"Artificial intelligence applications in the COVID-19 pandemic"
Webinar – On November 23, 2020
On November 23, 2020, took place a scientific webinar on "Artificial intelligence applications in the COVID-19 pandemic", organized by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology, in cooperation with the French Embassy in Israel, the French Institute of Israel and the France-Israel Foundation.
The webinar was hosted by The Minister of Science and Technology, Izhar Shay. He exposed the measures taken by Israel to support research as well as predictive models allowing the best compromise between economic activity and public health issues. The French Ambassador in Israel, Eric Danon, then presented actions implemented by France, among which government funded initiatives, development of competitiveness clusters in health, and raising awareness regarding ethical issues related to AI. He also recalled the tools put in place to strengthen bilateral ties in research and technological innovation, in particular through Business France and the French technical expert based in Israel.
Both emphasized the importance given to French-Israeli scientific cooperation. It is embodied by the French-Israeli High Council for Science and Technology (HCST), whose role is to analyze major cooperation opportunities between the two countries and to define actions aimed at improving their synergy.
The webinar brought together 10 speakers through four thematic panels: the fight against COVID-19 in French and Israeli hospitals, ongoing academic research, contribution of start-ups in the implementation of innovative technologies, and a panel on the societal impact of the pandemic.
The event, with an audience of around a hundred people, was an opportunity to bring together research communities of the two countries. To this end, the HCST is launching in December 2020 a call for proposals, within the framework of the Hubert Curien Maimonide program, on interdisciplinary approaches to anticipate future viral pandemics. The call is open to multidisciplinary French-Israeli research teams.
The agenda of the event and the speakers’ biographies are available at the following address: HERE
The event is also fully available on YouTube