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Life-saving technologies
presented at a conference on
safety-promoting technologies

SAFETY “Wearable EEG technology National Fire and Rescue Authority,

enables monitoring workers’ stress Dedy Simhi, discussed the

levels in a non-invasive manner, development of tanker water

thus maintaining their health and additives that increase the water’s

safety,” said Dr. Ornit Raz, Director fire extinguishing capability. The

General of the Israel Institute for authority’s research department is

Occupational Safety and Hygiene also working on the development of

(IIOSH), at the third conference on drones and robots for this purpose.

safety-promoting technologies The faculty’s Prof. Yoram

held at the faculty in June. Halevi presented his

In addition to wearable research on the

technologies, such use of algorithm-

as Bluetooth and based structural

GPS-based systems health monitoring

that can be attached technologies. The

to uniforms, Raz, purpose of these

a graduate of the technologies is to

faculty, reviewed accident gather information

prevention developments Dr. Ornit Raz, on the functioning of
for the construction Director General of engineering systems at
industry, including the the IIOSH Courtesy any given moment. “Our

of the IIOSH

use of smartphones, 3D goal is to provide real- Slinky-inspired
developments at
technologies, and unmanned aerial time information, based on sensor the TechnoBrain
competition
vehicles. measurements, to find structural
ENGINEERING COMPETITION In the 1980s and
The conference—a collaboration malfunctions at the earliest 1990s, Slinky—the toy that seemed to move
on its own down stairs and inclines—was a hit
between IIOSH and the faculty— possible stage,” explained Halevi. in Israel. Developed in the U.S. in the 1940s,
Slinky became one of the world’s best-selling
featured a variety of speakers who “The use of technology to promote toys over the years. The 2019 TechnoBrain
competition was dedicated to Slinky-inspired
presented innovative technological safety will lead to a breakthrough developments. Each year, the competition
presents an engineering challenge and
solutions to reduce the number of in this area, just as technology participants are asked to offer their inventive
solutions.
work accidents, especially in the has given rise to groundbreaking This year, they were invited to produce a device
that would descend 18 steps at the minimal
construction industry, with its high developments in medicine,” period of time, while carrying a bowl of water.
The winners were Uri Michael, a student from
rate of worker fatalities. concluded Prof. Peretz Lavie, former the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and
Computer Engineering, and Uri Nissim, a
Commissioner of the president of the Technion. student at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental
Engineering. The pair’s device, based on an arm
the flow of fluids in virtual channels with dual joints and a platform that slides down
stairs, ranked highest in the competition and
change them in real time. “What is earned them the first prize, of NIS 10,000.
really exciting is that because we
are affecting the fluid from within,
we can also create flows that are
not achievable with conventional
means such as pressure pumps,”
says Vesna Bacheva, one of the
paper’s authors. “For example, we
can mix specific regions without
disturbing the fluid around them, or
alternatively we can create regions
where the fluid is still while there is
flow all around them.”

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