Technion Opens New Campus in Tel Aviv
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
By: Kevin Hattori

In a ceremony held July 7, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology opened its new Sarona Campus in Tel Aviv. The first occupant is the Technion's Start-uP International MBA Program, slated to begin this fall. The new campus will be comprised of nearly 20,000 square feet in three restored buildings, including 16 classrooms and administrative facilities.

“Sarona” is the preservation and restoration project of Tel Aviv’s Templer Colony.  Its location is being lauded by many as a perfect combination of the Technion – long known as an incubator of innovation, for its key role in the Israeli high-tech industry, and for its collaborations around the world – and the technology hotbed of Tel Aviv.

(from left) Project architect Prof. Nitza Szmuk; Technion President Peretz Lavie; Technion Executive VP for Research Oded Shmueli; Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai; and Oded Raviv, director of Division of Continuing Education and External Studies

“The opening of this new campus is so important for Tel Aviv, helping in achieving a vision of expanding the center of the city southward, beginning with the Sarona compound,” said Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai.  “The Technion will serve as our stronghold of excellence in this newly vibrating urban center.”

“Almost 60 years ago, the Technion boldly established its Division of External Studies and Continuing Education, making studies as accessible to engineers and others who live in the center of the country,” said Technion President Peretz Lavie.  “If our decision was correct then, it is doubly so today in these times when technology runs before our eyes at tremendous speed.”

Taught entirely in English, the new Start-uP MBA program provides training in management functions, underscoring the skills needed for entrepreneurs interested in launching a startup company or promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in their organizations.  And since it is located right in the heart of Tel Aviv, it exposes students to Israel’s world-renowned start-up scene, and engages them in practical projects and internships that transform ideas into commercial products and services.

“The Start-uP MBA Program is the perfect place to learn about start-ups,” says Dr. Avital Regev Siman-Tov, Managing Director of MBA Programs in the Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management. “Since Technion alumni have founded or manage two-thirds of Israeli-based companies on the Nasdaq, the Technion really is the best institution to teach start-up skills.”

Students visit leading corporations, start-ups, and technological incubators, and industry seminars provide a platform for interacting with Israeli executives and entrepreneurs.  Students also have opportunities to promote projects from patent to commercialization, and to develop business plans for startups.  Internships at startup companies provide hands-on experience and valuable contacts.

And the program’s reach extends far beyond Tel Aviv.  The Technion is the only Israeli institution with membership in the Yale Global Network for Advanced Management, an initiative designed to enable partnering business schools to connect and address the leadership challenges facing business and society.  It also facilitates student exchange and related learning opportunities, which means that Start-uP MBA students can take part in joint courses or take courses at member business schools in countries including the United States, Japan, China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Mexico and the Philippines.

Enrollees in the Start-uP MBA class of 2013 hails from countries that include the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Israel, Argentina, China, Italy, India, Sweden, the Palestinian Authority, France and Georgia.

Other programs offered at the Technion Sarona Campus will include masters’ degrees in architecture in conservation; industrial design; and real estate; biomedical engineering, civil engineering, and systems engineering.  Non-degree diplomas will include negotiations, oil and gas, and executive development.

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is a major source of the innovation and brainpower that drives the Israeli economy, and a key to Israel’s renown as the world’s “Start-Up Nation.” Its three Nobel Prize winners exemplify academic excellence. Technion people, ideas and inventions make immeasurable contributions to the world including life-saving medicine, sustainable energy, computer science, water conservation and nanotechnology. The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute is a vital component of Cornell NYC Tech, and a model for graduate applied science education that is expected to transform New York City’s economy.

American Technion Society (ATS) donors provide critical support for the Technion—more than $1.9 billion since its inception in 1940. Based in New York City, the ATS and its network of chapters across the U.S. provide funds for scholarships, fellowships, faculty recruitment and chairs, research, buildings, laboratories, classrooms and dormitories, and more.