Dr. Itay Safran
Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences
My life before BGU:
I was born in Rishon LeZion and grew up in Yavne. I studied for a double bachelor's degree in computer science and mathematics right here at BGU, and for my master's and doctoral degrees at the Weizmann Institute. I then went to the US for postdocs at Princeton and Purdue.
Why BGU?
I know BGU well from my undergraduate studies, and I am excited to return to do research and teach where my academic career began. The student experience, the high academic level and the great approach of the University attract excellent graduate students, and I look forward to guiding them and setting up my laboratory here.
My research:
Everyone is familiar with the revolution in artificial intelligence in recent years, which produced amazing new tools like DALL-E and ChatGPT. My research, broadly speaking, aims to better understand why these technological breakthroughs were possible. A significant portion of these technologies are based on what is called ‘deep learning,’ and I aim in my research to develop proven theoretical foundations that will allow us to better understand how this technology works and how it can be improved.
An insight from my research:
It is very rare that our expectations are fully realized, and that we arrive at the results we expected. Usually, after diving deeper, we find that certain things behave in a different and more complex ways than expected. This makes the research much more challenging, but also more exciting.
Something that doesn't appear on my resume:
I love to travel, and my career in academia and postdocs at two different institutions allowed me and my family to travel and experience many places. I very much hope to continue with this hobby in the future as well.
A source of inspiration:
My doctoral advisor: It is important to aspire to be a good researcher, but I learned from my advisor that it is far more important to inspire students to strive for greatness while maintaining high professional and human standards.
When I grow up...
I've always wanted to be an astronaut, but my academic studies made me realize that what excites me the most is discovering and proving something new that no one else was able to previously. In addition, the great advantage of academia is flexibility. You can take your work with you anywhere, and you don't need anything special for it. This way I can work from home, from the train, and whenever and wherever I want.
If I wasn't a researcher, I would...
be an actor in the theater.
In brief:
- Master Chef or Kupa Rashit (Checkout)? Kupa Rashit
- Pilates or spinning? Walking/running
- Morning or night? Night
- Summer or winter? Summer
- Hapoel or Maccabi? Maccabi
- Noa Kirel or Netta Barzilai? Iron Maiden
- Steak or tofu? Steak
- Instant coffee or espresso? Instant
- Trekking or the spa? Trekking, and then relaxing in the spa
- Car or train? Train, surely. After all, you can work as you travel.
- Classical Europe or India? Europe
- Sea or pool? Sea
- City or country? In the country, not too far from a big city
- Movie in the cinema or binge on Netflix? Binge on Netflix
- Text or voice message? Who can be bothered to listen to voice messages?
- Dog or cat? Dog
- Instagram or TikTok? I don't like social media.
- Three things I would take to a desert island: Laptop, coffee maker and Ben & Jerry's ice cream
