TiE NJ and PICC JOINT EVENT 

BIRD FOUNDATION FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES 

July 30th, 2020 |5:30 pm

TiE New Jersey is pleased to present a live ZOOM event in partnership with Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (PICC), which represents BIRD ( US-Israel Bi national Industrial Research and Development Foundation) in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, on an opportunity to win a grant of up to $1 million for your next innovative development project. 

Annually, BIRD awards 25-30 grants to US-Israeli collaborations advancing and commercializing technologies in many industries. Projects sectors may include agriculture, communications, construction technologies, electronics, electro-optics, life Sciences, software, homeland and cyber security, renewable and alternative energy and more. The BIRD Foundation and the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber assist companies by introducing them to potential Israeli partners and coaching them on how to submit a successful grant request.

Click Here for  MORE ABOUT BIRD

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Andrea Yonah, Director of Business Development, BIRD Foundation  

Kumar Ramamswamy, President, igolgi Inc 

Vered Nohi, Executive Director, Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce & PICC Foundation

AGENDA:

• Welcoming remarks by Ram Kapur, President TiE New Jersey
• Vered Nohi introducing PICC and Andrea Yonah
• Andrea Yonah presentation on BIRD Foundation funding opportunities
• Kumar Ramaswamy, President, igolgi Inc, will present about his experience as a recipient of BIRD Funding
• Q&A

Speaker Bios:

Andrea Yonah, Director of Business Development, East Coast/Midwest, U.S.-Israel Binational Industrial R&D (BIRD) Foundation

Andrea is responsible for BIRD’s East Coast and Midwest activities and works to increase the Foundation’s profile among U.S. companies by engaging in business development, strategic growth initiatives, relationship management, and matchmaking between Israeli and U.S. companies. Prior to her position with BIRD, Andrea served for eight years as the Executive Director of the New Jersey-Israel Commission. Andrea has held positions in marketing, interactive media and Internet application development in companies located both in Israel and the U.S. She began her career at EduSoft in Tel-Aviv as part of a BIRD funded project with Berlitz International. Andrea continued her career at Berlitz as part of the Worldwide Marketing Division at their headquarters in Princeton, NJ. Andrea went on to work in product development and marketing at Princeton eCom, a New Jersey financial IT company. Andrea holds a B.A. in Urban Affairs and Political Science from Barnard College, Colombia University and a Masters degree in Foreign Language Education/ESL from Tel-Aviv University.

Vered Nohi, Executive Director, Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce & PICC Foundation

Vered Nohi been Executive Director of the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (PICC) since 2013. Vered’s expertise are in growing bilateral trade relations in North America, Asia and Israel.  The PICC is an independent, membership based non-profit, which connects Israeli and Greater Philadelphia, southern New Jersey and Delaware-based businesses, academic institutions, governmental agencies and economic development organizations for innovative joint ventures. She also represents the US-Israel Bi-National Industrial R&D (BIRD) Foundation in Pennsylvania, Delaware and southern New Jersey. BIRD awarded three grants of up to $1 million each to regional-Israeli company technology ventures in 2019.

Vered‘s career includes leadership roles at the Diamond State Port Corporation / Port of Wilmington, Delaware growing its handling of international cargoes, and prior at the State of Israel’s Economic and Cultural Office/Mission in Taipei, Taiwan as Tourism Representative.

Vered is a graduate of Hebrew University in Jerusalem in East Asian Studies and Sociology and a veteran of the Israeli Navy.

Kumar Ramaswamy, President, igolgi Inc  

Kumar Ramaswamy is a senior technology executive and entrepreneur with experience spanning telecom, broadcast and media industries for over 25 years.   Kumar is currently President and co-founder of igolgi Inc., a company producing software-based video compression and analytics products using modern machine-learning/AI paradigms.  

Prior to this, Kumar spent 16 years at Thomson starting out as a senior engineer, running the worldwide Corporate Research organization and then CTO.  He was instrumental in designing and developing several digital broadcast and distribution firsts in the industry – DirecTV, terrestrial broadcast and cable modems. 
Kumar is a prolific inventor. He has 120 issued US patents and over 100 pending US and worldwide applications. He is also an expert in patent analysis and evaluation and has played a lead role in technical evaluation of several patent transactions in the video and networking space over the past decade.
Kumar was awarded a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic, an MS in Mathematics from RPI,  MS in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt and Bachelor’s Degree from National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India. He is also the recipient of the IEEE-HKN Society’s Outstanding Young Professional award in 2000 and a Distinguished Alumnus of NITT. He is passionate about early childhood education and is involved with several non-profits working on improving the same.