MISD robotics teams advance to area competition
Feb. 10—MIDLAND — Midland ISD's Career and Technical Education (CTE) program hosted the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics Tournament at the Midland Horseshoe Pavilion Feb. 8. The event brought together 26 teams from across the Midland area, highlighting students' ingenuity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. It also served as a qualifying event for the UIL State Robotics Competition.
The tournament was made possible thanks to volunteers from Midland ISD CTE, Midland College Engineering and Computer Science, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron Permian Basin. Their support helped create an engaging environment where students could collaborate, innovate, and apply STEM concepts in real-world challenges, a news release said.
"Today's competition underscores the incredible potential of our students in STEM fields," said Jeff Horner, Executive Director of Midland ISD's CTE. "We extend our gratitude to our volunteers, community partners, and robotics coaches whose contributions made this event a reality, furthering our mission to advance STEM education in Midland ISD through enriching student experiences."
The tournament showcased standout performances earning the following FTC awards:
— Judges' Choice Award — Voltage (YWLA)
— Design Award — Alpha Dawgs (Midland High)
— Control Award — Hotbots (Midland Classical)
— Innovate Award — Knight Dawgs (Midland High)
— Connect Award — Junkyard Dawgs (Midland High)
— Motivate Award — Beskar Bots (Midland Classical)
— Think Award — Robo Junkies (Legacy High)
Inspire Award Winners:
— Third place — Robo Junkies (Legacy High)
— Second place — Hotbots (Midland Classical)
— First place — Samurai Robotics (Legacy High)
The Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Chaohui Chen, an engineer at ConocoPhillips who has been a dedicated volunteer at FIRST LEGO League (FLL) practice events and a mentor for elementary robotics teams.
In the final round, an alliance of Lead Alpha Dawgs (Midland High) and Partner Samurai Robotics (Legacy High) faced off against an alliance of Lead Robo Junkies (Legacy High) and Partner Hotbots (Midland Classical) in a double-elimination bracket. Robo Junkies and Hotbots claimed first place.
Nine teams earned qualifying scores to advance to the FLL Panhandle Area Championship on Feb. 22 at Lubbock-Cooper High School:
— Samurai Robotics — Legacy High
— Cougar Robotics — Christoval High
— Robo Junkies — Legacy High
— Knight Dawgs — Midland High
— Hotbots — Midland Classical
— Beskar Bots — Midland Classical
— Alpha Dawgs — Midland High
— Iron Lions — San Angelo Central
— Junkyard Dawgs — Midland High
The FIRST Tech Challenge Midland Robotics Tournament was proudly sponsored by ConocoPhillips.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
5 hours ago
- Forbes
Why Fake Reviews Present Real Risks For Payment Providers
Rochelle Blease is the president of G2 Risk Solutions, a global risk management firm. Trust is a critical currency in the digital economy, but the problem of fake reviews is rapidly undermining it. This is because the problem, once isolated to shady sellers, has become a sophisticated, AI-powered enterprise. The cost of losing trust is hard to quantify, but for payment providers, the risks posed by fake review merchants are material. The problem of fake reviews has evolved into enterprise schemes that carry financial consequences to any provider that inadvertently supports a deceptive merchant that's made a business of selling fake reviews. To illustrate the scope of the problem, Amazon removed 250 million fake reviews from its site in one year alone. As enforcement ramps up by regulators and card networks, payment providers must strengthen their efforts to identify and shut out merchants who traffic in fake trust. Not long ago, fake reviews were relatively unsophisticated—often easy to recognize and clearly fabricated. Now, an entire industry has emerged that uses automation and AI to scale operations and mimic natural human language and sentiment. This new breed of fake reviews is harder to spot with the naked eye. Fake review merchants have also wised up to new methods to evade detection tools, especially for payment providers who are still using more basic methods. They use techniques like transaction laundering to disguise the sale of fake reviews by processing transactions through a shell site or company. They operate across various regions of the world, making it harder to isolate the problem. For unscrupulous sellers looking for a quick way to boost their "credibility," fake review services are cheap, plentiful and tempting. This is driving the demand for an illicit service that fake review merchants are happy to meet—and it's increasingly coming at payment providers' expense. In 2024, the FTC announced a final rule, "Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials," that, among other things, prohibits selling or purchasing fake consumer reviews, testimonials or indicators (e.g., likes, shares, follows). It also allows the agency to seek civil penalties against violators. While the regulation is aimed at merchants, intermediaries like payment providers are certainly not out of the crosshairs. Card networks are increasingly scrutinizing providers that enable bad actors, whether knowingly or through a lack of proper oversight. Payment providers can face significant card brand penalties if they are found to facilitate deceptive behavior. The FTC rule is a signal: The fake review economy is no longer a "buyer beware" issue for consumers. It's now a compliance and financial issue for payment providers who find themselves ever more in the spotlight. As fake review operations and compliance risks grow more troubling, payment providers must take proactive steps to enhance their merchant vetting and monitoring to align with regulatory expectations. Their risk management strategies can be enhanced through the following steps: 1. Update onboarding procedures. Traditional underwriting processes are often no longer enough to identify sophisticated fake review sellers. When onboarding new merchants, payment providers must institute rigorous vetting using a broad array of data points. This helps payment providers make informed decisions about who to accept in their portfolios, and it helps prevent bad merchants from obtaining payment accounts that facilitate the widespread sale of fake reviews. 2. Leverage AI and analytics. AI, combined with deep troves of merchant data, can uncover hidden suspicious patterns and red flags that aren't readily obvious. AI can synthesize billions of data points almost instantly, providing much deeper insight into a merchant's predicted risk behaviors. 3. Implement ongoing monitoring. Even merchants who cleanly pass onboarding checks can begin selling fake reviews at any time. In fact, it's common for bad merchants to use benign-looking "front sites" to obtain merchant accounts. That's why it's essential to have continuous merchant monitoring in place—actively scanning for key red flags around the clock. 4. Share information. Payment providers can work closely with marketplaces, card brands and regulators to share information and insights that benefit cross-industry fraud detection initiatives. The online commerce ecosystem depends on trust between consumers, sellers and the systems that connect them. Payment providers have an important role to play by ensuring the merchants they support are contributing to a healthy ecosystem. As fake reviews become more sophisticated and enforcement becomes more aggressive, the problem is more than a reputation concern. It's a compliance and risk issue that comes with costly penalties. Those who fortify their defenses now will not only be better positioned to navigate the regulatory landscape, but they will build long-term value for online consumers and themselves. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
UCLOUDLINK GROUP INC. to Refrain From Capital Raising Activities under Form F-3 Registration Statement to Focus on Long-Term Value Creation
HONG KONG, June 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UCLOUDLINK GROUP INC. ('UCLOUDLINK' or the 'Company') (NASDAQ: UCL), the world's first and leading mobile data traffic sharing marketplace, today announced that after careful consideration of current market conditions and shareholder interests, the Company has decided not to conduct any financing activities under its existing Form F-3 registration statement from the date of this announcement until the expiration of the registration statement on August 7, 2025, and will not renew the registration statement. Additionally, the Company commits not to file any new registration statement on Form F-3 until the end of the first quarter of 2026. Mr. Chaohui Chen, Director and Chief Executive Officer of UCLOUDLINK, commented, 'The Form F-3 registration statement was initially filed in 2021 to prepare ourselves for the severe impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on our international data connectivity business and on our cash flow. In response to the uncertainties in the global capital markets at the time, we decided to put in place financing options which we can draw from when needed in order to ensure business sustainability and continuity. We were however able to overcome external challenges and achieve steady growth in our net operating cash inflows and continued improvement in our financial position and results for three consecutive years (2022–2024), by strengthening cost controls, streamlining operational efficiencies, optimizing research and development endeavors, and accelerating product commercialization.' 'Looking ahead, UCLOUDLINK will concentrate its resources on the growth of core business components including GlocalMe MBB/FBB, GlocalMe Life, GlocalMe SIM and GlocalMe IoT business, accelerating the commercialization of new solutions and services and expanding into high-potential markets. With these innovative solutions increasingly creating new revenue streams and broadening our user base, I am confident that we are on the right track to build an integrated and comprehensive global mobile data traffic sharing marketplace that will create long-term value for our shareholders,' Mr Chen added. About UCLOUDLINK GROUP INC. UCLOUDLINK is the world's first and leading mobile data traffic sharing marketplace, pioneering the sharing economy business model for the telecommunications industry. The Company's products and services deliver unique value propositions to mobile data users, handset and smart-hardware companies, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and mobile network operators (MNOs). Leveraging its innovative cloud SIM technology and architecture, the Company has redefined the mobile data connectivity experience by allowing users to gain access to mobile data traffic allowance shared by network operators on its marketplace, while providing reliable connectivity, high speeds and competitive pricing. Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the 'safe harbor' provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as 'will,' 'expects,' 'anticipates,' 'future,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'believes,' 'estimates,' 'confident' and similar statements. Among other things, the financial guidance and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as UCLOUDLINK's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. UCLOUDLINK may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including but not limited to statements about UCLOUDLINK's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: UCLOUDLINK's strategies; UCLOUDLINK's future business development, financial condition and results of operations; UCLOUDLINK's ability to increase its user base and usage of its mobile data connectivity services, and improve operational efficiency; competition in the global mobile data connectivity service industry; changes in UCLOUDLINK's revenues, costs or expenditures; governmental policies and regulations relating to the global mobile data connectivity service industry, general economic and business conditions globally and in China; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to UCLOUDLINK's business operations and the economy in China and elsewhere generally; and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of the press release, and UCLOUDLINK undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law. For more information, please contact: UCLOUDLINK GROUP GaoTel: +852-2180-6111E-mail: ir@ Investor Relations:Christensen AdvisoryChristian Arnell, Managing DirectorTel: +852 2117 0861E-mail: ucloudlink@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Axios
2 days ago
- Axios
Meta's big AI deal could invite antitrust scrutiny
Meta reportedly is planning to invest around $14.8 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI, with the startup's CEO to join a new AI lab that Mark Zuckerberg is personally staffing. When the news broke yesterday, albeit still unconfirmed by either side, lots of commenters suggested that the unusual structure was to help Meta sidestep antitrust scrutiny. Not so fast. What to know: U.S. antitrust regulators at the FTC and DOJ do have the authority to investigate non-control deals, even if it's been rarely utilized. That's true under both Sections 7 and 8 of the Clayton Act, which focus on M&A and interlocking directorates, respectively. Catch up quick: The FTC in early 2024 launched an inquiry into AI investments and partnerships, and later reportedly opened an investigation into Microsoft that included its minority investments in OpenAI. The big picture: The Trump administration has a more laissez-faire attitude toward AI oversight than did its predecessor, but that doesn't necessarily extend to letting Big Tech grow more powerful. Particularly via inorganic means. At some point, it's likely to try making an example of someone — to nip this non-control M&A trend in the bud. Meta may be a juicy target, given laments and litigation over how it was allowed to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp without regulatory pushback. Yes, but: Meta isn't viewed as anything close to an AI market leader, despite its vast resources and open-source Llama models, as Axios' Ina Fried writes. She adds that Scale AI is "an unusual target" for superintelligence, having "built its business by focusing on the more manual tasks of AI — using humans to label data."
