Jacob Rubinovitz
Also known as יעקב רובינוביץ
Jacob Rubinovitz was an Israeli industrial engineer and roboticist who created and led the Laboratory of Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing at the Technion. Born in Łódź in 1947, he moved to Israel in 1957, managed an industrial software team that began at Israel Aerospace Industries, and finished doctoral studies at Penn State under Rick Wysk in 1987. At the Technion, he applied genetic algorithms to assembly line design: a 1995 algorithm for assembly line balancing with Gregory Levitin, then a 2002 version for robotic lines with Levitin and Boris Shnits. Illness led him to retire early from the Technion in 2005, and he died in 2018.
Timeline
-
1947–1957
Born in Łódź
He is born in Łódź, Poland, in September 1947. In 1957, he moves to Israel as part of the movement of Jews from Poland to Israel that starts in 1956, after the Polish October.
-
1969–1983
Software at Mamram and IAI
A graduate of the Technion's Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, he works as a senior systems analyst at Mamram and at Control Data (Israel) from 1969 to 1973. From 1973 to 1983, he manages an industrial software team, first at Israel Aerospace Industries, and installs its software in several countries; a system called Mass goes to Escom in South Africa for power-plant maintenance.
-
1987
A doctorate at Penn State
In 1987, he completes his doctoral studies at Pennsylvania State University, where Rick Wysk is his doctoral advisor. He then spends a year as a visiting professor in Penn State's Department of Industrial Engineering.
-
1988–1991
Robotics and CIM lab at the Technion
Back in Israel in 1988, he joins the Technion's Industrial Engineering & Management department and creates and leads its Laboratory of Robotics and CIM. He writes a Hebrew textbook on computer integrated manufacturing systems and the chapter "CAD and Graphic Simulators/Emulators of Robotic Systems" for Shimon Y. Nof's Handbook of Industrial Robotics. In 1991, he and Ezey M. Dar-El, one of his academic advisors, publish "Using learning theory in assembly lines for new products" in the International Journal of Production Economics.
-
1995
A genetic algorithm for line balancing
In October 1995, the International Journal of Production Economics publishes "Genetic algorithm for assembly line balancing", which he writes with Gregory Levitin. The paper cites the MUST multiple-solutions technique for balancing single-model assembly lines, published by E. M. Dar-El and Y. Rubinovitch in 1979.
-
2002–2006
Robotic assembly line balancing
For the IFAC World Congress in Barcelona in July 2002, he coauthors a paper with Gregory Levitin and Boris Shnits that uses a genetic algorithm, with a hill-climbing step, to assign robots to line stations and balance work between them so as to maximize the line's production rate. A paper with the same title, "A genetic algorithm for robotic assembly line balancing", appears in the European Journal of Operational Research in February 2006.
-
2003–2005
Teaching at Tel Aviv University
From 2003 to 2004, he teaches industrial engineering at Tel Aviv University. In 2005, illness leads him to take early retirement from the Technion.
-
2012–2018
Guest of honor at a national conference
In March 2012, he is the guest of honor at the 17th National Industrial Engineering and Management Conference in Israel. He dies in April 2018.
Sources and credits
Photo: We have no published photo of Jacob Rubinovitz yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.