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Kuching to Host Malaysia’s First CIFA Regional Symposium

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KUCHING, Malaysia, April 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Malaysia has been selected to host the Consortium of Institutes on Family in the Asian Region (CIFA) Regional Symposium 2026, co-organised by the National Coalition for Mental Wellbeing (NCMW) Malaysia and CIFA Hong Kong, with Kuching making history as the first city in the country to host the event.

Kuching’s selection reflects Sarawak’s growing recognition as the legacy capital of business events in Malaysia and Borneo, where events are intentionally designed to drive long-term progress beyond economic returns.

The symposium will take place from 18 to 20 November 2026 at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, welcoming over 500 delegates from across the Asia Pacific. It comes at a critical time, as rising anxiety, loneliness, and digital dependency among young people place increasing pressure on families and widen gaps in understanding between generations.

Held under the theme “Building Bridges: Mental Health and Resilience Across Generations in the AI Era”, the symposium will focus on children, teens, and parents, with a strong emphasis on how families can build resilience in a rapidly evolving digital world.

The CIFA Regional Symposium 2026 aims to move the conversation beyond awareness towards action, including developing accessible mental health resources such as affordable services, community-based support, financial assistance mechanisms, insurance coverage, and workplace protections.

Speakers will explore how resilience is developed through early life experiences and parental influence, as well as the impact of social media on self-perception, emotional well-being, and intergenerational communication. Discussions will also examine how different generations experience mental health in a digital era, highlighting both the risks and opportunities of technology, and the need to bridge gaps in understanding between parents and children.

In today’s symposium soft launch, Dato Wee Hong Seng, Mayor of Kuching South, emphasised Kuching South City Council’s commitment to advancing community wellbeing:

“For Sarawak to be selected as the host location for Malaysia’s first CIFA Regional Symposium reflects the growing recognition of Kuching as a city that values inclusive development, social wellbeing, and people-centred progress. Kuching South City Council recognises that wellbeing is a key part of urban governance, and we must continue to address mental health stigma and strengthen suicide prevention through education, open dialogue, and compassionate community responses.”

Siti Subaidah Mustaffa, Co-Chair of the CIFA Regional Symposium 2026, calls for society to work together to build sustainable mental health support for all – young and old alike.

“Policymakers, researchers, corporate partners, and communities cannot remain observers, but must come together as partners to shape policies, invest in mental health, and create environments where families are supported to build resilience from the ground up. Our intention is not just to host a symposium, but to drive meaningful, measurable impact through regional and multi-stakeholder collaboration.”

Jason Tan Chin Foo, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak), highlights the role of business events in turning mental health dialogues into coordinated action.

“Bringing the CIFA Regional Symposium to Malaysia for the first time reflects the growing importance of regional collaboration in addressing family and mental health challenges. Sarawak offers a meaningful space where these conversations are closely tied to real community needs and lived experiences, aligned with the Post COVID-19 Development Strategy 2030, where social wellbeing and human capital development are key priorities.”

Today’s soft launch also offered a preview of the programme:

Prof. Dato’ Dr Andrew Mohanraj, in his session “Resilience is Learned, Not Downloaded: Strengthening Mental Wellbeing Across Generations”, emphasised that resilience is developed through childhood experiences, particularly by observing how parents and caregivers manage stress.

Dr Janet Ann Fernandez, in her session “From Kampung to Cloud: How Different Generations Experience Mental Health in a Digital World”, noted that the digital world should not be viewed as essentially harmful, but understood as both a challenge and a tool for wellbeing, emphasising the need to bridge generational differences in communication and coping.

The CIFA Regional Symposium 2026 is part of a series of regional engagements and biennial Asian Family Summits organised by CIFA. The 2026 edition in Kuching will also include a series of pre-event engagements leading up to the symposium.

The symposium is jointly organised by the National Coalition for Mental Wellbeing (NCMW) and CIFA Hong Kong.

The CIFA Regional Symposium 2026 is supported by:

Ministry of Public Health, Housing and Local Government SarawakKuching South City CouncilMinistry of Health MalaysiaNational Centre of Excellence for Mental HealthBESarawakWorld Federation of Mental HealthRotary InternationalRotary Action Group District 3300 Chapter

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/kuching-to-host-malaysias-first-cifa-regional-symposium-302755497.html

SOURCE Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak)

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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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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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