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Israel’s Council for Higher Education Supports UnBox

Bar-Ilan University received a grant from Israel’s Council for Higher Education (CHE) for its UnBox Entrepreneurship Program. Uniquely among all recipients, Bar-Ilan believes in its researchers as the core from which to build a sustaining culture of an entrepreneurial campus. We were pleasantly surprised to receive the grant some time after commencing UnBox ’19 with eager researchers, research fellows and doctoral students. Many thanks to the Council for Higher Education for its recognition and support!

Research Excellence meets Purposeful Execution

Way back in 2012, a new meme spread: “To run an efficient team, you only need three people: a Hipster, a Hacker, and a Hustler.” That may be right for the Ad Tech industry, but “to make positive global impact, you only need at least three people: a Scientist, a Hustler and a Mentor”, and with that in mind we invited entrepreneurs and investors to meet and speed-date with ten UnBox ‘19 research teams at our first Impact! Day. With about 150 people attending, the stimulating event led to scientists pairing up with entrepreneurs (aka hustlers) and mentors who have become part of the close-knit UnBox family.

UnBox Settles into Our New Home

Miracles do happen! After intensive renovation at record speed, we settled into the UnBox Center, our new home. With a co-working space for breakthrough startups, conference room for brainstorming, relaxing lounge and coaching on demand from Ariel and Sigal, we were off with a quick start to un-box researchpreneurs on their way to change the world for the better. We love to host visitors, so just drop by for a cup of coffee and tales of disruptive innovation.

UnBox ’19 Takes Off

Early July, eight projects emerged as startups from out of the box, getting out of the building and out of the country to perform intensive product-customer validation in the global market. These impact-directed teams of entrepreneurs and researchers covering a broad range of Bar-Ilan departments, and their off-campus partners, will be spending their time abroad meetings tens of customers each, to validate their products against the market. Hurray for DriftSense, delivering evidential insight to airborne toxic hazard cases | BikeHive, energy for ready-to-go urban light mobility | Pentaomix, fifty shades of pathologic diagnostics | Re:pair, damaged nerve regeneration | OtheReality, virtual reality for social health | Persona, companion diagnostics for immunotherapy targeting | BrainSense, seizure alert for epilepsy sufferers | MuLTI, early assessment of learning disorders.

Meet the Researchpreneur: Elad Segal

Tell us a little bit about yourself

My name is Elad Segal, soon to be Dr. from Bar-Ilan’s Chemistry Department and the Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials.

I am a father, husband and a chemistry enthusiast, especially when it comes to sensing technologies and futuristic gadgets.

Tell us a little bit about your startup

Our startup, DriftSense, is a leading provider of innovative, cutting-edge technology for real-time monitoring of toxin airborne drift and other non-classic pollutants. We offer data-based insights regarding hazardous materials found in the air that we all breathe. DriftSense was founded by Dr. Ran Shauli and myself, as we both share a passion for a safer, toxic-free environment. We provide precious and crucial data-backed insights in real time to the industry, regulators, environmental law firms and stakeholders, who will eventually save billions of dollars and millions of lives.

I met Ran almost one year ago through the UnBox program. The “chemistry” between us was evident from the start. We share many common points of view; one of them is to make a global impact on local and worldwide eco-systems. Each of us brings his experience and knowledge to DriftSense. We strongly believe that DriftSense is a game-changer that will definitely prevent many cases of morbidity and mortality, while also saving both private and public sectors billions of dollars. Our assumptions were proved to be correct by tens of stakeholders we met in the U.S. in July.

Tell us about your UnBox experience - from a researcher to an entrepreneurc

I came to UnBox very skeptical. As a researcher, you are always asking questions and validating new things that you learn. During the first few lectures I thought that Ariel’s plans for us are insane. Me? Starting a company? Meeting with tens of individuals thousands of miles from here? That must be crazy. However, as we advanced hand-in-hand, and with every passing week, I realized that nothing has ever inspired me more than changing the lives of hundreds of millions of people. I think that what inspired me most was the real-life stories of entrepreneurs who came to UnBox to tell us about how they failed, got up, and overcome challenges. This was real, and not another start-up exit you hear about on the news. As Ariel says: Everybody offers solutions, but the important thing is to define your problem. What is the pain that you aim to solve?

DriftSense aims to solve a global pain.

What would be your advice for the next research-preneur?

Come open-minded. You must realize that unless they tell you, you do not know anything about other people`s needs and pain.

UNBOX LATEST

Israel’s Council for Higher Education Supports UnBox

Research Excellence meets Purposeful Execution

UnBox Settles into Our New Home

UnBox ’19 Takes Off

Meet the Researchpreneur: Elad Segal

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