The face f imagination.

metro >> on the cover

Best Seat In The House!

Inventor to watch Super Bowl from
chair suspended two stories high.

Roche! Burstyn I Special to the Jewish News

Ann

Shani Elitzur, Graduate Student
Technion Faculty of
Aerospace Engineering

Securing a safe and green future takes imagination.

And imagination is abundant at the Technion, one of the
world's preeminent science and technology universities.
You can see it in the face of Technion graduate student
Shani Elitzur. A captain in the Israeli Air Force working in
aeronautical design, Shani is also pursuing her doctoral degree
in renewable green energy and studying new ways to generate
hydrogen. The goal: achieve a breakthrough in efficient energy
production and storage.

Shani is just one of many Technion students, faculty members
and graduates who are committed to a better future, creating
everything from new tumor-shrinking treatments to zero-
emission vehicles. All born of imagination at the Technion-
a hotbed of discovery that's contributing to Israel's leadership
in science, technology and medicine.

Technion: The Imagination of Israel.

American
Technion
Society

Advancing Innovation for Israel and the World

American Technion Society Detroit Office
6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 304, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301
Tel: 248.593.6760
Linda Kovan, President
Joey Selesny, East Central Regional Director
www. ats. org

12 January 30 • 2014

JP1

Michlin also created a geodesic metidr

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"I frequently see cars slow down as
they're driving by, looking at our house,"
he said. The two-story room has a high
glass ceiling and contains a full-size
trampoline that fills the floor space.
Michlin jumps on his trampoline every
day for at least 15 minutes, often with
his 2-year-old grandson Eliyahu.
Last year, Michlin introduced his
Super Bowl chair to the world via
YouTube with a specially created video
that shows him doing flips on his tram-
poline, walking on his hands on a tread-
mill and playing guitar while sitting in
the airborne Super Bowl chair.
A blooper clip when the suction cup
holding a camera fell is also on YouTube.
It could have been painful, but, Michlin
said, "Luckily, I was wearing a yarmulke;
it was softer with it:'
The ode to his Super Bowl chair was
not the first song Michlin wrote. "From
about age 18 to 21, I basically spent
most of my time writing songs:' he said.
"I can't remember them all, only about
30 of them:' He works on the songs he
remembers in his recording studio and
plans to eventually release them on
iTunes.
Michlin credits his interest in invent-
ing to his father, Arnold Michlin, a
chemist and inventor who often brought
home objects of curiosity from work. As
a child, Shalom used the family base-
ment as his personal laboratory and
tinkered with motors, drills and pumps
as he discovered how things worked. He
later graduated from the University of
Michigan with two degrees, in chemical
engineering and materials and metallur-

,

gical engineering.
The geodesic paraboloid solar reflec-
tor and the geodesic doughnut house
were among Michlin's earlier inven-
tions. "This was back in 1973, and it
took me an entire day to figure out the
calculations. Nowadays, with a personal
computer and the right program, I could
make the same calculations in minutes:'
Michlin said. Other inventions include
his geodesic dome Sukkah, which was
featured in the IN in 2005, and the 6-foot
long geodesic menorah he made from
875 metal rods two years ago.
Though it's common now, Michlin
was described by PC Week magazine in
1986 as the first in the computer indus-
try to rebuild toner cartridges. He also
has 39 patents, which upheld his case
when he sued large companies for patent
infringement. All cases eventually settled
out of court for confidential amounts.

Entertaining Fellow

When Michlin's not busy with his music,
inventions, work or trampoline, he
might be walking upside down. A mostly
self-taught gymnast who was varsity
on the state champs (and undefeated)
gymnastics team at North Farmington
High School back in 1967, Michlin still
proudly wears his letter jacket once a
year — on Purim.
He often walks on his hands for up
to a distance of 50 feet. He also enjoys
posing while standing on his hands at
famous tourist spots around the world.
"I've walked on my hands on the
Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square

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