Connect with us

Technology

Plug and Play Partners with UN Tourism for Artificial Intelligence Global Startup Competition

Published

on

SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Plug and Play has announced the second call for applications in partnership with UN Tourism. The UN Tourism Artificial Intelligence Global Startup Competition is the second call of application in a series of three startup competitions aimed at making the tourism sector more sustainable. The competition launched today at Plug and Play’s Silicon Valley Summit.

This global initiative aims to drive progress in the tourism sector towards the Sustainable Development Goals by harnessing the potential of cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Augmented and Virtual Reality. 

Accelerating SDGs through Innovation and Technology

The UN Tourism Artificial Intelligence Global Startup Competition highlights the transformative potential of innovative solutions, propelling the tourism sector towards recovery while empowering it to play a pivotal role in achieving the global goals outlined in Agenda 2030. This initiative invites startups worldwide to lead change in tourism towards a sustainable, inclusive future aligned with global aspirations for a better world.

UN Tourism Executive Director, Natalia Bayona, says: “We stand at the dawn of a new era in tourism, where innovation is key. We can’t forget that the global smart tourism market is projected to reach 126.889 billion dollars by 2033, growing 16% since 2023 and 2.2% of global venture capital is flowing into tourism and technology startups. This new era in tourism is being shaped and guided by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence. The future of tourism is here, and it is intelligent, efficient, and sustainable”.

Benefits for Participants

The competition invites early-stage and series A startups to apply before July 31. Benefits for participants accepted include:

Accommodation and travel to pitch at the UN Tourism Tech AdventuresTwo-month acceleration program at SPARK – the Innovation Sphere of Les Roches, held across both campuses in Marbella and Crans-MontanaMembership of the UN Tourism Innovation NetworkIntegration into the Plug and Play Ecosystem and participation in the yearly SummitAccess to curated mentorship programsScholarships from the UN Tourism AcademyPotential pilot project collaborations with private sector partners and institutionParticipation in the Program for Ambassadors of the Spanish Language Award powered by Fundación CarolinaOpportunities for pilot project collaborations with private sector partners and institutionsAccess to 90+ Venture Capitalists

Selection and Evaluation Criteria

The competition is open to startups worldwide, spanning various industries and emphasizing innovation, sustainability, and scalable business models with potential for international growth. Participating startups will be assessed based on their contribution to the selected SDGs, ease of value capture through collaboration, potential business impact, maturity of the product and technology, team and organizational structure, and partnership readiness.

Plug and Play’s Role in Sourcing and Scouting Startups

Plug and Play’s role in the competition involves sourcing and scouting startups for initiatives like the UN Tourism Artificial Intelligence Global Startup Competition, aimed at supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals through technology. As a global innovation platform connecting startups, corporations, and investors, Plug and Play is committed to driving technological advancements and innovation across 25+ industries. This initiative seeks to cultivate a collaborative ecosystem for sustainable and inclusive innovation worldwide.

All interested potential participants can apply to the call for applications on the following page: https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/un-tourism-artificial-intelligence-global-startup-competition/.

About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we’re present in 60+ locations across 5 continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we’ve invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

Plug and Play Contact: press@pnptc.com

About UN Tourism
The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), a United Nations specialized agency, is the leading international organization with a decisive and central role in promoting the development of responsible, sustainable, and universally accessible tourism. It serves as a global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how. Its membership includes 160 countries, 6 territories, 2 permanent observers, and over 500 Affiliate Members.

UN Tourism Contacts:
Rosalia Galan – Communications Expert
IEI – Un Tourism Regional Office Middle East rgalan@unwto.org | +966 555908142

Lara Kabbara – Administrative Associate
IEI – Un Tourism Regional Office Middle East lkabbara@unwto.org | +966 508887969

Miriam Rubio
IEI Senior Specialist Innovation, Education and Investments
mrubio@unwto.org +34 687964076

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/plug-and-play-partners-with-un-tourism-for-artificial-intelligence-global-startup-competition-302171119.html

SOURCE Plug and Play

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Huawei Launches Over 20 All-New Xinghe Intelligent Network Offerings to Amplify Industrial Intelligence

Published

on

By

SHANGHAI, Sept. 21, 2024 /CNW/ — During HUAWEI CONNECT 2024, Leon Wang, President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, announced more than 20 all-new Xinghe Intelligent Network offerings globally at the summit themed “Xinghe Intelligent Network, Amplify Industrial Intelligence”. These purpose-built offerings contribute to an AI network ecosystem and help customers seize opportunities for intelligent development and maximize intelligent productivity.

With the development of AI technologies, the world is advancing from digital transformation to intelligent transformation. All industries are quickly adopting AI technologies to create new use cases, for example, self-driving cars, intelligent diagnosis and treatment, and intelligent train inspection. All of these are significantly improving the efficiency and experience of our work and daily lives.

The advent of the intelligent era is driving networks into intelligent ones. Huawei has been making joint efforts with partners to lead research and practices of intelligent networks. That’s why Huawei constantly upgrades its Xinghe Intelligent Network offerings to help customers grasp opportunities for intelligent development, build new intelligent network infrastructure, and maximize intelligent productivity in the intelligent era. Key highlights include the following:

Xinghe Intelligent Campus focuses on AI-enabled, experience-centric campus network construction, ensuring zero freezing for audio and video applications, zero degradation on services, and zero waiting for interactions.Xinghe Intelligent WAN introduces a wide range of intelligent technologies to intelligently schedule millions of flows and precisely optimize service experience.Xinghe Intelligent Fabric adopts the AI Turbo engine to improve network throughput, enhancing foundation model training efficiency.Xinghe Intelligent Network Security integrates AI technologies into network security detection, accurately and rapidly identifying threats.

To support network solutions in various scenarios, Huawei released more than 20 featured offerings globally. Examples include the industry’s first 100 Tbps fixed-form Ethernet data center switch, the industry’s first 51.2 Tbps liquid-cooled fixed-form data center switch, the industry’s first AI router, high-quality 10 Gbps campus switches and Wi-Fi 7 APs, Intelligent SASE Branch Security Solution, and the industry’s first IP Autonomous Driving Network Solution. All these offerings are designed to help customers with greater business returns.

As the intelligent era calls for intelligent networks, Huawei will continue to drive the development of intelligent networks and upgrade its Xinghe Intelligent Network products and solutions, ultimately helping global customers to stride towards the intelligent era and reap more benefits.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/huawei-launches-over-20-all-new-xinghe-intelligent-network-offerings-to-amplify-industrial-intelligence-302254757.html

SOURCE Huawei

Continue Reading

Technology

HUAWEI CONNECT 2024 | Huawei Unveils the Brand-New Xinghe Intelligent Fabric Solution, Powering the AI Era

Published

on

By

SHANGHAI, Sept. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — At HUAWEI CONNECT 2024, over 300 industry leaders, experts, and scholars gathered for the data center network session themed “Xinghe Intelligent Fabric, Powering the AI Era.” The event featured discussions on the evolution and technological advancements of data center networks. During the session, Arthur Wang, President of Data Center Network Domain at Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, introduced the newly upgraded Xinghe Intelligent Fabric solution. This cutting-edge solution aims to establish a data center network characterized by one map for intelligent operations and maintenance (O&M), one network for diverse computing, and one platform for simplified deployment, providing a robust network infrastructure to support enterprises’ digital and intelligent transformations.

In his keynote speech, Arthur Wang outlined the emerging trends in data center network development. He emphasized that in the AI era, data center networks require both a “brilliant brain” and “resilient bones.” The newly launched Xinghe Intelligent Fabric solution is designed to deliver a powerful network infrastructure tailored for the AI era, featuring:

One Map for Intelligent O&M: Zero Management Concerns

Huawei’s exclusive network digital map enables rapid cross-data center and cross-vendor fault identification within minutes. Additionally, the NetMaster network large model facilitates AI-driven O&M, eliminating manual intervention and ensuring zero management concerns.

One Network for Diverse Computing: Zero Service Interruptions

The Xinghe Intelligent Fabric supports various application scenarios, including intelligent computing, general-purpose computing, and storage. The innovative Network Scale Load Balancing (NSLB) algorithm increases network throughput to 95% and boosts AI training efficiency by over 10%. With the exclusive iReliable three-level fast switchover capability, it achieves sub-millisecond switchover, guaranteeing zero service interruptions.

One Platform for Simplified Deployment: Zero Configuration Errors

By employing digital twins to simulate networks in advance and verify configurations post-deployment, the solution ensures 100% accuracy in network changes. By harnessing network-security convergence capabilities, AI creates an intelligent security matrix to analyze millions of security policies, achieving zero configuration errors.

Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to collaborate with industry partners to enhance research and innovation in data center networks, promote intelligent upgrades, and create greater value for the industry.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/huawei-connect-2024–huawei-unveils-the-brand-new-xinghe-intelligent-fabric-solution-powering-the-ai-era-302254753.html

SOURCE Huawei

Continue Reading

Technology

Cultivating a Culture of Peace: International Day of Peace Statement by Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif

Published

on

By

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2024 /CNW/ — The longing for peace transcends time, geography and religion. Based on justice, human rights and universal values outlined in the UN Charter, a culture of peace brings us all together in our common agenda for humanity. We can only co-exist by aligning ourselves with such a world order.

On today’s International Day of Peace, we call on world leaders to end conflict and embrace a culture of peace as enshrined in the UN Charter and related international law.

As the UN General Assembly outlined in the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace  a quarter of a century ago, this must include: “Respect for life, human rights and fundamental freedoms; the promotion of non-violence through education, dialogue and cooperation; commitment to peaceful settlement of conflicts; and adherence to freedom, justice, democracy, tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, pluralism, cultural diversity, dialogue and understanding at all levels of society and among nations.”

Educating for peace starts at home and continues in school through years of education. This takes place during the most formative years of a child learning about their identity, ethics, values, conscience, courage and compassion. Wherever there has been a failure in imparting on children the imperative for peace, the world is turned upside down. This is a global failure with no geographical boundaries.

Today, we live in a world of unprecedented violence, armed conflict and chaos. All the genuine and heartfelt commitments made in 1945 in the UN Charter seem to be fading away. Children and adolescents are the most vulnerable, the least protected, and the most impacted. They bear the brunt. 

Global conflicts killed three times as many children in 2023 than in the previous year, according to the United Nations. The number of forcibly displaced people reached an unprecedented 120 million in May 2024.

“In 2023, the United Nations verified a record 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children in 26 conflict zones, a 35% increase from the previous year,” according to recent analysis by the UN.

We can end these violations and invest in a constructive co-existence globally. We can use our resources for education, rather than for wars. In classrooms around the world, girls and boys who have withstood the wrath of war can rebuild their hopes and their lives. Cultivating a culture of peace is possible. The financial resources exist. The choice as to how we use them is ours.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cultivating-a-culture-of-peace-international-day-of-peace-statement-by-education-cannot-wait-executive-director-yasmine-sherif-302254413.html

SOURCE Education Cannot Wait

Continue Reading

Trending