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Report on Israel-HEP and Industrial Activities. Introduction to Israeli Educational and Scientific activities. Technology transfer at Academic Institutions. Overview of HEP activities in Israel. GRID activities in Israel. Overview of budgets and manpower. Israeli relations with CERN.
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Report on Israel-HEP and Industrial Activities • Introduction to Israeli Educational and Scientific activities. • Technology transfer at Academic Institutions. • Overview of HEP activities in Israel. • GRID activities in Israel. • Overview of budgets and manpower. • Israeli relations with CERN. • Conclusions.
General Comments on Israeli Education and Research • Israeli Population 7.4 Millions habitants. • GDP (PPP)/capita=28K$ • Unemployment ~8.2% (not very high taking into account 1M immigration wave, and in particular the present economic crisis, normally ~6%) • 8 Universities (7 with large Research Programs) & 60 Academies/Colleges. • % of GDP for Civilian R&D: 4.8% • Average monthly wage:1.9K$. • TECHNION created in 1924 & HU Jerusalem in 1925, Weizmann in 1935 (in 1948: 1,600 students, in 2007: 260,000) TECHNION(HEP, TH&EXP) Haifa Univ (no HEP) Tel-Aviv University (HEP TH&EXP Bar-Ilan University (no HEP) Open University Hebrew Uni. Jerusalem (HEP TH) Weizmann Inst., Rehovot (HEP TH&EXP) Univ. of Ber-Sheva (HEP TH&EXP)
Education has always been a priority in Israel and the first two Universities were established 24 years before the existence of the State of Israel. Presently, 24% of the civilian labor force have 16+ years of schooling In the early period, research was mainly driven by Agricultural Research, out of the need of transforming the dessert and swamps. Serious Industrial Research only started in the late 70’s early 80’s (mainly electronics and communication). In 85 Law to Encourage Industrial R&D was approved. Fund was established, that reached 400M$ in 2000-1 Physics Research started in Jerusalem, following the Racah School, and at the Technion, following the Rosen School. This, together with some new immigrants formed most of the Theorists, while Experimentalists were formed by sending them abroad in the 50’s and 60’s, where they participated in some important discoveries. Funding for Basic Science is mainly done through the National Science Foundation ( depending on the Academy of Science and Humanities) Civilian R&D as % of GDP General Comments on Israeli Education and Research
Higher Education in Israel • Growth of number of academic institutions in Israel in the last 17 years.
Physics Students in Israel • Although there was a general drop of Physics Students in the late 90’s, this trend has changed considerably, mainly due to the immigration from Science minded Students from Russia as well as the High-Tech boom. Total Male Female Graduate
Good Scientific Education leads also to a high level of publications
Overview of Technology Transfer in Israeli Academia • Technology Transfer in Israeli Academia has a long tradition, where firms loosely related to Academic Institutions specialized in Technology Transfer were established as early as 1959. • This Technology Transfer firms (YISSUM for the Hebrew University, RAMOT for the University of Tel Aviv, YEDA for the Weizmann Institute and others for the various institutions) have as a main role to shield the researcher, as well as the Academic Institution, from any legal problem related to a given invention, while taking care of the aspects of Intellectual Property, obtaining the corresponding patents, finding commercial partners, setting up the licensing arrangements and transfer of royalties to the University and to the researcher.
Overview of Technology Transfer in Israeli Academia The main aspects of such a Technology Transfer firm are: • Evaluate the potential interest of a given idea. • Place a Patent Application (before any scientific publication). These patent applications are done in the name of the Technology Transfer firm. • Find potential Industrial Partners. This is extremely important, since in many cases, the final utilization for a given idea is not what it was originally intended. • Extend the Patent Applications to the relevant countries, following the potential Industrial partners. • Perform licensing arrangements to outside firms. 70% of these licensing are to firms outside the country (to be compared to 10% in the USA and between 50% at Oxford and 75% at Imperial College in the UK). • Deal with the commercial aspects, as well as the return of royalties.
Overview of Technology Transfer in Israeli Academia • The fact that this Technology Transfer firms act as independent bodies (unlike the situation in other countries), with their employees (typically 10 to 20) not being part of the Academic Institution, gives them a high incentive to find the most successful partner. • In exchange, some of these firms receive part of the royalties. In the case of YEDA, 3% of the royalties remain within the firm. The researcher that has produced the idea gets in general 40% of the royalties in all Academic Institutions, while the Institution itself gets ~60%, which are for the most invested in endowment funds. • YISSUM and YEDA have been the most successful of these Technology Transfer firms. YEDA, in particular, registers ~80 patents per year and it has achieved royalties that have increase from 98M$ in 2003 to more than 150M$ in 2005, 180M$ in 2006 and 200M$ in 2007. • 75% of these revenues originating in the Biological Field (compare to 60% of the scientific activity in Biology at the Weizmann Institute).
Experimental Activities in Israel • Completion of analysis of ZEUS data (Tel-Aviv, Weizmann groups). • Analysis of COMPASS data (Tel-Aviv). • Construction of the Pad Detector and Hadron Blind Detector (triple Gems) for the PHENIX Experiment (RHIC) and subsequent analysis of PHENIX data.
Experimental Activities in Israel • Main activity is in ATLAS. 3 Experimental Groups (Tel-Aviv, Technion & Weizmann) joint forces to work in ONE Experiment & ONE Subsystem. • Construction of 66% of the End-Cap MUON Trigger Chambers (TGCs). • Construction of the DCS and its Alignment System. • Construction of its DAQ and monitoring system. • Responsible of one of the 4 MUON reconstruction algorithms (MUGIRL) • Analysis of SUSY Higgs. • Analysis of SUSY signatures (including long lived particles). • Analysis of possible Z’ signal. • Statistical combination of data.
Accelerator activities in Israel • Radioactive beams, using new SC SARAF facility (Weizmann, Tel-Aviv & Soreq). • Polarimetry studies for Linear Colliders (Tel-Aviv)
Detector Developments for Future Accelerators • Tracking and trigger MUON detectors for the SLHC, based in the TGC technology, for high background rates (Technion, Tel-Aviv, Weizmann). • Forward calorimeters for ILC based on W-Si (Tel-Aviv)
GRID-ATLAS Activity (following RECFA visit in May 2005) • The Israel-ATLAS Tier2 is based on a distributed architecture, interconnected between the 3 Institutions. • Presently: • Processing cores 544 latest generation368 previous generation---912Total CPU power for HEP experiments: ~9000 HEPspec's • Storage500TB net (excl RAID redundancy) Bruto would be 625TB • A total budget of 620KCHF/year for the Distributed Tier2 has been approved.
Manpower overview in HEP • Although Total # of HEP Physicists/habitants, as well as student proportion is close to the European average, this is strongly dominated by TH. • There is a problem in advancing/hiring staff in Experimental HEP, mainly due to the opposition of physicists in other fields. • This is a general problem in many small countries. Total internal yearly budget for HEP, excluding staff salaries: ~5MCHF
Is there a new HEP generation ? • During RECFA review of Israel, age distributionlooked worrisome. • In the meantime, 2 new Ass. Professors in Experimental HEP Tel-Aviv and Weizmann (both in ATLAS), and more in TH. • 20 PhD students in colliding experiments. • 40 PhD students in TH (mainly Strings). • There is a new generation Age distribution in 2005
Relations with CERN • Israel has been the first paying Observer State of CERN. This Status includes now India, Japan, Russia, Turkey and the USA. • In August 1991 a Protocol to the Agreement was signed and renewed several times since then (last time in December 2006). The agreement is financed by the Ministries of Science and Technology (13%) and of Industry Trade and Labour (87%). • The last version of the agreement includes an overall contribution corresponding of 25% of what would be the total contribution of Israel as a CERN Member State. The framework of this agreement provides 27% in cash and 73% in-kind, by Israeli firms participating in CERN tenders. • In October 2004 an additional Protocol to the Agreement was signed, by which Israel increases its contribution by 50% for a period of 2 years. The additional contribution was intended to help the LHC Experiments and the GRID Project, by covering 50% of the cost of products purchased in Israeli Industry. • Typically during these years (2004-2005), the Israeli returns was 130%, while for the normal contribution varies between 90-110%.
Relations with CERN 4 Have become Associate Professors at Technion and Weizmann 2 Have positions of responsibility in Industry 1 is the director of the largest Educational Scientific Exhibit in Israel. 1 is working as Assistant Professor in the USA • Cash contribution support a number of programs: • 1) Fellows and Associates Program: • The regular fellowship program is expanded to include Israeli Fellows, competing on equal footing as their European colleagues, as well as CASS. • 2) Industrial Associates program: • engineers from Israeli Industries have spent various periods at CERN working in the large LHC Experiments and in IT. Over 10 such posts have been funded in the last 5 years (from firms like CHIARO, BATM, INTEL, NICE, MEKOROT, etc.) working for long periods at CERN. • 3) Doctoral Technical and Summer Students programs: • 25 Summer Students in the last 7 years (3 Palestinians) • 3 PhD students working on CLIC and on Signal Processing. • 4) Israeli Technical Associates: • The program supports Engineers and Physicists from European Countries working for the TC of the large LHC Experiments (12 during the last 7 years). • 5) GRID project (mainly Israeli software engineers working on the central GRID development, spending part of the time in Israel).
Relations with CERN • In-kind Contributions: • Although at the start of the program there was good contact and interest from the Machine side, later on most of the purchasing was done by the experiments, including network equipment. Examples of such contracts are: • Optical transmission equipment for the synchronization of the LEP-200 RF signal (This tender allowed the firm Phasecom to get involved in very high frequency transmission equipment) • Construction of an aqueous cleaning system not involving Freon • Heat Shields for the ATLAS End-Cap Toroid (HATEHOF). This has allowed the firm to develop new Al welding techniques and get involved in the field of Cryogenics. • Optical Fibers and optical splitters. The firm (FIBERNET) has become one of the main Optical Fibers supplier of the two Large LHC Experiments. • Control and Supervision software from the firm AXEDA (this is being used for the LHC cooling control). • All high precision resistors used in the machine (VISHAY). • Network Switches from BATM, that are widely used by the two Large LHC Experiments. • Network equipment from Silicom • A large number of high precision detector-support structures for the LHC Experiments TAL, Maresco ). • Various CAD Systems and System Interfaces (SmarTeam) • High precision Al profiles for various support structures (EXTAL, Mishor Haadumim)
R&D and Industrial Contracts with CERN • Transmission elements: Fiber optics and converters. • Very strong contacts with FIBERNET (small firm (150 employees) with a lot of flexibility and network connections to other firms. This allowed to produce various custom products for 3 experiments, for a total of 2.2MCHF: • Large number of halogen-free multi-fiber bundles and patch-cords • Development of custom made patch-panels and fiber supports. • Development of single to multimode optical panels, using connections to another R&D firm (COLORCHIP) • Development of special high density connectors for Si detectors (ALICE) • Development with a cable firm (Superior) of special LV cables. • The firm got an special recognition (prize) from 3 of the LHC experiments for their excellent work. They are, however, not included in most of the general CERN contracts for infrastructure. • Typically, only 5% of the firms involved with CERN get such a recognition.
R&D and Industrial Contracts with CERN • Production of custom electronics boards: • Various small to mid-size industries have a lot of experience in small production series. • They are not afraid of jumping into new projects that constitute a challenge. • 80% of the world market in PCB optical inspection machines is shared by 2 Israeli firms. • Major experience in flexible PCB’s. • Major contractor has been PCB Technologies in Migdal Haemek. • Orders of over 15MCHF during the last 7 years, partly paid by Israel (84%), partly paid by the experiments: • 6.5MCHF (ATLAS), 1.5MCHF (CMS), 0.3 MCHF(ALICE), 6.7MCHF (various CERN divisions).
R&D and Industrial Contracts with CERN • Al welding and precision mechanics: • Due to the work with the Military and Aircraft Industry, firms are used to high quality requirements; this includes their sub-contractors (this is important, since the large firms have very high overheads). • Experience, combined with NETWORKING have been a critical element in obtaining excellent results in Orbital Welding (UNIWELD Ltd) for the Heat Shields of the EC Toroids. According to the firm, the experience that they have gained with the CERN project has been important for jumping into other contracts. • High quality welding (usually complemented by penetration tests), combined with precision machining (2 of the firms: MARESCO and TAL Technologies got also a CERN award), as well as measurement equipment, have been crucial to the success of the various projects. • Very high quality extrusion facilities, mainly motivated by the fabrication of complicated Al profiles for antennas have been important in the production of various profiles used in the ATLAS experiment (EXTAL)
While Israel makes good use of the CERN facilities, its contribution/habitant to the Infrastructure is the largest among the Observer Countries CCORE contrib. to LHC/1M population Contribution in CHF per habitant to the CERN Infrastructure for each of the CERN Observer States.
Industrial Conclusions • To be able to profit from projects that push technology to its limits, it is important to have industrial plans that emphasize given fields of competence (precision or micro mechanics, electronics, signal transmission, etc.), where firms are not scare to jump into new projects. • It is important to have a good contact with the large laboratories, in order to assess the potential needs, early in the R&D process (the Israeli Industrial Associates Programme is a good example), as well as people that can translate the requirements into potential producers (not always easy, and requires a good ILO). • It is crucial to be aware of the potential capabilities of the small industries in the country. They are the only ones that can offer competitive costs and willingness to jump into new projects. • It is crucial to establish good NETWORKS between small industries, so that they are aware of each others capabilities and try to share the work according to their capabilities. It is better to get a combined contract than to keep a fabrication secret that will be useless after a few years, and knowing the status of development of a given product of the competition, allows you to evaluate if you want to jump on a share contract that includes the common know-how. • Being part of such large projects, like the LHC, provide firms with a lot of pride and the self-confidence needed to move into new products.
Conclusions • Physics Research in Israel has a long tradition that started before the establishment of the State. • Groups have joined forces to work on single experiments and single sub-systems, in order to maximize their impact, while keeping most of the areas in HEP covered: • LHC (ATLAS) • HERA (ZEUS) • Heavy Ions (PHENIX, RHIC) • Linear Colliders (starting) • Israeli HEP Theorists have a very distinguish role in European HEP. • The Government of Israel has made an important effort to ensure a correct contribution to the CERN Infrastructure during the last 18 years. • The Israeli HEP Program is strongly linked with the European Programs and has through the years (first at DESY and then at CERN) kept a strong attachment. This is both due to the geographical proximity and tradition, as well as due to concrete agreements (Member of EMBL, EPS, Associated Member of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th EU Programs as well as of the ISRF).