Page 28 - ME-07-E

Out of twenty students who began the program, aviation technologies department and then became

only ten completed it successfully, Blum among the head of the cyber department. Today, I’m a lead

them. in the Wall Administration”—a unit within MAFAT re-

What gave you the strength you needed to sur- sponsible for active defense measures against rock-

People vive? ets and missiles.

“I just refused to give up, even when things got “The tools I acquired at the Technion helped me

hard. I sat and studied, and I fought. I gave it my succeed in different roles that required an ability to

all. One thing that helped me was that, in the end, understand complex systems. These are very chal-

I really love these subjects, I love mathematics and lenging roles where you need to keep your ear to the

equations.” ground and always be ready to anticipate the needs

Blum explains that by studying mechanical engi- of the state. We have to work closely with bodies

neering at the Technion, Brakim graduates acquire and organizations from all over the world, constantly

the tools they need to succeed in their military roles thinking about developing new technologies. Natu-

later on. “Every position I held in the military re- rally, much of what we do is classified, but one ex-

quired tech skills and tools, as well as the ability to ample I am at liberty to share is the project where I

see the big picture when working with large systems. led the development of the first 3D-printed UAV. That

For example, in my first role in the military, I was a project got a lot of media attention globally. That UAV

plane crash investigator in the air force. The chain of is in use today. It’s made up of 36 parts, all of them

events that leads to a crash always starts from one 3D-printed.

specific point in the aircraft. When a plane crashes, How is your work in the Ministry of Defense dif-

there isn’t much left of it, but you still need to pin- ferent from your work in industry?

point where the problem started. I felt like the Faculty “Industry is a very broad category—it can cover al-

of Mechanical Engineering had given me the tools I’d most anything, from tech companies to the defense

needed to find out what had happened and identify sector. I encounter many different tech companies in

the root cause. my military work and in my work on “At” (Hebrew for

“Even R&D roles require proficiency in every part the feminine second-person singular form of "you"),

of the process, from the preliminary draft to the fin- an initiative I started with the aim of encouraging

ished product. You need to have a deep understand- women to go into tech and supporting them. I notice

ing of technology, and I feel that I really gained that that outside, they work differently than we do here,

understanding at the Technion.” but there are similarities too: we all need to develop

a product and see how it performs. But I definitely

“I’m studying how a mechanical feel like my work has some added val-
engineering principle ue, because at the end of the
applies in biology” day, what I do helps keep the
country safe.”

After her time in the Air When she is not on duty

Force, Blum transferred to “My studies at the Technion at the Ministry of Defense,
Blum is working on her
the Ministry of Defense, empowered me to tackle PhD at the Technion. “After
where she soon became R&D challenges that required serving as an officer in the
the head of the avia- constant exploration of new IAF and heading the avia-
tion technologies de- tion technologies depart-
technologies and mastery of ment at MAFAT, I fell in love
partment at MAFAT.
every stage of the development
“In MAFAT, I served

as the head of the process, from the preliminary with aviation, and today I am

draft to the finished product. One studying aerospace engineering.
such challenge was developing If not for my current job, I’d try to
the first 3D-printed UAV” become a researcher at NASA.
“My research is focused on a me-

chanical engineering principle called

Saint-Venant's principle, which has to

do with how mechanical stresses decay.

28 | MEgazine | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering