Connect with us

Technology

North Texas Innovation Alliance Members and Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners Announce SCEWC Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge

Published

2 years ago

on

Pitching Challenge to Reward Companies with United States Pilot and Funding Opportunities

DALLAS, Sept. 23, 2024 /CNW/ — North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA), a 501(c)3 regional consortium of over 40 municipalities, agencies, corporations and academic institutions across North Texas working to create the most connected, smart and resilient region in the country, has announced an international pitch event, named the Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge, to be held at this year’s Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona alongside partner Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners and Texas cities Frisco, McKinney and Fort Worth. This pitch competition will select five startups to compete to win piloting and funding opportunities in the United States.

“Our goal in creating this pitch competition is to foster international innovation across smart cities,” said NTXIA Executive Director Jennifer Sanders. “We are very fortunate to have strong cross-sector and cross-regional collaborations with organizations across the U.S. This pitch competition represents the opportunity for these companies to interact with some of the U.S.’ leading minds in this space, and the opportunity to pilot their technology and receive funding to help achieve their goals of developing their technology and potentially entering the U.S. market. We are very excited to see the innovations these international companies bring!”

The 2024 Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge is focusing the problem statements on the future of transportation, sustainability and VRUs. Companies interested in participating in the pitch event will need to ensure their solutions address these key challenge areas, with a solution focus on the following:

Traffic congestion mitigationCurbside managementAutonomous delivery systemsPedestrian safetyHeat island mitigationEnergy and water efficiency and resiliencyCrowd management at large events from a public safety and visitor experience lens

Companies will also need to ensure their technology is ready to be deployed for testing and development in real-world smart city environments.

“With the World Cup coming to the U.S. and Frisco serving as a host city, with the 2028 Olympics returning to the U.S. soon after that, we are looking to the international startup and smart city communities to bring forward their innovations to help us prepare for what is to come,” said Gloria Salinas, Vice President of the Frisco Economic Development Corporation. “The winners of this pitch competition will have the unique opportunity to help various parts of the U.S. prepare for these global events and aid various municipalities and organizations to ensure the best technologies will benefit all residents and visitors of our cities. Frisco and North Texas are looking forward to seeing how we can integrate these solutions into our city and the region.”

Finalists will be given passes to the SCEWC in Barcelona, where the final pitch will take place. Winners of the competition will be rewarded with travel, pilot and funding. Prizes include:

Curiosity Lab will commit $15,000.00 towards a pilot, one year of office space at its Innovation Center and access to a global partner network for additional market support.Frisco and McKinney, Texas will provide travel and accommodations to the U.S. in Texas and Georgia for senior leadership, up to $10,000.00. This includes airfare, hotel, ground transportation, food and office/co-working space in McKinney and Curiosity Lab for the initial visit.NTXIA, Frisco and McKinney, Texas and Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners will create a curated itinerary of high-level meetings with decision makers in city departments to explore pilot implementation.Winners will also be introduced to high-level individuals at Plug and Play, University of North Texas, the Dallas College system, major healthcare institutions in Texas like Baylor Scott & White Health, Fortune 500 corporations, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, Chambers of Commerce and major sporting and entertainment venues in Texas.Winners will receive global exposure through various media channels.One-of-a-Kind Texas swag and bragging rights.

“We offer a very unique real-world environment for companies of all sizes to test their technologies,” said Curiosity Lab Executive Director Brandon Branham. “Our smart city ecosystem allows international companies to have a soft-landing pad in the U.S. to continue to develop their technologies and to, when ready, enter the U.S. market. We are thrilled to be a part of this incredible pitch competition and to be helping support these international startups in their mission to improve our everyday lives with their various technologies.”

Submissions for the pitch competition open on September 23. Five finalists will be selected by the Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge committee to pitch in person at SCEWC on Wednesday, November 6 in the USA Pavilion. Each company will have 10 minutes for their pitch, followed by a five-minute Q&A session with the judges. Once all presentations and Q&A sessions are final, the judges will deliberate for 10 minutes and will then announce the winner. The Challenge is also supported by Marketplace.city with its Clearbox Source market intelligence product which will promote the opportunity, accept applications and compile vendor submissions.

“North Texas is growing at an incredible rate and having innovation to continue to foster growth in our technology sectors is a huge economic driver for us,” said Michael Kowski, President & CEO of the McKinney Economic Development Corporation. “Our hope in supporting this pitch competition and these innovators is to help companies flourish in a new market and to provide the connections and testing requirements needed to see them succeed. This will help foster North Texas’ smart city ecosystem and showcase how we can harness the power of innovation to create diverse and resilient communities.”

Find out more about the Smart Cities Global Pitching Challenge and the form to submit your application here.

ABOUT THE NORTH TEXAS INNOVATION ALLIANCE
The North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA) is a 501(c)3 consortium of key cross-sector stakeholders working to develop and implement a smart region strategy for North Texas. The NTXIA is building the most connected, smart and resilient region in the country – bringing together government entities on all levels, transit agencies, utilities/infrastructure, public safety, educational institutions and some of the world’s top technology developers in the private sector to pave the way for a brighter tomorrow. The organization’s mission is to break down silos and drive the collaborative use of data, technology and community to address the most pressing topics and create solutions that will improve quality of life, drive inclusive economic development and promote resource efficiency. For more information, please visit www.NTXIA.org, or follow LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners
Curiosity Lab is a 5G-enabled intelligent mobility and smart city living laboratory located in the southeastern United States near Atlanta, Georgia. Designed as a proving ground for IoT, mobility and smart city emerging technologies, the centerpiece of the lab is a three-mile autonomous vehicle lane leveraging cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technologies. Additional infrastructure includes intelligent traffic cameras and traffic signals, smart streetlights, the country’s first “IoT Central Control Room” implemented in a city and a 25,000 square foot technology incubator. Owned and operated by the City of Peachtree Corners, Curiosity Lab is one of North America’s only real-world testing environments and is available for use free of charge. Additional information can be found at www.curiositylabptc.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/north-texas-innovation-alliance-members-and-curiosity-lab-at-peachtree-corners-announce-scewc-smart-cities-global-startup-challenge-302254696.html

SOURCE North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA)

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

CM Global Services Announces Project Santos, a Planned 50-Megawatt AI Data Center Campus in ERCOT South

Published

38 minutes ago

on

July 23, 2026

By

CM Global Services targets a site and engages with strategic partners to become operational in the AI data center space.

DENVER, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CM Global Services, LLC (CMGS) today announced Project Santos, its plan to develop a 50-megawatt AI data center campus for a site in the ERCOT South grid zone. CMGS is a long-standing strategic partner of Compass Mining, Inc. and is a global provider of logistics, hardware sales, and infrastructure services, with a growing focus on AI infrastructure and building site development. The announcement was made by Shanon Squires, Chief Mining Officer of Compass Mining, during a panel on bitcoin mining companies diversifying into AI infrastructure at the Energy Investors Forum.

CMGS intends to deliver Project Santos in two phases. The first phase, a 7-megawatt, 5 MW of IT Load Tier III facility purpose-built for AI inference workloads, is targeted for completion by the end of the first quarter of 2027. A subsequent 43-megawatt expansion, bringing the site to its fully planned 50-megawatt capacity

“This is a disciplined next step for CM Global Services, drawing upon its expertise in standing up infrastructure, while Compass Mining simultaneously continues to be the gold standard in Bitcoin mining-related services,” said Shanon Squires. “Bitcoin mining remains the core of Compass Mining. CMGS’ Project Santos reflects the power infrastructure and site development discipline CMGS built over years, and we’re pursuing this initiative on our own terms.”

“This is a new step forward for CMGS, as we continue building for the future,” said Vishnu Mackenchery, Managing Director at CMGS. “Project Santos marks our entry into AI infrastructure and inference, and we’re charting our own path, moving fast to get there.”

GPU-as-a-Service for Enterprise and Neocloud Customers

Project Santos is being developed as a GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) platform. Rather than requiring customers to bring their own hardware, CMGS is securing NVIDIA GB300 Blackwell GPU capacity to offer directly to off-takers as dedicated, single-tenant or multi-tenant compute. The company’s ideal customer profile is AI enterprise organizations seeking dedicated capacity, and CMGS is also in active discussions with neocloud providers.

Project Status

Site: located in the ERCOT South grid zoneCompute: CMGS is securing NVIDIA GB300 Blackwell GPU capacity to offer as GPU-as-a-Service to off-takersTotal planned capacity: 50 megawatts, 35 MW of IT to be delivered in two phasesPhase 1: 7 megawatts, 5 MW of IT load Tier III, targeted for completion by end of Q1Phase 2: adding a 43-megawatt expansion, 30 MW of IT load with utility-supported expansionCustomer profile: AI enterprise companies are the ideal customer; CMGS is also in active discussions with neocloud providers

About CMGS

CM Global Services (CMGS) is a global provider of logistics, hardware sales, and infrastructure services, with a growing focus on AI infrastructure and building site development. CMGS supports clients with end-to-end logistics solutions, hardware procurement, and site-level execution for next-generation compute infrastructure.

About CMGS and Compass Mining Partnership

Compass Mining serves as a strategic partner and advisor to CM Global Services (CMGS), supporting its growth across global logistics, hardware sales, and infrastructure services. As CMGS expands its focus into AI infrastructure and site development, Compass Mining’s guidance helps shape its strategic direction and execution. Together, the two organizations continue to collaborate on delivering end-to-end solutions for clients building next-generation compute infrastructure.

Disclaimer

This communication contains forward-looking statements relating to a potential closing of a transaction. There can be no assurance that the proposed transaction will be completed on the terms described, or at all. Forward-looking statements are subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. This communication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities of the company. Furthermore, investing in or engaging with our company involves substantial risk, and past performance or previous communications are not indicative of future results. There is no guarantee, assurance, or warranty that any specific financial outcome, return on investment, or overall results will be achieved. Actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed, projected, or implied in any forward-looking statements. Investors and stakeholders should not rely solely on preliminary press releases regarding potential transactions or projected financial metrics when making investment decisions. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Prospective investors are strongly encouraged to conduct their own independent due diligence and consult with a qualified, independent financial or legal advisor prior to making any investment.

Contact
All inquiries can be made to: Santos@CMGlobalServices.io 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cm-global-services-announces-project-santos-a-planned-50-megawatt-ai-data-center-campus-in-ercot-south-302833610.html

SOURCE CM Global Services

Continue Reading

Technology

Advantech Unveils Next-Gen AI Infrastructure Solutions Powered by AMD EPYC™ 9006 Series Processors

Published

38 minutes ago

on

July 23, 2026

By

TAIPEI, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Advantech, a global leader in industrial edge computing and edge AI solutions, today announced its next-generation server and network platforms powered by the latest AMD EPYC™ 9006 Series processors. Designed to accelerate AI infrastructure from the data center to the intelligent edge, Advantech’s 6th Gen AMD EPYC-powered servers deliver the performance, scalability, and reliability organizations need for AI, HPC, storage, networking, and mission-critical industrial workloads.

At AMD Advancing AI 2026, Advantech will showcase its latest 2U 4-node edge server and EATX server board, demonstrating how its workload-ready server solutions enable customers to build scalable, high-performance AI and edge computing infrastructure with greater deployment confidence.

Continuing Performance Leadership with AMD EPYC 9006 Series Processors

6th Gen AMD EPYC server CPUs bring continued leadership in performance, efficiency, memory bandwidth, and next-generation I/O. Featuring up to 128 cores and 256 threads, advanced 2nm process technology, “Zen 6” and “Zen 6c” architecture, up to 20% average generational performance uplift, and up to 20% performance-per-watt improvement, AMD EPYC 9006 Series processors are designed to support more virtual machines, higher throughput, and better system efficiency. With up to 128 PCIe Gen6 lanes per CPU, CXL™ 3.1 memory expansion, and support for DDR5 8000NHz and MRDIMM 12800MHz for high memory bandwidth, Advantech edge server solutions deliver balanced compute, memory, and I/O performance for next-generation AI, telco, edge, and storage infrastructure.

Key Features Include:

Up to 128 cores / 256 threads with “Zen 6” and “Zen 6c” architectureAdvanced 2nm process technology for improved performance and efficiencyUp to 20% average generational performance uplift and 20% performance-per-watt improvementDDR5-8000 and MRDIMM 12.8G support for higher memory bandwidth and capacityPCIe® Gen6 scalability: up to 128 lanes for 1 CPU and up to 196 lanes for 2 CPUsCXL™ 3.1 support for optimized memory expansion

Comprehensive Edge Server Solutions from Edge to Cloud

Advantech’s edge server portfolio powered by AMD EPYC™ 9006 Series processors delivers a complete board-to-system lineup for AI infrastructure, data centers, cloud, HCI, HPC, edge computing, industrial applications, and high-performance networking. The first-wave portfolio includes:
(1) The SKY-642E5, 4U MGX GPU server, for large-scale AI acceleration
(2) The SKY-722E5, 2U DC-MHS server with DC-SCM support, for modular data center and edge AI deployments
(3) The SKY-712E5, 1U DC-MHS server, supporting HHHL and FH-3/4L expansion cards for high-density enterprise edge and cloud workloads
(4) The SKY-822E5, 2U short-depth DC-SCM modular server, supporting 2–3 dual-slot GPU cards for space-constrained edge data centers
(5) The SKY-924E5F, 2U 4-node front-access server, for distributed edge computing,
(6) The ASMB-982 & ASMB-832 server boards for flexible, high-expandability system designs.

These new platforms also support PCIe Gen6 scalability, GPU-optimized architecture, advanced DDR5/MRDIMM memory, and AFA-ready high-density E1.S/E3.S NVMe SSD storage to meet low-latency data access, high-throughput storage performance, and scalable infrastructure for data-intensive AI and edge-cloud workloads.

Expanding the portfolio further, Advantech also introduces the FWA-6084, the 2U network appliance and is designed for demanding network security and edge AI workloads. It features DDR5/MRDIMM memory capability, eight Gen6 network module cards, and one PCIe Gen5 x16 slot for GPU or add-on card expansion. It is well positioned to support line-speed multiple 200G network workloads without compromise.

Together with Advantech’s unique service advantages—including 3-5-10 service guarantee, strict revision control, stable component supply, worldwide local support, and custom-ready integration—the new portfolio supports customers reduce deployment risk, secure long-term product roadmaps, and accelerate workload-ready AI and edge-cloud infrastructure from concept to deployment.

Explore more product information, please contact us or visit the Advantech x AMD website.

About Advantech

Advantech is a global leader in IoT intelligent systems and embedded platforms, driven by its vision of “Enabling an Intelligent Planet.” To address the growth of edge computing and AI, Advantech focuses on five key markets: Edge Intelligence Systems, Manufacturing, Energy and Utilities, iHealthcare, and iCity Services & iRetail. By integrating edge computing hardware, WISE-IoT software, sector-specific AI solutions, and domain expertise, Advantech creates an orchestration model that connects industrial ecosystems and accelerates industrial intelligence with partners and customers.(www.advantech.com) 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/advantech-unveils-next-gen-ai-infrastructure-solutions-powered-by-amd-epyc-9006-series-processors-302833283.html

SOURCE Advantech Co., Ltd.

Continue Reading

Technology

MulticoreWare and AMD Collaborate to Advance Physical AI and Autonomous Robotics on AMD Platforms

Published

38 minutes ago

on

July 23, 2026

By

Companies Demonstrated Real-Time Multimodal AI and Vision-Language-Action Workflows on AMD Ryzen™ AI Platforms at AMD Advancing AI 2026

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — MulticoreWare, Inc., a global technology company specializing in AI software solutions, physical AI, accelerated computing, and engineering services, today announced its ongoing collaboration with AMD to advance autonomous robotics and edge intelligence on AMD platforms.

As part of this collaboration, MulticoreWare joined AMD at AMD Advancing AI 2026 to present ‘Enabling Physical AI on AMD’, demonstrating how advanced vision, language, and action (VLA) models can drive real-time robotic intelligence on AMD Ryzen™ AI Embedded platforms.

As AI increasingly moves from the cloud into robots, autonomous systems, and intelligent edge devices, organizations need efficient ways to run sophisticated AI models closer to where decisions need to be made. Together, AMD and MulticoreWare are helping developers bring advanced perception, reasoning, and action capabilities to AMD-powered systems.

At AMD Advancing AI 2026, AMD and MulticoreWare demonstrated how multimodal VLA models run on AMD Ryzen™ AI Embedded integrated GPUs using AMD ROCm™, enabling robots to perceive, reason, and act in real time. The session showcased practical guidance for AI developers, robotics engineers, and innovators building next-generation intelligent machines on AMD Embedded platforms.

“Physical AI is reshaping how machines perceive, decide and act in the real world,” said Sumit Shah, Head of Product Management and Marketing, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD. “AMD Ryzen™ AI Embedded X100 Series processors deliver a scalable, open x86 Embedded platform that unifies AI, real-time control and industrial reliability to enable the generation of autonomous systems without locking developers into a single compute architecture or software stack.”

“A Physical AI system depends on a tightly integrated loop between perception and actuation. It must operate in real time, on real hardware, and in environments that are inherently unpredictable,” said Vish Rajalingam, VP & GM, Mobility and Transportation BU at MulticoreWare. “That makes it a hardware-software co-design challenge, not simply an AI inference problem. Building on the open-source AMD Robotics Software Suite, we work closely with OEMs to optimize the entire stack so that latency, reliability and accuracy targets are consistently achieved in production environments. That’s the integration MulticoreWare and AMD deliver together to move intelligent robotic systems from prototype to deployment.”

This session builds on more than 15 years of collaboration, with MulticoreWare delivering software optimization, AI, and engineering expertise across the AMD ecosystem, including Ryzen™ AI, Ryzen™, AMD EPYC™, AMD Instinct™, AMD Radeon™, and adaptive computing technologies.

About MulticoreWare

MulticoreWare, Inc. is a global technology company delivering AI software solutions and engineering services that accelerate innovation in Physical AI, Agentic AI, Robotics, Edge Intelligence, and Accelerated Computing. With expertise in multimodal AI, Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, sensor perception and fusion, AI optimization, embedded systems, and high-performance software, MulticoreWare helps customers transform advanced AI technologies into production-ready solutions. Its innovations power applications across automotive, robotics, industrial automation, smart cities, healthcare, defense, and intelligent edge devices, while its video codec technologies enable next-generation video experiences worldwide.
www.multicorewareinc.com

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

Contact:
Suchithra Thyagarajan
VP – Corporate Marketing
marcom@multicorewareinc.com 

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/multicoreware-and-amd-collaborate-to-advance-physical-ai-and-autonomous-robotics-on-amd-platforms-302831974.html

SOURCE MulticoreWare Inc.

Continue Reading

Trending