Israeli startup Airwayz Drones Ltd., set up by veterans of the Israeli airforce, has developed software that knows how to safely steer hundreds of drones in the same airspace, orchestrating them in the sky autonomously, just as a traditional human-manned air traffic control station would. The technology of the Israeli company Airwayz managed some 20 drones from five companies simultaneously on Wednesday in the sky over an unpopulated area of the northern coastal city of Hadera. It was the first stage of a two-year initiative that is being touted by the Israel Innovation Authority and its partners in the event as one of the largest drone experiments ever conducted in the world. "This is one of the most progressive experiments in the world, in which drones from many companies are flying in a open and not controlled area," said Daniella Partem, head of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the Israel Innovation Authority, which is in charge of fostering the nation's tech ecosystem. Get The Start-Up Israel's Daily Start-Up by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up The purpose of the large-scale government-backed experiment is to understand what our skies will look like in the future, as hundreds and thousands of drones pepper our firmament to meet various needs -- online deliveries, photography, security, agriculture and more.

MagniLEARN, an Ed-Tech company using artificial intelligence and Natural Language Processing, received second prize for innovation in Artificial Intelligence and was recognized as a promising AI Startup in the third annual China – Israel Innoweek Conference held in Beijing, China. "Combining Natural Language Processing (NLP) with Artificial Intelligence (AI) allowed us to turn the computer into a language-aware personal tutor for each student," said MagniLEARN CEO Howard Cooper in accepting the award. "Our difference lies in presenting personalized exercises that the student answers with free-form responses. Just like a personal tutor teaching language to a child, we understand what is correct, what is nearly correct, and provide feedback and then reinforcement as the student learns proper English. We gave the computer enough language awareness to become an intelligent and efficient language tutor for each student," he concluded.

While our exposure to technology is often more novel than anything -- like a program that recognizes your friends and tags them in a picture -- small tweaks may turn the mundane into something life-changing. Intel is partnering with Israeli startup MobileODT, a company that created a smartphone app to diagnose cervical cancer. Together, both businesses are searching for (and challenging) developers to arrive at an algorithm that, based on images, accurately identifies women's cervix types. If successful, the effort could save the lives of millions of women around the world who don't have access to adequate medical care. Saul Singer's book Start-up Nation inspired the view of Israel as an enigma in innovation, and around the world, people are looking to learn from Israel in its attempts to construct better tech ecosystems.