Shapir Engineering invests in AI platform to prevent heavy machinery accidents

Ception’s proprietary system, MineCept, helps prevent accident and injury in mines, quarries and construction sites around the world.

The Ception team (photo credit: EYAL TOUEG)
The Ception team
(photo credit: EYAL TOUEG)

What do swimming with a baby and working with heavy machinery have in common? The last thing you want during either activity is an accident.

While swim diapers exist for the former, the latter requires a bit more innovative thinking to prevent serious problems. That’s why Shapir Engineering and Industry, an Israeli market leader in the field of infrastructure, is making a strategic investment in the Jerusalem-based startup Ception, a company that uses artificial intelligence to prevent accidents and improve the productivity and profitability of heavy equipment at construction sites, mines and quarries.

“The advanced AI technologies we implement are changing the reality on the ground and pushing the construction, infrastructure and quarry industries into the Industry 4.0 era with all its operational and economic benefits.”

Tal Israel, co-founder and CEO of Ception

Notably, Ception has developed a new AI-based system called MineCept, which reduces accidents from heavy equipment at such sites. It thereby makes operations more efficient, lowers costs and even contributes to sustainability in these demanding environments.

MineCept has already been incorporated into a variety of projects and industrial sites operated by some of the top players in the mining and construction industries in Israel and the world. These include the ICL Group, one of the world’s leading fertilizer producers, which operates heavy equipment at the Rotem phosphate mine in Israel.

MineCept is also used by Netivei Israel, the national transportation infrastructure company, as part of a project aimed at improving the safety and efficiency of heavy equipment.

Workers at the construction site of a new skyscraper, in Jerusalem on April 26, 2021, (credit: NATI SHOHAT/FLASH90)
Workers at the construction site of a new skyscraper, in Jerusalem on April 26, 2021, (credit: NATI SHOHAT/FLASH90)

Ception co-founder and CEO Tal Israel said, “Shapir Engineering’s investment demonstrates once again that we’re solving acute problems in the operation of heavy equipment, including safety, efficiency and sustainability. The advanced AI technologies we implement are changing the reality on the ground and pushing the construction, infrastructure and quarry industries into the Industry 4.0 era with all its operational and economic benefits.”

Ception will also participate in the first cohort of companies in Shapir’s recently launched tech center, Access. The center was founded in order to discover and support future technologies in construction and infrastructure.

Access CEO Dr. Ricardo Osiroff said, “We congratulate Ception on joining the Innovation Center. We believe that the collaboration with the company will yield solutions to industry safety issues in the short term. We also expect that in the long term, Ception’s groundbreaking technology will streamline operations at our sites.”