ORT Braude College of Engineering

To date, ORT Braude has graduated over 8,000 engineers, adding to the diversity of the local industrial population. OBC is a part of the regional ecosystem and collaborates with other academic institutions, local industries, youth organizations, and entrepreneurs. The following examples demonstrate OBC's role as a catalyst for enhancing industrial capabilities and promoting the development of local communities in the Galilee:

1. Industry-based internships is an inherent part of the fourth-year student training process in almost all fields of study. This explains why OBC students integrate easily into industry. OBC has relationships with some 200 factories that offer this internship program, benefiting both the factory and the students.

2. OBC and its commercial partners operate the Galilee Center for Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing in Israel Ltd. The center acts as a national hub providing industries with diagnostic and consulting services in the fields of robotics, 3D printing, big data, algorithms, Internet of Things (IoT), digitization of work processes. All of these are central elements of Industry 4.0. OBC bridges the industrial - academic role in this partnership. The institution is implementing the government-informed strategy to strengthen traditional industry, its productivity, and it’s competitive abilities.

3. The College operates Ofek Eshkolot Research & Development Ltd., a subsidiary that operates as the College's business arm, leveraging intellectual property and business development.

4. OBC manages the Galilee Accelerator, a unique program dedicated to early-stage startups. The accelerator focuses on ventures targeting manufacturers as customers and participants in the wave of factory innovation - Industry 4.0. The accelerator has extensive ties with industrial and other types of companies in Israel and internationally, which it harnesses for the startups' benefit.

5. The College's Center for Engineering Education and Entrepreneurship develops and promotes a variety of innovative programs designed to improve college teaching and learning methods. Its leading programs include problem-based learning courses and training students with essential multidisciplinary engineering and entrepreneurship skills.

In addition to focusing on academic programs and research, OBC is committed to corporate social responsibility and as such has expanded its community involvement through the following channels:

1. Youth Center for Science Enrichment – OBC sees great importance in investing in the youth who constitute the scientific reserve of the State of Israel. Every year about 9,000 teenagers study at the center in a variety of programs, such as the Galil-1 regional satellite development program. The Center also opens its doors to at-risk youth and uses science as a therapeutic tool. OBC presents an opportunity for these teens to take part in attractive scientific activities in the College’s labs, experience success and a sense of competence, ignite in them the spark to strive to achieve and to believe in themselves.

2. Our Flagship Project, “Mehalev” - Engineers for People with Disabilities - this project initiates engineering solutions for people of different ages, (from toddlers to adults) with a variety of disabilities. Students from the College's Mechanical, Electrical & Electronics, and Software Engineering departments collaborate with rehabilitation and assistive organizations in order to devise these solutions. The hugely successful project has won many prizes from the Council of Higher Education. The collaboration between academia and the community promotes the quality of treatment provided for people with disabilities on the one hand, and on the other hand equips a generation of future engineers with awareness of social responsibility and empathy for the needs of people with disabilities.

3. Israeli Hope in Academia – An initiative of the President of Israel to establish a partnership between the four main sectors or “tribes" that make up Israeli society - secular, religious, Arab and ultra-Orthodox. The program works to promote quality integration of all sectors of society. Braude College is a full partner in the program and promotes the representation of the various population groups in academia while strengthening the academia-employment continuum. For example, the College holds departmental seminars in collaboration with high-tech companies such as Amdocs, Intel and Microsoft to encourage employment diversity.

OBC has partnerships with international institutional in the US, including the University of Pittsburgh and MIT, as well as many partners in China and in Europe. We recognize the value of internationalization as an important element of the institution’s strategy. To effectively implement this strategy, we place a special focus on student and staff mobility, participation in educational and research programmes, networking, membership in European associations and organizations, as well as collaborative links with stakeholders. The quality of engineering teaching is more effective in a research-based institution, and research at Braude College is conducted internationally, in collaboration with EU partners as well as with other institutions around the world. Partner institutions are chosen and approved by the Braude College Vice-President’s Office, with the support of the International Relations Office. https://w3.braude.ac.il/department/international_sap/?lang=en

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