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Space Center Houston Calls on Student Innovators for the 2024-2025 Conrad Challenge

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Registration open through November 1, 2024

HOUSTON, Sept. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Registration has opened for the Conrad Challenge, the world’s most highly regarded global STEM innovation and entrepreneurship competition.

Embarking on its 19th year, the Conrad Challenge, presented by Space Center Houston, celebrates and convenes youth teams aged 13-18, where they present innovative solutions across four categories: Aerospace & Aviation, Cyber-Technology & Security, Energy & Environment, and Health & Nutrition. A special category for 2024-2025 is Currents of Change: The Water Challenge, daring students to help communities worldwide with water equity, purity, and efficiency.

“As a premier destination for science exploration and learning, we are excited to present the Conrad Challenge and host this dynamic competition,” said Daniel Newmyer, vice president of Education Research and Collections at Space Center Houston. “We look forward to engaging with students from around the world who will push the limits of innovation, using STEM principles and skills to shape the future.”

Teams competing in the year-long Challenge are teamed with subject matter experts and resources supporting the creation of a commercially viable innovation as they advance through four rounds of the competition. The Challenge begins with the Activation & Lean Canvas Stages, where students transcend geographical boundaries to collaborate, devise solutions, and tackle global challenges. Students progress to the Innovation Stage where they learn entrepreneurial skills, create marketing materials, and present their innovations to a panel of expert judges.

Successful participants earn the title of Conrad Challenge Finalists and are invited to advance to the Power Pitch Stage held during the prestigious Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit & Expo at Space Center Houston. Finalist teams compete to earn scholarships, entrepreneurial support, and the Challenge’s top honor, the title of Pete Conrad Scholar. At the Summit, teams, judges, alumni, and other members of the Conrad community assemble for a four-day event featuring dynamic workshops, tours, community sessions, and the EXPO, all leading up to the much-anticipated awards dinner.

Created by Nancy Conrad, the wife of Pete Conrad (Apollo 12 astronaut and third man to walk on the moon), the Challenge aims to carry on his legacy after his untimely death in 1999. The Challenge provides opportunities for real-world, relevant learning that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship, allowing students to create impactful solutions and a sustainable society for generations to come.

“We are thrilled to welcome a new cohort of bright minds as they embark on this journey of discovery,” said William T. Harris, president and CEO of Space Center Houston. “The Conrad Challenge empowers young visionaries to transform bold ideas into reality, fueling a new generation of leaders ready to extend the limits of what’s possible.”

Since its inception, the Conrad Challenge has engaged over 1,000 schools worldwide, spanning all 50 U.S. states and 72 countries, reinforcing the Challenge’s commitment to diversity and global representation. The 2023-2024 competition marked record-breaking success with over 3,400 students participating.

Registration is open until Friday, November 1, 2024, at 11:59 P.M. EDT, by which time all registered teams must submit the necessary requirements for the Activation Stage. To register and for more information, visit www.conradchallenge.org.

About the Conrad Foundation

The Conrad Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting collaborative, student-centered, real-world, relevant learning that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship. Through its programs, the Foundation unleashes students’ potential to create impactful solutions and a sustainable society for generations to come. For more information about the Conrad Foundation, its Challenge, or the 2024-2025 competition, visit www.conradchallenge.org.

About Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston’s shared purpose is to bring people and space closer together. Over 1.3 million visitors and more than 250,000 students and educators visit each year to connect with the significance of space exploration to pursue a path in STEM or follow along as incredible feats of human spaceflight continue to make new discoveries. Space Center Houston is owned by the Manned Space Flight Education 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and generates an annual $118M economic impact to the Greater Houston area. Space Center Houston is a Smithsonian Affiliate, the Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center, and a Certified Autism Center. Learn more at spacecenter.org.

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SOURCE Space Center Houston

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Ricoh and LG Announce Global Partnership to Enhance Workplace Experience Solutions

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Expanding communication services capability in the global B2B market

TOKYO, Sept. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Ricoh Company, Ltd. today announced that it has concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with LG Electronics (LG), a trusted partner offering innovative products and customized solutions for diverse industries worldwide, to collaborate on digital solutions for workplaces. Pairing Ricoh’s communication services and LG’s display products, this partnership will deliver B2B customers in the global market an elevated user experience and exceptional customer value. Through this partnership, Ricoh will further enhance its capability in the Workplace Experience domain, one of its growth areas, and it aims to be the top global audiovisual (AV) integrator.

Partnering with LG, Ricoh will strive to enhance its communication services in the Workplace Experience domain. Integration of high-quality devices such as signages and displays into Ricoh solutions will enrich Ricoh’s product and service portfolio and achieve a stable global supply. In addition, the two companies will jointly drive associated sales and marketing efforts and explore new business opportunities as the partnership unfolds.

Takahiro Irisa, Senior Corporate Officer and President of Ricoh Digital Services and Paik Ki-Mun, Senior Vice President and Head of the Information Display Business Unit of LG Business Solutions Company, present the signed memorandum of understanding.

As its mid-term vision, Ricoh aims to provide consistent global services as a workplace services provider in the changing workplace. In the Workplace Experience domain, Ricoh provides solutions enabling seamless collaboration in offices and other workplaces where hybrid work has become commonplace, enhancing people’s creativity. Ricoh empowers customers to focus on value adding, creative tasks and achieve organizational growth through its integrated solution propositions of hardware, software, and managed services that comfortably utilize them.

“The pairing of Ricoh’s office solutions with LG’s advanced display products will deliver impressive value to customers and further establish LG as one of the most trusted providers of integrated solutions in the B2B market,” said Paik Ki-Mun, Senior Vice President and Head of the Information Display Business Unit of LG Business Solutions Company. “LG will continue to pursue strategic partnerships with innovative global companies to create customized solutions for today’s business environment.”  

Takahiro Irisa, Senior Corporate Officer and President of Ricoh Digital Services Business Unit, Ricoh Company, Ltd. said “We firmly believe that this global strategic partnership with LG will accelerate Ricoh’s Workplace Experience business. Through the synergy between LG’s advanced display products and Ricoh’s communication services, we will continue to offer optimal workplace to our customers as a workplace services provider. Ricoh will continue to execute strategic partnerships to empower our customers to achieve fulfilment through work.”

 

 

| About Ricoh |

Ricoh is a leading provider of integrated digital services and print and imaging solutions designed to support the digital transformation of workplaces, workspaces and optimise business performance.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh’s global operation reaches customers in approximately 200 countries and regions, supported by cultivated knowledge, technologies, and organisational capabilities nurtured over its 85-year history. In the financial year ended March 2024, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,348 billion yen (approx. 15.5 billion USD).

It is Ricoh’s mission and vision to empower individuals to find ‘Fulfillment through Work’ by understanding and transforming how people work so we can unleash their potential and creativity to realise a sustainable future.

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com

 

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© 2024 RICOH ASIA PACIFIC PTE LTD. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

 

 

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SOURCE Ricoh Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

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Wright, Moore, DeHart, Dupuis & Hutchinson Provides Notice of Data Security Incident

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LAFAYETTE, La., Sept. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Wright, Moore, DeHart, Dupuis & Hutchinson (“WMDDH”) has become aware of a data security incident that may have involved individuals’ personal information. WMDDH is providing notification to the potentially involved individuals about this incident, providing steps they can take to help protect their personal information, and offering the opportunity to enroll in complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services.

What Happened. On or around July 11, 2023, WMDDH became aware of unusual network activity and immediately took steps to secure our systems. We launched an investigation with the assistance of leading cybersecurity experts to determine what happened and whether sensitive or personal information may have been affected during the incident. As a result of the investigation, we identified that certain WMDDH data may have been acquired without authorization. WMDDH then engaged an independent team to conduct a comprehensive review of all potentially affected data, and on May 8, 2024, that review determined that personal information may have been affected. WMDDH then worked diligently to identify contact information to effectuate notification and prepare the services being offered to affected individuals, as provided in more detail below. This process was completed on July 18, 2024.

What Information Was Involved. The information involved may have included individuals’ names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial account numbers, passport numbers, and/or medical/treatment information.

What We Are Doing. As soon as WMDDH learned of the incident, we took the measures described above and implemented additional security features to reduce the risk of a similar incident occurring in the future. We are also providing information about steps individuals can take to help protect their personal information.

Additionally, we are offering impacted individuals the opportunity to enroll in credit monitoring and identity protection services through Equifax®.

What You Can Do. Please review this notice carefully, along with the guidance included with this notice about additional steps that can be taken to protect your information.

WMDDH takes the security of information in its possession very seriously and has taken steps to prevent a similar event from occurring in the future. We deeply regret any concern or inconvenience this may cause.

Additional information is also available via WMDDH’s website.

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SOURCE Wright, Moore, DeHart, Dupuis & Hutchinson

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AIE Graduates create visual effects for Academy-nominated film

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NAWI, a feature film whose visual effects were created by graduates from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE), has been officially nominated by Kenya for entry into the 97th Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature Film. NAWI is a heartfelt story about a young girl’s journey towards empowerment and aims to shed light on a pressing issue that affects countless young women in the Turkana region of Kenya.

CANBERRA, Australia, Sept. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — NAWI, a feature film whose visual effects were created by graduates from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE), has been officially nominated by Kenya for entry into the 97th Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature Film. NAWI is a heartfelt story about a young girl’s journey towards empowerment and aims to shed light on a pressing issue that affects countless young women in the Turkana region of Kenya.

“The film has a very important social message to tell so it was rewarding in many ways to be able to contribute to this project. NAWI was a fantastic opportunity for our graduates to put their skills to the test on a full-length feature film,” said Tom Pugh.

AIE graduates and teachers were given the opportunity to work on the film’s visual effects through AIE’s ongoing partnership with Learning Lions, who produced the film with Film Crew & Baobab Pictures. AIE is proud to support Learning Lions non-profit mission to enable young adults in marginalised rural communities of East Africa to become digital creatives by providing game development training and technology.

The visual effects for NAWI were brought to life by AIE teachers and experienced industry professionals, Thomas Magill and Tom Pugh, who were tasked with supervising the visual effects and liaising with the film’s Directors, Apuu Mourine, Kevin Schmutzler, Tobias Schmutzler and Toby Schmutzler. They assembled a team of recent AIE graduates and worked out how to create the effects required to immerse audiences in Nawi’s world.

“Graduates were able to take the skills they had learnt in class and apply them to cinema-quality footage. There was even a bit of nervous excitement working with professional expectations and deadlines,” said Tom Pugh.

Thomas Magill explained that most of the work involved compositing such as fixing blemishes, removing unwanted folds in clothing, changing pages in a book and removing background actors that were in the wrong place.

“We had a river shot where there was only a sandbank, and we had to create an entire island! There were several shots filmed in a dry riverbed which required us to create floodwater. We had to draw upon various disciplines: not just digital compositing but also visual effects creation and fluid simulations,” said Thomas Magill.

Both teachers enthused that the directors were a pleasure to work with and the collaboration was smooth.

“The film has a very important social message to tell so it was rewarding in many ways to be able to contribute to this project. NAWI was a fantastic opportunity for our graduates to put their skills to the test on a full-length feature film,” said Tom Pugh.

Learning Lions and AIE look forward to seeing NAWI progress through two rounds of voting by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to narrow the list of submitted films down to five nominees for the Best International Feature Film.

About Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE)

AIE offers practical, career-focused courses delivered by industry-experienced teachers in 3D animation, game development, visual effects and film. Since 2019 AIE has sponsored scholarships to their Certificate and Diploma programs to Learning Lions student. AIE provided laptops and is supporting with opportunities at various gaming companies around the world for paid part-time and full-time work.

https://aie.edu.au/

About Learning Lions

Learning Lions is fighting poverty with digital opportunity. Established in 2015, Learning Lions equips local youth with essential IT and media skills, and empowering them to become entrepreneurs and self-sustaining individuals. By leveraging digital services, these aspiring entrepreneurs not only support themselves but also provide opportunities for others through employment and mentorship.

https://www.learninglions.org/

Media Contact

Neil Boyd, Academy of Interactive Entertainment, 61 434273190, neilb@aie.edu.au, https://aie.edu.au/

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SOURCE Academy of Interactive Entertainment

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