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MICHIGAN
ISRAEL
ENGINEERING
TREK 2023

MAY 5 - 12, 2023

A student-led trip to Israel for engineering graduate students of all backgrounds at the University of Michigan.

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Programs, groups transportation, accommodations, and most meals are funded.

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Participants pay for their airfare, visas, insurance, a $300 participation fee ($33/day), and personal spending. 

U-M grants are available to significantly support these costs.

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 APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.  RESPONSES WILL BE DELIVERED SOON! 

APPLY!

The

TREK

The Trek

INNOVATION FOR
SOCIETAL

TRANSFORMATION

Welcome to Israel.  A young and peppy little nation that's packed with the highest density of start-ups in the world.

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Launch your summer by discovering the country whose water technologies made the desert bloom, whose algorithms transformed cybersecurity, and whose leadership in biotechnology and robotics has attracted the attention of the top tech companies from around the world.

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Hang out with tech leaders who seek to transform Israeli society, the Middle East, and the World through new ideas, collaboration, and increasing access to new opportunities.

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Travel with Michigan engineering graduate students and explore the sites that shaped civilizations, religions, and continue to shape world politics today.

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Experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a tech tour through Israel and immerse yourself in its culture, cuisine, history, and future.

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DID YOU KNOW?

  • Israel is home to Microsoft's first R&D lab outside of the USA, Apple's second largest R&D center, and IBM's largest office outside of North America 

  • According to the OECD, Israel is tied for the highest gross domestic spending on R&D in the world

  • Israel boasts the highest number of scientists and tech professionals per capita in the world

  • Waze, MobileEye, Wix, SodaStream, and Checkpoint were all founded in Israel 

TECH + TOURING

AN ITINERARY FOR ENGINEERS BY ENGINEERS

You'll bounce between factory tours, sightseeing, and hanging out with the tech community during the day.  This will be hands-on exploration through touring and demos.  We'll join a start-up's executives and engineering leadership for product demonstrations, grab lunch with Israeli engineering students, tour new civil engineering projects, and still find time to hang out at the beach.

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At night, Israel's world renowned cuisine and hangout spots will be waiting for you.  One night we'll head to one of Israel's legendary restaurants, and another you'll be weaving between the aisles of a market while sampling spices and the top street food.  There will be nights to explore Israel's nightlife, and nights that will be simply capped off with a bonfire under the stars.

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BUILD RELATIONSHIPS.

ASK.  LISTEN.  SPEND TIME TOGETHER.

Assumptions may be great for rule-of-thumb calculations, but in a country where every person has their own distinct narrative, you learn that empathy gets you way farther.  Travel to a land with millennia of histories at the intersection of religion and personal and collective identities.  Spend time with engineers who see their technical work as part of their activism for pursuing better lives for all.  Dissect new dimensions of one of the most revered places in the world as you meet with experts from policy and tech.

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Ask questions.  Marinate in contradictions.

And let your curiosity allow you to probe, to listen, and to complicate.

Itinerary

TEL AVIV

THE ITINERARY

etrek 2023 will build on the success of the first three Michigan eTreks.  The itinerary blends engineering tours with visits to local sites, such as the Dead Sea, the Old City of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and free time at the beach.

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Our itinerary this year will be similar to past etrek itineraries.  We will spend two nights at a hotel in Haifa, two nights in Jerusalem at one of Israel's top-rated hostels, a night near the Dead Sea, and two nights at a hotel on the Tel Aviv Beach.  

RECAP ETREK 2022

2022 ENGINEERING HIGHLIGHTS​

  • Tour of the Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology, and the Technion's tech start-up incubator

  • Presentation by Mois Navon to discuss his role in Mobileye, an automotive tech company

  • Presenting TED Talks about our Michigan research at a Jerusalem bar

  • Lecture by Inbal Halperin Gottesman from the Start-Up Nation

  • Meetings with students in the Tech Career Center, a computer software and programming technology training center for Ethiopian-Israelis

  • Meetings and demos with Pulsenmore, a successful startup creating portable ultrasound units 

  • Hands-on tour with Arnon Zamir at Tikkun Olam Makers 

  • Tour of the Water Desalination Plant in Sorek

RECAP ETREK 2019

2019 ENGINEERING HIGHLIGHTS

  • Overview of Israeli Tech Sector with Quedma Innovation

  • Tour of Technology and Agriculture in Nahalal, the Israeli town partnered with Ann Arbor

  • Lab tours at the Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology

  • Tour of the Water Desalination Plant in Hadera

  • Presenting TED Talks about our Michigan research at a Jerusalem bar

  • Tour of automotive tech company Mobileye

  • Presentation by Kfir Damari, Co-Founder of SpaceIL

  • Lab tour of the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, which researches how life can exist in extreme environments like the Dead Sea

  • Tour and presentation of Rawabi with founder and entrepreneur Bashar Masri

  • Visit to Milbat, a nonprofit that engineers devices and supports people with disabilities

  • Panel with activists who are working to diversify the Israeli tech sector.

RECAP ETREK 2018

2018 ENGINEERING HIGHLIGHTS

  • Erez Frankel, Start Up Nation Central

  • Adi Adiv, Head of Strategy and Operations at Google Israel

  • Reem Younis, Co-Founder of Alpha Omega

  • Uri Levine, Serial Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Waze

  • Tour of the Sorek Water Desalination Plant

  • Tour of ISCAR, one of the largest manufacturers of metal working tools

  • Tour of Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), an organization that runs global hackathons to develop devices for the disability community

  • Tour of labs at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

  • Dance party hosted by the Biomedical Engineering Society at the Technion