Biography:Amnon Shashua

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Short description: Israeli computer scientist and businessman
Amnon Shashua
Prof. Amnon Shashua.jpg
Amnon Shashua in 2018
Born (1960-05-26) May 26, 1960 (age 64)
NationalityIsraeli
Alma materTel-Aviv University (BS)

Weizmann Institute of Science (MS)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
Autonomous vehicles
InstitutionsHebrew University of Jerusalem
ThesisGeometry and photometry in 3D visual recognition (1993)
Doctoral advisorShimon Ullman

Amnon Shashua (Hebrew: אמנון שעשוע‎; born May 26, 1960) is an Israeli computer scientist and businessman. He is the Sachs Professor of Computer Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the autonomous driving and driver-assistance technology company Mobileye, Co-founder of the artificial vision devices company OrCam, Founder and owner of ONE ZERO digital bank,[1] and chairman of artificial intelligence company AI21 Labs.[2]

He was ranked 20th among the top wealthiest people in Israel, in 2024.[3]

Biography

Amnon Shashua received his B.Sc. in mathematics and computer science from Tel-Aviv University in 1985 and his M.Sc. in computer science in 1989 from the Weizmann Institute of Science[4] under the supervision of Shimon Ullman titled "Structural Saliency". His Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences was received from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), while working at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, in 1993; and his postdoctoral training under Tomaso Poggio at the center for biological and computational learning at MIT.

Career

Academic

Shashua has been on the computer science faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 1996. In 1999 he was appointed as an associate professor and in 2003 received full professorship. From 2002 to 2005 he was the head of the engineering and computer science school at the Hebrew University.[5] Shashua has held the Sachs chair in computer science at the Hebrew University since 2007.[6]

Shashua's work includes early visual processing of saliency and grouping mechanisms, visual recognition and learning, image synthesis for animation and graphics, theory of computer vision in the areas of multiple-view geometry and multi-view tensors, multilinear algebraic systems in vision and learning, primal/dual optimization for approximate inference in MRF and Graphical models, and (since 2014) deep layered networks.[citation needed]

Business

In 1995, Shashua founded CogniTens, which was sold to Hexagon AB in 2007.[7] In 1999, Shashua co-founded Mobileye, a company that develops systems-on-chip and computer vision algorithms for driving assistance systems, as well as autonomous driving technology.[8] On August 1, 2014, Mobileye launched its IPO on the NYSE which was the biggest Israeli IPO ever in the US raising approximately $1 billion at a market cap of $5.3 billion.[9]

In 2010, Shashua co-founded OrCam, an Israeli company which launched an assistive device for the visually impaired based on computer vision capabilities.[10]

In August 2017, Intel acquired Mobileye for approximately $15.3 billion.[11][12] Shashua became a senior vice president at Intel, in addition to his title of President and CEO of Mobileye. In 2017, he also co-founded AI21 Labs.[13]

In October 2022, Mobileye went public again, trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange with Shashua as its CEO.[14]

Awards and recognition

Shashua received his first prize in the 2004 Kaye Innovation award,[15] and the 2005 Mifal HaPayis Landau Prize for Science and Research in the area of Exact Sciences - Robotics.[16][17]

On Israeli Independence Day 2017, Shashua was chosen to light a torch at the national ceremony on Mt. Herzl.[18]

In 2019, Shashua was recognized by the Society for Imaging Science and Technology as the Electronic Imaging (EI) Scientist of the Year.[19][20]

In 2020, he was awarded the Dan David Prize for his work in Artificial Intelligence.[21][22]

In 2022, he was awarded the Mobility Innovator Award and was inducted into The Automotive Hall of Fame.[23][24]

In 2023, he was awarded MotorTrend's first Software-Defined Vehicle Innovator (SDVI) Award.[25]

In 2023, he was awarded Israel Prize in the category lifetime achievement and exceptional contribution to the nation.[26]

In 2023, Prof. Shashua was appointed as an honorary professor at the Global Institute of Future Technology of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.[27]

See also

  • Ziv Shilon
  • Dov Moran

References

  1. "One Zero, Israel's first digital bank, secures full license, opens for business". January 11, 2022. https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/01/11/one-zero-israels-first-digital-bank-secures-full-license-opens-for-business/. 
  2. "Amnon Shashua's AI21 Labs raises $35m to reinvent writing". November 22, 2020. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-amnon-shashuas-ai21-labs-raises-35-million-to-reinvent-writing-1001350238. 
  3. "Wealthiest People in Israel (January 22, 2024)". https://ceoworld.biz/2024/01/23/wealthiest-people-in-israel-january-22-2024/. 
  4. "Weizmann Institute of Science". http://www.weizmann.ac.il/. 
  5. "The Rachel and Selim Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering". http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/site/?i%3Dcse_research_groups. 
  6. "Amnon Shashua - School of Computer Science and Engineering, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - VideoLectures.NET". http://videolectures.net/amnon_shashua/. 
  7. Batya Feldman, "Hexagon buys Israeli 3D optics start-up CogniTens," Globes, September 4, 2007.
  8. John Markoff, "At High Speed, on the Road to a Driverless Future," The New York Times, May 27, 2013.
  9. Gabrielle Coppola and Leslie Picker, "Mobileye Raises $890 Million as Largest Israeli IPO in the U.S.," Bloomberg Businessweek, July 31, 2014.
  10. John Markoff, "Device From Israeli Start-Up Gives the Visually Impaired a Way to Read," The New York Times , June 3, 2013.
  11. "Intel acquisition of Mobileye.". http://intelandmobileye.transactionannouncement.com/?_ga=2.37272288.1755284639.1510142993-1685318940.1500363534. 
  12. CNBC (2017-03-13). "Intel to buy Mobileye for $14 billion to $15 billion: Israeli media report". https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/13/intel-to-buy-mobileye-for-14-billion-to-15-billion-israeli-media-report.html. 
  13. "Amnon Shashua's AI21 Labs raises $35m to reinvent writing" (in en). Globes. 2020-11-22. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-amnon-shashuas-ai21-labs-raises-35-million-to-reinvent-writing-1001350238. 
  14. "Mobileye Is Once Again a Public Company". https://www.mobileye.com/press-kit/mobileye-is-once-again-a-public-company. 
  15. "Computer technology developed by Hebrew University professor can save lives". EurekAlert! (Press release). Retrieved 2019-03-18.
  16. "האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים - אגף שיווק ותקשורת". http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search.pl?mesge114406303305976587. 
  17. "קול קורא: פרס מפעל הפיס לאמנויות ולמדעים". March 12, 2018. https://www.pais.co.il/news/news.aspx?newsId=1053. 
  18. "Meet this year's Independence Day torch lighters - Israel News - Jerusalem Post". https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Meet-this-years-Independence-Day-torch-lighters-489437. 
  19. "EI Scientist of the Year". http://www.imaging.org/site/IST/IST/Conferences/EI/EI_Scientist_of_the_Year.aspx. 
  20. "Start Up Visionaries, VCs, Political Leaders and Cultural Icons: 17 Israelis Who Shaped the Decade". January 1, 2020. https://nocamels.com/2020/01/influential-israelis-decade-defined-startup-nation-culture-business/. 
  21. Dan David Prize 2020
  22. "הזוכה הישראלי בפרס דן דוד: פרופ' שעשוע". February 2, 2020. https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/733157. 
  23. "פרופ' אמנון שעשוע זכה בפרס החדשנות בניידות לשנת 2022". April 3, 2022. https://tech.walla.co.il/item/3498400. 
  24. "Amnon Shashua wins 2022 Mobility Innovation Award". https://itrade.gov.il/poland/2022/04/04/amnon-shashua-wins-2022-mobility-innovation-award/. 
  25. "Announcing the Winners of the MotorTrend Software-Defined Vehicle Innovator Awards!" (in en). 2023-01-08. https://www.motortrend.com/news/winners-motortrend-software-defined-vehicle-innovator-sdvi-awards/. 
  26. Batya Feldman. מייסד מובילאיי פרופ' אמנון שעשוע יקבל פרס ישראל על מפעל חיים. // Calcalist, March 22, 2023.
  27. "Shanghai Jiaotong University Names Prof. Amnon Shashua Honorary Professor". October 2, 2023. https://www.mobileye.com/news/shanghai-jiaotong-university-names-amnon-honorary-professor/. 

External links