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Piada Italian Street Food Partners with Sparkfly to Launch Enhanced Loyalty Program

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Piada Italian Street Food, a leading fast-casual Italian restaurant concept, today announced its strategic partnership with Sparkfly, an award-winning retail technology solutions company, leveraging their expertise and cutting-edge technology with large restaurant brands to transform Piada’s guest loyalty program, part of Piada One, that was custom developed in-house.

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Piada Italian Street Food, a leading fast-casual Italian restaurant concept, today announced its strategic partnership with Sparkfly, an award-winning retail technology solutions company, leveraging their expertise and cutting-edge technology with large restaurant brands to transform Piada’s guest loyalty program, part of Piada One, that was custom developed in-house. Piada’s partnership with Sparkfly marks a significant milestone in enhancing their guest loyalty program and ensures a personalized and seamless experience for guests, supporting the company’s growth into new markets while maintaining a strong connection with their loyal patrons.

“Relaunching our loyalty program in partnership with Sparkfly empowers us to develop custom features and adjust structures to meet our specific business needs and guest preferences,” said Jason Profitt, vice president of technology for Piada.

Piada’s new loyalty program, powered by Sparkfly, introduces customizable tiers where guests can earn rewards based on their spending levels. There are three tiers: Taster (0 points – 1250 points), Insider (1250 points – 2500 points), and Expert (2500+ points) where patrons will earn 10 points for $1 spent on every order placed in-store or online. Piada One is the overarching digital engagement platform for Piada, which includes the loyalty program, online ordering, and digital gift cards.

Unlike the previous system, which offered a uniform $5 reward, the updated program allows guests to choose from various offers such as free entrées or drinks, unlock other prizes, and future prizes such as the ability to participate in exclusive challenges and earn badges. This flexibility addresses past limitations where all rewards had to be redeemed simultaneously, regardless of guest preference. Sparkfly’s platform allows seamless integration with third-party systems such as CRM tools and customer data platforms.

“Relaunching our loyalty program in partnership with Sparkfly empowers us to develop custom features and adjust structures to meet our specific business needs and guest preferences, ultimately ensuring a personalized experience across all touchpoints,” said Jason Profitt, vice president of technology for Piada. “Sparkfly has a roster of impressive restaurant brands and offers robust support, and we felt they were the right choice to power our new loyalty program. Their approach allows us to maintain control over our guest engagement strategies and operational flow, enabling our internal team to focus on creating an exceptional guest experience through our digital engagement platform, Piada One.”

A key technological innovation in Piada’s new loyalty program is the integration of advanced functionalities with Olo, their online ordering platform, through Sparkfly’s capabilities. Sparkfly has tailored its internal systems to align with Piada’s specific needs, refining accrual rules and other operational aspects to ensure a smooth and personalized loyalty experience.

“The new loyalty program is designed to meet customers where they are, offering a more personalized and flexible experience that enhances the customer journey through improved loyalty and offers,” said Catherine Tabor, Founder and CEO at Sparkfly. “Our platform enables Piada to actively participate in the development of the program, suggesting new features and customizations that benefit both Piada and its customers.”

Piada plans to introduce tier-based marketing segmentation, offering personalized incentives such as early access to new menu items, exclusive offers, and special gifts tailored to each tier. This structure aims to foster a sense of exclusivity and appreciation among loyal guests, rewarding them beyond transactional benefits.

Previously, Piada operated separate loyalty programs for regular purchases and catering. The new system, housed under Piada One, consolidates all platforms into a single, unified program powered by Sparkfly. This shift to a points-based system was influenced by guest feedback that better incentivizes higher value orders, so that guests who place large orders will accumulate points and rewards faster.

Sparkfly has partnered with industry leaders such as Chipotle, First Watch and Bojangles, providing customized technology solutions to optimize customer engagement through loyalty and offer management programs.

For full program details, including redemption and expiration details, visit mypiada.com/rewards and mypiada.com/faq. To learn more about Piada Italian Street Food, visit mypiada.com.

About Piada

The restaurant’s premium fast-casual concept, which offers guests an array of healthy (and indulgent) options, is centered around the piada. Piadas are made of a thin-crust dough, which is freshly baked on a stone grill and filled with a selection of Italian-inspired ingredients, then hand-rolled to perfection. Other signature menu items include salads made with fresh ingredients and craveable pasta dishes made with their classic sauces.

Piada was inspired by the roadside family-run street food carts and markets found in Rimini, Italy, and the company’s first restaurant opened in 2010. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Piada has 56 locations throughout Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Texas, and North Carolina.

About Sparkfly

Sparkfly is a retail technology solutions company. We help innovative retailers and merchants like Chipotle, Denny’s, Bojangles, First Watch, and Texas Roadhouse unify guest engagement technologies to create deeper and more meaningful connections with guests. Through strategy and implementation of our platform, Sparkfly provides real time POS and digital ordering connectivity, offer management, loyalty, digital offer and rewards wallets, and real-time capture of transactional data. Connect, innovate and grow with Sparkfly. Visit Sparkfly.com to learn more.

MEDIA CONTACT:

PIVOT PR

Lexi Keegan

Email: Lexi@pivot-pr.com

Phone: 215-301-1181

Media Contact

Lexi Keegan, Piada Italian Street Food, 1 2153011181, lexi@pivot-pr.com, www.piadaitalianstreetfood.com

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SOURCE Piada Italian Street Food

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Zifo Transforms Ontology Engineering with AI-Powered Intelligent Automation

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Advanced AI solution speeds up ontology creation by 80%, generating structured, interoperable knowledge models for science-driven organizations.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and CAMBRIDGE, England, April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Zifo, the leading global enabler of AI and data-driven enterprise informatics for science-driven organizations, has developed an Intelligent Automation solution for Ontology Engineering, which is designed to seamlessly generate structured, interoperable knowledge models while accelerating ontology creation by 80%.

Overcoming the Bottlenecks of Manual Ontology Creation

Manual ontology creation in the biopharma industry has traditionally been a time-consuming process that requires specialized expertise. Organizations frequently struggle with semantic ambiguity, complex integration challenges, and limited scalability, resulting in workflows that can take weeks to complete. Zifo’s AI-powered automation tackles these challenges head-on by eliminating 80% of the manual work through automated class generation, description creation, and precise IRI mapping.

Addressing the Complexities of Semantic Knowledge

Developing comprehensive knowledge models often demands deep domain expertise to define relationships and align terminology. Zifo’s intelligent solution overcomes this by providing an AI-guided workflow featuring an intuitive interface, meaning specialized ontology engineering knowledge is no longer required. By leveraging LLM-powered generation, the solution creates precise definitions with a deep understanding of domain-specific context, while generating standardized synonyms and establishing controlled vocabulary alignment to eliminate inconsistent terminology.

A Solution Designed for Scalable Scientific Data Modeling

The AI-powered solution addresses critical format compatibility and integration points in ontology management:

Seamless Integration: Automated mapping connects directly to established ontologies, including NCIT, CHEBI, OBI, and EFO, via BioPortal and OLS APIs.Massive Scalability: Parallel processing and batch operations empower teams to execute large-scale ontology projects without performance limitations.Automated Hierarchies: The AI autonomously generates semantic relationships and parent-child hierarchies based on domain context and predefined relation vocabularies.Format Compatibility: The solution produces direct OWL/RDF exports with proper URIs, ensuring seamless downstream integration.

Unique Features include:

Multi-Source Integration: The solution combines BioPortal, OLS, and EMBL-EBI APIs to guarantee comprehensive ontology coverage.Intelligent Ranking System: The system uses AI-powered relevance scoring and justification for precise ontology mappings.Precise IRI Mapping: It ensures that each generated class is linked to the correct IRI, directly promoting semantic web compatibility.Human-in-the-Loop Design: The solution automates repetitive tasks while maintaining vital expert oversight.End-to-End Workflow: Users are guided through a complete pipeline, from initial domain knowledge input straight to exportable OWL files.Visual Knowledge Graph: An interactive graph visualization allows for intuitive relationship exploration and validation.Multi-Format Exports: Provides seamless export options in CSV, OWL, or HTML Ontograph formats for downstream use, collaboration, and visualization.

Strategic Value Across the Scientific Chain

This solution breaks down the traditional barriers of data structuring. Built on a robust backend of Python, LangChain, and leading LLM models, alongside a frontend framework using Next.js 15 and Cytoscape.js for graph visualization, the solution is highly adaptable. Furthermore, future optimization enhancements will include provisions for uploading user-defined classes or semi-ready ontologies.

About Zifo

Zifo is the leading global enabler of AI and data-driven enterprise informatics for science-driven organizations. With expertise spanning research, development, manufacturing, and clinical domains, Zifo serves a diverse range of industries including Pharma, Biotech, Chemicals, Food and Beverage, and more. Trusted by over 190 organizations worldwide, Zifo is the partner of choice for advancing digital scientific innovation.

For more information, visit www.zifornd.comhttps://zifornd.com/practical-ai-blueprints/

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2731415/Zifo_Technologies_Logo.jpg

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zifo-transforms-ontology-engineering-with-ai-powered-intelligent-automation-302758975.html

SOURCE Zifo Technologies

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UNC-Chapel Hill establishes ‘Carolina in the Capital’ with new Washington, D.C. office

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C., April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has opened a new office in Washington, D.C., establishing an expanded presence for the University in the nation’s capital and creating exciting opportunities for students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Located at 101 Constitution Avenue NW, the 10,861-square-foot space – coined “Carolina in the Capital” – will support a variety of functions, including educational programming for undergraduate and graduate students, alumni relations and engagement with government partners.

As a leading R1 university, UNC-Chapel Hill annually attracts more than $1.6 billion to the state’s economy to fund research that creates a better quality of life for all its citizens. More than 60% of UNC-Chapel Hill’s total research funding comes from federal sponsors with the majority of that federal funding coming from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is based in the Washington area.

“Carolina in the Capital is a state-of-the-art facility that reflects our commitment to creating experiential learning opportunities for our students and faculty,” said Chancellor Lee H. Roberts. “The space is designed as an immersive learning environment where students can translate classroom knowledge into hands-on experience, which has never been more important. The facility also strengthens our ability to support engagement between our staff, alumni, policymakers and partners.”

Supporting students participating in Carolina’s Washington-based academic programs is a priority. For years, students and faculty have relied on temporary or borrowed spaces across the city. The new office provides a permanent home where students can gather, learn and build community while living and studying in Washington. A robust schedule of classes and events will fill the space throughout the year.

The Washington, D.C. region is home to the largest concentration of out-of-state Carolina alumni anywhere in the country. The new office creates a dedicated space to strengthen those connections and support networking, mentorship, professional development and community-building among D.C.-based Tar Heels.

The space will also serve as a platform to bring Carolina’s research and academic expertise into closer conversation with policymakers, industry leaders and member organizations. Carolina is the nation’s 11th largest university in the country based on research volume with primary federal funding coming from NIH and the National Science Foundation (NSF), both based in the D.C. area. Carolina is a proud member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public & Land Grant Universities (APLU), which are both based in Washington.

The office is funded entirely through the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation and does not use any state appropriations.

You can view additional photos of the space here.

Media Contact: UNC Media Relations, 919-445-8555, mediarelations@unc.edu

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/unc-chapel-hill-establishes-carolina-in-the-capital-with-new-washington-dc-office-302758250.html

SOURCE University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Office of Communications

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Investing.com Acquires Stonki to Accelerate Its Entry into the Agentic AI Era

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The acquisition strengthens Investing.com’s AI capabilities, advancing a next-generation research assistant that can analyze markets, generate insights, and guide investors in real time

NEW YORK, April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Investing.com, one of the world’s largest financial platforms used by more than 60 million investors each month, today announced the acquisition of Stonki, an AI-powered investing assistant designed to help traders turn ideas into structured, actionable trading plans.

The move marks a major step in the company’s evolution toward agentic AI, strengthening its ability to deliver faster, deeper, and more actionable market insights to a growing base of more than 300,000 paying subscribers across its InvestingPro suite, the company’s premium subscription offering for advanced market data, tools, and AI-driven insights.

Over the past 12 months, nearly 3 million users have used WarrenAI, Investing.com’s AI-powered financial research assistant launched last year, to perform market analysis, making AI a central entry point into the platform’s ecosystem. With the addition of Stonki, the company is moving beyond traditional AI tools toward agentic systems that can proactively guide users through the investment process.

“We’re entering the age of agentic AI, where the technology moves beyond just answering questions to actively helping investors think, analyze, and act,” said Omer Shvili, CEO of Investing.com. “Bringing Stonki.ai into the fold accelerates our goal of building an agentic platform that will serve as a 24/7 analyst for our users. We are developing this to be more than just a tool; it will be a partner that identifies opportunities, tracks unfolding situations, and surfaces trade ideas even when the user isn’t active—giving our users the kind of edge that was previously only available to professional investors.”

Founded in 2025, Stonki is developing a new category of ‘agentic’ AI for investing, enabling users to turn investment ideas into fully defined strategies with entry and exit conditions, risk management rules, and continuous monitoring.

“We started Stonki because, as investors and traders ourselves, we knew how much time and focus it takes to stay on top of the market and properly manage a day trade, a swing trade, an investment idea, or a portfolio,” said Ulas Bilgenoglu and Itay Verkh, co-founders of Stonki. “We set out to build AI that could carry part of that load by continuously monitoring the market, turning ideas into structured strategies, and helping users make better decisions with clear entry and exit conditions, disciplined risk management, and ongoing tracking. Joining Investing.com gives us the scale, data, reach, and strong AI foundation to accelerate that vision. Together, we can create an experience where AI helps users stay ahead of the market, manage risk, and act with greater confidence.”

The acquisition expands Investing.com’s AI capabilities across both technical and fundamental investing workflows. Stonki’s technology is built around persistent, real-time intelligence, continuously monitoring markets, tracking user-defined strategies, and alerting investors when conditions align, rather than relying on one-off prompts or static analysis.

For active traders, the platform is evolving into a real-time analysis engine designed to support high-frequency decision-making with precision and speed. For long-term investors, it is becoming a central hub for research, enabling users to evaluate opportunities, set personalized alerts, and monitor portfolios based on their individual investment strategies.

Users will be able to define specific conditions, such as a stock crossing a long-term moving average, and have the AI continuously monitor the market, analyze relevant signals, and surface actionable insights in real time. The system will also review portfolios on an ongoing basis, helping investors avoid potential losses and uncover new opportunities aligned with their strategy.

This latest step builds on Investing.com’s broader strategy of expanding its AI-powered suite, including WarrenAI, ProPicks AI, and its recently launched AI Chart Analysis, all aimed at delivering faster, more accurate and more actionable insights to investors.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/investingcom-acquires-stonki-to-accelerate-its-entry-into-the-agentic-ai-era-302756588.html

SOURCE Investing.com

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