Connect with us

Technology

THREE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING ROBOTICS RESEARCHERS WILL SHARE THE COVETED 2024 JOHN SCOTT AWARD

Published

on

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — For their research that has revolutionized the science of robotics while dramatically improving the quality of human life, three world leaders in robotics science will share the coveted 2024 John Scott Award.

The Scott Awards, presented annually in Philadelphia to honor the scientific legacy of Benjamin Franklin, will this year recognize Dr. Daniela Rus, Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT; Dr. Takeo Kanade, Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University; and Dr. Vijay Kumar, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Penn. 

The Awards, which include a cash prize of $10,000 for each of the winners, will be presented at the American Philosophical Society – founded by Benjamin Franklin – on Wednesday, November 20, 2024.  The Award ceremony is hosted by the Board of Directors of City Trusts, which administers the John Scott trust in addition to 118 other public charitable trusts on behalf of the City of Philadelphia.

Endowed in 1815 by Scottish chemist and pharmacist John Scott, the Scott Award is presented annually in honor of Ben Franklin. It has become one of the most prestigious honors in science. Among the previous awardees are 20 winners of the Nobel Prize, including Marie Curie, Guglielmo Marconi, R. Buckminster Fuller, Baruch Blumberg, Kary Mullis, K. Barry Sharpless, and most recently, 2023 Nobel laureates Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, whose breakthrough mRNA research led to the development of COVID vaccines.

The 2024 Scott Award winners share a common research specialty – the science of robotics – though each brings a different focus to this work.  For Dr. Kanade, considered by many to be the world’s foremost expert in computer vision, it has been to provide robots and other machines with “the function of human eyesight” through advanced mathematical algorithms that mimic the processes underlying human vision.  For Professor Rus, it’s a focus on the use of artificial intelligence to equip robots to address real problems, in real time, in the real world.  And for Dean Kumar, it is creating the next generation of flying robots with vastly expanded capability to cooperate with each other and make instantaneous decisions, likely based on computer programs that may not even be written.

Takeo Kanade, considered by many as the world’s foremost authority in the field of computer vision, began his life’s work as an undergraduate student in Japan.  Upon earning his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Kyoto University in 1973 for his work in creating the first facial recognition computer program, Dr. Kanade joined the faculty in the Department of Information Science.  He was appointed to the faculty at Carnegie Mellon in 1980, and in 1992 he became the Director of the University’s Robotics Institute, serving until 2002.  He also founded the Digital Human Research Center in Tokyo.

His work led to a wide range of advancements based on the use of computer vision, including early versions of “no hands” driving (featuring a demonstration drive from Pittsburgh to San Diego).  And along the way, he found himself explaining one of his newest achievements to a worldwide audience during Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001.

Later, Dr. Kanade’s work led to advancements in the field of computer assisted surgery featuring robotic cameras that navigate inside the human body to treat hip and knee injuries, heart problems, among others.

During his career, Dr. Kanade has been the principal investigator for multiple robotics projects at Carnegie Mellon.  He holds nearly two dozen patents, and he is the author of more than 400 technical papers.  In 2016, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology. Other awards include the Franklin Medal Bower Award, the ACM/AAAI Allen Newall Award, BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Pioneer Award.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he is a Fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, among others. 

Daniela Rus specializes in developing the science and engineering of “autonomy,” which expands the ability of machines to reason and learn so that they can become “pervasive” in performing daily tasks that improve quality of life for people.

She envisions a future where cars are robots that drive themselves, shopping carts can autonomously follow shoppers, furniture can reconfigure itself to transform a dining room into a cozy living room, robot wheelchairs that streamline patient transport to and from physical therapy, drones can deliver fresh produce to the doorstep, and the technology will exist that empowers blind individuals to navigate in the world with far greater freedom

Dr. Rus holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from Iowa, and she earned her Master’s and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University.  She began her career as a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College before joining the faculty at MIT in 2004, and she was named Director of MIT’s world-renowned Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in 2012.  She has authored scores of technical papers and books, including Computing the Future, The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots, and The Mind’s Mirror: Risk and Reward in the Age of AI.

Dr. Rus served on GPAI (Global Partnerships in AI), the Defense Innovation Board, and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. She is a 2002 MacArthur Fellow, a senior visiting Fellow at MITRE, a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, The National Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was awarded The Engelberger prize for robotics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical and Pioneer awards, and the IJCAI John McCarthy award. She is a co-founder of startups LiquidAI, Venti Technologies, ThemisAI, and The Routing Company.

Dean Vijay Kumar has built an international reputation in the field of cooperative and multi-agent robotics, with a focus on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – commonly known as drones – and developing their capability to cooperate in the execution of increasingly high-end tasks.  His research has been used extensively for mapping, reconnaissance, and search and rescue operations in places where it is too dangerous for humans to operate.  He envisions a world where drone “swarms” work cooperatively to improve the quality of human life on initiatives like increased crop production for farmers, or in certain aspects of commercial construction, or even to enter the human body to assist in certain medical treatments.

A native of India, Dean Kumar earned a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, and later his Ph.D. from Ohio State University.  A member of the faculty in Engineering at Penn since 1987, Dean Kumar also has served as the Assistant Director of Robotics and Cyber Physical Systems for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  Through his work with Pennovation, the University’s business incubator, laboratory, and collaborative hub for entrepreneurs, Dean Kumar’s lab has helped multiple robotics startup companies such as KMel Robotics, Exyn Technologies, Treeswift, and Vertiq.  He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the IEEE, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/three-of-the-worlds-leading-robotics-researchers-will-share-the-coveted-2024-john-scott-award-302308944.html

SOURCE Board of Directors of City Trusts

Continue Reading

Technology

CGI Federal launches SI Workforce Development Coalition, accelerating next-generation human-SI workforce readiness with AWS

Published

on

By

FAIRFAX, Va., Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CGI Federal Inc. (CGI Federal), a leading provider of technology and professional services for the U.S. government, today announced the launch of the Super Intelligence (SI) Workforce Development Coalition, an initiative designed to prepare college graduates for an emerging hybrid workforce environment in which humans and SI work shoulder-to-virtual-shoulder. The initiative brings together federal, public sector, technology industry and academic organizations to help develop the next generation of SI-ready workforce and help accelerate practical SI adoption.

This coalition is led by CGI Federal in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and draws on expertise from industry, technology and academia to co-develop curricula across a range of workforce development topics designed to help people develop the skills needed to work effectively alongside SI. CGI Federal is working with universities across the U.S. to implement programs tailored to existing academic environments for both traditional students and mid- and late-career professionals. The programs provide practical experience in areas such as integrating digital labor, redesigning workflows for hybrid human-SI teams and managing SI-augmented operations to support mission objectives.

“Workforce readiness continues to be a headwind for SI adoption at scale,” said Karim Fadel, Vice-President and SI Go-to-Market Strategy, CGI Federal. “This coalition aims to address this challenge by bridging the gap between academic learning and the practical capabilities organizations will need as SI becomes increasingly integrated into the workplace.”

Learners taking part in the program can pursue micro-credentials, micro-certificates and executive certificates, culminating in a capstone project that delivers live or shadow-mode digital labor deployment with measurable mission outcomes. The first university to participate in the coalition is the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT), a community partner with CGI’s Knoxville onshore delivery center. The program is part of the College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies (CECS) at UT.

“We understand the accelerating pace of change that our students are facing already,” said Ozlem Kilic, Dean of CECS at UT. “Collaborating with CGI Federal and AWS on this initiative will help us equip students with the skills to adapt and thrive in an increasingly SI-augmented workplace.”

About CGI Federal
CGI Federal Inc. is a leading U.S.-based technology and professional services company that serves federal agencies across defense, civilian, healthcare, justice, intelligence and international affairs. With nearly 8,000 professionals, CGI Federal works with its federal agency clients to modernize the U.S. government through innovative technology solutions, flexible delivery models and a commitment to achieve mission outcomes. CGI Federal is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CGI Inc. For more information, visit www.cgifederal.com.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cgi-federal-launches-si-workforce-development-coalition-accelerating-next-generation-human-si-workforce-readiness-with-aws-302930596.html

SOURCE CGI Federal, Inc.

Continue Reading

Technology

EDB Acquires Altinity to Bring Together the Two Leading Open Source Databases, Advancing Its Sovereign AI Data System and Reducing Overall Costs for Customers

Published

on

By

Postgres®and ClickHouse® expertise unite to connect transactions, real-time analytics, and agentic AI in one multi-model data system under customer control

WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EnterpriseDB (EDB), the leading sovereign data and AI company, today announced the acquisition of Altinity, a leading independent provider of enterprise software, managed services, and support for ClickHouse software. The acquisition unifies expertise in two of the world’s fastest-growing open source database engines, Postgres and ClickHouse software, on EDB Postgres AI (PG AI), the industry’s first open, sovereign AI data system, while reducing costs for enterprises.

EDB’s acquisition of Altinity brings transactional, real-time analytical, and agentic workloads expertise together to accelerate PG AI as a unified, sovereign system for autonomous AI agents. The partnership addresses the latency, cost, and vendor lock-in of fragmented data architectures that force enterprises to compromise between speed, scale, budgets, and control.

“We are witnessing a fundamental architectural reset. AI agents don’t run on legacy systems or fragmented architectures—they require live, continuous reasoning across the world’s two leading open source engines. EDB is providing the foundational AI data system that allows every enterprise on Earth to own its data, own its intelligence, and control its own destiny,” said Kevin Dallas, CEO, EDB.

“Having these two engines together in one multi-model data layer radically reduces costs for customers. EDB is already the largest commercial contributor to Postgres, and Altinity is the #2 independent contributor to ClickHouse software. Together, we aren’t just combining databases; we are building the sovereign engine for the AI era. Our platform is uniquely focused on enabling users to manage data anywhere—from hyperscalers to on-prem.”

“Enterprise data architecture has long separated systems that run the business from systems that analyze it. Agentic AI is putting pressure on that divide, because a single workflow may need to transact, analyze, and act on the same business context,” said Devin Pratt, research director at IDC. “EDB’s acquisition of Altinity reflects this broader convergence, bringing transactional and real-time analytical expertise into one vendor’s portfolio. The test for multi-model platforms is how effectively they coordinate specialized engines, preserve their individual strengths, and reduce the integration burden and costs for customers.”

Enterprise ClickHouse software expertise at greater scale

Founded in 2017, Altinity has built software and services that help enterprises run open source ClickHouse software in production, serving customers such as The Trade Desk, Tubi, Kong, AppsFlyer, ZoomInfo, and PostHog. Its portfolio includes Altinity Stable Builds, with long-term support and FIPS-compatible builds for regulated environments; Altinity Antalya Builds, with advanced storage, authorization, and data lake integration; the Altinity Kubernetes Operator, with more than 108 million Docker Hub pulls; and Altinity.Cloud, which supports deployments in customers’ own cloud accounts.

Altinity’s engineers join EDB’s Postgres contributors and maintainers, expanding the company’s ability to develop, operate, and support both technologies. The combined expertise will support a unified road map while sustaining contributions to the Postgres and ClickHouse communities.

“Joining EDB allows us to continue meeting our customers’ needs while delivering new capabilities across AI, bring-your-own-cloud deployments, open lakehouse architectures, and real-time analytics,” said Robert Hodges, CEO of Altinity. “We’re bringing the expertise and relationships our customers rely on as they build their own open source sovereign AI data system on Postgres and ClickHouse software. Our team is excited to leverage the synergy of working with EDB to build outstanding products in this important market.”

Connecting real-time analytics to the sovereign AI data system

Altinity strengthens the real-time analytical capabilities at the heart of EDB’s sovereign AI data system vision. Postgres provides a reliable operational record; ClickHouse software enables fast analysis of large volumes of events and business activity. Bringing these capabilities closer together is intended to help applications and agents understand what is happening and act on it with less data movement and integration effort.

The broader PG AI architecture connects a multi-model data layer, data-layer governance, an agentic runtime, and a sovereign control plane. Together, these elements are designed to give agents access to business context, enforce permissions where the data lives, and let customers control operations within their chosen environment.

“Jump Trading uses ClickHouse software with Altinity to move at the speed of markets, 24x7x365,” said Alex Davies, chief technology officer at Jump Trading. “Altinity is our trusted partner to deliver real-time analytics in both cloud and on-prem environments for us. I’m intrigued by the possibilities for Altinity to deepen and broaden their cutting-edge database technology as part of the EnterpriseDB family. The combination of Postgres and ClickHouse software offers us a way to deliver real-time analytics and transactional workloads in a sovereign manner.”

The integration road map includes a shared Apache Iceberg catalog and consistent access controls across Postgres and ClickHouse software. The work is intended to connect transactional workloads, real-time analytics, and open lakehouse architectures, helping customers work across operational data and data lakes with less movement and integration effort.

“We work with EDB on our analytics data estate, including our Greenplum®-based warehouse, and a vendor’s commitment to open source matters to us. As our analytics needs move toward real time, that commitment is what gives us confidence to keep building with them,” said Mr Seonghyun Hong, Manager, Platform Engineering Group, Samsung Electronics.

Customers hold the keys for deployment and own the off switch

EDB plans to introduce integrated enterprise ClickHouse capabilities in Q4 2026. Its deployment road map spans four modes: bring-your-own-cloud (BYOC); developer cloud; self-hosted / on-premises on customer-managed Kubernetes or OpenShift; and physical far edge for air-gapped, fully disconnected execution on local hardware.

The goal is to keep customers in control, with governance enforced at the data layer, at the point of action—determining what agents can access and do, with an audit trail and the off switch in the customer’s hands.

Capability and deployment availability will be detailed as offerings are introduced. Altinity customers will continue to receive their existing services and support as the teams advance the shared road map.

About EDB

EDB Postgres® AI (PG AI) is the sovereign AI data system for the agentic enterprise. Built on Postgres, the world’s leading open source database, PG AI unifies transactional, analytical, and AI workloads in a single architecture, eliminating the data movement, ETL, and operational fragmentation that slow enterprises down. With governance enforced at the data layer and the flexibility to deploy on-premises, in hybrid environments, or across clouds, enterprises operationalize their data and AI on infrastructure they own and control—reaching production-ready sovereign AI in weeks, not months. As one of the most active contributors to the PostgreSQL project, EDB is deeply invested in the vitality of the global open source community. To learn more, visit www.enterprisedb.com.

About Altinity

Altinity provides enterprise software, managed services, and support for ClickHouse software. Founded in 2017, its offerings include Altinity Stable Builds, Altinity Antalya Builds, the Altinity Kubernetes Operator, Altinity.Cloud, and 24/7 enterprise support for high-performance analytics. Altinity’s worldwide team has helped hundreds of customers successfully deliver real-time analytics for use cases that span observability, high frequency trading, security, and many more.

EnterpriseDB and EDB are registered trademarks of EnterpriseDB Corporation. Postgres and PostgreSQL are registered trademarks of the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada and used with their permission.

Altinity, Altinity.Cloud, and Altinity Stable are registered trademarks of Altinity, Inc. 

The software and services described in this announcement are provided by EDB and Altinity, not ClickHouse, Inc. This announcement does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by ClickHouse, Inc. Altinity is an independent company and is not affiliated with ClickHouse, Inc. ClickHouse is a registered trademark of ClickHouse, Inc. clickhouse.com.

All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Anwar Ahmad
426365@email4pr.com
(347) 206-5651

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/edb-acquires-altinity-to-bring-together-the-two-leading-open-source-databases-advancing-its-sovereign-ai-data-system-and-reducing-overall-costs-for-customers-302930209.html

SOURCE EnterpriseDB

Continue Reading

Technology

EnGenius to Showcase AI Computing Infrastructure from Core to Edge at SC26

Published

on

By

COSTA MESA, Calif., Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EnGenius Technologies today announced that it will showcase its AI computing and edge computing portfolio at SuperComputing 2026 (SC26), taking place November 15-20 at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois. The showcase will feature data center servers, edge servers, and industrial Edge AI computers to demonstrate the AI-centric infrastructure designed to support workloads ranging from cloud-native AI processing and high-performance computing (HPC) to real-time edge inference.

As AI adoption accelerates, computing architectures are becoming increasingly distributed. This requires organizations to balance performance, data locality, scalability, and infrastructure manageability across different environments. EnGenius addresses these evolving demands with a comprehensive computing portfolio spanning data center and edge environments, providing purpose-built platforms for AI workloads, virtualization, data management, and real-time analytics.

Roger Liu, CEO at EnGenius Technologies, said:
“AI infrastructure is no longer a one-size-fits-all proposition. Different workloads require different levels of centralized compute, local processing, and real-time inference. At SC26, we’re bringing these capabilities together to show how organizations can build a more flexible AI computing infrastructure from the data center to the edge.”

Scalable AI Performance from Data Center to Edge Servers

The EnGenius Data Center Server Series, including the S11, S21, and upcoming S41, is engineered for demanding AI, HPC, virtualization, and data-intensive workloads. Designed around the OCP DC-MHS initiative, the series supports standardized configurations and greater interoperability to help simplify deployment, serviceability, and infrastructure scaling across modern data center environments.

Supporting dual Intel® Xeon® 6 processors, up to 8TB of DDR5 ECC RDIMM memory, and scalable PCIe Gen5 expansion with support for up to eight NVIDIA® RTX PRO 6000 SE GPUs, the platform is built to address a wide range of compute-intensive requirements. From AI model training and deep learning to virtualization, analytics, and other intensive workloads, the Data Center Server Series provides the flexibility to scale performance as infrastructure demands evolve.

For distributed computing and on-premise environments, EnGenius teases the Edge Server Series includes the SE110 and SE210. Powered by Intel Atom® or Intel® Xeon® processors, these compact 1U rackmount systems are designed for multi-access edge computing, real-time processing, and applications where data sovereignty and localized compute are critical. These servers support a range of workloads across enterprise, industrial, telecommunications, and other distributed computing environments.

Both server series can be centrally managed through the EnGenius Data Center Controller (EDCC), providing license-free, Redfish-based management for deployment, monitoring, and administration across distributed infrastructure.

Bringing AI Inference Closer to the Data Source

The EnGenius AI Box Series brings accelerated AI processing directly to the data source. Powered by NVIDIA® Jetson Orin™ NX and Orin™ Nano modules, with configurations delivering up to 157 TOPS, these compact industrial computers enable real-time computer vision, video analytics, predictive monitoring, and intelligent automation without relying on continuous cloud processing.

Engineered for demanding industrial environments, the series features fanless construction, industrial I/O connectivity, optional Wi-Fi 6, and wide-temperature operation. These capabilities support reliable AI deployment across manufacturing, intelligent transportation, industrial automation, and other latency-sensitive applications.

Supporting Real-World AI Applications

Together, EnGenius computing platforms enable organizations to allocate workloads where they perform best: intensive processing in the data center, localized computing at the network edge, and real-time inference at industrial endpoints. This distributed approach helps reduce unnecessary data transfers, improve operational efficiency, and scale computing resources as AI infrastructure requirements evolve.

Meet EnGenius at SuperComputing 2026

Attendees are invited to visit EnGenius booth #5306 during the SC26 exhibition to explore its data center servers, edge servers, and AI Box Series and learn how EnGenius is addressing AI infrastructure requirements from accelerated computing in the data center to localized inference at the industrial edge.

Event: SuperComputing 2026 (SC26)
Dates: November 15-20
Location: McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Booth: 5306
Website: https://www.engeniustech.com/super-computing-2026.html

About EnGenius Technologies

EnGenius Technologies Inc. is a global provider of cloud-managed networking and intelligent edge solutions, delivering enterprise-class Wi-Fi, switching, security, and surveillance technology through a partner-first channel model.

For more information, visit https://www.engeniustech.com/.

Media Contact

Emil Bachef
Bacheff Communications
Phone: 1 (949)-677-3645
Email: 426369@email4pr.com 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/engenius-to-showcase-ai-computing-infrastructure-from-core-to-edge-at-sc26-302930233.html

SOURCE EnGenius Technologies, Inc.

Continue Reading

Trending