By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
Two students and a professor came to Seattle recently to share their experiences of life in Israel and at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology during a time of war. Professor Adi Salzberg and students Oshra Greenblum and Sagi Rotem visited an American Technion Society gathering in Seattle on March 3.
ATS frequently brings students, professors and interns of Technion to the U.S. to speak with companies and other groups about the institute.
Technion, founded in 1940, has an enrollment of 13,000 students. Classes are taught in Hebrew. In order to be accepted to Technion, a student must receive top marks in their high school classes and receive high scores on an examination similar to America’s Scholastic Assessment Test.
Technion is the only institute in Israel that supports its reservist students. Students such as Rotem, a 27-year-old reservist in the Israeli military, are supported by fellowships. Being called to duty while in classes can be both an emotional and academic hardship, commented Rotem. Each year, he is called to active duty for 21 to 30 days, about a third of a semester.
Rotem is currently studying for bachelor’s degrees in both physics and electrical engineering at Technion and will begin a master’s degree program in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering later this year.
He said he hopes to study nanotechnology next semester with a professor who invented a conductive wire 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. Rotem’s dream is to build a small device that would be injected into the bloodstream to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
Greenblum, 24, tutors Technion students like Rotem who are returning from reserve duty.
“It gives you a good feeling,” she said.
Given the current situation in Israel, Greenblum said it is difficult for she and her classmates to concentrate on their studies. She had two friends who were killed onboard a bus attacked by a suicide bomber.
For the past two years Greenblum has been employed in the missile department at Rafael, Israel’s weapons’ development complex, where she works in the field of control and system engineering. A fourth-year student in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Greenblum has worked as an instructor in the Technion’s unit for student promotion. Out of 55 students in the Aerospace Engineering program, only five, including Greenblum, are female.
Greenblum’s interest in science sparked as a young girl. While other girls played with Barbie dolls, she could be found snuggled up to E.T. During high school, she prepared for entry to Technion with courses in enhanced physics, mathematics and English translation and then served for about two years in the Israel Defense Forces as a psychotechnical diagnostician.
“I knew that science was something I wanted to be involved in,” said Greenblum.
Because of the weak economy, students must work four days a week, leaving only one for study, said Greenblum. “Right now, there are not a lot of jobs in Israel.”
One of the reasons for the visit was to drum up support for scholarships.
“Every time [someone] gives something to Technion, they give something to Israel,” added Salzberg, a biology professor at Technion and a Technion graduate. “We’ve accomplished so much, it is amazing.”
Technion is considered to be one of the best universities in the world, said Greenblum. It is the only university in the world to launch its own microsatellite. The satellite, designed and built by students, was launched in 1998 and still continues to orbit the earth.
“There is a saying at Technion,” said Greenblum, “in order to be the best, study with the best and from the best.”
The visiting students and professor said Israel is not as dangerous as it looks on television. Greenblum said her family was more concerned about her visiting the U.S. than living in Israel.
“People are really afraid to come,” said Salzberg. “We really feel isolated and we would like to break this isolation.”
Technion is the only school in Israel where politics are not allowed on campus. “We’re all interested in one thing—science and nature,” said Rotem.
After an attack last year on Hebrew University in Jerusalem, security tightened on the Technion campus. There is a security guard at every entrance and cars are searched, as well as other personal belongings from those entering the campus.
“We feel very, very safe on campus,” said Rotem. “Nobody will break us.”
“We do everything, we just don’t get much sleep,” said Greenblum.
“We try as much as we can to conduct normal life,” agreed Rotem.