Monthly Archives: February 2021

Emerge Education, LLC, a leading education solutions provider for colleges and universities looking to rethink their approach to enrollment growth, earlier this week announced a new capital investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central & Northern Pennsylvania.

The Camp Hill-based company plans to employ the funds to further develop its technology platforms and improve its services and process for greater conversions of leads to student enrollments for its client institutions, a press release said.

Emerge Education also will leverage the new investment to support its newest partnership with Messiah University in Grantham, Cumberland County, which was launched in early 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While new and continuing student enrollment, both on the ground and online, slowed across most colleges and universities over the past year, student marketing trends are indicating a potential upswing in the coming months as therapies and vaccines for the virus encourage more confidence in the economy and job market.

The company hopes to fuel higher enrollment at Messiah University and its other private and public institutions with the advances in technology and processes achieved through the new investment dollars, the release said.

We are truly privileged and appreciative to now be associated with Ben Franklin Technology Partners, James M. Hunter, CEO of Emerge Education, said. As a leading education services provider, we constantly challenge our existing technology and processes to deliver better outcomes for our client institutions. This new investment will help us continue on our path to set ourselves and our clients apart from our competition by exploring new technology initiatives and allowing Emerge to continue to hire experienced professionals who understand the changing landscape of higher education today.

James M. Hunter, CEO of Emerge Education, said that 'this new investment will help us continue on our path to set ourselves and our clients apart from our competition by exploring new technology initiatives and allowing Emerge to continue to hire experienced professionals who understand the changing landscape of higher education today.'

Emerge Education is part of an online program management (OPM) market that is growing, with an estimated annual growth rate of 13.2 percent from 2020 to 2025, according to some industry analysts. Since its inception with three founding employees in 2014, Emerge has grown to 26 full-time employees, nearly 100 percent of whom are based in Pennsylvania, according to the release, which noted that the firm also works with a number of subcontractors and advertising agencies located within the region.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central & Northern PA provides investment capital and business support services to tech-startups and small manufacturers located in a 32-county footprint. The program invests in innovators sharing the risk that is inherent in starting a business while providing a funding opportunity that does not require fees, points, collateral, or personal guarantees.

The organization is an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and is funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority. For more than three decades, Ben Franklin Technology Partners has served as a catalyst for economic growth in Pennsylvania by providing access to capital, business expertise and a network of resources that foster innovation, growth and success for both startup companies and established businesses, the release said.

Our mission is to create synergy among business, industry, and higher education representatives to help stimulate economic development in Pennsylvania, so supporting a locally-grown, education-focused company like Emerge is truly a perfect fit, John Sider, Director of Second Stage Capital, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central & Northern Pennsylvania, said in the release. Our investment opportunities are earmarked for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and existing manufacturing-based companies that want to produce a new technology-based product or improve an existing process. Ultimately when they succeed, we all succeed. The region gains expertise in an emerging technology and new, high-paying jobs are created.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA provides early-stage funding and business support services to emerging technology-based companies, as well as small, existing manufacturing businesses within a 32-county footprint.

Emerge Education provides higher education solutions to colleges and universities interested in 21st century relevancy by growing revenues through enrollment. The firm works with its partner institutions by investing its own capital and service resources to support lead generation, marketing and recruiting, allowing its partners to focus on what they do best: educating students. Emerge forges unique partnerships with each client institution, always reaching for more students, higher revenue, less expense, the release said.

For more information visit http://www.emergeedu.com.

Follow this link:

Camp Hill-based company to use partnership to develop technology platforms for client institutions - PennLive

In The News26 Feb 2021

The European Commission released the new EU Climate Adaptation Strategy on 24 February, 2021. During the strategys introduction, Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, highlighted the need to make adaptation smarter using data, as well as more systemic by focusing on local communities and ecosystems, and leveraging nature-based solutions (NbS).

According to the EU Climate Adaptation Strategy: Climate change is happening today, so we have to build a more resilient tomorrow. The world has just concluded the hottest decade on record during which the title for the hottest year was beaten eight times. People, planet and prosperity are vulnerable to climate change, so we need to prevent the un-adaptable and adapt to the un-preventable. And we must do it faster, and in a smarter and more systemic way.

One of the ways to approach climate adaptation systemically according to the strategy and to Timmermans is by using NbS: We will promote nature-based solutions as much as possible, he said. They help adaptation and at the same time biodiversity.

According to the EU Climate Adaptation Strategy: Implementing nature-based solutions on a larger scale would increase climate resilience and contribute to multiple Green Deal objectives For example, protecting and restoring wetlands, peatlands, coastal and marine ecosystems; developing urban green spaces and installing green roofs and walls; promoting and sustainably managing forests and farmland will help adapt to climate change in a cost-effective way.

With the urgent, widespread and systemic nature of climate change, technological innovations can be used synergistically with NbS to better adapt to its effects.

As soon as technology allows you to be agile, it can help, said Daniel Zimmer, Director of Sustainable Land Use, EIT Climate-KIC. For instance, agriculture and forestry can benefit from innovative sensors and improved monitoring to develop new pest control strategies. And new precision machinery for tillage can be used to reduce soil carbon loss.

EIT Climate-KIC has developed a suite of initiatives with systemic impact that use NbS and/or technological innovations, such as granular-level urban greening, normalising climate resilience labelling for properties, scaling sustainable food production and reducing emissions through plant-based diets. Learn more about these activities here.

Nature is, at the same time, affected by climate change and an instrument to be used, said Zimmer. To build resilience, you need to either become very strong, by building a dike for example, or by becoming more agile and adaptive.

Supporting biodiversity through NbS, such as conserving old forests and rewilding, is a way to be adaptive because it makes it more likely some species of the ecosystem will be better suited to new climatic conditions or to the threats associated with these conditions. For instance, forests are expected to be subject to increased diseases and pest invasions due to climate change. Having biodiversity represented in groups like pollinators (e.g. insects, bats and birds) and seed-dispersal organisms (e.g. birds and mammals), for example, supports the proliferation of various plant and tree species, thereby enhancing a forests resilience to such threats. A forest attracting and housing more variety of species will be much less vulnerable than a tree plantation.

EIT Climate-KICs Landscapes as Carbon Sinks Deep Demonstration is currently working in Scotland and Chlons-en-Champagne, France, to look at land use systemically and transition ecosystems from sources of carbon into sinks. Its supporting NbS such as forest, peatland and wetland conservation, tree planting, and soil regenerationwhich also foster biodiversity. Learn more about this work in an interview with Zimmer.

Another nature-based solution is soil carbon sequestration (SCS), a process in which atmospheric carbon is strategically stored in soil thereby increasing its organic matter, which in turn leads to more water retention capacity and fertility. These properties enable crops to adjust more easily to drought conditions brought about through climate change. SCS is done through a variety of methods and is often targeted at regenerating agricultural land. Some examples are: Reforestation or grassland restoration, reduced tillage, addition of organic amendments like compost and manure, use of cover crops like clover, the creation of wetlands and ponds, and irrigation of pasture or rangelands.

EIT Climate-KICs Carbon Farming project is using a systemic approach to increase SCS, while also considering the needs of multiple stakeholders and partners, as well as local context. Exemplifying NbS, the project is incentivising farmers to implement cover cropscrops like clover that are grown mainly to benefit the soil. Specifically, cover crops can suppress weeds, reduce soil erosion, enhance soil fertility and quality, discourage diseases and pests, and promote biodiversity. The Carbon Farming project is also integrating NbS and technology in a fascinating way, by using satellites to monitor crop health, which results in greater precision for cost savings and scalability, and ultimatelyclimate change mitigation and adaptation. The Carbon Farming project currently has pilots in France and Switzerland.

Taking a more urban focus on NbS, the winner of the Most advanced idea at the global EIT Climate-KIC Climathon Awards2020, Start Park, aims to redesign parks so they become key elements of the city of Florences adaptation strategy. Specifically, its concept is an urban green area whose infrastructure and services are dedicated to water reuse and drainage, and is supplemented by activities to raise climate awareness in the local community. The team is now developing a toolkit to allow other cities in Europe to replicate the Start Park prototype and measure its impact.

More examples of EIT Climate-KICs work on integrating NbS and technological solutions in an innovative way for climate change mitigation and adaptation may be found in its Innovations in land use case studies booklet.

Related Goal

Read the rest here:

Integrating nature with technology to strengthen climate adaptation - Daily Planet`

On this fifth episode from the Blueprints for American Renewal and Prosperity project, two Brookings experts discuss their blueprints for strengthening governance to meet key international challenges in the technology arena. Senior Fellow Landry Sign is co-author with Stephan Almond of A blueprint for technology governance in the post-pandemic world, and Senior Fellow Joshua Meltzer is co-author with Cameron Kerry of Strengthening international cooperation on artificial intelligence.

Also on this episode, Senior Fellow David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings, looks at the politics and the economics around raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Listen to this segment on Soundcloud.

See below for excerpts from the transcript.

Subscribe to Brookings podcastshereor oniTunes, send feedback email toBCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at@policypodcastson Twitter.

The Brookings Cafeteria is part of theBrookings Podcast Network.

EXCERPTS FROM THE DISCUSSION

MELTZER: So this is the paper coauthored with Cameron Kerry, and it focuses on strengthening international cooperation on artificial intelligence. And the basic approach of the paper is to identify what the existing approaches to AI policy development, both at the domestic level but also whats happening in various international and other multilateral forums to look at some of the challenges that are arising that essentially drive the need for international cooperation on AI, to look at the limitations of the current sort of mechanisms for international cooperation. And then we propose a range of policy recommendations for this administration to take forward to really build a more systemic approach to AI cooperation internationally.

SIGN: The paper, A Blueprint for Technology Governance in the Post Pandemic World, was coauthored with Stephen Almond. As a matter of fact, too often regulations struggle to keep pace with innovation, whether we speak about new ideas, products, or business models, they are hampered while citizens are so often left without options. So as government seeks to build back better in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, a more agile, innovative, enabling approach to regulation is needed. So, our paper presents a blueprint for regulatory reforms offices to introduce a more innovative enabling approach to regulation across government and to seize the opportunities of technological change. So, I think we really try to ensure that on the one hand, the fast pace of technological innovation can continue. And on the other hand, the ability of governments to regulate those innovations such so that they serve the greater good is also enabled.

Full Transcript (pdf)

See the original post here:

Proposals to meet global challenges in artificial intelligence and technology regulation - Brookings Institution

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Technology has been touching almost every industry nowadaysfinancial services, food production, transportation, telecommunication, agriculture, and many more. Real estate is no exception. Its now more convenient for home buyers and sellers to find what they need to secure a property or sell one. Heres how technology has been transforming real estate businesses everywhere.

Its not just printed ads in newspapers and magazines anymore. You can find dedicated websites for properties on sale. If youre looking for a home or a place of business to lease, you can easily find online listings of available properties.

With real estate listings, you dont even have to browse the inventory one-by-one. All you need is to use the filter feature to look for the square footage, the number of floors, rooms, amenities, and your preferred location. The listings will also include landmarks and how close the properties are at specific vital points such as hospitals, schools, police stations, fire stations, supermarkets, and more. Some will also include a virtual map of the propertys location.

With all the information already available online, all thats left to do is contact the seller. Simultaneously, by creating an online listing, the seller can eliminate reiteration of all the property information with a client.

Selling your property sometimes doesnt come easy for lack of interested buyers. You could also have a property facing foreclosure, needing minor and major repairs, code violations, orbankruptcy. When youre under these situations, there is an urgency for money, and thats where home buying companies can help you.

These companies scout properties in specific locations to buy properties. You can also call the company to visit your property, where, after observations, will make you an offer depending on the current state of your home. Its also why it is essential to research the best home buyers in your area to be sure that you can find a legit home buying company. These home buying companies are using the internet to market their services so that sellers can easily find them.

Showcases are standard for buyers who want to see the property first. But for those who cannot make it, sellers, brokers, or agents can use companies that offer real estate virtual tours. It is an innovative way to separate you from other property sellers, still using the old way of showcasing the interior, exterior, and specifications of a home. In some cases, prospective buyers can view the same property at its pre-construction stage.

Virtual reality tours also eliminate the need for agents to be present. The virtual solution allows a 360-degree view of the property. It gives the potential buyer a preview before booking an onsite viewing. That way, the buyer knows what to expect and would be more interested in taking a closer look at the home.

Technology is not solely for the buying and selling of properties. More importantly, it is improving the way construction companies are building structures and add-ons that make a smart and innovative home. This type of development is alternately called green or sustainable construction. It is a technology-based solution that aims to build environmentally-friendly properties using durable, cost-effective, and safer materials for the health of future tenants. The technology includes the following:

Homeowners and commercial property owners can benefit from financial technology. Construction projects and mortgage loans are not possible without alternative financing sources such as what online financial platforms can offer. Compared to banks, the documents they need as not as strict. Fintech solutions are not only a good source of capital, but they also have a quicker processing duration in response to the online applications that borrowers send in. There are fintech platforms that make it easier to start construction projects by providing loans to buy supplies and leasing heavy machinery. Such fintech platforms offer financial help to do a business project a reality.

Various businesses are taking to social media and for a good reason. People are spending more and more time on their profiles. When companies are taking advantage of Facebooks Business Manager, they advertise products and services as users scroll down their newsfeeds. The real estate business is no exception. Any company can create a business or community page where they can showcase what they have to offer. People can join these pages or community groups to read about the latest updates or news. It engages potential customers to provide their opinions or asks questions. Both real estate companies and brokers can utilize the power of social media anytime as it is a cost-effective way to advertise.

Some transactions dont need to be face-to-face. Online solutions such as e-signing can allow users to upload documents and draw their signatures onto the designated spaces. E-signing services let you upload different formats of documents. Some platforms will allow you to sign a document in multiple ways. You can draw your signature, scan or upload your signature to paste onto the documents or type your name using the text feature. A technology-based solution that is secure and legally-binding simplifies administrative tasks and provides convenience to the employee or customer.

Technology covers much of the real estate industry drafting, financing, construction, and marketing. There are many solutions today that offer convenience to both property sellers and buyers. These solutions are cost-effective and offer both parties the chance to connect at a level that was impossible decades ago. Not only is it making it easier to do business, but it also allows you and your brand to build relationships with the masses.

Follow this link:

Is Technology Changing The Real Estate Industry? - BOSS Magazine

Tomas Pribanic has found a way to apply ion thrust to autonomous aerial vehicles in Earths atmosphere, creating a silent propulsion system and paving the way for the greater application of drones in the cargo delivery industry.

Call it his Kitty Hawk moment. His Spirit of St. Louis special.

If all goes well at a makeshift airfield in Hialeah early next month, Tomas Pribanic will write a new chapter in aviationand, perhaps, entrepreneurial history.

Thats when the University of Miami College of Engineering Ph.D. student will test his invention of a new pilotless aircraft powered by ion propulsion.

In the Star Trek episode Spocks Brain, chief engineer Montgomery Scott gazed in awe at an ion-powered alien spacecraft on an intercept course with the Enterprise, describing the ship as a beauty and saying he had never seen anything like it.

But in reality, ion propulsion isnt solely the stuff of science fiction. An advanced form of power that uses electricity to accelerate ions and produce small but long-lasting thrust, it is the preferred method of power for engineers who use it to keep satellites in their proper orientation and to propel deep-space probes farther and faster than any other form of thrust.

The technologys one glaring disadvantage, however, is that it works best only in the vacuum of space, free from Earths powerful gravitational pull.

Pribanic, who started building and flying model airplanes when he was 12, says he has found a way to overcome that obstacle. After months of extensive research, he has applied ionic thrust to drones on Earth, allowing the autonomous vehicles to operate in the atmosphere just as efficientlyand silentlyas they would if they flew in outer space.

The Ph.D. student will test his five-square-foot, ion-powered prototype at Amelia Earhart Park in March, putting the vehicle through its paces in outdoor conditions after months of indoor vertical takeoffs and landings at the Doral-based Undefined Technologies lab he founded and now leads.

An electric propulsion expert who has worked for some of the largest aerospace companies in the nation, Pribanic said his Air Tantrum technology could transform the field of transportation. The prototype is light weight, produces zero carbon emissions, and the technology is adaptable, he said. But the biggest gamechanger is that it generates silent propulsion.

And that, he said, should help spur increased usage of drones, which are notorious for producing loud, high-pitched noiseas high as 96 decibels, according to Pribanic. He noted a recent NASA study that found that the buzzing sound produced by drones is more annoying to humans than noises generated by cars and trucks, even when the noises are at the same volume.

His technology is projected to generate noise below 70 decibels, which would fall under the threshold established by a number of municipal noise ordinances.

Certain corporations are already looking at ways to use unmanned vehicles to improve their operations. Major retailers like Walmart and Amazon and package carriers such as FedEx and UPS have begun experimenting with drones, said Harihara Prasad Natarajan, an associate professor of management at the Miami Herbert Business School. They are exploring the possibility of using drones for a variety of supplychain activities including counting physical inventory, moving packages within the warehouse, and even for last-mile deliveries, especially in remote, inaccessible areas.

With a new start-up, Pribanic plans to commercialize his technology and incorporate it into the existing drone market focusing on urban cargo, delivering everything from online shopping packages and groceries to vital medicines and COVID-19 test kits.He enters a thriving industry, as the global drone market will grow from

$22.5 billion in 2020 to more than $42 billion in 2025, according to the Drone Market Report 2020.

Pribanic has been mentored by College of Engineering materials scientist Xiangyang Zhou, and has worked with Bob Williamson, entrepreneur in residence at the Universitys Office of Technology Transfer, to patent and market his new technology.

Tomas took a known technology and modified it to become a practical, yet quiet way to provide lift. We shouldnt be surprised if he fundamentally changes the drone industry, Williamson said.

The aerospace engineering students venture into ion propulsion almost didnt happen. I was experimenting with other forms of thrust before and hadnt really done much research in ionic thrust because it wasnt viable for atmospheric conditions on Earth, Pribanic said. But I realized that achieving ion propulsion in our atmospheric was a big challenge. I saw the tremendous potential it offered. Now, were in the final stages of achieving a lofty goal.

Go here to see the original:

Engineering student's technology could revolutionize the use of drones - University of Miami - University of Miami

Younger entrepreneurs have a lot in common, the experts say.

They dont fear technology. They have fewer obligations, so they can take risks. And, like all entrepreneurs, they are driven by an idea.

Karen Bowling, the inaugural director of the University of North Florida Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, said startup founders under the age of 30 can offset their lack of life experience and a professional network with a solid business plan and fire in the gut.

Many of them know no fear, and theyre at a point in their life where they can take risks, Bowling said.

The Jacksonville Daily Record and the Jacksonville Record & Observer profiled four area entrepreneurs under the age of 30 who started and run their companies.

They all say they started their ventures by identifying a need and setting out to fill it.

Karen Bowling, the inaugural director of the University of North Florida Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Bowling has worked with a handful of 20-somethings since the UNF center launched its program in 2019.

She said startup founders under 30 have a strength less aversion to taking chances.

They may not have as many obligations yet, so there are some advantages.

The UNF center is a business incubator for early-stage startups and provides business counseling, mentoring and professional services with subject matter experts.

Jim Stallings, CEO at investment and entrepreneurial resource firm PS27 Ventures LLC, says young entrepreneurs have an advantage with innovation because theyre not intimidated by using technology and data.

Bowling said the UNF center doesnt keep data on the age of its entrepreneurs and is open to startup founders across the age spectrum.

We made a decision from the very beginning not to even ask what somebodys age is because were looking for the best ideas, Bowling said.

Theres no age discrimination when it comes to that.

There are numbers that show entrepreneurs age 30 and under are below the typical age of business founders.

A 2018 joint study from MIT, Northwestern University, the National Bureau of Economic Research and the U.S. Census Bureau on age and high-growth entrepreneurship found that overall U.S. startup founders from 2007-14 were 39 to 40 years old.

The median age for the fastest growing new ventures in the U.S. is 45 years old.

Younger entrepreneurs also face challenges.

U.S. Census Bureau-backed research found that 53.2% of high-growth startups with founders under the age of 30 failed compared with 45.6% with founders older than 30.

Bowling said regardless of age, barriers for most entrepreneurs are the same.

Its a process, right? Whats your idea? Who are your customers? How are you going to get that first customer? How are you going to price that service or product? And those ideas dont care if youre 12 or 50, really.

Jim Stallings, CEO of investment and entrepreneurial resource firm PS27 Ventures, says the biggest barrier for entrepreneurs is understanding the market for their product or solution.

Stallings said access to capital and investment should not be considered the biggest barrier for young founders, but challenges come when their company is ready to grow.

He tells entrepreneurs working with PS27 their biggest barrier is understanding the market for their product or solution.

They have a good product (or) solution, he said. But they need to figure out who is the customer and how do I sell it?

Stallings, a former general manager of global markets at IBM, founded PS27 in 2012. The firm is an early-stage investor in startup companies with a fully formed product or service.

In 2020, PS27 invested $2 million in cash and services in five companies after analyzing 600 deals and proposals.

The five startups were split between Tampa, Orlando and one in Northeast Florida, according to the firm.

Stalling said PS27 is expecting its biggest investment year to date in 2021 and expects to analyze 940 deals. He said PS27 likely will invest in 2% of those proposals.

Stallings said the generation of people age 30 and younger has a different outlook on employment, which he thinks is leading to more entrepreneurship.

Most of my generation grew up thinking were going to work in a corporation or the company for 30 years, retire and get a watch, he said.

This generation thats coming along, their starting point is some form of self-employment. They may start out on a big company, but I think (entrepreneurship) is a thought in the back of their mind.

Follow this link:

Ideas, technology and a fire in the gut fuel young entrepreneurs - Jacksonville Daily Record

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Chevron Corp is seen in its booth at Gastech, the world's biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

(Reuters) - Chevron Corp on Thursday said it had launched a $300 million fund focused on low-carbon technology, as traditional global oil and gas firms attempt to invest more in green energy and tackle climate change.

Major energy firms have set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or are exploring investments in renewable energy and green technology amid rising pressure from investors and activists.

Earlier this month, top U.S. oil producer Exxon Mobil Corp unveiled a carbon-removal technology venture that would directly compete with Occidental Petroleum Corps efforts to develop the largest ever facility to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Chevron Technology Ventures, the venture capital division of the company, launched the first Future Energy Fund in 2018 and has invested in more than 10 companies in the field that focus on carbon capture and energy storage.

Last month, Chevron invested in Blue Planet Systems Corp, a startup commercializing a technology that makes a substitute for limestone in concrete and building materials from carbon dioxide.

The oil major in October also formed a joint venture to market dairy biomethane, a renewable natural gas made of methane emissions from cattle burps as part of its push to reduce emissions.

Reporting by Rithika Krishna in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.

Visit link:

Chevron launches $300 million fund to focus on low-carbon technology - Reuters

With an array of keynote speeches and roundtable discussions, the forum academically explored the art of light and shadow covering topics of empowering future cities, boosting night economy, and back-feeding cities' soft power. Participants of these online and offline discussions included Wang Zhi'ou (Chief Curator of GLOW SHENZHEN 2020), Qiu Zhijie (Dean of School of Experimental Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts), Cai Xinyuan (Associate Dean of School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Liu Jun (General Manager of Strategic Market Center of Unilumin), teams of artists such as Radugadesign from Russia and ENESS from Australia, as well as experts of light technology and related industries. In one of the roundtable discussions themed "exploring the influence of light art on city life and public space in the future", Wen Bin,Director of IDG ASIA Accelerator, Qin Xiu, Founder of Aura Project, and other representatives shared enlightening insights from different walks of life. The discussion was hosted by Professor Zhang Yuxing from School of Architecture & Urban Planning, Shenzhen University.

In the forum, the Urban Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality and IDG ASIA signed a five-year framework agreement, with the aim to build GLOW SHENZHEN into a world-renowned brand of city light art exhibition.

Wen Bin, Director of IDG ASIA Accelerator, expressed his hope that this forum, as an industry-academia-research platform for the development of tech-based art, can help Shenzhen lead the world in scientific and technological innovation and play an exemplary role in the integration of "technology + art" for the world. IDG ASIA also wishes to make full use of its resources in technology, investment, convention& exhibition, industry& research, media, culture& tourism to support GLOW SHENZHEN 2020.

"The brightness of lighting in a region at night is proportionate to the GDP of that region." A healthy business environment can unleash the potential of night consumption to promote a city's economic growth. This forum received strategic support form Shenzhen International Investment & Promotion Association (SZIIPA), a non-profit organization initiated by the Shenzhen Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. and other institutions. Sticking to the forum's core topics such as technology industry, urban art and economic development, SZIIPA drew on all kinds of resources from enterprises that have invested in Shenzhen to support the building of industry-academia-research platforms, to connect global investment resources, and to consistently promote Shenzhen's business environment and its image.

SOURCE Shenzhen International Investment & Promotion Association (SZIIPA)

See more here:

Technology and Art of Light in the Spotlight: Artists from around the World Gather at Shenzhen International Light Art Forum - PRNewswire

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) today announced that it is building a new supercomputer for KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, one of Swedens largest technical universities dedicated to science and engineering research. The new supercomputer, which is funded by Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC), will enable a significant level of computational performance, powered by the HPE Cray EX supercomputer, to improve modeling and simulation from complex data to make breakthroughs in academia and for a range of industrial areas, including drug design, renewable energy, and advanced automotive and fleet vehicles.

The new supercomputer, which KTH has named Dardel in honor of the Swedish novelist, Thora Dardel, and her first husband, Nils Dardel, the post-impressionist painter, will replace KTHs current flagship system, Beskow, and will be housed on KTHs main campus at the PDC Center for High Performance Computing.

Sweden gains new supercomputer to bolster R&D and unlock industrial innovation

SNICs new flagship system, Dardel, will be built using the HPE Cray EX supercomputer, which features an advanced high performance computing architecture designed for next-generation supercomputing, such as for exascale-class systems that are 10X faster than todays most powerful supercomputers.

The HPE Cray EX supercomputer will include HPE Slingshot for purpose-built HPC networking to address demands for higher speed and congestion control for data-intensive workloads. It will also feature next generation AMD EPYC processors and AMD Instinct GPU accelerators to improve efficiency and achieve the performance required to process and harness insights from computationally complex data.

With a theoretical peak performance of 13.5 petaflops1, Dardel will be significantly faster than the current flagship system at PDC. The advanced capabilities of the new system that HPE is delivering will help Swedish researchers tackle challenging research areas, including computational fluid dynamics, biophysics and quantum chemistry, that are used in R&D supporting Swedish companies across the manufacturing, automotive and transportation, medical, agriculture, oil and gas, aeronautical and space industries. Example companies using PDCs HPC systems for R&D include trucking manufacturer Scania and several technical consulting companies such as Sweco, Tyrns and FSDynamics.

High performance computing (HPC) technologies are broadly used in R&D to advance the technologies that go into the products and services we use each day. For decades, the PDC Center for High Performance Computing at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology has empowered a community of researchers to make breakthroughs across a range of industries using HPC, said Peter Ungaro, senior vice president and general manager, HPC and Mission Critical Solutions at HPE. We are honored to have been selected by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology to deliver the latest HPE Cray EX supercomputer with next-generation AMD technologies and provide an even greater level of performance to improve and expand Swedish academic research and drive innovation for Swedish industrial companies.

HPE to deliver KTHs Dardel in two phases

HPE will install the first phase of the supercomputer this summer. It will feature over 65,000 CPU cores and it be ready for research use in July 2021. The second phase of the installation will consist of GPUs which will be installed later this year and be ready for use in January 2022

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud platform-as-a-service company that helps organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. Built on decades of reimagining the future and innovating to advance the way we live and work, HPE delivers unique, open and intelligent technology solutions, with a consistent experience across all clouds and edges, to help customers develop new business models, engage in new ways, and increase operational performance. For more information, visit: http://www.hpe.com.

1) KTHs Dardel supercomputer will have a theoretical peak performance of 13.5 petaflops after the two phases of the system have been completed

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, EPYC, Instinct, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

The rest is here:

Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology Selects Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Build New Supercomputer to Advance Academic and Industrial Research -...

This unusual options alert can help traders discover the next big trading opportunities. Traders will search for circumstances when the market estimation of an option diverges heavily from its normal worth. Unusual trading activity could push option prices to exaggerated or underestimated levels.

Below are some instances of unusual options activity happening in the Information Technology sector:

AAPL

CALL

TRADE

BULLISH

02/26/21

$124.00

$33.6K

18.8K

72.2K

NNDM

CALL

SWEEP

BEARISH

12/17/21

$30.00

$53.8K

9.5K

2.8K

AMD

CALL

TRADE

BULLISH

03/19/21

$85.00

$78.0K

13.9K

2.7K

ADBE

PUT

SWEEP

BEARISH

03/19/21

$410.00

$113.0K

1.4K

2.1K

RIOT

CALL

SWEEP

BEARISH

02/26/21

$47.00

$26.0K

616

2.0K

CSCO

CALL

TRADE

BEARISH

01/21/22

$47.50

$629.0K

13.1K

1.7K

CRM

CALL

TRADE

BULLISH

03/05/21

$225.00

$69.0K

256

1.0K

PYPL

CALL

SWEEP

BULLISH

02/26/21

$262.50

$28.4K

833

957

SQ

CALL

SWEEP

BEARISH

03/05/21

$237.50

$170.5K

407

610

ESTC

CALL

TRADE

BULLISH

05/21/21

$190.00

$81.0K

918

405

Explanation

These itemized elaborations have been created using the accompanying table.

For AAPL (NASDAQ:AAPL), we notice a call option trade that happens to be bullish, is expiring today. Parties traded 431 contract(s) at a $124.00 strike. The total cost received by the writing party (or parties) was $33.6K, with a price of $78.0 per contract. There were 18895 open contracts at this strike prior to today, and today 72287 contract(s) were bought and sold.

For NNDM (NASDAQ:NNDM), we notice a call option sweep that happens to be bearish, expiring in 294 day(s) on December 17, 2021. This event was a transfer of 332 contract(s) at a $30.00 strike. This particular call needed to be split into 16 different trades to become filled. The total cost received by the writing party (or parties) was $53.8K, with a price of $162.0 per contract. There were 9555 open contracts at this strike prior to today, and today 2867 contract(s) were bought and sold.

Story continues

For AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), we notice a call option trade that happens to be bullish, expiring in 21 day(s) on March 19, 2021. This event was a transfer of 200 contract(s) at a $85.00 strike. The total cost received by the writing party (or parties) was $78.0K, with a price of $390.0 per contract. There were 13911 open contracts at this strike prior to today, and today 2776 contract(s) were bought and sold.

Regarding ADBE (NASDAQ:ADBE), we observe a put option sweep with bearish sentiment. It expires in 21 day(s) on March 19, 2021. Parties traded 496 contract(s) at a $410.00 strike. This particular put needed to be split into 4 different trades to become filled. The total cost received by the writing party (or parties) was $113.0K, with a price of $228.0 per contract. There were 1414 open contracts at this strike prior to today, and today 2135 contract(s) were bought and sold.

For RIOT (NASDAQ:RIOT), we notice a call option sweep that happens to be bearish, is expiring today. Parties traded 200 contract(s) at a $47.00 strike. This particular call needed to be split into 5 different trades to become filled. The total cost received by the writing party (or parties) was $26.0K, with a price of $130.0 per contract. There were 616 open contracts at this strike prior to today, and today 2084 contract(s) were bought and sold.

Read more here:

10 Information Technology Stocks With Unusual Options Alerts In Today's Session - Yahoo Finance