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B612 Foundation Announces 2026 Winner of the Schweickart Prize

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University of Edinburgh Researchers Brian P. Murphy and Richard E. Cannon Recognized for Proposal to Expand Planetary Defense to Humanity’s New Frontiers

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — B612 Foundation announced the recipient of the annual Schweickart Prize. This year’s honor goes to a proposal calling for planetary defense to extend beyond Earth’s surface, encompassing the rapidly expanding network of critical infrastructure throughout cislunar space. The Prize, a program of B612, recognizes original student proposals seeking to advance humanity’s understanding of and preparedness for asteroid impacts.

“Rusty Schweickart taught us that planetary defense is ultimately an act of stewardship,” said Danica Remy, President of B612 and co-founder of Asteroid Day. “This year’s winning proposal challenges us to think beyond protecting life and assets on the surface of the Earth and to consider how we safeguard the infrastructure and communities humanity will depend on throughout the Earth-Moon system. It is exactly the kind of bold, forward-looking thinking the Schweickart Prize was created to encourage.”

“As human activity and vital interests rapidly expand into regions beyond the protective shield of our atmosphere, the number of passing objects capable of causing serious damage to both life and critical infrastructure increases dramatically. Our Schweickart Prize winners this year have called for a comprehensive and systematic examination of this emerging reality,” said Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9 astronaut and co-founder emeritus of B612 Foundation.

The winning proposal, Untold Threats: A Worldwide Call to Defend New Frontiers, was developed by Brian P. Murphy and Richard E. Cannon of the University of Edinburgh. Their work highlights emerging threats posed by meteoroid storms, ejecta from asteroid deflection and mining operations, lunar impacts, and other hazards that could jeopardize the rapidly expanding ecosystem of satellites, communications systems, lunar infrastructure, and future space-based industries.

The proposal calls for establishing an International Commission on Space Infrastructure Resilience (ICSIR) to investigate these risks and develop recommendations for the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Ultimately, the authors envision creating a permanent international coordinating body, termed WARDEN (Warning-network for Asset Resilience from Dusts, Ejecta, and NEOs), to complement existing planetary defense organizations and coordinate the protection of humanity’s assets beyond Earth.

“As civilization becomes increasingly dependent on infrastructure in Earth orbit and cislunar space, we believe planetary defense must evolve accordingly,” said Brian Murphy, who co-authored the proposal with Richard Cannon. “Our work seeks to ensure that humanity’s future expansion into space remains safe, sustainable, and resilient. We are deeply honored to receive the Schweickart Prize and hope this proposal sparks broader international conversations about protecting these new frontiers.”

The winning proposal will be presented publicly today, June 23, via a live online event open to the press and the public, where the authors will share their work. Registration is available at schweickartprize.org.

Honorable Mentions: B612 also extends its recognition to the other proposals that demonstrated merit and innovative thinking in addressing critical aspects of planetary defense. This year’s honorable mentions include:

Like Streaks Passing in the Night: A Novel One-Tracklet Earth Impactor Detection Pipeline for LSST, Ian Chow (University of Washington)

The Incremental Benefits of Eccentric Collisions in Asteroid Kinetic Deflection Missions, Kinthong Lee (Tsinghua University)

Project Pathfinder, Finn McGeever, James Beioley, Jack Campbell, Yogesh Andiyappan, Sergio Sanoja Hernandez, Pau Costa Aura (Cranfield University)

The official presentation of the physical museum-quality prize and the $10,000 award will take place at a public ceremony at Lowell Observatory on June 27, coinciding with Asteroid Day Arizona activities. Rusty Schweickart, joined by fellow astronauts Nicole Stott, Dr. Ed Lu, Steve Smith, and Anousheh Ansari, science communicator Scott Manley, and Amanda Bosh, executive director of Lowell Observatory, will present the prize in person.

The public is invited to join the celebration and participate in Asteroid Day activities taking place throughout the weekend at Lowell Observatory and Meteor Crater.

The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh will organize a celebration event later this year to recognize the award and the team.

Further details on the winning proposal can be found at SchweickartPrize.org. Event information for Asteroid Day Arizona is available at asteroiddayaz.com.

About the Schweickart Prize: The Schweickart Prize, a program of B612, is an annual award that fosters a new generation of leaders in planetary defense and encourages ideas to help protect Earth from potential asteroid impacts. The prize is named after Russell “Rusty” Schweickart, Apollo 9 astronaut, co-founder of the Association of Space Explorers, and co-founder of B612. The Prize is co-chaired by Randy Schweickart and Rusty B. Schweickart. For more information, visit Schweickartprize.org. The founding sponsors who have funded the Schweickart Prize program include Anousheh Ansari, Barringer Crater Company, Future Ventures, Geoffrey Notkin, Jurvetson Family Foundation, Meteor Crater Enterprises, Randy Schweickart and Michelle Heng, and Rusty B. Schweickart and Joanne Keys.

About B612 Foundation: A United States-based nonprofit, founded in 2002, develops tools and technologies to understand, map, and navigate our solar system and protect our planet from asteroid impacts through its Asteroid Institute program and supporting educational programs, including Asteroid Day and the Schweickart Prize. Founding Circle and Asteroid Circle members, as well as individual donors from 46 countries, support the work financially. For more information, visit B612foundation.org or follow on social: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Bluesky.

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UST Launches New AI Cloud Center of Excellence on AWS to Accelerate Telecom Industry Transformation

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AI-driven delivery engine combines UST’s deep industry expertise with AWS’s leading cloud and AI capabilities.

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — UST, a leading AI and technology transformation solutions company, today announced the launch of its AI Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Moving beyond traditional advisory and implementation services, the CCoE is an AI-driven delivery engine designed to help communications service providers (CSPs) efficiently accelerate transformation and operational excellence. The telecom industry is the first of many promising use cases for UST’s new delivery engine.

UST is utilizing AWS Generative AI services Kiro, AWS Bedrock, and Amazon SageMaker as the preferred method for customer delivery, alongside its use of AWS Transform for accelerated modernization. Combining UST’s deep telecom expertise with the extensive cloud and AI capabilities of AWS, the CCoE will streamline efforts to develop and deploy a suite of industry-specific solutions that address the most pressing challenges across network operations, BSS/OSS modernization, revenue assurance, migration, and customer experience.

UST is a Premier Tier Services Partner of AWS which is the highest designation within the AWS Partner Network, the standard has been achieved through deep technical expertise, proven record of success, and a commitment to delivering innovation. Leveraging the strengths of AWS Cloud, the UST AI CCoE will meet the emerging needs of telecom operators working to modernize legacy environments, improve network resilience, reduce operational complexity, and deliver differentiated customer experiences. This collaboration will provide an innovation model to help transform telecom expertise into scalable AI solutions that achieve measurable business outcomes.

UST will officially introduce its AI CCoE at TM Forum’s DTW Ignite 2026, which takes place from June 23–25 in Copenhagen, Denmark. UST will also present UST IntelliResQ, the first of four telecom-focused solutions developed through the CCoE. The solution is designed to help communications service providers accelerate incident resolution through both autonomous and semi-autonomous AI operations. UST IntelliResQ uses AI agents developed on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore for incident management and remediation tasks, helping operators significantly reduce mean time to resolution during major outage events while also lowering operational costs and improving overall customer satisfaction.

Built using the CCoE’s AI-driven development methodology, UST IntelliResQ is a testament to how telecom domain expertise, cloud governance, security standards, compliance requirements, and operational best practices can be codified and scaled through agentic AI. The innovative solution incorporates six AI agents, seven AWS services, and three industry compliance frameworks to create a repeatable approach for delivering intelligent, AI-oriented telecom operations at scale.

“Telecommunications providers are looking for more than simply the latest AI technology, they need practical solutions that can help modernize operations, boost efficiency, and improve customer experiences. This AI Cloud Center of Excellence on AWS for CSPs represents the evolution of our offerings from a traditional services model to intelligent, AI-driven delivery engines. By combining telecom expertise with cloud-scale AI innovation, we are helping operators move from experimentation to outcomes and creating a foundation for more autonomous and resilient operations,” said Aravind Nandanan, General Manager, Telecommunications, UST.

“UST’s new AI Cloud Center of Excellence on AWS reflects our shared commitment to helping telecommunications providers move from AI experimentation to real operational outcomes. By combining deep telecom expertise with cloud-scale AI capabilities, UST is building a repeatable model for delivering intelligent, autonomous solutions at scale—whether that’s network operations, BSS/OSS modernization, or customer experience. This is the kind of practical, outcome-focused collaboration that helps telcos accelerate innovation and build more resilient operations,” said Amir Rao, Global Director for Telco Solutions, Amazon Web Services.

UST is currently training its associates across sales, management, and technical teams on AWS AI courses to gear up for the CCoE. One hundred UST associates were trained before DTW, and the number will rise to three hundred by the end of 2026.

About Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is guided by customer obsession, pace of innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. By democratizing technology for nearly two decades and making cloud computing and generative AI accessible to organizations of every size and industry, AWS has built one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology businesses in history. Millions of customers trust AWS to accelerate innovation, transform their businesses, and shape the future. With the most comprehensive AI capabilities and global infrastructure footprint, AWS empowers builders to turn big ideas into reality. Learn more at aws.amazon.com and follow @AWSNewsroom.

About UST

Since 1999, UST has worked side by side with the world’s best companies to make a powerful impact through transformation. Powered by technology, driven by AI, inspired by people, and led by our purpose, we partner with our clients from design to operation. Our AI-driven digital solutions, proprietary platforms, engineering, R&D, products, and innovation ecosystem turn core challenges into impactful, disruptive business outcomes. With deep industry knowledge and a future-ready mindset, we infuse expertise, innovation, and agility into our clients’ organizations—delivering measurable value and positive lasting change for them, their customers, and communities around the world. Together, with 30,000+ employees in 30+ countries, we build for boundless impact—touching billions of lives in the process. Visit us at www.UST.com.

Media Contacts, UST:
Tinu Cherian Abraham
+1 (949) 415-9857 (US)
+91-7899045194 (India)

Merrick Laravea
+1 (949) 416-6212

Neha Misri
+44-7341787926

Roshni Das K
+91 7736795557

SomSekhar CV
+91-9037888244
media.relations@ust.com

Media Contacts, U.S.
S&C PR
+1-646.941.9139
media@scprgroup.com

Makovsky
ust@makovsky.com

Media Contacts, India:
ust@adfactorspr.com

Media Contacts, U.K.:
FTI Consulting
UST@fticonsulting.com

Media Contacts, Spain:
Noizze Media
Carmen Tapia / Ricardo Schell
ctapia@noizzemedia.com / ricardo.schell@noizzemedia.com

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ADIPEC 2026 Technical Conferences attract record submissions in response to rising demand and energy security pressures

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7,261 submissions reinforce ADIPEC’s role in advancing technical innovation across the energy sector.AI & Digital Transformation becomes the largest SPE category, up 11.6% year on year.Record Downstream Conference submissions driven by digital transformation and advanced manufacturing growth.

ABU DHABI, UAE, June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The ADIPEC 2026 Technical Conferences, hosted by ADNOC, have attracted a combined record of 7,261 paper submissions from energy professionals and researchers worldwide, as the global technical community responds in depth and at scale to rising demand, growing energy security pressures and rapid technological change.

Across the Technical Conference organised by SPE and the Downstream Technical Conference organised by dmg events, submissions increased by 196 compared with 2025. Together, they reveal an industry focused on delivering smarter, more resilient and more efficient energy systems across the entire value chain.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as one of the defining themes of this transformation. AI & Digital Transformation is now the largest category in the SPE programme, with 1,296 submissions and an 11.6% increase year on year. This growth highlights the pace of transformation unfolding across the global energy landscape, as optimisation, automation and decision-support applications continue to reshape the industry’s efficiency and delivery.

Addressing the record-breaking submissions, Haitham Al Jenaibi, EVP Development & Production (Gas), ADNOC Upstream, ADIPEC 2026 Technical Conference Chairman, said: “At a time when energy systems are being asked to deliver more than ever, this record number of submissions reflects the depth of innovation across our industry. It reaffirms that ADIPEC remains the trusted leading technical platform that attracts state-of-the-art technologies and innovation, convening global experts to advance scalable solutions and strengthen the energy sector’s resilience and competitiveness”.

The momentum was equally evident in the Downstream Technical Conference, which recorded its highest-ever submission intake with 977 papers, up 24.9% on 2025. Digital Transformation & Advanced Manufacturing was the fastest-growing Downstream theme, rising 58.6% to 211 papers to become the top category in the programme and reflecting the accelerating adoption of digital technologies across refining, chemicals and industrial operations.

One of the strongest signals of changing industry priorities came from a new category, Techno-Economic Design & Strategic Decision-Making, which debuted with 85 submissions. Its immediate popularity reflects growing demand for technical approaches that combine engineering excellence with commercial and strategic thinking, helping organisations navigate an increasingly complex operating environment

Thomas Löffler, Senior Vice President – ADIPEC, dmg events, commented: “This year’s Technical Conferences’ submissions send a clear signal: that AI has moved from theory to infrastructure. The range and complexity of submissions confirm that the technical community is doing the hard work of embedding these solutions across operations; not as a future ambition, but as an essential component of efficient and resilient energy systems.”

Across the SPE programme, submissions grew in Drilling, up 112 papers, and Unconventional Resources, up 14%, demonstrating an increased focus on near-term supply and production resilience. Integrated Field Development and Energy Addition/Low-Carbon saw contractions of 19.4% and 35.1% respectively, indicating a rebalancing of technical attention towards immediate supply delivery needs.

In the Downstream programme, Circular Economy, Resource Efficiency & Recycling grew 52.5% to 61 papers, pointing to sustained technical interest in resource efficiency alongside the broader supply-side shift and confirming that longer-term sustainability considerations continue to command serious technical attention – even as near-term security pressures intensify.

The top five SPE submitting countries were the UAE, India, Saudi Arabia, China and the USA, spanning the world’s major producing nations and its largest emerging energy market, and underscoring the genuinely global reach of the Technical Conferences. The breadth of participation reinforces ADIPEC’s role as the platform where the technical community convenes across geographies and disciplines to share knowledge and advance the solutions the industry needs.

ADIPEC 2026 will take place in Abu Dhabi from 2–5 November 2026, bringing together more than 239,000 attendees, 1,800 speakers, 16,500 delegates and 2,250 exhibiting companies to advance the partnerships, technologies and practical solutions needed to strengthen energy systems under pressure and support long-term economic growth.

About ADIPEC

Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, and hosted by ADNOC, ADIPEC 2026 will take place in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from 2-5 November 2026.

As the world faces one of the most consequential tests of its energy systems in decades, rising demand, geopolitical uncertainty and rapid technological transformation are placing new pressure on energy systems.

ADIPEC 2026 is where the industry acts, aligning leaders, capital and capability to strengthen resilience under real-world pressure, and enable sustained long-term growth.

The ADIPEC Conferences – across Strategic and Technical – span 13 programmes. Across 380+ sessions, more than 1,800 speakers will address the most urgent global energy challenges.

The ADIPEC Exhibition features 17 halls, including 30 country pavilions, four specialised zones and more than 2,250 exhibitors, connecting global markets to accelerate technology deployment, showcase market-ready solutions and enable partnerships that support sustained growth.

ADIPEC 2026 expects to welcome 239,000+ attendees, creating unparalleled opportunities to build partnerships and advance solutions that support stability and progress.

For more information, visit www.adipec.com.
To register as media, visit https://www.adipec.com/2025/press-media/press-registration/

About ADNOC 

ADNOC is a leading diversified energy and petrochemicals group wholly owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADNOC’s objective is to maximise the value of the Emirate’s vast hydrocarbon reserves through responsible and sustainable exploration and production to support the United Arab Emirates’ economic growth and diversification. To find out more, visit: www.adnoc.ae 

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Mycom launches AIpulse, transforming CSP decision-making with AI-powered, data-agnostic, real-time executive dashboards

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LONDON, June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Mycom, an Assurance leader offering AI, Data and Automation solutions to some of the world’s largest communications service providers (CSPs), today announced AIpulse, a next-generation AI-powered dashboarding application that helps CSPs measure, prioritise, and accelerate business decisions, unlocking greater value from their data.

AIpulse brings high-fidelity, real-time visualisation to the CSP Network Operations Centre (NOC) and Service Operations Centre (SOC), enabling real-time network operations. Designed to provide visibility into CSP Autonomous Networks, AIpulse is an essential visualisation and control layer for the AI/Automation-driven NOC/SOC.

Built on Mycom’s powerful Codap data foundation, which provides multi-sourced data with ontology/semantics, topology, and knowledge base/policy contexts, AIpulse enables CSP executives and operational teams to leverage customized, AI-driven dashboards that unify insights from multiple network, service, customer, and business data sources.

The AIpulse dashboarding experience empowers executives and engineers to personalise reporting, accelerate remediation with AI, and make business-critical decisions quickly. AIpulse provides the CSP teams with:

AI-powered, real-time, custom dashboards tailored to individual roles and business prioritiesDynamic visual storytelling enriched with embedded AI analytics for deeper analysis360-degree operational and business visibility across the network, service, and customer domains

The application is designed to support a range of high-impact use cases, including real-time NOC/SOC executive dashboards, private mobile network performance management and large-scale network events.

“CSPs are building AI-ready data foundations, and AI agents are consuming this data at an unprecedented rate,” said Mounir Ladki, President and CTO at Mycom. “AIpulse will provide real-time visibility into multi-sourced data, enabling CSPs to maintain oversight and control over how Automation/AI agents are transforming their network performance and customer experience. By combining rich operational intelligence with predictive, generative, and agentic AI capabilities, AIpulse transforms fragmented data into real-time analysis and action. This will help CSPs gain visibility into and control over Autonomous Operations driven by Agentic AI, helping them grow revenues and improve the customer experience.”

To arrange a discussion with Mycom and learn more about AIpulse and its AI+Data+Automation offerings, click here or contact the team at info@mycom.com. Follow Mycom on LinkedIn for its latest innovations and thought leadership on AI and Automation solutions.

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