Latest news with #DavidBell
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
USRA's Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science Announces Release of an Open-Source AI Foundation Model for Extreme Weather, Built in Collaboration with BCG X AI Science Institute and NASA
WASHINGTON, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Universities Space Research Association's (USRA) Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science and the Boston Consulting Group's BCG X AI Science Institute today announced the open-source release of the GAIA (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Atmospheres) Foundation model, built in collaboration with NASA. It is a novel GenAI model aimed at addressing one of the most urgent challenges of our time: predicting and understanding extreme weather events. The model was trained and tested on 25 years of data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and data from the European Meteosat (EUMETSAT) and Japanese Himawari weather satellites for global coverage. The initial release includes downstream applications for filling gaps in satellite data coverage and for precipitation, and is poised to support tracking and forecasting tropical cyclones, atmospheric rivers and other extreme weather phenomena in support of disaster preparedness, response and recovery as well as other use cases. Over the past two decades, the cost of natural disasters has surged more than 100-fold, now totaling tens of billions of dollars annually. To confront this escalating crisis, the research team has moved beyond traditional task-specific machine learning models, which require separate models for each weather event, to a single, global foundation model that supports multiple extreme weather phenomena within a unified framework. This marks a first major milestone of the partnership formed in April 2024 to pioneer geospatial AI for science and engineering as part of USRA's new Generative Artificial Intelligence Lab for Science & Engineering, managed within USRA's Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science. This partnership combines USRA's artificial intelligence and Earth science expertise with BCG X AI Science Institute's advanced engineering and data science expertise, and NASA's comprehensive data, and leverages USRA's partnership with the National Research Platform (NRP), a National Science Foundation (NSF) -funded network of high-performance computing resources at Universities across the United States. Dr. Elsayed Talaat, President and CEO of USRA, stated, "USRA is among a select group of institutions developing foundation models for satellite data. This new collaboration with USRA, BCG X, and NASA goes beyond the foundation model research that USRA and NASA are already doing for Earth observation and space weather – it takes it a step further into tracking and forecasting extreme weather applications." Dr. David Bell, Director of USRA's Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) and Co-Founder of the GenAI Lab for Science & Engineering stated: "This model advances the state-of-the-art with a new approach for balancing attention of the model across local and global features in geospatial data and represents a step towards our broader vision of geospatial AI for public good applications." Dr. Olivier Raiman, Co-Founder of the GenAI Lab for Science & Engineering, stated: "The GAIA's Foundational Model for the Planet places our GenAI lab at the forefront of the upcoming AI race for Space Intelligence." The foundation models developed through this collaboration are openly available on Hugging Face reinforcing the team's commitment to open science and shared progress. USRA stands apart with a distinguished legacy in artificial intelligence, having supported NASA missions with AI research since 1983. Today, with over 40 years of AI R&D experience, USRA continues its nonprofit mission: to deliver transformative, scalable technologies that benefit humanity in partnership with leaders across academia, industry, and government. Additional Resources: To learn more about the GAIA Foundation Model, read the team's paper published on arXIv. The GAIA Foundation Model is available for download on Hugging Face. About Universities Space Research Association (USRA) USRA conducts major research and educational programs, and operates premier facilities by involving universities, governments and the private sector for the benefit of humanity. USRA is an association with 121 university members. It engages the broader university community, employs in-house scientific talent, and offers innovative research, development, and project management expertise. Founded in 1969, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. Government, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advance space-related science, technology, and engineering. More information about USRA is available at About USRA's Research Institute for Advanced Computer Sciences (RIACS) USRA's Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) was founded in 1983 as an independent research institute. Since its inception, RIACS has conducted research on artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and human-computer interfaces (HCI) for aerospace related use cases; and has a 40+ year history of major achievements in collaboration with NASA. RIACS operates a GenAI Lab for Science & Engineering, which engages academia, industry and government to advance GenAI solutions for the benefit of humanity. © 2025 Universities Space Research Association 425 3rd Street SW, Suite 950, Washington, D.C. 20024 About BCG X AI Science InstituteBCG X is the tech build and design unit of BCG. Turbocharging BCG's deep industry and functional expertise, BCG X brings together advanced tech knowledge and ambitious entrepreneurship to help organizations enable innovation at scale. With nearly 3,000 technologists, scientists, programmers, engineers, and human-centered designers located across 80+ cities, BCG X builds and designs platforms and software to address the world's most important challenges and opportunities. Teaming across our practices, and in close collaboration with our clients, our end-to-end global team unlocks new possibilities. Together we're creating the bold and disruptive products, services, and businesses of tomorrow. About Boston Consulting GroupBoston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholders—empowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact. Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place. PR Contact: Suraiya Farukhi sfarukhi@ 443-812-6945 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Universities Space Research Association
ABC News
14-05-2025
- ABC News
NSW national parks proposal to standardise camping fees amid rise in 'ghost camping'
David Bell thinks it is a "good thing" for people to spend time bushwalking, but he fears a proposal to overhaul camping fees in national parks in New South Wales — some by as much as 600 per cent — will put it out of reach of many. A camping trip is sometimes the only affordable escape for those on a tight budget, but Mr Bell, who is president of Bushwalking NSW, said a proposal to "standardise" the cost system in National Parks and Wildlife Service's (NPWS) 365 campgrounds was "excessive". "National parks [are] special places," he said. A consultation paper released last month outlines the first "significant" change to the NPWS fee system since 2017. The proposal would see campgrounds priced according to a tiered system, which would see some prices increase — notably during peak seasons. In the NSW Snowy Mountains, the Thredbo Diggings campground would see its current $6 booking fee increase to a peak season charge of $36 a night. "We're broadly supportive; the tier structure makes it a bit more clear what you're paying for and what you're getting," Mr Bell said. However, Mr Bell said some of the prices seemed "rather excessive". Mr Bell said it was also unreasonable that NPWS classified "multi-day" hike camping spots as tier-four sites. "Like the Great North Walk between Sydney and Newcastle. There are sites that have toilets and water, but there are other sites that are just a space on the ground," he said. "I don't think it's feasible to charge all of these sites at the same tier level. "There's a bit of inconsistency there that NPWS needs to address." The "Have Your Say" webpage for the proposal states the changes aim to bring consistency to fees, simplify bookings to deliver "fairer" camping experiences for visitors, and improve management of "persistent campground issues such as people booking space and not cancelling or turning up" — known as ghost camping. The term also refers to people booking more sites than they need. "The best way to tackle it is to have reasonable fees for going camping so that people think twice about booking too much," NPWS director of visitor engagement and revenue Georgia Rivers said. Under the proposed system, people will also be able to receive refunds up to 80 per cent if they cancel their booking in advance. Adventurer and author Mike Atkinson raised concerns about the "high" fees during the cost-of-living crisis. "All you need is a very simple place to camp and — for everybody's sakes — access to a pit toilet. That should be a very small cost," he said. Mr Atkinson suggested a better solution would be to increase the number of campsites to meet demand. "You've got to build the infrastructure so it's not crowded out," he said. "But the [NPWS] are running it like a business: 'We won't improve what we've got; we'll just charge more for it.'" NPWS said it would reinvest revenue from campsite charges back into national parks. Public consultation on the new fee plan will close May 25.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
This Week In Space podcast: Episode 159 — AI in Space!
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Seems we can't go through an hour without hearing news about artificial intelligence these days. There are a lot of exciting developments, and some of the most exciting when thinking about space are coming from the USRA's Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS), which is on the cutting edge of the cutting edge. In this episode, we're speaking with the institute's director, Dr. David Bell, who will walk us through the differences between current AI, agentic AI, and -- are you ready? -- quantum-powered AI, and their current and future potential to revolutionize space exploration and development. Join us! Download or subscribe to this show at: episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at Trump administration proposes slashing NASA budget by 24% Evidence of controversial Planet 9 uncovered in sky surveys taken 23 years apart New images of Soviet Venus lander falling to Earth suggest its parachute may be out Psyche spacecraft's sci-fi thrusters suffer glitch on way to metal-rich asteroid Dr. David Bell | USRA TOP TELESCOPE PICK: Looking for a telescope to see planets and comets? We recommend the Celestron Astro Fi 102 as the top pick in our best beginner's telescope guide. Finally, did you know you can launch your own SpaceX rocket? Model rocket maker Estes' stunning scale model of a Falcon 9 rocket that you can pick up now. The launchable model is a detailed recreation of the Falcon 9 and retails for $149.99. You can save 10% by using the code IN-COLLECTSPACE at checkout, courtesy of our partners This Week in Space covers the new space age. Every Friday we take a deep dive into a fascinating topic. What's happening with the new race to the moon and other planets? When will SpaceX really send people to Mars? Join Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from as they tackle those questions and more each week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe today on your favorite podcatcher.
Business Wire
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
CertifID Announces Partnership with ALPS Insurance to Protect Law Firms from Wire Fraud
AUSTIN, Texas & GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CertifID, a leader in wire fraud protection, announced a partnership with ALPS Insurance, a leading insurer of solo and small law firms in the U.S. The partnership creates a comprehensive solution for attorneys to protect their firms from the growing risk of wire fraud. Law firms that handle the disbursement of large settlement and vendor payments can increasingly become key targets of wire fraud. ALPS Insurance selected CertifID as its sole partner to cover this specific risk for its customers. Share Wire fraud was the second-costliest type of cybercrime reported to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) last year. Also referred to as business email compromise (BEC), wire fraud attacks employ impersonation and social engineering to trick individuals into sending money to a fraudulent account. Reported losses from BEC have grown eleven-fold in the past decade, from $246 million in 2015 to $2.8 billion in 2024. Attorneys increasingly need coverage against this type of loss. Law firms that handle the disbursement of large settlement and vendor payments can increasingly become key targets of wire fraud. ALPS Insurance selected CertifID as its sole partner to cover this specific risk for its customers. CertifID provides end-to-end wire fraud protection that encompasses: prevention from its fraud intelligence and verification software, and incident response from its proprietary wire fraud insurance and recovery services. The company has been an early pioneer in offering wire fraud insurance coverage since 2020 to address risks outside the protection of other traditional forms of errors and omissions (E&O), personal liability, cyber, and crime policies. 'ALPS Insurance is pleased to partner with CertifID due to the company's impressive track record of consistently keeping their customers safe against the rise in losses from wire fraud,' said David Bell, President and CEO of ALPS Insurance. 'We strongly recommend that our insured attorneys adopt the CertifID solution to protect against the latest risks to modern law firms.' 'CertifID is honored to partner with ALPS Insurance, which has been a leader and innovator in serving the needs of solo and small law firms,' said Tyler Adams, CEO of CertifID. 'We look forward to leveraging our company's experience in successfully protecting law firms to now support ALPS insured attorneys as part of this exciting partnership.' Beginning today, ALPS insured attorneys can purchase a choice of two CertifID packages. The companies will discuss these exclusive offerings in a continuing legal education (CLE) webinar on April 30, 2025. Register to attend the webinar at this link, or visit to learn more. About CertifID CertifID is a leader in wire fraud protection. The company safeguards billions of dollars every month from fraud with advanced software, digital payments, direct insurance, and proven recovery services. Trusted by title companies, law firms, lenders, real estate agents, home buyers and sellers, and others, CertifID provides further peace of mind with up to $2M in direct coverage on every wire it protects. Learn more at: About ALPS Insurance ALPS is the nation's leader in insurance for solo and small law firms and is endorsed by more state bars than any other insurance company. Since 1988, ALPS has been the preeminent provider of legal malpractice insurance, with an emphasis on protection, stability, and commitment to the legal community.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Breaking from the FreightTech AI pack: Companies make their case at TIA meeting
SAN ANTONIO – What became obvious in more than three hours of legacy companies and wet-behind-the-ears startups touting technology solutions for 3PLs at the Transportation Intermediaries Association's meeting is that artificial intelligence is absolutely real right now, and one of the next battles will be over what might be called the last mile of technology. The presentations came during a Media Day at the TIA's annual Capital Ideas Conference, a day before the full launch of the largest gathering of freight brokers. One by one, nearly 20 companies laid out the capabilities of new or near-new technologies and capabilities they had launched to serve the 3PL industry. While it was clear that the capabilities of generative AI are no longer the technology of the future and very much part of the present, it was just as obvious that the overlap of what many of these solutions do, which has always been a feature of technology products aimed at the supply chain, doesn't go away in the AI world. That's where the 'final mile' comes in, those small capabilities that the tech suppliers look to create to differentiate themselves from what is already becoming a crowded field. For example, several presentations touted applications that would use AI to intake the never-ending stream of emails, text messages and phone calls a brokerage receives from drivers, other carrier employees or shippers. The new tools can use generative AI to formulate a response that meets the queries of the supply chain without consuming brokers' time, leaving them to more productive tasks. So far, there is no shortage of companies offering this service. David Bell, the founder and CEO of CloneOps AI, whose company presented at the Media Day, said the unusual name of his startup – which launched its product in conjunction with the conference – came from the oft-heard wish that during times of worker overload, some of a company's more productive employees could be cloned. 'Your emails are stacking up, your phone calls are on hold, your voicemail is getting full, your texting is getting full, and you're a one person show trying to keep your head above water,' Bell said in an interview with FreightWaves, describing the situation that several companies face. But with other companies offering similar AI products that take in communications and respond to them without human intervention when possible, the question to Bell was, how do you separate yourself from the pack? How does your last mile differ from that of others? Bell spoke of his experience as the owner of Smith Cargo, a consolidator, and then the founder of Lean Solutions (which also presented at Media Day.) But it wasn't just his background, Bell said. For example, he boasted of CloneOps' voice identification capabilities, which he said 'is going to prevent fraud right from the start.' If a call comes in from a 'fake carrier trying to get a load, it's going to identify if they're authorized to speak and if they're authorized to book a load on behalf of the carrier.' The goal, Bell said, is to 'create a bad actors database of the voices that are actually stealing the loads.' ParadeAI attended the conference but wasn't a presenter at TIA Media Day. However, its AI-driven offering is not duplicated by any of the companies that did present, as its capabilities involve using AI to provide what it calls capacity management. ParadeAI, which founder and CEO Anthony Sutardja said launched in 2019, uses a variety of tools to develop a reservoir of information about carriers that AI then can use to provide information to brokers looking to secure capacity. At its launch, Sutardja said, it used truck list emails to populate its data. 'We took the natural language processing technology that existed back then to start structuring it into available trucks for matching,' he said. 'That was one way of getting capacity,' he said. With the addition of more FreightTech solutions being adopted by brokers, Sutardja said, all of them create further sources of capacity that can then be interpreted by AI to give a broker a look at available capacity that might be a match for the lane that is seeking trucking services. The new features launched in conjunction with the TIA meeting are marketed under a product called CoDriver. The capabilities recently launched were described by Sutardja as a 'voice AI agent that can help have a conversation between the broker and carrier to discuss an available load, check if the carrier is qualified and check if it meets the load requirements.' While capacity management capabilities are the core of ParadeAI's business, it also has a pricing product called Advantage. ParadeAI and CloneOps both had booths on the TIA exhibition hall floor, which is dominated by FreightTech companies. CloneOps was also the sponsor of the conference's Wi-Fi; its brand marketing popped up whenever an attendee accessed that service. OTR Solutions has multiple financial tools for the industry, including factoring and fuel cards. COO Grace Maher introduced OTR 365, which she called an 'always-on network of interconnected financial products delivering intelligent solutions and powerful technologies.' What this means for drivers getting paid, she said, is 'no more cutoff times for same-day funding, no more weekend or bank holiday delays.' Pallet's AI solution is in the already crowded field of companies using AI to process and aid in what Jason Feng of the company's marketing team described as automation of 'any sort of repetitive workflow, including order entry, RFQ processing, track-and-trace and reconciliation.' Its product is called Copilot. The role of AI 'agents,' essentially human-like robots with an element of a personality, came up several times during TIA Media Day. At TMS provider Revenova, the agent's name is Artimus, introduced earlier this year. Marketing manager Mike Marut said the main strength of AI agents is that they can be tailored to the capabilities of a brokerage. 'It's customized and configured to what you do in your operational processes, but it's going to be different from everybody else,' he said. Michael Caney of Highway spoke about an upgrade to the company's visibility solution that combines it with the company's security validation, which is at the heart of Highway's rapid success in the market so far. It helps answer a key question that brokers need to answer to fight fraud: 'Are they [the carrier] within the geographic location of the load that they're looking at?' One company whose AI-driven product didn't have any obvious matches was Qued. Based on the pitch from President Tom Curee, it also is focused on using AI to help manage the stream of communications, but its focus was on one particular task: appointments. 'Imagine all these different appointments that have to be scheduled,' he said. 'They're in web portals, they're in emails or phone calls.' The AI solution at Qued is designed to tackle that with new technology. Crum & Foster rolled out new ways of accessing its TripExcess insurance offering that sells insurance to cover a high-value load whose value exceeds the coverage in a carrier or broker's insurance policies. Fleetworks introduced a solution that involves AI-produced conversations that can take the place of human interaction with phones and email for more routine tasks. Its new product also involves an AI-driven tool that can speak multiple languages. Freight Claims is a new company that will use AI and machine learning to produce automated workflows dealing with claims, which founder and CEO Mike Schember said was 'the last department to get any resources in any organization.' Get Real Rates, according to its co-founder Omar Singh, is using automation to generate rate information, 'fast forwarding automation that I thought was going to happen years ago, but it's taken a little bit longer.' Alfonso Quijano, CEO of Lean Solutions, introduced StudioQ. TalentQ is the first application under the StudioQ set of AI-driven solutions that Quijano said give its customers an 'unprecedented level of visibility to access talent.' It also aids in the onboarding process 'from start to finish, ensuring your new hire is fully prepared to thrive in their role,' Quijano said. CEO Dawn Favier, fresh off the company's announced planned acquisition by Triumph Capital (NASDAQ: TFIN), said her company will be adding an AI-driven product, Intuition. 'Pricing long-term freight contracts has always been a major challenge in the freight industry,' she said. Using AI and drawing on historical data, Intuition will build market forecasts on lanes out to 12 months in advance, greatly speeding up a broker's ability to respond to a longer-term RFP as opposed to the spot market. Happy Robot is rolling out Bridge, 'a control panel to run the operations across your entire business,' Catherine Dean said in presenting the product. Bridge, she said, 'is like a connection point between your teams and your businesses, shared knowledge and task execution.' Steve Kochan of HaulPay discussed his company's financing activities, which involve factoring and payments among other services, with a special focus on fighting fraud. He was presenting at Media Day because of the first update of the company's app and user interface in more than six years. Among the presentations by so many new companies was a veteran: Infinity Software Solutions, a TMS provider in business for 25 years. CEO Josh Asbury said the company was taking a 'big swing' in introducing WorkerOS, which he described as 'unifying all the different data, all the different data streams that workers have, the different data pipelines, into a common pool of data.' Another veteran company that presented was McLeod Software. Its new AI product is It was described as McLeod's first AI solution, and its functionality is targeted at what already looks like a crowded field: processing voluminous levels of all types of communication. Rose Rocket's TMS has added its own human-named feature, Ted, to its system, which was introduced earlier this year. It's another entry into the battle for cleaning up communications like emails that pour into brokerages every day. 'You get reduced time spent on manual entry by up to 20%, and new users of Rose Rocket will onboard onto our system 70% faster,' field marketing manager Neena Salifu said of Ted. David Ely, chief product officer at broker-focused Tai Software, used the word 'flexibility' to describe his company's new offering, which was introduced at the TIA. Tai believes, Ely said, that brokers are 'forced to work around preset work flows, fixed fields, static period logic, and it makes true automation impossible without costly development.' The flexibility he said is being built into Tai will 'let them define their business rules, trigger automated workloads and adapt the platform to fit their unique operations.' Michael Davidian, the vice president of business operations at TrueNorth, introduced Loadie, its 'virtual dispatcher' that takes information posted to the company's load board and seeks to use AI to match it with a carrier. 'Our AI doesn't just wait,' Davidian said. 'It works to match loads with quality carriers in real time, and the broker can specify what type of carriers match to that broker's load. This can be based on authority compliance criteria, past relationships with that broker and a variety of other customizable factors.' More articles by John Kingston Fighting freight fraud an immediate focus at annual meeting of brokers' group New Mack long-haul truck makes grand entrance in bid for market share ATBS says independent drivers earned a little more in '24 but drove more as well The post Breaking from the FreightTech AI pack: Companies make their case at TIA meeting appeared first on FreightWaves.
