New leader’s three-year vision includes best-in-class customer service, advancing sustainability commitments and diversifying product portfolio, among other goals

WEST CHESTER, Ohio, April 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Brian Panuccio today assumed the role of president and CEO of ClarkDietrich and announced his vision for the company, which he said is “rooted in healthy growth.”

“I look forward to building on our momentum and growing ClarkDietrich in every sense of the word,” Panuccio said. “That includes market position growth, productivity and efficiency growth, personal and professional growth, and helping to grow the communities in which we work.”

The first phase of Panuccio’s three-year vision for the company includes improving service to be best-in-class, amplifying the customer journey and, notably, furthering the company’s commitment to sustainability. ClarkDietrich was the first cold-formed steel manufacturer in the United States to publish an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), and in 2024 became the first to offer low embodied carbon steel framing nationwide.

“We’ve already established a strong foundation in sustainability, and I want us to be proactive and relentless in our continued pursuit to be a leader in this regard,” he said. “Our ambition is to become the greenest manufacturer of cold-formed steel framing in the industry.”

Additional phases of Panuccio’s three-year vision include diversifying the company’s product portfolio, leveraging digital technologies, and building on the company’s industry-leading culture to become an employer of choice.

“Our partners and customers can rest assured that we will continue to operate under our time-honored values,” he said. “We remain committed to saving our customers time—our scarcest resource—and will always strive to be the best building product supplier in the industry.”

To ensure a smooth transition in leadership, Panuccio had been working closely with his predecessor, Jim Collins, since the move was first announced last March.

Panuccio is an alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Having joined Dietrich Metal Framing in 2002, he has committed his career to cold-formed steel framing and brings decades of experience managing sales and marketing functions in both local, regional and national markets. He joined the company as part of a sales trainee program and has steadily advanced his career by excelling in each role along the way.

About ClarkDietrich®
ClarkDietrich® is the leading manufacturer of a full line of drywall studs and accessories, structural studs and joists, metal lath and accessories, shaft wall studs and track, interior and exterior finishing products, and connectors and accessories for commercial and residential construction. Quality manufacturing, a full-line offering, national distribution, engineering services and responsive customer service position ClarkDietrich as the largest manufacturer of cold-formed steel framing in North America. Clarkwestern Dietrich Building Systems is a 75/25 joint venture with Marubeni-Itochu Steel America Inc. (MISA) and Worthington Enterprises, Inc. For more information, visit www.clarkdietrich.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clarkdietrich-names-brian-panuccio-as-new-president-and-ceo-302417299.html

SOURCE ClarkDietrich

ALAMEDA, Calif., April 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — CC PAL (Practice App for Literacy), the first-of-its-kind student-facing app to provide individualized and independent practice in foundational reading skills, was announced today by Collaborative Classroom, a leading publisher of evidence-based early childhood and K–12 instructional materials.

CC PAL aligns with Collaborative Classroom’s proven instructional scope and sequence for foundational skills and reinforces student learning through interactive practice activities and connected text reading.

The new app is available to purchase now for use during the 2025–2026 school year. Watch a video tour of CC PAL at https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/programs/cc-pal-practice-app/ 

A Research-Based Approach to Foundational Skills Practice

The science of learning has shown that students need sufficient, deliberate, and targeted practice to master and retain the foundational skills necessary for proficient reading.

Through its research-based design, CC PAL meets this need with adaptive, independent practice that adjusts to each student’s instructional level. The app offers age-appropriate activities for both younger students and older striving readers, ensuring that practice remains engaging and relevant to each student’s developmental stage.

Chris Janzen, who was recently appointed as Collaborative Classroom’s Chief Product Officer, said, “CC PAL represents an exciting step forward in how we support educators and students with innovative digital tools. With this new foray into student-facing technology, we are responding to the needs of teachers who want effective, research-based solutions for independent practice.”

“To master new learning, students must get the right types of independent practice in sufficient amounts—and that’s exactly what CC PAL delivers,” said Kelly Stuart, President and CEO of Collaborative Classroom. “CC PAL is also the only reading foundations practice app that is 100 percent instructionally aligned with our proven literacy curricula. That alignment sets up students and teachers for even greater success.” 

Key Features of the CC PAL App 

Daily, Targeted Practice: Reinforces previously taught foundational skills instruction with interactive activities that provide skill, word, sentence, and text-level practice.Aligned with Instruction: Follows Collaborative Classroom’s evidence-based foundational skills scope and sequence.Self-Leveling for Growth: Adjusts to each student’s needs, ensuring just-right challenges.Age-Appropriate Activities: Designed to engage older readers as well as younger students.Teacher Insights at a Glance: Provides real-time progress tracking.Research-Based Design: Rooted in the science of learning’s insights about sufficient, deliberate, and purposeful practice.

Interactive Practice Activities Reinforce Foundational Skills Instruction

The app includes wide-ranging activities that allow students to practice and reinforce previously taught foundational skills instruction:

Letter Recognition – Activities such as Letter Train and Letter Puzzle build letter-name fluency.Phonemic Awareness & Early Decoding – Games like Sound Detective and Sketch-a-Sound strengthen sound-symbol connections and early spelling skills.Phonics & Decoding Mastery – Activities including Burst-A-Balloon and Word Golf reinforce blending, decoding, and encoding.Advanced Phonics & Morphology – Interactive exercises such as Super Syllables and Morpheme Mania help students develop polysyllabic decoding and vocabulary skills.Connected Text Reading – The Learning Library offers decodable books, progressing from word-level to full-text reading.

CC PAL Provides Real-Time Progress Tracking for Educators

A teacher-facing, web-based app provides educators with real-time insights into the usage, trends, and performance of users, including instructional subgroups and individual students.

Average practice time per day (per subgroup and student)Average days per week (per subgroup and student)Top spelling-sounds reviewed (per subgroup and student)Top errors (per student)Letter sounds and high-frequency words reviewed (per student)

Watch a Video Tour of CC PAL and Learn More

CC PAL will be available for use in the 2025–26 school year for schools and districts using Collaborative Classroom’s evidence-based literacy programs. Watch a video tour and learn more about CC PAL at https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/programs/cc-pal-practice-app/.

About Collaborative Classroom

Collaborative Classroom is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization committed to ensuring that all students become readers, writers, and thinkers who learn from, care for, and respect one another. Through evidence-based programs and embedded professional learning, the organization transforms teaching and learning and builds thriving school communities.

Since the organization’s founding, our work has reached more than 10 million students and 440,000 educators across the country.

Learn more at collaborativeclassroom.org/.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/collaborative-classroom-announces-the-cc-pal-student-practice-app-for-foundational-skills-mastery-302417308.html

SOURCE Collaborative Classroom

ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Vuzix® Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI), (“Vuzix” or, the “Company”), a leading supplier of AI-powered smart glasses, waveguides and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, today announced that it has received a $500K reorder for its smart glasses from Augmex, a one-stop-shop solutions provider for increasing productivity with smart glasses. This order follows an initial low six-figure one received in December 2024 from Augmex, who will continue to bundle their robust software solutions with Vuzix smart glasses products for their supply chain customers in the United Kingdom and across Europe.

Augmex solutions target the warehouse and logistics, installation and service, and healthcare and hospital market verticals. Their two main solutions offerings consist of:

AUGPICK revolutionizes warehouse performance, enhancing efficiency through visual data and full hands-free operation.AUGASSIST, a remote support solution with smart glasses, complete with live annotations, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR), is revolutionizing the way people can stay connected and get expertise on any location without traveling.

“We are pleased to be expanding our supply relationship with Vuzix to bring their industry-leading wearables solutions to our growing customer and partner base,” said Lars Heemskerk, Founder and CEO of Augmex. “Our respective hardware and software solutions fit hand to glove as a compelling productivity tool and we are seeing particularly strong interest from the warehousing and logistics and field services market verticals. Over the next several years, we expect our demand for Vuzix smart glasses to grow by an order of magnitude versus our latest order.”

“Augmex has become an important new partner for Vuzix in the European marketplace as their focus on simplicity and ease of use with their packaged solution allows their customers to seamlessly integrate smart glass technology into their operations,” said Paul Travers, President and CEO of Vuzix. “We look forward to working closely with Augmex to help drive increased market penetration of our smart glasses among numerous blue-chip enterprise customers.”

About Augmex

Augmex is an award-winning and well-recognized provider with years of dedicated experience of one-stop-shop solutions for increasing productivity with smart glasses. Augmex specializes in developing and deploying state-of-the-art smart glass solutions tailored for diverse industries to optimize daily operations in warehouses and remote locations. Augmex is known for their user-friendly software, a hallmark that resonates across the entire product line. They prioritize simplicity and ease of use, allowing their clients to seamlessly integrate smart glass technology into their operations.

About Vuzix Corporation

Vuzix is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of AI-powered Smart Glasses, Waveguides and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, components and products for the enterprise, medical, defense and consumer markets. The Company’s products include head-mounted smart personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high-quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays and augmented reality, as well as OEM waveguide optical components and display engines. Vuzix holds more than 425 patents and patents pending and numerous IP licenses in the fields of optics, head-mounted displays, and the augmented reality wearables field. The Company has won Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation for the years 2005 to 2024 and several wireless technology innovation awards among others. Founded in 1997, Vuzix is a public company (NASDAQ: VUZI) with offices in: Rochester, NY; and Kyoto and Okayama, Japan.  For more information, visit the Vuzix website, X and Facebook pages.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer

Certain statements contained in this news release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward looking statements contained in this release relate to Vuzix Smart Glasses, further orders, our business relationship, and future opportunities with Augmex, its software and its customers, and among other things the Company’s leadership in the Smart Glasses and AR display industry. They are generally identified by words such as “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “should” and similar expressions. Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are based upon the Company’s beliefs and assumptions as of the date of this release. The Company’s actual results could differ materially due to risk factors and other items described in more detail in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s Annual Reports and MD&A filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and applicable Canadian securities regulators (copies of which may be obtained at www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov). Subsequent events and developments may cause these forward-looking statements to change. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise these forward-looking statements as a result of changed events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release, except as required by applicable law.

Vuzix Media and Investor Relations Contact:

Ed McGregor, Director of Investor Relations,
Vuzix Corporation
ed_mcgregor@vuzix.com  
Tel: (585) 359-5985

Vuzix Corporation, 25 Hendrix Road, West Henrietta, NY 14586 USA,
Investor Information – IR@vuzix.com  www.vuzix.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vuzix-receives-500k-smart-glasses-reorder-from-augmex-to-support-increasing-customer-deployments-302417303.html

SOURCE Vuzix Corporation