(Courtesy of JCT) Teaneck native Zev Tovbin was part of a group of students who won first prize at the Jerusalem College of Technology’s (JCT) eighth annual Great Minds Hackathon, a grueling 36-hour technology marathon that saw international students from its English language program clinch top honors with innovative solutions.
The first-place team, Campaign Matcher, developed a web-based platform using AI and web scraping to enhance fundraising efforts. Their solution aggregates publicly available data on potential donors to help organizations identify promising prospects. The team included Eyal Schachter, who lived in various U.S. states and Israel; Yehuda Gurovich from Santiago, Chile; and Benji Tusk from Baltimore.
Tovbin, who attended high school at Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck, explained their winning solution: “Our website gathers demographic data of supporters and filters out those least likely to donate, improving fundraising efficiency.” The technology can save fundraising and other organizations significant amounts of money currently spent on research and unlikely leads. The team’s use of AI technology was particularly praised by the judges, who included representatives from successful Israeli and international companies.
Interestingly, the first-place team’s success story began at last year’s hackathon. While they didn’t place in the finals of JCT’s December 2022 competition, their experience proved transformative. Inspired by the challenges they faced, team members went on to create ScheduleLearn, a startup providing automated scheduling software for high schools.
Another group of international students won third place for developing an app to prevent friendly-fire incidents between local civil defense units. The app can monitor guards on duty in small communities and communicate with nearby army units, along with improved location tracking independent of local networks. Team members included Dovie Shimoff from Silver Spring, Maryland and Benyamin Klein from Woodmere, New York.
In second place was an all-Israeli team that developed an app for locating civil defense security personnel during critical events. The app will work with security cameras so every member of the civil defense unit will be able to monitor their communities accordingly. The technology provides satellite images on the security team’s phone so they are able to ensure nobody can infiltrate their communities.
The hackathon was operated by the Schreiber LevTech Entrepreneurship Center at JCT, an initiative aimed at bridging academia and industry. The center’s primary goal is to provide hands-on experiences for students to build proof-of-concept and startups, fostering a culture of entrepreneurship within the college.
Orlee Guttman, co-founder of the Schreiber LevTech Entrepreneurship Center, emphasized the event’s importance: “I’m in awe of all the finalists. The hackathon is more than just a competition. It’s a launchpad for future innovators. It exemplifies our mission to give students real-world experience looking at problems and creating tech solutions to fix them.”
In addition to the hackathon, Schreiber LevTech operates pre-accelerator and accelerator programs to help students, graduates and faculty members transform their technologies into market-ready products, further strengthening the link between academia and industry needs.
The event was made possible through the sponsorship of several prominent organizations, including Cross River, Meydaleh, the Jerusalem Development Authority and Amazon Web Services. Their support underscores the growing recognition of JCT’s role in nurturing tech talent and driving innovation.
While JCT primarily serves Israeli students, it has become a beacon for international religious students seeking high-level engineering education. The college attracts students from 40 countries who choose JCT for its unique combination of rigorous academic standards and a religious environment.
JCT offers a wide range of programs to cater to its diverse student body. In addition to Hebrew language degrees in various engineering fields, business and health sciences, the college provides English language and dual English-Hebrew programs in computer science, business administration and nursing.
