In Israeli terms, winters in Zefat are long and cold. Naturally, we always look to Passover to bring warmer weather, longer day time and an encouraging sense of renewal. Indeed, as spring approaching, Zefat Academic College is about to experience unprecedented sunny changes.
The College is about to double its overall physical space with the opening of the Helmsley Institute for Advanced Health Training & Education, the school of nursing building, the Student Services Center, the teaching labs building and the physical therapy building, all parts of the Legacy Heritage Education Center for Medical Training & Simulation. If this is not enough, we are working hard to complete the restoration and renovation of the Rechter Building, the home of the Department of Optometry and Vision Science, a welcome addition to our cluster of prestigious healthcare education departments. Last, and clearly not least, we are only two months away from completing the construction of a new floor, on top of the Wohl Academic Complex, that will house state-of-the-art classrooms and lectures halls, considered the most technologically advanced in Israel.
We thank our generous donors who enabled this dramatic change and on this occasion, we would like to use this opportunity to recognize also the Conduit Foundation and the Galila Foundation for its ongoing and generous support of our College.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the return of our students to the campus. It is so rewarding to experience the exciting energy of young people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, sharing one of the most advanced and beautiful learning facility in Israel's higher education.
All of us here in Zefat wish you and yours a healthy, safe and blissful Passover, Easter and Ramadan.
Dr. Amnon Leshem
Vice President of Development
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Zefat Academic College is proud to announce that its Supreme Academic Council and Executive Board voted unanimously to recognize the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s support for the College by naming Mr. Sandor Frankel a “Yakir”/Distinguished Fellow of Zefat Academic College.
The Helmsley Charitable Trust, under Mr. Frankel's leadership, has made generous donations to launch the Helmsley Institute for Advanced Health Training & Education. The Institute will serve as a training magnet for students and practitioners from the entire northern periphery of Israel as well as visitors from abroad. Helmsley's transformative gift will serve to bridge the gap between the center of Israel and its northern periphery in healthcare education and training. The Helmsley support of Zefat Academic College is an affirmation of the College’s mission to improve access to education and bring more jobs, social stability and security to northern Israel. The impact the Helmsley's generous support and Mr. Frankel's leadership will be felt each day by our students, faculty and staff.
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Credit Photo: Helmsley Charitable Trust
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Mr. Frankel is the lead trustee of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, a philanthropic organization that has taken on the funding of Zefat Academic College's Institute for Advanced Health Training & Education that bears its name and deals with medical simulations at the College. The Helmsley Charitable Trust has contributed to the purchase of a significant number of simulation mannequins and extensive equipment that will enable the Institute to obtain a premier status in the world of medical simulations in Israel. Mr. Frankel has previously visited the College (2015) and is a crucial factor in the Trust's decision to donate $6.3 million to the College.
Mr. Sandor Frankel is a lawyer in New York City and a graduate of NYU (Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Law School. He has served as a staff member of the White House Task Force on Crime, as Temporary Counsel to the National Commission for Reform of Federal Criminal Laws, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, and received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Beyond A Reasonable Doubt. Leona Helmsley and the Helmsley organization were clients of his for many years.
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COVID-19 pandemic created an urgent need for rapid infection screening, applied to large numbers of asymptomatic individuals. A recent article in the respected Lancet Group's journal, EClinicalMedicine, revealed the results of a preliminary study conducted by Zefat Academic College (ZAC) researchers. They found that COVID infection could be detected by a breathalyzer device in an efficiency very close to the gold standard of PCR, with the results available within minutes.
The device, developed by Breath of Health (BOH), an Israeli start-up company, combines infrared spectroscopy with artificial intelligence. It is capable of capturing particles in the breath and using a unique algorithm to identify, among other diseases, COVID-19. The device is mobile and combines infrared spectroscopy with artificial intelligence to generate results within 135 seconds. It examines about one liter of exhaled air (a small balloon) and yields a reading that encompasses thousands of signals. The outputs of a group of validated infected patients were compared using artificial intelligence to reveal the few distinguishing points. These points were then tested to their ability to diagnose infected people. Using 297 samples from two leading Israeli hospitals, the algorithm yielded a 100% accuracy.
ZAC's Prof. Izhar Ben Shlomo, who collaborated with Dr. Ayala Kobo-Greenhut and Dr. Hilel Frankenthal, stresses that "we are not expecting this perfect degree of accuracy in a larger population, but the significant advantage of this method is mostly in its rapidity, that when combined with over 95% accuracy can serve for large volume of passengers of stadium attendees.".
BOH has signed an agreement with India's Reliance Group to distribute the company's swift Covid-19 breath testing system throughout India in order to test the applicability of this method to expose occult diseases, mostly in the cancer research arena.
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Credit Photos: Breath of Health.
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The International Education unit at Zefat Academic College is offering in the current spring semester five courses in English for both local and international students. Three courses are taught in the School of Law and two courses in the Behavioral Science Department with more than 100 students are enrolled in these courses. At the same time, our students participate in online courses offered by universities in Hungary and Germany.
Zefat Academic College's cooperation with Bochum University (Germany) and the winning of the prestigious Erasmus+ Project Grant, allowed us to send in the exchange program one student – Tal Berman-Tibi – from the Spiritual and Mysticism department. Tal will represent our College in Bochum from March until August 2022.
Last year, we had more than 20 students from Shantau University (China) who attended online courses in our Law school. This summer we are planning on hosting 7 students from Hungary and one student from Germany on our campus. One of the forthcoming summer courses will be offered by a guest lecturer from Barry University (Florida) – Prof. Stephen Sussman – who will teach: Introduction to the Policymaking Process in the United States (See attached photo).
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The Annual Research day at ZAC
Over 20 researchers took part in lectures during our annual research day, which took place on Feb. 10th.
The research day's itinerary included 4 parallel research panels in the fields of: Health Sciences (Nursing, Physical Therapy, Emergency Medical Services and Medical Laboratory Sciences), Social Sciences and the Humanities, Law and Community Information Systems, in accordance with our College's existing academic programs.
Among the research topics included in the Health Sciences panel were a new model for predicting postpartum depression, a new preventive program for home accidents, the development of a novel COVID-19 detection method and the value of virtual laboratory teaching.
In the Information systems panel, one of the fascinating topics presented was the real world impact of event detection on mass and social media.
The Law panel focused on comparative law, testing ethnic social effects on human rights and in respect to cyber laws.
The diverse Social Sciences and Humanities panel ranged between a new approach to philosophical therapy, reflection on marriage parameters in different groups in Israeli society and the Sonata structure.
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An international conference titled "The State and the Sex Industry"
The online conference was held between March 7-8, as part of a collaborative effort of ZAC's researchers Prof. Esther Hertzog, Dr. Eti Boehm Tabib, Dr. Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld and Dr. Ebtesam Barakat, as well as researchers from Oranim College and Haifa University.
The conference revealed current situations with an emphasis on the State's roles and ability to make a change. Among the topics presented were the role of the state in the sex trade, legislation in the struggle against the sex industry, impact and implications of pornography and the role of support organizations.
As always, ZAC's researchers continue to publish their new research and form new collaborations with researchers around the world. You are welcome to continue and follow our novel research topics and findings.
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On February 28th, our Department of Information Systems Management hosted its annual Hackathon – the Department's flagship event.
The Hackathon is an integral part of the Department's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Workshop – one of the Department's core courses. Other than the Department's students, participation in the Workshop was available to students from other academic departments as an elective course. The result was a unique synergy of ideas from multiple disciplines.
The event lasted 10 hours and included 34 participants, divided into groups of 3-4 students. At the event's end, each group presented its idea to the main participants' assembly and to the Hackathon's judges and mentors.
Hila Horesh and Jerusalem Zigron of the Department of Physical Therapy, and Sigal Matar and Rozan Abu El-Hija of the Department of Information Systems Management were elected the winners of the competition. Their project aims to answer physical therapists' need to design treatment protocol quickly and efficiently, while screening vast amount of information. The solution offered by the students is a digital network of professionals, which will include current researches and reviews, as well as peer consultation forum.
Second place went to Aviv Eliyahu, Wasil Kazaila, Narmin Aida and Shira Saban, who suggested a smart scanning service to address the high returning rates of clothing items purchased online. The scanner will consider the customer's body shape the clothing item's shape and fabric to optimize the customer's satisfaction and prevent returns and alterations.
Third place went to Tarek Zoabi, Sobah Salama, Ali Hatib and Rami Ibrahim, who offered a sensor-based system that will report safety regulations' violations on construction sites, in order to battle the increase of work-related accidents often result in severe casualties and fatalities.
Following the Hackathon, external judges will select the students who will receive funds from the David Friedman Foundation in order to develop their ideas further and turn them into practical solutions.
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Left to right: Mohammed Tarbia, Mohammed Hijaze and Rahaf Ababsi.
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Contact us!
E-mail:
zacglobaldevelopment@gmail.com
11 Jerusalem St.
P.O.B 160
Zefat
Israel
Telephone
+972-4-6927931
+972-4-6927866
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Newsletter Editors
Zohar Tzur - tzurz@zefat.ac.il
Dr. Amnon Leshem - amnonl@zefat.ac.il
Credit Photos - ZAC spokesperson, Zohar Tzur
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