Technology

Nation’s first Black Honors College launching at Sacramento State

Published

2 years ago

February 13, 2024

The unique college is specifically designed for students interested in Black history, life, and culture.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Sacramento State President Luke Wood has announced formation of the nation’s first Black Honors College, set to launch at the University in fall 2024.

Students in the Black Honors College will have their own specialized coursework, with smaller classes and faculty members who have a demonstrated record of success in teaching and serving Black students. Weekly seminars, experiential learning opportunities, internships, and set-alone advisors and counselors will create an enhanced college experience for students.

Sacramento State enrolls more Black students than any of the other 22 institutions in the California State University system and all but one of the University of California’s 13 schools. “We are creating an institution within the institution that is specifically designed to serve the academic, co-curricular, and psychological needs of Black students,” said Wood, who became Sacramento State’s ninth permanent president in July 2023.

“We cannot be a Historically Black College or University, given that we were not founded before 1964,” Wood said, “but we can be everything but the historical part and implement the best practices that make HBCUs so critical to the Black community.”

Applications for the Black Honors College open mid-February to incoming first-year students. Prospective applicants with a 3.5 GPA or higher are encouraged to apply.

“We are going all in as a University to create something special for Black students, and we are calling upon the community to help us make this happen,” Wood said. “We need the community’s support, your prayers, internships for students, and scholarship dollars.”

The University is providing significant resources for the college, including 6,000 square feet of space with a set-alone seminar room, conference rooms, study spaces, and offices. “Too often, students from California want to go out of state for college because they believe that public higher education in California is failing them,” said Aniesha Mitchell, vice president for Student Affairs. “Unlike anything else in the state, the Black Honors College is specifically designed to meet the needs and aspirations of Black students. We are intentionally cultivating the courageous leaders of tomorrow.”

Dr. Boatamo Ati Mosupyoe will serve as the college’s dean of students and chief academic officer. Mosupyoe formerly served as associate dean for the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies and has led other campus programs that effectively serve Black students. Wood and Mosupyoe envision the Black Honors College as the first step in a larger national movement.

“Our aim is to develop a system of institutions throughout the nation that will also launch Black Honors Colleges,” Mosupyoe said. “We will set forth a framework to certify whether those institutions have the critical components necessary to justify the designation and are not simply putting a new name on old or under-resourced efforts.”

Ruth Williams will serve as the college’s staff director. She previously served as Sacramento State’s DEGREES Project associate director.

“As someone who has personally received a CSU education, specifically at Sac State, I understand first-hand how crucial a program such as the Black Honors College is for our current and future scholars,” Williams said. “Our carefully crafted programming speaks volumes to the commitments our president, administrators, faculty, and staff have made to make our Black Honors College a success, not just for our students, not just for Sac State, but for you, our community, as well.”

Based on California Proposition 209, the Black Honors College is open to students of all races and backgrounds, but it emphasizes programming and curricular efforts specifically designed for the Black and African American experience. Prospective students who are interested in learning more about Sacramento State’s Black Honors College can email bhc@csus.edu.

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SOURCE California State University, Sacramento

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

3 hours ago

April 29, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

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SOURCE Chef Robotics

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

3 hours ago

April 29, 2026

Watch Chef robots in action.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Technology

Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

Published

3 hours ago

April 29, 2026

New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry.

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

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SOURCE Air Products