Technology

Certiport Names 2024 Microsoft Office Specialist World Champions

Published

2 years ago

July 31, 2024

The winners of the 2024 Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) World Championship have been announced by Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, the leading provider of performance-based IT certification exams that accelerate academic and career opportunities for learners.

ANAHEIM, Calif., July 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Now in its 22nd year, the annual competition challenges students from ages 13 through 22 around the world to prove their skills in Microsoft Word, Excel®, and PowerPoint®.

“For over two decades the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship has recognized top students using Microsoft Office around the globe. We know this experience will prepare students to demonstrate valuable real-world digital skills,” said Kate Maxwell, GM Worldwide Education Industry, Microsoft

To enter, students completed a qualifying MOS certification exam to demonstrate their mastery of Microsoft Office technology. Regional competitions were held worldwide, and 148 finalists qualified to compete in the final round of competition held in Anaheim, California, from July 28 – 31, 2024.

The 2024 MOS World Champions are:

Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365 Apps)

First place: Lucie Dornáková, Czech RepublicSecond place: Ka Seong Feng, Macao, ChinaThird place: Minh Duong Nguyen, Vietnam

Microsoft PowerPoint® (Microsoft 365 Apps)

First place: Yuxiang Lin, Macao, ChinaSecond place: Lenka Šedivá, Czech RepublicThird place: Shun Yin Pang, Hong Kong, China

Microsoft Excel® (Microsoft 365 Apps)

First place: Daniel Židek, Czech RepublicSecond place: Chi Kuan Tan, Macao, ChinaThird place: Brenda Brito, Brazil

Microsoft Word (Office 2019)

First place: Tsan Ying Wong, Macao, ChinaSecond place: Kok Lam Brandon Wai, Hong Kong, ChinaThird place: Yu Chi Wang, Taiwan

Microsoft PowerPoint® (Office 2019)

First place: Attachai Singthong, ThailandSecond place: Seng Hei U, Macao, ChinaThird place: Jou Hsuan Huang, Taiwan

Microsoft Excel® (Office 2019)

First place: Man Kit Ung, Macao, ChinaSecond place: En Yu Chou, TaiwanThird place: Andrew Manteau, USA

In the concluding round, competitors participated in an exam that tested their knowledge, application skills, and creative talents. For the second consecutive year, finalists were required to complete a free-form project. This year’s challenge asked competitors to create an informational document for the non-profit client Mentors International.

“We are honored to be a part of the Microsoft Office Specialist World Competition,” said James Oakes, Director of Product at Mentors International. “This event not only highlights the talents and dedication of the student competitors but also allows us to connect with like-minded individuals and organizations that share our mission to inspire positive change worldwide. Through mentoring, job-focused training courses, and micro-lending, we aim to transform the cycle of poverty into a lineage of success.”

At the final event in California, Certiport and Microsoft recognized the top student competitors during the MOS World Championship Awards Ceremony and presented each first-place winner with an $8,000 cash prize. The second and third-place honorees received $4,000 and $2,000, respectively.

“This event marks 22 years since the Microsoft Office Specialist competition began in 2002. We are exceptionally proud of what we have managed to achieve, through our partners around the world, in providing young people with a platform such as this to learn, compete, and gain valuable skills that will help them in their future careers,” said Craig Bushman, General Manager, Certiport.

MOS is the only official Microsoft-recognized certification program for Microsoft Office globally and serves as a powerful instrument for assessing learners’ skills and preparing them for real-world application of their knowledge.

“For more than two decades, the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship has recognized top students using Microsoft Office around the globe. These students are passionate and dedicated learners who have the skills and competitive drive to succeed in anything they do. At Microsoft, we know this experience will prepare students to demonstrate valuable digital skills in a real-world work environment,” said Kate Maxwell, General Manager Worldwide Education Industry at Microsoft.

Certiport will host the 2025 MOS World Championship in Orlando, Florida, from July 27-30, 2025.
Learn more about the MOS World Championship here.

See what our competitors and other news outlets are saying by searching the event hashtag #MOSWC on social media.

About Certiport
Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, is the leading provider of certification exam development, delivery and program management services delivered through an expansive network of over 13,000 Certiport Authorized Testing Centers worldwide. Certiport manages a sophisticated portfolio of leading certification programs including: the official Microsoft Office Specialist certification program, the Microsoft Certified Fundamentals certification program, the Microsoft Certified Educator program, the Adobe® Certified Professional certification program, the Autodesk Certified User certification program, the Intuit certification program, the Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) certification program, the Meta Certified Digital Marketing Associate certification program, the App Development with Swift certification program, the Project Management Institute Project Management Ready certification program, the Unity Certified User certification program, the Communication Skills for Business certification program, the IC3 Digital Literacy certification, and the Entrepreneurship and Small Business certification program. Certiport reliably delivers over three million tests each year throughout the secondary, post-secondary, workforce, and corporate technology markets in 148 countries and 29 languages worldwide. For more information visit http://www.certiport.com or follow Certiport on X at http://www.twitter.com/certiport.

“Certiport” is a registered trademark of NCS Pearson, Inc. in the United States and other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact

Greg Forbes, Certiport, +44 782 431 3448, greg.forbes@pearson.com, http://www.certiport.com/

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SOURCE Certiport

Technology

Bloomberg Introduces Spread-to-Benchmark Quoting for EUR and GBP Portfolio Trading Baskets

Published

15 hours ago

June 2, 2026

LONDON, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bloomberg today announced the launch of Spread-to-Benchmark quoting and trading for Euro (EUR) and Sterling (GBP) denominated portfolio trades through its Portfolio Trading Basket Builder (PTBB). The new functionality expands the range of quoting protocols available for European credit portfolio trading and reflects growing client demand for spread-based execution workflows, alongside increased dealer support for the convention across EUR and GBP markets.

Spread-to-Benchmark quoting is a well-established protocol for USD credit portfolio trades and is used by market participants to evaluate and execute portfolio trades. By extending this workflow to EUR and GBP portfolio trades, Bloomberg enables clients and dealers to transact using a familiar spread-based methodology across additional credit markets.

The introduction of Spread-to-Benchmark quoting for EUR and GBP baskets reflects increased client interest in evaluating portfolio trades through a spread-based lens and the growing adoption of spread-based execution workflows in European credit markets. The workflow provides market participants with an additional framework for assessing the relationship between credit spread risk and underlying government bond yields when pricing and executing portfolio trades.

Additional Workflow Flexibility 
The workflow complements Bloomberg’s existing portfolio trading capabilities, which support the full range of market-standard quoting conventions, including Price, Yield, Spread-to-Benchmark and Spread based workflows that reference Bloomberg’s evaluated pricing service (BVAL). This gives clients flexibility to compare and execute portfolio trades using the quoting methodology that best aligns with their investment objectives, execution preferences and internal risk management processes.

“European credit clients continue to look for execution workflows that reflect how they evaluate risk and monitor portfolio trading outcomes,” said Harry Street, Global Head of Credit and Equities Trading Product at Bloomberg. “By expanding dealer support for Spread-to-Benchmark quoting for EUR and GBP baskets, Bloomberg is broadening the range of workflow options available to clients trading European credit portfolios.”

“Portfolio trading workflows in fixed income continue to become more sophisticated as institutional investors look for ways to evaluate execution quality in changing market conditions,” said Kevin McPartland, Head of Market Structure & Technology Research at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. “Spread-based quoting helps market participants more clearly distinguish between the impacts of credit spread and underlying rates movements when determining how best to execute a portfolio trade.”

Bloomberg’s Electronic Markets solutions are used by leading financial institutions to trade efficiently in over 175 markets around the world. More than 9,000 client firms use Bloomberg Electronic Markets to access industry-leading depth and breadth of liquidity across asset classes from over 800 dealers globally. Bloomberg Electronic Markets provides market participants with comprehensive solutions across the trading lifecycle, including robust price transparency, analytics, automation and execution, powered by Bloomberg’s high-quality, multi-asset class data and tools.

About Bloomberg
Bloomberg is a global leader in business and financial information, delivering trusted data, news, and insights that bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to markets. The company helps connect influential communities across the global financial ecosystem via reliable technology solutions that enable our customers to make more informed decisions and foster better collaboration. For more information, visit Bloomberg.com/company or request a demo.

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SOURCE Bloomberg L.P.

Technology

Dr. Sunho Kang, a senior battery-technology executive with leadership experience at major global battery and EV manufacturers, joins TeraWatt Technology as Head of Product and Technology

Published

15 hours ago

June 2, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TeraWatt Technology Inc. (Headquartered in California, USA) is pleased to announce that Dr. Sunho Kang has joined the company as Head of Product and Technology.

Dr. Kang is a globally recognized battery-technology executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience spanning the United States, Asia, and Europe, and a distinguished track record of advancing innovations from laboratory research through gigafactory-scale production. He has held senior executive positions at world-leading organizations including Samsung SDI, Apple, and Volkswagen Group of America, and brings deep expertise in lithium-ion battery materials, cell engineering, and product industrialization across a broad range of applications, including electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

At TeraWatt, Dr. Kang will lead global product development and the commercialization of TeraWatt’s battery technology platform, aiming to accelerate the delivery of TeraWatt’s competitive products as well as the technology and commercialization roadmap including manufacturing scale-up.

Dr. Kang commented:

“I am thrilled to join TeraWatt Technology as Head of Product and Technology. TeraWatt’s innovative battery platform presents a tremendous opportunity to push the boundaries of lithium-ion technology, and I look forward to working with the team to accelerate product development and commercialization to deliver meaningful impact.”

TeraWatt Technology founder CEO Ken Ogata, Ph.D. commented:

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Kang as our Head of Product and Technology. His deep expertise in battery materials, cell engineering, and productization will be instrumental in accelerating TeraWatt’s product roadmap and technology leadership. Together with Dr. Kang, we will continue to drive our mission forward.”

About TeraWatt Technology Inc.
TeraWatt Technology Inc. is a California-based company that produces lightweight, high-power, and safe next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

Company Overview
Name: TeraWatt Technology Inc.
Representative: Co-founder and CEO Ken Ogata
Headquarters: 28 Geary St, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94108, United States
Founded: January 2020
Established: December 2019
URL: https://www.terawatt-technology.com/

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SOURCE TeraWatt Technology Inc.

Technology

Tencent Cloud and Soniox Announce Strategic Partnership: Combining Advanced Speech-to-Text (STT) Technology with Global Real-Time Infrastructure

Published

15 hours ago

June 2, 2026

HONG KONG, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, today announced a strategic partnership with Soniox, a San Francisco-based speech AI company that specializes in developing high-accuracy, low-latency speech AI solutions. The collaboration integrates Soniox’s speech-to-text (STT) technology with Tencent Cloud’s Real-Time Communication (TRTC) enterprise-grade global infrastructure, enabling enterprises to build and deploy multilingual voice AI applications across 200+ countries and regions.

Elevating Enterprise Voice AI at a Global Scale

In enterprise voice AI deployments, latency directly affects user experience and application reliability. The integration of Soniox’s high-accuracy, low-latency STT with TRTC’s global transmission infrastructure reduces latency across the entire pipeline, creating a comprehensive end-to-end solution for enterprises deploying conversational AI applications worldwide.

Soniox is the voice platform for every language. Unlike legacy speech AI, which was built primarily for English-speakers, Soniox delivers native-speaker accuracy across 60+ languages. Its technology can handle mid-sentence language switching — a user can switch between English and Chinese in a single utterance, and Soniox will capture every word with complete accuracy. All of this works through a single API that works for both speech-to-text and text-to-speech.

By integrating TRTC, the partnership leverages an enterprise-grade real-time communication backbone featuring more than 3,200 global nodes, sub-300 ms worldwide latency, and advanced capabilities such as AI noise suppression and weak-network resilience. These capabilities enable conversational AI applications to operate reliably across diverse network environments, including regions such as Southeast Asia and Africa.

With the roll out of this partnership, developers can integrate the Soniox STT API directly within the Tencent Cloud console. Whether targeting English-speaking markets or supporting languages such as Arabic, Hindi, and Malay, enterprises can build global voice applications — including intelligent customer service, voice assistants, real-time translation, and meeting transcription — to address the demands of expansion into emerging markets and multilingual scenarios.

Wison Xie, Head of Product at Tencent RTC, stated: “Tencent RTC has always been committed to providing reliable real-time communication infrastructure for global enterprises. Our partnership with Soniox brings together our strengths in enterprise-grade audio transmission and Soniox’s advanced speech recognition technology. Together, we are making it easier for businesses to deploy accurate, low-latency voice AI applications across any language and any market.”

Klemen Simonic, CEO at Soniox Inc., stated “At Soniox, our mission is to help businesses understand every word, in any language, with native speaker accuracy and exceptional speed. Partnering with Tencent Cloud combines our speech AI with world-class real-time infrastructure, enabling enterprises to build voice AI experiences that scale globally with low latency and reliability.”

About Tencent Cloud:

Tencent Cloud, one of the world’s leading cloud companies, is committed to creating innovative solutions to resolve real-world issues and enabling digital transformation for smart industries. Through our extensive global infrastructure, Tencent Cloud provides businesses across the globe with stable and secure industry-leading cloud products and services, leveraging technological advancements such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT, and network security. It is our constant mission to meet the needs of industries across the board, including the fields of gaming, media and entertainment, finance, healthcare, property, retail, travel, and transportation.

About Tencent RTC:

Tencent RTC provides real-time communication solutions, including audio/video calling, live streaming, and in-game voice. With enterprise-grade security, AI-powered enhancements, and a global network of over 3,200 nodes, Tencent RTC powers mission-critical communication for customers worldwide.

About Soniox:

Soniox is a next-generation voice AI company bringing about the end of English-first speech AI. Most people on the planet did not grow up speaking English and often mix languages mid-sentence; and yet legacy speech AI was built for just English. Soniox is different: native-speaker accuracy across 60+ languages, true mid-sentence language switching, and flawless alphanumeric recognition that legacy providers still can’t match. For developers building global apps, Soniox is the only option. Try it for yourself at soniox.com.

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SOURCE Tencent Cloud