TLV Perspectives

TLV PERSPECTIVES TAU Team Sets Sail to International Competition

The team briefs Engineering Dean Prof. Yossi Rosenwaks

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, a group of Tel Aviv University students had the rare opportunity this past year to collaborate on a “live” project: The design and construction of a RoboBoat, an autonomous vehicle lovingly named SAIL-IL.

This summer, the 15-student delegation plans to travel with their boat to RoboBoat 2021, a prestigious international student competition. The competing boats must demonstrate maritime manoeuvrability and tackle tasks such as traversing a slalom course and sending a drone to hit a target and have it land back on the boat. The SAIL-IL team, comprising students from the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering and the Blavatnik School of Computer Science, will be the first Israeli delegation to compete in RoboBoat. Tried and Tested

On a stormy day last winter, the team carried out their first sea trial at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park. The excitement was palpable as the team, their professors and mentors, as well as Engineering Dean Prof. Yossi Rosenwaks, looked on.

The feedback was unanimous: Success!

SAIL-IL’s co-captain, student Nadav Sholev, says this project was a great opportunity to apply the theory he had learned in class into practice and to overcome “real-life challenges.”

“Through this project, we are sending better engineers into industry,” says Prof. Yoram Reich of TAU’s School of Mechanical Engineering, who taught the team. “They have experimented in entrepreneurship, real construction and competition against others… as well as worked as a truly multidisciplinary team.”

Current fellows of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics

Are We Our Brother’s Keeper?

Fellows at TAU’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics seek answers to age-old questions

By Judith Sudilovsky

Should wealthy countries consider the needs and interests of developing countries as they conclude large COVID-19 vaccine contracts for their own citizens? Should international conglomerates be held accountable for the negative effects their business contracts have on local residents and their environment?

These are the kinds of questions that Dr. Mirthe Jiwa, a scholar from Holland, is exploring as part of her post-doctoral fellowship at TAU’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel Aviv University. In a sense, she is considering the age-old question of whether, in today’s complex world, we are our brother’s keeper.

Since its founding in 2012, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, based at TAU’s Buchmann Faculty of Law, has hosted 99 fellows from top international institutions, with 11 fellows this year. This year’s fellows, like Jiwa, are focusing their research on the theme of “Markets, Ethics, and the Law.”

Ethics on the Global Stage

“At the heart of our academic model is the in-depth study of changing interdisciplinary themes, chosen from within the broad world of ethics and its relevance to various aspects of human society,” says Prof. Hanoch Dagan, Center Director.

In recent years, the Center has positioned itself as a global focal point for ethics scholars. It has convened several high-powered international conferences, including events with Yale, Columbia and Cornell Universities.

Moreover, most Edmond J. Safra Ethics Fellows have continued on to prestigious programs or positions in Israel and abroad. For example, Dr. Klaas Henrik Eller, a 2017-19 visiting scholar and 2019-20 fellow, secured a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Amsterdam, a leading European law school.

“Through the Center and the philanthropic foundation named after her late husband, Ms. Lily Safra commemorates Edmond's legacy and his great dedication to the advancement of human society,” says Prof. Dagan. “We are grateful for the foundation’s continued support, which includes building dedicated space for

the Center in a planned new building for the law complex.” A Vibrant Community

Jiwa became acquainted with TAU when she presented at an Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics conference in 2019. “I immediately felt at home,” says Jiwa, who hails from the Netherlands. “The Center has a vibrant academic community and I really liked the atmosphere in Tel Aviv.”

Because of the pandemic, though, she has remained in Amsterdam for the time being. “But even meeting online we have managed to create a sense of togetherness.”

Her research at TAU expands on her doctoral thesis, conducted at the Amsterdam Law School’s Center for Transformative Private Law. There, she investigated how contract law disregards and marginalizes certain people and forms of speech. Now, Jiwa is examining how people who have been traditionally excluded from fully participating in contractual arrangements—but are significantly affected by them—can have a voice.

As the global pandemic demonstrates, we live in an increasingly interconnected world, she notes. Contractual partners are never isolated players, and contracts always and inevitably affect others.

“Take for instance the issue of vaccine contracts. The richest nations have managed to secure billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines, while developing economies struggle to access supplies,” says Jiwa. “In part, this unequal distribution is facilitated and enabled by contracts—or the absence thereof.”

Dr. Mirthe Jiwa

Public Health, Persuasion and Politics

Another Edmond J. Safra Ethics fellow, Clareta Treger, brings to TAU 10 years of experience as an intelligence officer in the Israel Defense Forces and a strategic planner at the Ministry of Public Security. Her desire to contribute to society through public service led her to research how citizens perceive policies and which they prefer. She hopes this research will position her as an academic policy expert. Treger’s PhD thesis, which she is pursuing at the School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs at the Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences, looks at public attitudes toward regulations and policies that aim to protect individuals from themselves, known as paternalistic policies. Such policies can be used to achieve societal goals ranging from reducing smoking and limiting working hours, to resolving moral quandaries by creating legal frameworks for euthanasia and COVID-19 containment. Her main hypothesis, supported by her empirical study, is that individuals are willing to accept government coercion when it promotes their basic needs, such as safety and health.

“When do people accept coercive measures and when do they prefer ‘softer’ policies, such as nudges?” asks Treger, who is studying under the direction of Profs. Michal Shamir and Yotam Margalit.

She is currently reviewing data from a recent survey she administered among some 800 Israelis to assess whether and how the pandemic has affected their attitudes toward government coercion.

“The different COVID-19 containment polices raised a debate over the appropriate boundaries of state regulation,” Treger says. “The pandemic highlighted the tension between personal liberties and other factors such as public health, personal health and the economy.

“As an Edmond J. Safra Fellow, I have the opportunity to focus on the ethical aspects of government paternalism,” Treger concludes.

Clareta Treger The pandemic highlighted the tension between personal liberties and public health.

We aim to boost autistic students’ independence and self-confidence, ensure they complete their degree, and broaden their employment options.

Diamonds in the Rough

By Ruti Ziv

Maximizing the potential of TAU students on the autism spectrum

Giving a presentation in front of a class can be daunting for any university student. For someone with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it can be terrifying.

Routine study tasks like this can make higher education an unattainable dream for most people with ASD, which reduces the ability to connect with people. To help, Tel Aviv University established Yahalom (“Diamond”), a comprehensive program that supports highfunctioning ASD students from their enrollment at TAU to graduation.

“Today we know that ASD does not necessarily affect a person’s academic abilities,” says Alberto Meschiany, Head of the Psychological Services Unit at the Dean of Students Office, which runs the Yahalom program.

Yahalom was launched in October 2017 with 10 students. Today it has 46—an almost fivefold increase in three years.

“Ultimately, we aim to substantially boost these students’ independence and self-confidence, ensure they complete their degree, and broaden the range of options open to them once they enter the employment market,” explains Meschiany. Mentors: Heart of the Program

Yahalom is run by a dedicated coordinator who gets to know each of the ASD students and also recruits and trains volunteer TAU students as mentors. The goal is to ensure that the mentors know what to expect and how to communicate with ASD people, reduce their anxiety, help with their dealings vis-à-vis the staff and lecturers, accompany them to classes, and meet whatever other day-to-day needs may arise during the academic year.

Demand among students wishing to be mentors is high, says Meschiany. “Right now, we can only give the mentors token scholarships, but we would love to give them larger ones. This is our biggest funding need,” he adds.

Mentors help in myriad ways. For example, Yahalom heard about an ASD student who had been unnecessarily buying expensive textbooks for almost two years because he didn’t know how to make photocopies at the library and was too embarrassed to ask for help. He was immediately assigned a mentor who now helps him with these types of issues. Many ASD students have asked their mentors for advice on how to tell their classmates about their condition and the difficulties they face. and help them flourish,” she explains. “But now we have a real friendship. My students can—and do—contact me whenever they feel like it, whether it’s to ask me a question or show me something interesting that they saw on their way to the campus.

“It’s a real privilege and fantastic experience to mentor these students. They are among some of the best people I’ve had the opportunity to meet,” says Gilboa. “Since I began mentoring them half a year ago, I can see that my students are now less stressed and anxious and are better at managing their time.”

Yahalom mentor Efrat Gilboa

I try to see the world through their eyes.

Personal Ties Reduce Stress

Efrat Gilboa, a third-year student of Psychology and Law at TAU, mentors two ASD students.

“I’ve always enjoyed volunteering and helping others, and used to work with special needs children. I thought that Yahalom could be an amazing opportunity for me not only to help autistic people integrate into the University, but to try to see the world through their eyes,” she says.

“As a Yahalom mentor, my main job is to help the students cope with their study load, better manage their time,

An Interdisciplinary Approach

Along with providing opportunities for ASD students, TAU is pursuing autism research from diverse perspectives.

“Together with other neurodevelopmental disorders, autism needs to be addressed by academics from multiple areas—neuroscientists, geneticists, psychologists, cell biologists, speech therapists and social workers—alongside practicing pediatricians, neurologists and psychiatrists,” says Prof. Karen Avraham, Vice Dean at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Autism Research at TAU

Fifteen autism research groups are currently working on promising directions, among them: • Better diagnostic tools for early detection • Neural basis of social understanding • Speech and hearing processing • Relief of anxiety • Drugs and therapies

Medicine. “This is why TAU, with its inherently interdisciplinary research culture and strong ties with hospitals, is ideally positioned to bring about influential discoveries in the field—and why it has made autism research a strategic priority.”

One such researcher is cognitive neuropsychologist Prof. Lilach Shalev of the Constantiner School of Education who heads the Attention Lab, affiliated with the Sagol School of Neuroscience. She develops novel training programs aimed at improving academic performance of learners from kindergarten to university, and assesses their outcomes using neuropsychological, eye-tracking, brain-imaging and psychological measures. Her main work centers on the Computerized Progressive Attention Training Program (CPAT) that she pioneered for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2007; it is now implemented in several countries.

Several years ago, Prof. Shalev expanded her research to include autism. These findings might also be relevant for university students on the autistic spectrum.

Meschiany concludes: “The tailored support we offer Yahalom participants helps to level the playing field relative to their peers. These are very intelligent students with a high capacity to learn. Our job is to help them overcome their social difficulties and fulfill their potential.”