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Launch of a Municipal Research Chair for Ecological and Social Transition

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MIRABEL, QC, May 22, 2025 /CNW/ – Ville de Mirabel and Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) are proud to announce the creation of a Municipal Research Chair for Ecological and Social Transition.  This partnership embodies the city’s commitment to innovation through exemplary eco-responsible transition in agriculture, strategic waste and water management and land development. This Chair will be a catalyst for change, bringing together researchers, citizens and local actors around research and knowledge-transfer activities that meet the community’s current and future needs. The Chair’s activities will contribute to the creation of distinctive technology showcases for agri-tourism in the region, promoting the innovation and expertise of local players.

Leading the Chair, INRS professors Philippe Constant and Kokou Adjallé have agreed to put their expertise at the service of the Mirabel community. Microbiologist Philippe Constant, the Chief Scientific Advisor for Ville de Mirabel, has been working closely with the city since 2021. Kokou Adjallé is a chemical physicist who has distinguished himself in the fields of environmental biotechnology and green chemistry. Together, they are already piloting research projects in Mirabel involving more than ten companies, four universities, two research centres and three economic development organizations. These projects are helping them develop a clear portrait of the city’s specific needs.

This project is part of the $1,487,405 agreement signed in 2024 with the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation (MAMH) as part of the Fonds régions et ruralité (FRR) Volet 3 – Projets “Signature innovation” creating the Carrefour d’innovation écoresponsable in Mirabel. Part of this amount ($300,000 over five years) will be used to fund the Research Chair, ensuring its lasting impact on the city and citizens for years to come.

Quotes:

“Our government is confirming its commitment to the regions of Quebec by providing financial support to Mirabel. The creation of an eco-responsible innovation hub will help make the region’s economic development greener and more sustainable. Thanks to initiatives like the Municipal Research Chair, we are building a more responsible future that meets the real needs of Canadians. I am proud of that! “
Andrée Laforest, Minister of Municipal Affairs

“Through our partnership with INRS, this Municipal Research Chair is an opportunity to use research to understand our environment better in order to interact with it sustainably. With these actions, we want to inspire our community and explore technological and innovative opportunities to preserve the soil, the ecosystem and future generations. “
Patrick Charbonneau, Mayor of Mirabel

“This new Municipal Research Chair exemplifies INRS’s mission to put science to work for society and, in this case, communities. Through our partnership with Ville de Mirabel, we are joining forces to take concrete action in response to the environmental and economic challenges of today and tomorrow. By mobilizing the expertise of our researchers and fostering innovation in the field, we are helping to build a more sustainable future rooted in local realities. “
Luc-Alain Giraldeau, Chief Executive Officer, INRS

“This Municipal Research Chair demonstrates our ongoing commitment to support Mirabel’s efforts to innovate. The resilience of agricultural businesses and farmlands in the face of economic, social and environmental challenges is the heart of our research activities. “
Philippe Constant, INRS professor and Chief Scientific Advisor for Ville de Mirabel

“This Municipal Research Chair offers a concrete opportunity for INRS to use its expertise to serve a mid-sized city without a university in its territory. Through this Chair, Ville de Mirabel can strengthen its existing partnership with INRS, as part of its innovation and sustainable development plans and efforts, to become a model city for agriculture and food self-sufficiency in Quebec. “
Kokou Adjallé, INRS professor and scientific head of the Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory

Highlights:

Research themes

Mobilization of the ecosystem (creating a community of practice)Strategic waste and wastewater management (precision composting, upcycling, political ecology)Regenerative agriculture (soil health, water quality, adaptation and resilience)Land development (ecosystem services, terroir signature and agri-tourism, culture and belonging)

Carrefour d’innovation écoresponsable de Mirabel (CIEM)

The CIEM is a project led by Ville de Mirabel, made possible thanks to funding from MAMH’s FRR Volet 3 – Projets “Signature innovation.”Its mission is to draw on the dynamic forces in the region, where agriculture and agri-food are shaping the landscape. The CIEM’s distinctive signature is its terroir road stop, combining the sale of local products with a technology showcase.

About INRS

INRS is an academic institution dedicated exclusively to research and graduate training. INRS ranks first in Quebec in research intensity. Its community includes over 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and staff.Since its creation in 1969, as per its mission, it has contributed to the economic, social and cultural development of Quebec.It is made up of five interdisciplinary research and training centres and concentrates their activities in strategic sectors: Eau Terre Environnement (Quebec City), Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications (Varennes), Urbanisation Culture Société (Montreal), Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie (Laval) and Sustainable Ruralities (Charlevoix, a center currently under development). The INRS community comprises nearly 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members, and staff.

SOURCE Institut National de la recherche scientifique (INRS)

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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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.

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

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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on

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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.

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

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

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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 LinkedInXFacebook 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.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

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