Songlist from our nights out in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem

July 1 - Walkabout in Haifa

After yesterday's presentation on financials for our project, I passed on a night out dancing to get a much needed night of rest. When I awoke the next morning, I set out to see the city with my feet and wander with my eyes. I used a map of Haifa I picked up at the Technion and literally walked around the city along the coast. Near the cape, I came across what was labeled as "caves" on the map. It looked like an old settlement along the coast, a stone throw away from an oceanography institute and the near by train tracks. On the other side of the tracks were apartment complexes. As a train passed on the tracks, I marveled at the interesting juxtaposition of what once was and what is now, divided by a symbol of modernity.

Most of the ocean-facing coastline of Haifa was separated from buildings and roads by the railroad that runs along the coast line and through the Port of Haifa. I walked along the promenade (as indicated on the map) and found that much of it was still under construction. Blacktube housings poked up out of the ground, holing the wiring for future installments of lighting. Lookout points along the path lay unfinished with half-exposed wood frames waiting for planks to be laid down. As I walked on around the cape I found other other beaches I had read about in the Lonely Planet PDF for Haifa. These beaches looked more cramped and "dirtier" than the Camel beach that faced the ocean. On top of that, the housing and walkways along the waterfront looked less manicured. We had been told that, in Haifa, the property near the water is cheaper than the property on the hill, which goes against the real estate property logic that I was accustomed to. In addition to this, the demographics of these other areas was primarily Arab. Could it be, that the minorities of this society are placed by the construct of society in these "cheap" waterfront areas? With my very limited experience here and understanding of the socioeconomic dynamics, I can't say. But I was struck by the distinct difference in living quarters, upkeep, and infrastructure in these "other" areas.

5 hour-ish class, Gun down by a single VC, & visits

Intellectual Property & Research and Development Plans

This was the topic of the assignment due today in class. Our class was meant to go from 5 till 9pm, but well...we finished at 9:45pm. Long and grueling. Shawn and I shouldered a bulk of the work for this presentation, reading through comparable timelines for similar devices and reading up on patent claims for our device and other devices. (I took a patent law course last Fall, and appreciated the density of these cumbersome documents). The end result?

more feedback, "Israeli style."

I think I'm getting used to the very upfront, blunt VC feedback...and am learning to appreciate it. I think self-esteem and confidence is rock hard. I'm learning that the key is to not take it too personally and roll with it, holding true to the belief that they aren't trying to tear you down (completely), but rather trying to encourage us to recognize our weak points and move forward and progress. It will be interesting to see how things go this week, with the business model and time to market plans due the night we return from a road trip sans internet :P

We leave tomorrow early (8AM) for the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee. It is going to be amazing I hear. Some swimming, mountain hikes, water hikes, a "kosher" goat slaying (perhaps that's the wrong terminology...I'll correct myself once I learn more about the practice). We'll also have a chance to meet with some companies also, which I'm looking forward to because one is a water company. I'm really interested in learning more about how Israel manages to recycle 70-80% of all it's water (with finland coming in second at ~17%). That was what I had hoped to get into when I first signed up for this program. I've really appreciated the diversity of the lab visits that we've been doing in conjunction with this program. As interesting as the medical device field is, it's refreshing to live and breath one thing for "work" and then have the opportunity to switch gears.

We had a discussion today on the ride home, perhaps more of an argument about Gitti and the roll of researchers in the world. I made the argument that if researchers weren't hindered by the patent and commercialization process, they would be able to publish more often and freely and the world would benefit from advancing the world of others. Currently, researchers are often forced by institutions to not publish their research because doing so forfeits their right to file for a patent and establish sole rights to the exercise of that technology or method. The problem with this is that the patent issuing process can take from 2 to 5 years, even longer. Meanwhile, the opportunity for new technologies, such as the new solar cell technology, to advance is slowed as people are unaware of advancements elsewhere in the world. This can result in redundant work and lost time. Despite being part of an MBA, I sympathize more with the researchers and their desire to "answer questions" rather than make money. I realize that patent systems and business sectors are important for making the theory of academia fit the context of the "real world," but also am not a fan of technology being held back for solely because someone wants to make sure they make more money. Hold it back because it isn't sustainable...yes. Hold it back because you want to make an extra million, while say others continue to go without water or electricity...no. I guess I'll never be a poster boy MBA :P

We had to visits today...

IBM Visit

Bi-national Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Program

Lab Visits, Dutchmen, and Lunar Eclipses

15 June 2011

Tonight was a lunar eclipse. Ken, Tiffany, and I walked down to the corner and watched, through the array of street lamps and blur of passing traffic, as the sun shadow slowly cast its shadow on

the moon. The night's clouds swung in between us and the moon over the course of 40 minutes until finally, the moon was engulfed in a dimmed, yellow-orange hue.

The Trip

The trip thus far has been great, it's almost been a month exactly since arrived and it's hard to believe that within a month's time, I'll be in London with Ben and Auntie Pura. Crazy how that happens, and it's crazy looking back at the trail of broken and incomplete journal entries I've left littered between my laptop, notebook, and scraps of paper. I'm only now finding the drive to throw my thoughts online if only because work and group activities has me bursting at the brim.

I'm sure my family doesn't appreciate the silence on my end, but they know I think of them and I'm sure they can feel me now...such is the connection I cherish :)

Project Work

Shawn and I have been working tirelessly the past few weeks to pull together the market data and applications for our technology. This week has been focused on evaluating the intellectual property and outlining an R&D plan. We've had generous help and advice provided to us from strangers, friends, and friends of friends, without which, we'd be guessing even more than we are now. But we've been finding and learning that entrepreneurship is about making new ideas work, with a gentle balance of assumptions and aspirations (not to be confused with delusion). The hardest part has been the disconnect between our actual grasp on the science of the technology and our desire to just lay a blanket of assumptions about appeal in the market. "Touching" the market has been key, and we will continue to do this as best we can (however awkward that expression might sound :P)

Dutchman

Yesterday, after we finished our lab visit to the Materials Engineering lab at Technion, we were corralled, last minute, into a speech being given by the Vice Prime Minister of the Netherlands on the future relationships between Holland and Israel. The timing was perfect given that Israel, a nation that has thrived on making the most out of limited resources, just found a huge deposit of natural gas deposits off-shore in the Mediterranean. Given the Netherland's history of similar fate and subsequent "squandering" (as the Vice PM said) of such resources, it seemed fitting if not expected that Israel should learn from the lessons learned from the Dutch experience. The Vice PM also went on to discuss the issue of the border disputes and also how to handle refugees from the occupied space. Sadly, I'm not well versed in the depth of politics surrounding the issue, but from what I understand, there is an issue regarding the future of the Palestinian state. The Vice PM stated that they "would NOT" recognize Palestine as a country (like many in the international community are beginning to do) but rather, they would recognize it only as an output of negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian people. It's an interesting issue and I feel fortunate, in some ways, to be on neither side, but rather on the learning side. However, from what I have learned so far about the history of this land, especially Jerusalem, I can understand why any side would be reluctant to concede to changes that might sway the balance of power and homogeneity that keeps one group in power. Everyone wants that small piece of land, or at least to control it. It saddens me though, since it seems that there is no reason the space could not be shared...after all, millions of tourists pass through those lands every year. Of course, I'm am an outsider, and likely lack the opportunity to understand truly the perspective of either side.

Lab Visits

Yesterday, we visited the Materials Engineering lab. The Technion has the only program n the world (they claim) to have a dual program in chemistry/physics and materials engineering/chemical engineering. We visited a huge inorganic microscope that uses electrons? maybe photons? to see at the nanometer level and analyze molecular structures and behavior under different conditions. Apparently you can only see so much with an normal "light" microscope and this microscope allows scientists to do all sorts of amazing things. Gitti, the researching guiding us around, showed us some of the work she was doing with new solar energy technology. The use the microscopy to study the behavior of inorganic material and organic materials. Apparently, they hope to use chemistry and physics to determine how to get organic polymers and inorganic materials to arrange in such a way that, when spread over a substrate surface, one would arrange atop another. In this way, light would excite the organic polymer and cause electrons to break loose and transfer along the inorganic material, thus generating electricity. Gitti hopes that these methods will serve as an alternative and perhaps substitute for the current PV based solar cells which are based on Silicon, a increasingly scarce element.

Me?

I'm doing okay, but have definitely feeling the wear, tear, and lack of personal space. I like to think that I'm a pretty social person, but when you are constantly with or around 12 people and share that space constantly, it becomes a challenge to get your work done and still find time collect your thoughts. The first few weeks were amazing, lots of touring, introductions, preliminary work, but now the combination of project group pressure/friction, weekly presentations, and zero downtime has really started to wear on me. After tomorrow's class presentation, we will be heading up to the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee. I'm looking forward to it, though, at the same time, dreading it. I'm beginning to miss home, family, friends, and calm. George (brother in law) is presenting his thesis defense of his research (from the past 5 years!). I wish I could stay up for it, but it'll be at 230am my time. *sigh* I hope Berta records it.

June 7, 2011 - Shavuot Eve

Shavuot Came Early This Year! (:/)

We tried to go to the Technion today to work today, but apparently tomorrow is Shavuot and so in keeping with the timing of Shabbat, as far as transportation and stores is concerned, and also with some similarity to holidays in the states, the day before was a half day off. In some cases, and especially with the Technion, the campus offices were closed (this much we could tell by the locked doors!). Asher called and said explained that he didn’t realize that the building would be closed. He came and met with us, updated on some upcoming schedule updates and then we arranged a shuttle pickup to head back home.

We will have Wednesday off, do some work, and then likely head down to the beach. I can never get tired of heading down the beach. The only hard part is deciding whether to walk down (about 30 minutes downhill) or take the shuttle for 6.40 shekels (about $2). Of course, we will be doing some work, but we’ll see how that goes. The work mix between our Israeli counterparts and Shawn and I is a constant challenge that we are slowly getting comfortable with.

May 24, 2011 - En Hon & Doc Brown's Brother

• First work day
• Multimedia tour and close ties between Technion and RAFAEL
• MRI technologies & distinguishing the differences = hard
• Argentinian dinner @ En Hon, probably the only steak I'll have in Israel
• Doc Brown's brother and his homebrew, "Wild" red ale
• Bonding via Archer
• Upcoming trip to Jeruselum!

Question of the day: the trip from the Technion to Ramat Eskhor seemed bike-able, but is it "bike-able?" I remember riding over 20K one way to get to internet access in Samoa. If you asked someone if you could ride your bike, they would say you couldn't. If you asked me, I would say you could. I'm intrigued by the inter-tanglements of social norms, expectations, and tangible space.

Travel Day

Travel day...

The past several days seemed to blend together. A weekend of early take home exams, coupled with a Monday morning in-class exam and completing the move out process, led into what felt like a marathon mixed with anticipation and fleeting awareness.

We had a one and half hour delay on the runway, 7 hours to London Heathrow, mad rush to connecting flight to Tel Aviv, and a few hours of sleep here and there...and we arrived. Some of our colleagues had similar if not worse luck trying to get through Zurich and so we were able wait for a few hours at Ben Gurion (Tel Aviv Airport) and use the free wifi to get back on the grid.

Security...

Getting off the plane, Andrew and I were stopped by a few security officers literally as we walked out of the boarding ramp. The line of questioning was about what we were doing in Israel, if we had an invitation from the Technion, who we were travelling with, etc. Later, as we were going through customs, I chose to jump in a shorter line, while my colleagues all piled into a line together. I joked with them, saying something about throughput times and bottlenecks (an attempt at humor refe

rencing our recently completed Operations Management final). I boasted that I would finish first being in a shorter queue. However, when I came to the window, I became a bottleneck as I was subjected to further screening. Here are some of the questions:

• What are you doing here?
• Where are you staying?
• Who is in charge of your program?
• What is your father's name?
• What is your grandfather's name?
• ...and other, sometimes repeated, questions.

All this while my passport was handed through a window to a neighboring agent's booth, for verification I assume, and as she fumbled through our program manual (which I h

anded to her for proof of our program). All the while, the others in my group had made it through. They definitely gave me a hard time when I finally made it through. Perhaps it was my 5 o'clock shadow, tired look, my scrappy hair and beat up baseball cap that drew this attention? I also remember what I have been told about Israeli security and felt comfort in knowing that they were as thorough as they were with security. Even as we sat waiting for the others to come in, we had out passport and information checked by security since we were a large group and hadn't moved for an hour.

Haifa...
We rode in a mini-bus to Haifa from Tel Aviv and I basically passed out for the most of it. We arrived to our apartment after sun down and moved knowing only that our backyard had a fairly busy road below it. In the morning, though, we woke up to see that our backyard over looked the land below and between our apartment and the ocean.

Our apartment has 3 different floors. The main entry way opens to the kitchen, living, and dining space. The backyard is half patio and half turf, bordered by trees, bushes, and flowers, all framed in beautiful, blue Israeli skies. Stairs lead up to 4 rooms (2 solo rooms, and 2 double rooms). Femi and I share a room, Marc has his own room, Andrew and Shawn share a room, and Jonathan, our colleague from HBS, has his own. The 3rd floor is one room, the largest, shared by Jay and Ken (the two Chinese int'l students in our program).

Femi and I, are in the smallest room by far. Our twin sized beds have to be slide together in order to access the closet in our room. It's a pretty good match since Femi and I worked in a lot of groups together in the Fall and traveled together on the Alternative Winter Break trip I led in the Winter break. We also tend to snore also, so that probably was the determining factor in putting us in the same room :)