Google, Meta launch programs at Israeli universities

Google and Reichman University establish school for high-tech professions; Hebrew University and Meta AI announce joint PhD in artificial intelligence.

Photo+of+Reichman+University+entrance+by+Amit+Geron

Photo of Reichman University entrance by Amit Geron

Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c.org

Over the past week, two Israeli universities revealed collaborations with “big five” technology companies.

Google and Reichman University are founding a School of High-Tech that will prepare students for professions that are in high demand in the Israeli high-tech market: programming, software testing, business development, sales, data analysis and more.

Studies will take place at the Google for Startups Campus in Tel Aviv and at Reichman, a private university in Herzliya.

Google has pledged scholarships enabling qualified candidates from populations under-represented in Israeli high-tech — including women, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arabs, Ethiopian Israelis and people from disadvantaged socio-economic groups –to apply regardless of ability to pay tuition.

“We believe that a variety of voices, opinions and perspectives enriches Israeli high-tech and its developments,” said Barak Regev, managing director of Google Israel.

Meta (formerly Facebook) is partnering with Hebrew University’s Rachel and Selim Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering and Yissumtechnology transfer company in a PhD program focused on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) research for the marketplace.

PhD students who are accepted into the program will have the opportunity to merge theory with real work experience, to gain a better understanding of emerging technologies and to develop new ones.