Google Awards Competitive Grant to Tel Aviv University for COVID-19 Research

Written on |

The grant is for high-impact research using Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to combat the coronavirus

Google.org, a Google fund aimed at supporting data based solutions for some of humanity’s greatest challenges, chose to award a competitive grant to Tel Aviv University for high-impact research employing Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to combat COVID-19. This step is one of many taken by Google in its ongoing effort to contribute to the global battle against the pandemic while also promoting its “AI for Social Good” research program – headed by, among others, Prof. Yossi Matias, Vice President at Google and CEO of the Research and Development Center at Google Israel. The Israeli center is a key player in Google’s endeavors to combat COVID-19, and also to help protect populations faced with natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and wildfires.

The grant is being awarded to TAU’s AI and Data Science Center for research employing AI techniques and advanced statistical methods to improve COVID-19 public health measures. Using data from government ministries (Health, Transport, etc.) and the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the researchers intend to build an accurate high-resolution model of the spread of the pandemic and then use it to plan and test various methods for stopping infection. This interdisciplinary research brings together TAU scientists from the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, the School of Public Health, the Department of Statistics and Operations Research, the Blavatnik School of Computer Science, the School of Electrical Engineering, and the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research.

Prof. Meir Feder, Head of the AI and Data Science Center at Tel Aviv University: “We’re proud that Google has chosen to award this significant grant to our center in order to expand COVID-19 research in Israel. This grant will support the development of AI and Reinforcement Learning based tools for planning and examining the effects of different steps on the spread of the pandemic. The research findings will be used by decision-makers in their efforts to establish policies for stopping the pandemic.”

Featured image: Prof. Meir Feder, Head of the AI and Data Science Center at Tel Aviv University

Related posts

Tiny Robot Navigates in Physiological Environment and Captures Targeted Damaged Cells

28 March 2023

Hyperbaric Treatment More Effective than Medicines for Fibromyalgia Caused by Head Injury

24 March 2023

Promoting Women in Medicine

9 March 2023

#TAU_WOMEN_POWER

7 March 2023

Researchers Discover Mechanism that Facilitates Formation of Brain Metastases

27 February 2023

Light Pollution is Killing Desert Rodents

10 February 2023

Three Tel Aviv University Researchers Awarded the ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) grants

9 February 2023

Researchers Identify A New Genetic Risk Factor for Age-related Eye Disease

8 February 2023

People With Autism Experience Pain at a Higher Intensity

31 January 2023

Researchers Uncover New Factors Linked to Williams Syndrome

24 January 2023

Lessons in Tolerance and DNA Extraction in Tel Aviv University’s Medical Labs

18 January 2023

Medical Clowns – No Laughing Matter

18 January 2023

Tel Aviv University’s First MedTech Hackathon Sets a High Bar

15 January 2023

Researchers use Smartwatches to Measure Safety of COVID Vaccine

28 December 2022

Tel Aviv University Establishes Multidisciplinary Center for Research of Autoimmune Diseases

18 December 2022

Breakthrough in the Field of Controlled Drug Delivery

16 December 2022

Victoria

Tok Corporate Centre, Level 1,
459 Toorak Road, Toorak VIC 3142
Phone: +61 3 9296 2065
Email: office@aftau.asn.au

New South Wales

Level 22, Westfield Tower 2, 101 Grafton Street, Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Phone: +61 418 465 556
Email: davidsolomon@aftau.org.au

Western Australia

P O Box 36, Claremont,
WA  6010
Phone: :+61 411 223 550
Email: clivedonner@thelinqgroup.com