Daily Archives: February 5, 2022

While most middle schoolers were learning about history and grammar, young climate activist Ryan Honary was putting his passion for STEM to work. Living in California, he witnessed the devastating 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed over 18,000 structures. It led Honary to develop a fire-detection technology to help avoid wildfire disasters in the future.

Continue reading below

Our Featured Videos

His invention earned the Grand Prize at the 2019 Ignite Innovation Student Challenge. It also established the Early Wildfire Detection Network, for which he was named the 2020 American Red Cross Disaster Services Hero for Orange County.

Related: He transformed a school bus into an eco-friendly tiny home

Now 14, Honary has achieved more in the way of business development, award-winning ideas and climate action than most people on the planet. His invention caught the attention of the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, a non-profit, non-advocacy organization created in 2005 to help preserve and support the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks. The organization aims to encourage citizens to connect with the land and facilitates stewardship through landowners in the area.

Thank you!

Keep an eye out for our weekly newsletter.

Join Our Newsletter

Receive the latest in global news and designs building a better future.

SIGN UP

SIGN UP

In alignment with these goals, the Irvine Ranch Conservancy invited Honary to conduct a pilot project with its support. The goal is to evaluate the potential for the proprietary AI-driven sensor network technology.

The system will be put to work, testing its ability to prevent fire through detection, measurement, notification and prediction of a variety of environmental threats. For example, the technology monitors air and water pollution and soil moisture levels. It will be deployed in early 2022, with research continuing throughout the year.

We were impressed with Ryans research, and we are excited about its potential to improve our ability to detect threats and monitor our natural resources, which are essential to our adaptive management approach, said Dr. Nathan Gregory, vice president and chief programs officer of the Irvine Ranch Conservancy.

The emergency detection and response system relies on remote sensors and AI to identify fire outbreaks and predict spread patterns. The low-cost mesh network is easy to deploy and can be placed in remote locations that are otherwise unmonitored. The onboard technology allows communication via an app, to alert scientists and emergency responders.

In addition to his work with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy,Honary won the prestigious Office of Naval Research Naval Science Award. The award came in the form of a grant, which led to the formation of Honarys company Sensory AI. Since the initial win in early 2020, the organization has issued several rounds of funding to further develop the technology.

Honary was also recognized as a top 30 finalist at the Broadcom Masters. The program, founded and produced by the Society for Science and the Public and the Broadcom Foundation, is the nations premier STEM competition for middle schoolers.

While headlines rage about the costs and loss associated with wildfires, Honary is working to encourage other students to pursue any interests in STEM fields of study.

I believe that environmental engineering will be one of the most important fields of my generation, and my hope is that students will be encouraged to pursue it and have the resources to do so, said Honary. I am really excited about the opportunity to demonstrate my solution in a larger context, in collaboration with Dr. Gregory and his team, and expect the outcomes to be instrumental in future conservation efforts.

In addition to addressing issues of climate change, he hopes to stand as an inspiration for other youths who may not have considered STEM opportunities.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2030 STEM occupations will increase by 10.5% compared to a 7.5% growth in non-STEM occupations. That opens the door for innumerable careers for candidates with a strong foundation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Yet a White House study found that only 20% of high school graduates are prepared for college level coursework in a STEM major. It also found that less than 20% of undergraduates who declare plans to major in a STEM field actually graduate with a related degree. Its a field of study thats flooded with potential but short on applicants. And the problem starts early in the educational process.

The Skyhook Foundation reports only 33% of eighth graders are interested in STEM majors. That might come from a lack of inspiration even earlier in elementary school. Research supports the idea that if STEM topics arent engaging, the vast majority of students lose interest by fifth grade. This data highlights the need for access and emphasis on STEM-based education starting early on.

Fortunately for the wildlife and human population, Honary is one of the few who are passionate and inspired about STEM from a young age. When hes not actively working to save the planet, Honary reports he enjoys tennis and teaches the sport to autistic youth. He also enjoys singing and playing the guitar, as well as surfing the waves in his hometown of Newport Beach, CA.

+ Ryan Honary

Images via Ryan Honary

See the rest here:

Meet the 14 year old who develops fire prevention technology - Inhabitat

Insiders and analysts have made their predictions on the 3D printing trends to watch out for. Find out more in our series focused on thefuture of 3D printing.

UK-based engineering firm Renishaw (RSW) has revealed that the revenue generated by its Manufacturing Technologies division rose by 30% during the second half of 2021.

Renishaws H1 2022 financials, which it reports from June 30 2021 to December 31 2021, show that its manufacturing arm brought in 309 million, 30% more than the 237 million it reported in H1 2021. Over the period, the division benefited from an impressive recovery in demand from its semiconductor and electronics clientele, while its 3D printing sales also saw strong repeat business from key accounts.

In anticipation of the companys results, investors drove its share price up by 15% in the lead up to their publication, and having met expectations with its financial performance, it now projects that its FY 2022 pre-tax profit could rise to 181 million.

There was growth for all product lines within our Manufacturing Technologies segment, most notably for the encoder and gauging lines, explained Sir David McMurtry, Executive Chairman of Renishaw. The strong demand for our encoder product lines continues to be driven by increased investments in industrial automation and the semiconductor and electronics capital equipment markets.

Renishaws H1 2022 financials

While Renishaw used to report its revenue across Metrology and Healthcare segments, it now does so in the form of Manufacturing Technologies and Analytical Instruments and Healthcare divisions, making it difficult to compare its H1 2022 figures against those it achieved in the periods prior to this reorganization.

What we do know is that the former, which includes the firms industrial metrology, precision measurement and 3D printing offerings, was the driving force behind its H1 2022 revenue growth. During the period, Renishaw says that a spike in demand for consumer electronics and EVs led to increased interest in its gauging, magnetic and optical encoder product lines, with its measuring offering also seeing growth.

As a result, the companys Manufacturing Technologies division was able to achieve an adjusted operating profit of 81 million over the course of H1 2022, a 98% increase on the 41 million it reported in H1 2021. Although Renishaws financials make little reference to how its 3D printing business helped contribute to this, its Chief Executive William Lee did tell analysts on its earnings call, that its wider strategy of targeting key repeat customers is currently working well in this area.

Revenue generated by the firms Analytical Instruments and Healthcare segment, on the other hand, fell from 18.3 million to 16.5 million between H1 2021 and H1 2022, due mainly to delays in shipping its spectroscopy lines to China.

Despite this though, the company was still able to bring in an overall revenue of 325 million in H1 2022, 27% more than the 255 million it reported during H1 2021, and as a result, it has not only been able to increase its cash balance from 215 million to 222 million during this period, but offer a shareholders a 16p per share interim dividend.

Renishaws profitable H1 2022

During Renishaws H1 2022 earnings call, Lee stressed that its ambition in the 3D printing space is still to be the best hardware supplier to its clientele. To achieve this, Lee said the firm is actively working with customers in the early stages of adopting the technology, making initial parts and sometimes even hosting machines for them, until theyre ready to install them at their own facilities.

In terms of new clients, the company revealed that one of its 3D printers had been deployed by Optimus3D during the quarter, to manufacture optimized titanium chainstay brackets for Angel Cycle Works bicycles. Using a RenAM 500S system, the company is said to have been able to automate the parts production process, while achieving a high level of consistency and improved quantities.

Renishaw also introduced its new RenAM 500 Flex 3D printers at Formnext in H1 2022, complete with simplified powder handling systems, designed to enable users to more easily change materials. Although the machines were launched too late into the period to have had a meaningful impact on the companys financials, their sales performance is likely to be vital to its 3D printing divisions future success.

More broadly, when it comes to the reasons behind its impressive H1 revenue figures, its worth noting how Renishaw moved to insulate its business from the impact of Brexit as well. In February 2021, the firm opted to expand its facilities and stock levels at its EU offices, while making some of them independent subsidiaries, enabling it to avoid some of the supply chain disruption seen elsewhere in the UK.

3D printing ready for take-off?

Renishaw has made some bold predictions ahead of H2, forecasting revenue for the 2022 financial year of 650-690 million, and a pre-tax profit of 157-181 million. If realized, these figures would represent annual rises of 22% and 4% respectively.

In a statement issued issued alongside its figures, the firm said that it remains confident in its long-term prospects due to its strong financial position, product pipeline and high-value manufacturing relevance, while McMurtry added on its earnings call, that 3D printing remains an important part of achieving its goals moving forwards, particularly in the world of small-batch production.

The future is the price per part and when it comes down, the potential for additive manufacturing is enormous, added McMurtry. Theres no tool that needs to be sharpened. There are a lot of advantages, and when the price per part comes down really rapidly, it will really take off in the future, in my view.

To stay up to date with the latest 3D printing news, dont forget to subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter or follow us on Twitter or liking our page on Facebook.

For a deeper dive into additive manufacturing, you can now subscribe to our Youtube channel, featuring discussion, debriefs, and shots of 3D printing in-action.

Are you looking for a job in the additive manufacturing industry? Visit 3D Printing Jobs for a selection of roles in the industry.

Featured image shows a row of Renishaws new 500Q Flex 3D printers. Photo via Renishaw.

View post:

Renishaw projects FY 2022 profit of up to 181M as manufacturing technology demand rises 30% - 3D Printing Industry

Father Eric J. Banecker

By Father Eric J. Banecker Posted February 4, 2022

As we enter the third year of the pandemic, there is an odd disconnect. Some are debating the when and how of moving out of the emergency phase. Others, irresponsibly, never entered the emergency phase at all. Most of us, of course, are somewhere in between, trying to make sense of a flurry of recommendations, variants and information.

In the process, we have reached a fascinating point in the way this pandemic has affected our relationship with technology. For the first year of the pandemic, science and technology represented all that was right with the world: nurses working past exhaustion to care for COVID patients; wise old figures explaining steps we could take to keep ourselves and others healthy; front-line heroes making sure masks, gloves and tests were properly manufactured and distributed.

It also represented major social change (Zoom means we can all work from home forever!), salvation from loneliness (Zoom happy hour!), a new way of fulfilling religious obligations (livestream Mass!), and then, finally, escape from the pandemic itself (mRNA vaccines!).

But something happened on the way to this bright, promising future promised by technology. It turns out that some jobs just cannot be done from our home offices, and it also turns out that many of those jobs are lower-wage jobs.

Suddenly, those wise old figures became experts we were either told were trying to rob our freedom or whom we had to follow with extreme scrupulosity. Some of the front-line heroes were fired from their jobs for not getting a vaccine. Others watched loved ones die because they didnt get a vaccine.

Zoom lost its charm, Twitter became snarkier and angrier, and Facebook already under fire became Meta and tried to convince us that our lives would be lived online from now on.

This disenchantment must be behind the many articles from very different kinds of publications which have recently lamented various ways technology (and the corporations which sell it to us) has negatively affected our society.

Dear friends, we must live in the real. We are not avatars, and the internet is not a home, office, nation, or church. As we enter year three of the pandemic, we must recognize the inherent limits of science and technology. Acknowledging limits, of course, doesnt mean denying reality. Indeed, the human mind has come to understand many aspects of reality precisely because reality is intelligible. And when that knowledge is applied in a way that helps to sustain and promote life, that is a great thing.

So yes, mRNA vaccines are a very good thing. The digitization of certain aspects of life and work can open up possibilities of interaction and collaboration heretofore impossible. Just as things we dont even think of as technology the printing press, advances in agriculture and animal husbandry transformed previous eras but are considered analog today, so many aspects of life we consider revolutionary will probably be considered ancient in a few hundred years.

The essential criterion for any kind of technology chemical, biological, electronic is simply this: does this promote the flourishing of the human person and the human community or not? The answer for most forms of technology will be well, it depends.

Smartphones can help us listen to the Bible in a Year podcast, or they can be devices for the easy access and distribution of pornography. (In fact, they are both at the same time.) Social media can be a tool to share ideas and meet people, or it can be a fantasyland of arguments designed to make us addicted and depressed at the same time. From major research laboratories can come advances in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 and also experiments with human chimeras and cloning.

The choice about whether or not to adopt a certain technology cannot be left to those in board rooms or even, sadly, in many ethics committee meetings. It must be left to the actual real communities which make up our lives families, legislatures, voluntary organizations and the church through the magisterium to discern advances in technology and determine whether they truly respond to our needs or simply create new ones.

The truly bright, promising future is one which respects the world as created by God. In such a world, with God at the center, the human person is lifted up by scientific advances rather than brought down. The choice lies not in the atoms and semi-conductors; rather, it lies in the hearts of mothers and fathers, priests and politicians, doctors, nurses, lawyers and scientists.

Catholics have a unique opportunity to extol the wonders of science while also warning of its limitations. We can use the means of digital communication to proclaim the Gospel, while also directing people to real, live experiences of worship and communal life.

May we be guided by faith and reason in fulfilling Christs commission to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world for our day.

Originally posted here:

Year three of COVID reveals technology's limits - CatholicPhilly.com

Eric Harkleroad/KHN (Images: Getty Images/Unsplash)

Eric Harkleroad/KHN (Images: Getty Images/Unsplash)

In October, when Jamie Taylor's household monthly income fit within new state income limits after Missouri's 2021 expansion of Medicaid, she applied for health coverage. She received a rejection letter within days, stating that her earnings exceeded the acceptable limit.

It was the latest blow in Taylor's ongoing campaign to get assistance from Missouri's safety net. Taylor, 41, has spent hours on the phone, enduring four-hour hold times and dropped calls. Time-sensitive documents were mailed to her home in Sikeston but by the time they arrived she had little time to act.

Her latest rejection she would later find out resulted from a preprogrammed glitch in her application that a technician enrolling her failed to catch.

Taylor's struggles to get a benefit she was in fact qualified for are not uncommon in Missouri or nationally. They stem from extremely outdated technology used by a humongous web of government agencies, from local public health to state-run benefits programs. Matt Salo, the National Association of State Medicaid Directors executive director, calls the need for technology upgrades "the next great challenge that government has to solve."

The COVID crisis exposed just how antiquated and ill-equipped many systems are to handle the unprecedented demand. While private-sector businesses beefed up the ability to stream TV shows, created apps for food deliveries, and moved offices online, some public health officials tracked COVID outbreaks by fax machine.

Jamie Taylor dealt with four-hour hold times and dropped calls while trying to secure public benefits in Missouri. Others have encountered similar problems across the nation as the pandemic has highlighted the pitfalls of dated government technology. Krissy Pruiett hide caption

Jamie Taylor dealt with four-hour hold times and dropped calls while trying to secure public benefits in Missouri. Others have encountered similar problems across the nation as the pandemic has highlighted the pitfalls of dated government technology.

But momentum is finally building for government tech updates. With once-in-a-generation pools of money available from pandemic relief funding and higher than expected tax revenues, some efforts are underway. President Joe Biden issued an executive order in December calling on benefits enrollment to be streamlined. State lawmakers are urging the use of unspent COVID relief money to address the issue.

That's critical because outdated information systems can trigger ripple effects throughout the public benefits system, according to Jessica Kahn, who is a partner at the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm and previously led data and systems for Medicaid at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. One example: Hard-to-navigate online benefits applications can push more applicants to call phone help lines. That can strain call centers that, like many industries, are having difficulty meeting staffing needs.

Some states are already eyeing improvements:

In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has directed up to $80 million to replace the state's old unemployment infrastructure.

Kansas is among the first states working with the U.S. Department of Labor's newly created Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization set to manage $2 billion in funds appropriated by the American Rescue Plan Act last year.

In Missouri, a bipartisan state Senate committee recommended using surplus COVID relief funds for the Department of Social Services to update the benefit computer systems. The department also has proposed using federal pandemic money on artificial intelligence to process some 50,000 documents per week. That work is currently done manually at an average of two minutes per document.

Underfunding is nothing new to public health and safety-net programs. Public officials have been reluctant to allocate the money necessary to overhaul dated computer systems projects that can cost tens of millions of dollars. But even when the money is there, recent history suggests these improvements may be easier said than done.

More than 10 years ago, the Obama administration invested $36 billion to develop and mandate the national use of electronic health records for patients. Despite the billions invested, the digitizing of patients' records has been plagued with problems. Indeed, to benefit from the new Biden administration requirement that insurers reimburse them for rapid tests, patients have to fax or mail in claims and receipts.

The Affordable Care Act also offered a chance to improve state technology infrastructure. From 2011 through 2018, the federal government offered to cover up to 90% of the funds necessary to replace or update old Medicaid IT systems, many of which were programmed in COBOL, a computer programming language dating to 1959. Those updates could have benefited other parts of the government safety net as well, since state-administered assistance programs frequently share technology and personnel.

But, Salo says, the ACA required these new Medicaid computer systems to communicate directly with the health care exchanges created under the law. States faced varying degrees of trouble. Tennessee applications got lost, leading to a class-action lawsuit. Many states never fully overhauled their benefit systems.

During the pandemic, tech issues became impossible to ignore. Amid the early lockdowns, hundreds of thousands of people waited months for unemployment help as states such as New Jersey, Kansas, and Wisconsin struggled to program newly created benefits into existing software. Local and state vaccine registration sites were plagued with so many problems they were inaccessible to many, including blind people, a violation of federal disability laws.

In Missouri, where Jamie Taylor lives, a 2019 McKinsey assessment of the state's Medicaid program noted the system was made up of about 70 components, partially developed within a mainframe from 1979, that was "not positioned to meet both current and future needs."

In a 2020 report for the state, Department of Social Services staffers called the benefits enrollment process "siloed" and "built on workarounds," while participants called it "dehumanizing."

Taylor experienced that first-hand. Eight years ago, a mysterious medical condition forced her out of the workforce, causing her to lose her job-based health insurance. At various times, she's been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, gastritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and gastroparesis, but lacking insurance and unable to qualify for Medicaid, she was forced to seek treatment in emergency rooms. She has been hospitalized repeatedly over the years. She estimated her medical debt tops $100,000.

At the behest of hospital social workers, Taylor applied for Medicaid, the federal-state public health insurance program for people with low incomes, six times beginning in 2019, although she didn't meet the state's income requirements that were among the lowest in the nation before voters approved expanding the program. Her first two rejection letters began, "Good news," a mistake state officials blame on a programming error.

The October rejection was the most heartbreaking because that time she knew she qualified under the state's new guidelines.

At a loss, Taylor reached out to state Rep. Sarah Unsicker. The Democratic lawmaker represents a district 145 miles away in St. Louis, but Taylor had seen her championing Medicaid expansion on Twitter. After Unsicker queried the department, she learned that a default answer in her application that a technician enrolling her missed is what had disqualified Taylor from getting Medicaid. It incorrectly listed her as receiving Medicare the public insurance designed for older Americans that Taylor does not qualify for.

"Within 24 hours, I had a message back from Sarah saying that another letter was on the way and I should be much happier with the answer," Taylor recalls.

Finally enrolled in Medicaid, Taylor is now struggling to get nutrition assistance, called SNAP, which in Missouri is processed through a separate eligibility system. Medicaid and SNAP applications are combined in 31 states, according to a 2019 analysis from the Code for America advocacy group. But not in hers. The programs have similar income requirements, but Taylor was not able to verify her income over the phone for SNAP as she could for Medicaid.

Instead, she received a letter on Nov. 26 requesting her tax returns by Nov. 29. By the time she was able to locate and email those documents on Dec. 1, she had been denied. Every call to sort out the issue has been met with hold times upward of four hours or queues so full that her call gets dropped, she said.

"It just doesn't make sense to me why Medicaid can verify my tax income over the phone, but SNAP needs me to send them a copy of the whole thing," Taylor says.

Eventually, she gave up and started the whole process over. She's still waiting.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. KHN is an editorially independent operation program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

View original post here:

To get health care, many must navigate glitchy government technology : Shots - Health News - NPR

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GTY Technology Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: GTYH) (GTY), a leading vertical SaaS/Cloud solution provider for the public sector, will hold its fourth quarter 2021 earnings call at 4:30 pm ET on Thursday, February 17th, 2022.

The live conference call can be accessed by registering here. After registering, instructions will be shared on how to join the call.

The call will also be available via live webcast here. The archived webcast will be available shortly after the call on the Company website, http://www.gtytechnology.com.

About GTY Technology Holdings Inc.

GTY Technology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: GTYH) (GTY) brings leading public sector technology companies together to achieve a new standard in stakeholder engagement and resource management. Through its six business units, GTY offers an intuitive cloud-based suite of solutions for state and local governments, education institutions, and healthcare organizations spanning functions in procurement, payments, grant management, budgeting, and permitting: Bonfire provides strategic sourcing and procurement software to enable confident and compliant spending decisions; CityBase provides government payment solutions to connect constituents with utilities and government agencies; eCivis offers a grant management system to maximize grant revenues and track performance; Open Counter provides user-friendly software to guide applicants through complex permitting and licensing procedures; Questica offers budget preparation and management software to deliver on financial and non-financial strategic objectives; Sherpa provides public-sector budgeting software and consulting services.

Originally posted here:

GTY Technology Holdings to Announce Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Financial Results on February 17th, 2022 - Business Wire