Meet the Team

  • Dr. Kfir Bar


    Kfir Bar is a senior lecturer at the Arazi School of Computer Science. He heads the natural language processing (NLP) lab at the Data Science Institute, focusing on developing technologies for analyzing the Arabic language.
    Kfir has many years working in a wide range of NLP disciplines, including statistical machine translation, named entity recognition, and sentiment-analysis applications. He is a big fan of combining linguistic knowledge with sophisticated AI algorithms, for extracting the most important information from a given text.
    In parallel to his current role, Kfir is the chief scientist at Basis Technology. His previous roles include Chief Technology Officer at Interview, and co-founder and VP of engineering at Comprendi, where in 2016, together with his team, he won the Twitter #Promote challenge.

    Kfir holds a PhD in computer science from Tel Aviv University for a thesis on semantics and machine translation.

     

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  • Dr. Lior Carmi


    Dr. Lior Carmi is a neuro-psychologist, Ph.D. He is a research fellow at the Data Science Institute, and a
    lecturer at the School of Psychology at Reichman University. Dr. Carmi is an academic lab director at Sheba hospital and leads worldwide studies in electrophysiological, neuromodulation, imaging, and
    endophenotype of OCD, PTSD, and mood disorders. For the past several years, Dr. Carmi has led studies in digital phenotyping and interventions (mHealth) in a variety of disorders, and currently he is a Co-PI of a European ‘Horizon’ grant, investigating the digital phenotype of problematic usage of the internet. Dr. Carmi is a senior therapist at the Israeli Center of OCD and Behavioral Addictions and integrates neurological and digital knowledge into his clinical practice.

     

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  • Itamar Efrati


    Itamar Efrati is a researcher at the Data Science Institute and a computer science M.Sc. student at Reichman University. As part of his master's degree, Itamar is doing his thesis under the supervision of Dr. Shai Fine. His research deals with the combination of Bayesian methods, and in particular variational inference and information theoretic methods, as well as solutions for healthcare problems.

     

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  • Dr. Shai Fine


    Dr. Shai Fine is the head of the Data Science Institute at Reichman University (IDC) and the Julis-Rabinowitz academic chair for data science.

    Prior to Reichman University, Shai spent over 25 years in various roles in leading companies. He was the senior director for analytics & big data at Teva Pharmaceutical, a principal engineer and chief data scientist at Intel, the head of the Deep Learning Capstone at Intel Labs, and the founder and head of the analytics department at IBM.
    Shai holds a PhD in computer science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a postdoc at the IBM, T.J. Watson Research Center, NY. Shai is also the inventor of ten patents.

    Shai’s research interests are in the field of machine learning and deep learning, focusing on representation, modelling, measurements and algorithms, and on demonstrating capabilities and usefulness in real-life settings.

     

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  • Talia Friedman


    Talia Friedman heads the digital health vertical at the Data Science Institute and is the co-founder and CEO of MDcide, a digital health venture focused on early detection and prediction of health conditions. Talia has over 20 years of experience in IT, software development, project management, and holds an MBA with data science ML/AI specialization as well as a dual BSc from the Technion in information systems engineering and industrial engineering.

     

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  • Abraham Israeli


    Abraham (Avrahami) Israeli is a research fellow at the Data Science Institute at Reichman University, focusing on research associated with NLP and social media. He is the lead of the social analytics vertical and serves as the project leader in the Arabic NLP projects.
    In recent years Avrahami has taught machine learning courses in the computer science department at Reichman University.
    Avrahami received his master's degree from Ben-Gurion University and his bachelor's degree from the Technion. Currently Avrahami is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University. His Ph.D. research deals with the behavior of communities and users over the web.
    Prior to his academic path, Avrahami worked for 10 years in different machine-learning groups at IBM Research and Intel.

     

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  • Orry Kaz


    Orry is an AI researcher and lecturer Reichman University, highly involved in the AI ecosystem and AI academic research. His research focus in the Data Science Institute is on anomaly detection and machine learning. Some of his past roles include: lead data scientist at the Central Bank of Israel algorithmic trading, AI research director at Elevance Health, team leader at Leumi bank’s data science unit and senior consultant at Maccabi Health AI. In addition, Orry is a founder of several start-up companies: Bridgify, Urban AI, Comma AI.

     

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  • Dr. Dina Lisnyansky


    Dr. Dina Lisnyansky is a lecturer at RRIS Government Program in Reichman University, Shalem College, Tel Aviv University, and a Research Fellow at the Data Science Institute.
    Dr. Lisnyansky is a political expert in Middle East affairs and Islam with a specialization in Arabic language NLP. She holds a PhD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a fellowship from Oxford University and is a well-known consultant in the field of Middle Eastern political and religious issues, as well as in the fields of security and extremism.
    Dr. Lisnyansky has numerous publications on the Middle East, Islam and Middle East in English, Hebrew, and Russian languages, and she is a frequent guest on various TV programs and channels.
    At the Data Science Institute, Dr. Lisnyansky’s focus is on Arabic language NLP training and developing methodologies for language analysis and its various implementations in tech.
    Dr. Lisnyansky is on the board of directors in various NGOs on Middle Eastern affairs and is a part of the Israeli Foreign Ministry project Voices of Israel. She speaks eight languages and holds a special interest in inter-cultural linguistic analysis.


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  • Rawaa Makhoul


    Rawaa is a business and data analytics graduate of Reichman University. She currently holds a position in the business marketing team at Google, is a team manager at DSI, a teaching assistant at Reichman University and a host of the VC podcast.

    During her three years of study, she worked as a research assistant both at the London Business School in the strategy department, and at Reichman University in the marketing department. Rawaa studied medicine at the Technion for three years and speaks five languages - Arabic, Hebrew, English, Italian, and Spanish.

     

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  • Dr. Yossi Mann


    Dr. Yossi Mann is a senior lecturer at Reichman University and Bar-Ilan University, and a research fellow at the Data Science Institute. Dr. Mann served as head of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University and as head of the Middle Eastern studies program at Reichman University. Dr. Mann specializes in the economic and social aspects of the Arab gulf countries - especially the local oil market. He has been a research fellow at Oxford University, Renmin University in China, Gdansk University in Poland, and the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University. He has also served as a consultant to various energy companies and Israel's ministries.

  • Aviv Naaman


    Aviv Naaman is a researcher and activities leader at the Data Science Institute. He is the coordinator for transcription and interview efforts in Arabic at the institute, and a coordinator and transcription lead for clinical psychology sessions.
    Aviv holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Tel-Aviv University. He is fluent in spoken Arabic, (various regional dialects).
    Aviv’s former roles include deputy general manager at a global travel company, teaching Indian & Islamic culture at Tel Aviv University, and tour guide to various Asian destinations.

     

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  • Yarden Rachamim


    Yarden Rachamim is a researcher at the Data Science Institute and a computer science master’s student at Reichman University, currently conducting research in deep probabilistic models, specifically variational auto encoders. Yarden also holds a student position at Intel as a data scientist. Yarden graduated with a BSc in computer science from Reichman University. Previously, Yarden was a software engineer at the Prime Minister's Office for two years, and held student position as a data scientist at Teva.

     

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  • Dr. Maya Stemmer


    Maya Stemmer is a postdoctoral researcher at DSI. Her research fields include machine learning, social network analysis, and natural language processing.
    Maya conducted her Ph.D. studies in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Ben-Gurion University (BGU). She has recently submitted her dissertation entitled "Social Media Mining to Promote the Well-Being of Chronically Ill Patients: Wisdom of the Crowd for Health Insights." Maya graduated from BGU's excellence program with a double bachelor's degree – B.Sc. in mathematics and B.Sc. in industrial engineering and management. She completed her M.Sc. degree in industrial engineering and management, majoring in statistics.

     

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