homebound, infirm
individuals. And a heat sensor-
equipped robotic snake that can
enter a building to locate survivors
has enhanced Israel's global reputa-
tion for search and rescue in natural
disasters.
Envisioning a not-so-distant
future of fully independent
unmanned vehicles and com-
plex computer decisions made by
machine, Weihs sees joint efforts as
the future of engineering. Currently,
eight faculties engage in the
Technion's team approach to prob-
lem solving: aerospace; computer
science; civil, mechanical, biomed
and electrical engineering; bio-
medical science, and medical school.
Robotics — autonomous systems
— are the linchpin.
"The Technion," he says, "wants
to become Israel's leading center for
autonomous systems, for developing
new applications and for educating
future leaders."
Taking a page from his science
analogies, Weihs notes that a single
ant can't do much on its own, "but a
group of ants can do a lot." 7

