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USRA Contributes Planetary Science Expertise to NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model

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Open-source artificial intelligence model combines diverse lunar datasets to support scientific analysis of the Moon

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Universities Space Research Association (USRA) contributed planetary science expertise, lunar dataset development, and scientific evaluation to the newly released NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, an open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model designed to help researchers analyze the large and diverse datasets collected by lunar missions.

Developed through a collaboration led by NASA and IBM Research, the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model was pretrained from scratch using SomBench, a multimodal lunar dataset containing nearly two million co-registered data bundles spanning 11 modalities and two spatial scales. The model brings together complementary information about the lunar surface, including imagery, topography, illumination geometry, thermophysical properties, mineralogy, radar, gravity, and other geologic and environmental data.

USRA’s contribution to the project was provided by Dr. Rachel Slank, an associate scientist with USRA’s Science and Technology Institute, on assignment at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. She served as a planetary science subject-matter expert on the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model team. Slank worked across both the science and modeling teams, helping connect lunar science priorities and the physical characteristics of planetary datasets with decisions about model development, applications, and evaluation.

The NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model was evaluated across three downstream benchmarks: crater detection at both regional and meter scales, segmentation of irregular mare patches (IMPs), and regression of lunar polar ice prospectivity. Together, these applications assess the model’s performance across a diverse range of lunar science challenges, from identifying impact features and mapping unusual volcanic landforms to integrating environmental datasets associated with the stability and potential distribution of polar volatiles.

Across all three benchmarks, the pretrained NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model matched or outperformed comparison models based on ImageNet pretraining, as well as an architecturally identical model initialized without lunar pretraining. The study also demonstrated particularly strong label efficiency in crater detection, suggesting that the representations learned through lunar pretraining can reduce the amount of task-specific labeled data required for certain applications.

The multimodal design of the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model allows it to learn relationships among different types of lunar observations rather than treating each dataset independently. The model was designed to operate across both regional-scale Wide Angle Camera (WAC) observations and meter-scale Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) data while incorporating information such as terrain, illumination geometry, and other lunar surface properties.

By releasing the pretrained model, fine-tuning code, and benchmark datasets openly, the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model team aims to provide the planetary science and AI communities with a reusable foundation for developing new lunar research applications.

A major component of this work was the collaborative development of SomBench, the dataset used both to pretrain the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model and to support standardized evaluation of lunar machine learning (ML) applications.

SomBench contains two complementary components: a core multi-instrument dataset that serves as the pretraining corpus for the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model and a suite of application benchmarks used to evaluate ML methods on representative lunar science problems. The benchmark suite addresses three broad science themes: impact processes, volcanic history, and polar volatiles.

As part of that effort, Slank led development of the high-resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) NAC crater benchmark, manually identifying more than 49,000 lunar craters. The resulting dataset uses high-resolution lunar imagery together with co-registered digital terrain models to evaluate crater detection at meter-scale resolution. She also contributed to the broader SomBench datasets and science applications and provided extensive scientific review of both the SomBench study and the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model study.

“One of the biggest challenges was bringing together lunar datasets that span very different instruments and spatial resolutions (1m to 20km per pixel) while still preserving the scientific value of each dataset,” said Dr. Slank. “Because I worked across both the science and modeling teams, I could help make sure those differences were considered as the data was brought together and used to train and evaluate the foundation model. I can’t wait to see what new science researchers will be able to do with the help of the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model!”

The NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model and associated datasets are available through Hugging Face.

NASA announcement:

https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/artificial-intelligence-lunar-foundation-model/

IBM announcement:

https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-09-10-ibm-and-nasa-release-open-source-ai-model-to-support-lunar-exploration

About USRA 

Founded in 1969, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. Government, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advance space-related science, technology, and engineering. USRA operates scientific institutes and facilities and conducts other major research and educational programs under federal funding. It engages the university community and employs in-house scientific leadership, innovative research and development, and project management expertise.
More information about USRA is available at www.usra.edu.

PR Contact:
Suraiya Farukhi
sfarukhi@usra.edu
443-812-6945

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SOURCE Universities Space Research Association

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AT&T and Dallas Cowboys Extend One of Sports’ Most Iconic Partnerships

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AT&T’s network connects America’s Team to what’s next in sports and entertainment at AT&T Stadium

Key Takeaways:

AT&T and the Dallas Cowboys extend their partnership to power the next generation of technology, experiences and innovation at AT&T Stadium.AT&T is debuting new stadium technology at AT&T Stadium for the 2026 season, powered by the nation’s largest fiber1 network, from AI-powered moments and smarter navigation to more immersive fan experiences.

DALLAS, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T and the Dallas Cowboys today announced an agreement to build the future of sports and entertainment at AT&T Stadium, with AT&T’s network continuing to power the infrastructure, technology and in-stadium moments that make the stadium one of the most connected venues in sports and entertainment.

The announcement comes as AT&T and the Cowboys kick off the 2026 season with new fan experiences and technology, from smarter stadium navigation to immersive video, mixed reality and AI-powered moments built for connected fans.

“There is no more critical partner that we rely upon and value than AT&T,” said Dallas Cowboys Owner, President and General Manager Jerry Jones. “AT&T is not only at the core of our fan experience and engagement ability, but they provide the foundation of technology and connectivity that drives everything we do operationally. Being able to trust and depend on that like we have for 30 years, and now, knowing we will grow and continue to innovate, is as important a part of our future as anything could be.”

Engineering the Connected World of Sports and Entertainment

A satellite signal may reach a stadium, but it takes fiber throughout the venue to deliver the world-class experience fans increasingly expect. When more than 100,000 people gather in one place, connectivity gets put to the test. At AT&T Stadium, more than 261 miles of fiber and nearly 1,000 antennas throughout the venue, the largest network of its kind in the country, help power everything from mobile ticketing and stadium operations to video sharing and real-time fan experiences, engineering the connected world of the biggest stages in sports and entertainment.

The agreement builds on that foundation, giving AT&T and the Dallas Cowboys a platform to create faster, smarter and more immersive ways for fans to experience every moment of game day. The partnership also keeps the AT&T name on the building itself, a signal that the stadium’s future, like its past, will continue to be shaped together.

“When it comes to connecting America’s Team, there’s only one choice: America’s largest fiber network, backed by America’s best guarantee,” said AT&T Chairman & Chief Executive Officer John Stankey. “We deeply value our long and successful relationship with the Cowboys and look forward to continuing to innovate on behalf of fans to connect, share and stream effortlessly.”

New for Cowboys Nation this Season
As part of the partnership, AT&T and the Cowboys are refreshing familiar fan favorites and introducing new experiences at AT&T Stadium this season, including:

Smarter Navigation: AT&T Stadium Wayfinding offers instant, no-download navigation from the parking lot to your seat, found through the Cowboys app and stadium kiosks.More Immersive Experiences: Pose with the Pros brings an expanded AR photo experience with current players, Cowboys Legends and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Reception Connection puts fans in a mixed reality catch-and-compete moment alongside Dak Prescott, and Connected Cam streams live fan video straight to the main videoboard.AI-Powered Fan Engagement: The Starbase Connection Feature transforms fan-submitted photos into custom Cowboys hype videos across stadium boards.Better Connectivity: AT&T Turbo Live gives every fan at AT&T Stadium, including customers of other carriers, reserved, high-priority network access to post, stream and share all game long.

As fan expectations continue to evolve, AT&T and the Cowboys will keep building the technology behind the next era of live sports and entertainment, one season, one game and one connection at a time.

1 Based on the number of fiber-to-the-home households using publicly available data.

About AT&T

We help more than 100 million U.S. families, friends and neighbors, plus nearly 2.5 million businesses, connect to greater possibility. From the first phone call 150+ years ago to our 5G wireless and multi-gig internet offerings today, we @ATT innovate to improve lives. For more information about AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), please visit us at about.att.com. Investors can learn more at investors.att.com.

About AT&T Stadium

AT&T Stadium is the largest, most technologically advanced entertainment venue in the world. Designed by HKS and built by Manhattan Construction, the $1.2 billion stadium features two monumental arches, the world’s largest HDTV video board cluster, an expansive retractable roof and the largest retractable end zone doors in the world. Features of the stadium include seating for 80,000 and expandability for up to 100,000, over 300 luxury suites, club seating on multiple levels and the Dallas Cowboys Pro Shop, open to the public year-round. Outside the stadium, the Miller Lite® House is a branded destination that boasts a 70-yard Cowboys turf field featuring field games, four video boards and over 60 television screens, two fantasy football screen walls and over 87,000 outdoor square-footage for event day experiences. The space also features two beer gardens and a walk-in beer cooler. The stadium is also home to a world-class collection of contemporary art, made up of over 100+ works of art by 66 established and emerging artists displayed on the walls and in the grand public spaces of the venue. In addition to being the home of the Dallas Cowboys since opening in 2009, the stadium has hosted FIFA World Cup 2026, the Grand Prix of Arlington, Super Bowl XLV, the 2010 NBA All Star Game, the annual Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, the annual Shriners Children’s East-West Bowl, the 2014 NCAA Men’s Final Four, the 2015 inaugural College Football Playoff Championship Game, the 2015 50th Anniversary Academy of Country Music Awards show and WrestleMania 32 & 38. The venue has also played host to high school and college football, concerts, championship fights, international soccer matches and other special events. For more information, go to attstadium.com.

© 2026 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the Globe logo are registered trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.

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SOURCE AT&T

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TEAMSTERS ORGANIZE TWO DHL SUBCONTRACTORS IN 24 HOURS

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55 DHL Drivers Vote Unanimously to Join Local 745, Prepare to Bargain First Contracts

CARROLLTON, Texas, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fifty-five drivers at Cartage Services by DeliverOL and Driven-Force Inc., two subcontractors for DHL Express, have voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 745. The two organizing victories, secured within 24 hours of each other, come as workers seek to win the wages, benefits, and workplace protections enjoyed by thousands of DHL Teamsters nationwide.

“We wear DHL uniforms, deliver DHL packages, and drive DHL trucks, but we are paid considerably less than DHL Teamsters,” said Malik Hathorn, a driver at Cartage Services by DeliverOL and a new member of Local 745. “We organized because we saw what our Teamsters brothers and sisters at DHL have won, and we know we deserve the same. Now we’re ready to fight for it at the bargaining table.”

During the organizing campaign, both DHL subcontractors committed multiple unfair labor practices and hired high-priced outside union-busters to try to stop workers from organizing. Their efforts failed. Drivers at both companies voted unanimously to join the Teamsters.

“We had some simple questions for the union buster management flew in from Florida: who do you work for, and whose interests are you here to protect?” said Calvin Dawson, a driver at Driven-Force Inc. and a new member of Local 745. “The company paid his fees, his hotel, his airfare, and his meals. We told him he could take our message back to management. We are Teamsters, 100 percent, and we aren’t going anywhere.”

The Teamsters represent thousands of workers at DHL, its subsidiaries, and subcontractors nationwide. In May, DHL Teamsters overwhelmingly ratified a new national master agreement that secured significant wage increases, increased health and welfare contributions, and established protections against AI-driven routing systems and autonomous vehicles.

“We are organizing every corner of DHL’s operation and building the power necessary to raise standards for anyone who moves a DHL package,” said Spencer Dearth, Director of the Teamsters Logistics Division. “These drivers stood together, defeated the company’s union-busting campaign, and voted unanimously to join their local. Now we will turn that unity into strong first contracts.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on X @Teamsters and on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:
Maura Drumm, (215) 510-3735
MDrumm@teamster.org

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SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

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SpryPoint Named to Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators

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Recognition reflects SpryPoint’s culture of continuous innovation across its people, client partnerships, and cloud-native utility technology solutions

ATLANTA and CHARLOTTETOWN, PE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — SpryPoint, a leading provider of CIS Modernization and cloud-native solutions for utilities, today announced that it has been named to Fast Company’s 2026 Best Workplaces for Innovators in the emerging enterprise category (201 – 999 employees). This program recognizes organizations that create cultures where employees at all levels are empowered to develop and implement great ideas to serve customers, the business, and communities.

“Our job is to listen, learn, and turn those ideas into something that makes a difference for our clients. I’m proud of our team for building that kind of culture, and it’s great to see it recognized by Fast Company.”

Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators recognizes organizations committed to capturing and advancing great ideas wherever they originate. For SpryPoint, the recognition reflects a culture of continuous innovation that extends across how the company invests in its people, works alongside utility clients to solve real-world challenges, and develops and delivers its cloud-native utility platform.

“Innovation has been essential to how we work from day one. We started SpryPoint a decade-plus ago because we believed utilities deserved a better kind of CIS partner and needed a more innovative technology solution,” said Kyle Strang, CEO and co-founder of SpryPoint. “That same thinking still drives us today. Our people are always looking for better ways to solve problems, work with our clients, and help utilities serve their communities. This recognition reflects the work of our entire team, along with the clients and partners who keep pushing us to think differently and get better.”

SpryPoint was founded on the premise that utilities, to best serve their customers, need greater and faster access to innovation and should expect more from their business technology providers and critical business systems they rely on. That mindset continues to shape how the company operates every day.

SpryPoint’s culture of continuous innovation comes to life in three areas as a Best Workplaces for Innovators:

Investing in people and new ways of working. SpryPoint created its “Center of Excellence” to give employees the training, mentorship, hands-on experience, and support required to serve the increasingly complex needs of utilities. Its “Office of AI” is extending that investment across the company through AI tools, training, experimentation, and practical applications that help employees improve processes and create new ways of working. Both initiatives are designed around the same principle: equip people to learn, contribute, challenge existing approaches, and turn good ideas into action and value.Co-creating with clients and partners. SpryPoint teams work directly with water, electric, gas, and multi-service utilities to solve real operational and customer challenges, and to turn those needs into capabilities that can benefit the broader utility community. Dakota Electric’s effort included innovation around one of the most important aspects of cooperative membership: capital credits. Dakota Electric collaborated with SpryPoint to develop functionality that supports managing and administering capital credits directly within the CIS environment, creating greater transparency, consistency, and operational efficiency around a process fundamental to the cooperative business model.Building a platform for continuous innovation. SpryPoint’s cloud-native platform was designed to move utilities beyond the traditional cycle of major software upgrades, extensive customization, and disconnected applications. The model enables continuous product development and delivery, supported by secure integrations across the utility technology ecosystem. Feedback and ideas from clients, partners, implementation teams, support professionals, and product teams continually inform the roadmap, turning what SpryPoint learns in the field into improvements that can benefit utilities across the Americas.

These three areas reinforce one another. Investing in people creates stronger teams and new ideas. Working closely with clients and partners turns real utility challenges into opportunities to innovate. A cloud-native technology model provides a foundation for turning those ideas into capabilities we can deliver continuously to our clients.

That approach has become increasingly important as SpryPoint has scaled. The company grew revenue 616% over four years and expanded from approximately 50 employees in 2022 to more than 370 today. Alongside that growth, SpryPoint has continued to invest in the people, processes, technology, and partnerships required to serve a growing community of utilities.

“Innovation and our best ideas start with a member of our team seeing a better way to do something, a client bringing us a problem we haven’t solved before, or a partner adding a different perspective,” shared Strang. “Our job is to listen, learn, and turn those ideas into something that makes a difference for our clients. I’m proud of our team for building that kind of culture, and it’s great to see it recognized by Fast Company.”

Being named one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators recognizes something that has been central to SpryPoint from the beginning: innovation works best when talented people are given the tools and opportunity to challenge what exists, collaborate with clients and partners, and continually find better ways to help utilities operate and serve their communities.

About SpryPoint

Founded in 2011, SpryPoint builds and delivers integrated, cloud-native software solutions to empower utilities to serve customers better, operate more efficiently, and provide new levels of business visibility and data-driven decision-making. Today, more than 100 utilities across the Americas rely on SpryPoint to modernize billing, customer engagement, and field operations to transform their business. In 2025, SpryPoint was recognized as a Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ company in Canada and a Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ company in North America. For more information, visit www.sprypoint.com or contact info@sprypoint.com.

Media Contact

Jordan Vardell, SpryPoint, 1 (855) TRY-SPRY, info@sprypoint.com, https://www.sprypoint.com/

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SOURCE SpryPoint

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