Israeli company wins first prize of $100,000 in counter-terrorism competition
(June 21, 2018 / JNS) An Israeli medical technology company won first prize in an international competition for startups developing anti-terrorism technology.
CardioScale, a Ganei Tikva-based company’s patented CVRI (Cardio Vascular Reserve index) device, was awarded the top prize of $100,000 at the 2018 Combating Terrorism Technology Startup Challenge, organized by the U.S. Department of Defense Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office and the Israeli Ministry of Defense Rearch and Development Directorate, along with the MIT Enterprise Forum of Israel.
CardioScale, a portable arm cuff, detects a patient’s cardiovascular hemodynamic deterioration, enabling caregivers to predict cardiovascular deterioration in a patient. The device is particularly indicated for use in group casualty events, when triage must be performed to save the maximum number of lives.
Second prize and $10,000 were awarded to Israeli company Colugo, an unmanned aerial vehicle meant to “release humanity from asphalt roads and traffic jams, and as a result, create a cleaner and greener environment.”
The competition was held on the first day of the annual Cyber Week conference at Tel Aviv University on Sunday. A second portion of the competition, Urban Navigation Technologies, will take place later this year.
In an interview with NoCamels, a representative of the Combating Terrorism Technical Support office explained that the purpose of the competition was for security officials to be introduced to cutting-edge counter-terror technologies. This year, more than 200 contestants from around the world vied for top prize, up from just 40 in 2014, the first year of the competition.
Judges included U.S. senator and former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, and Israeli Knesset member and executive director of the Institute for National Security Studies Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Amos Yadlin.