Latest news with #Lovelace
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Deion Sanders, Colorado Buffaloes add three-star former Big 10 offensive lineman transfer
Deion Sanders, Colorado Buffaloes add three-star former Big 10 offensive lineman transfer Deion Sanders is beefing up the trenches again as the Colorado Buffaloes added another offensive lineman through the transfer portal. The Buffs landed former Northwestern Wildcats offensive guard transfer Cooper Lovelace on Friday. The guard was ranked a three-star transfer recruit by 247Sports. He entered the portal on April 25. Lovelace was a junior college prospect before spending two years at USC and 2024 with the Wildcats. He joins Colorado with one year of eligibility remaining. The 6-foot-5, 300-pound guard started eight games and appeared in 11 for the Wildcats. Lovelace was the No. 1 interior offensive lineman prospect, a JUCO prospect, before committing to USC. As a transfer, he was ranked the 113th-best interior lineman in the portal. Lovelace only played one year of high school football before playing at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas. During his time at Butler, he played all over the trenches, getting snaps at center, guard and tackle. His versatility would continue on the Division I level. In his 2023 season at USC, he played right tackle and right guard in four games. In Lovelace's lone season at Northwestern, he started eight games at left guard and allowed only one sack. He is now the fourth offensive lineman Coach Prime has added in the spring portal window and the ninth overall this offseason. Lovelace is also the 32nd transfer Colorado has brought in, though both the winter and spring periods. Contact/Follow us@BuffaloesWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Colorado news, notes and opinions.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DOGE cuts STEM diversity program, ending alliance among nine Ohio universities
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — DOGE cancelled a long-standing federal program working to increase diversity in STEM, affecting nine Ohio universities. The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) was a federal program supporting intercollegiate alliances to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. The Ohio LSAMP Alliance connected nine Ohio colleges and universities and was one of dozens of programs nationwide. DOGE and the National Science Foundation canceled its funding on May 2, almost 35 years after it was congressionally established. 'I will forever be grateful for the financial, emotional, academic, professional and personal support that LSAMP gave me at The Ohio State University,' LSAMP graduate Katherine Lovelace said. 'It is a tragedy that this program and many others have been cut.' Ohio lawmaker proposes $10 million fine for scheduling Ohio State noon kickoffs The grant was canceled because it no longer aligns with the National Science Foundation's standards by trying to increase diversity and concentrating participation among minority students. To participate, students had to be Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Native Pacific Islander and pursue an approved STEM degree at one of the nine colleges. LSAMP was established by Congress in 1991 and named for former Cleveland Congressman Louis Stokes, Ohio's first Black Representative. Ohio's alliance, housed at Ohio State, was formalized in 2013 and up for renewal this year. The Ohio LSAMP Alliance included six four-year universities and four community colleges: Central State University University of Cincinnati Cleveland State University Miami University Ohio State University Wright State University Cincinnati State Technical and Community College Columbus State community college Cuyahoga Community College Sinclair Community College 'We were a sub-awardee on this grant; our final funding from the grant was in 2024,' Columbus State spokesperson Brent Wilder said. Olympian, ex-Ohio State wrestler Kyle Snyder to plead guilty to lesser charge in prostitution case An Ohio State spokesperson also confirmed the funding had been cut, corroborating what was reported on the DOGE website. The move marked the end of Ohio's $4.7 million program, $687,012.35 of which had not yet been paid. The funds had supported participants' mentoring, access to tutoring, professional development opportunities and assistance in research and internships. Although most Ohio State participants joined LSAMP before their freshman year to participate in a five-day LSAMP orientation boot camp, Lovelace said she joined her sophomore year and continued with LSAMP until her 2024 graduation. Lovelace said LSAMP leaders went above and beyond in their support, shaping her collegiate experience for the better. Lovelace said on top of advising assistance, LSAMP funding allowed her to present her research at two conferences and helped her afford graduate school applications. She is now a Ph.D. candidate studying statistics at the University of Washington and credits LSAMP with helping her get there. 'The financial support LSAMP provided me allowed me to pursue my education with decreased debt, travel to conferences and apply to graduate schools. I have been very fortunate with my student loans not being too exhaustive, and I have, in part, LSAMP to thank for that,' Lovelace said. Parents concerned by Columbus City Schools' response to sexual misconduct Derrick Tillman-Kelly, OSU College of Engineering's Chief of Staff, was co-principal investigator of the Louis Stokes Midwest Regional Center of Excellence from 2018 to 2024. He worked to unite and strengthen LSAMP programs across the Midwest and said LSAMP was a 'model program' for increasing STEM participation. 'It was uniquely positioned to develop and share best practices, create local and national communities of support and help STEM fields better reflect national demographics,' Tillman-Kelly said. The LSAMP cancellations are one of many National Science Foundation cuts affecting universities. Ohio State has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in canceled research grants from the National Science Foundation in the past month alone. More cuts could be coming; President Donald Trump's federal budget proposal cut nearly $4.5 billion in research and education, and another $1.1 billion from programs like LSAMP intended to broaden STEM participation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Lovelace's Theory In Practice: Our Learnings From 2000 Gen AI Projects
More than 170 years ago, Augusta Ada Lovelace envisioned a future in which machines would do far more than calculate. In her now famous 'Note G,' she predicted that technology, fueled by data and guided by human imagination, could execute complex operations, unlock new forms of value and even compose music. She saw beyond the math. Today, as generative AI begins to reshape the modern enterprise, Lovelace's vision is no longer theoretical. Her intuition—that the power of machines lies not in automation alone, but in augmentation of human thought and creativity—has become the North Star for business leaders navigating a new era of innovation. Her boldness in asking to lead Babbage's unfinished engine mirrors the boldness now required of CEOs tasked with converting hype into measurable returns. At Accenture, we've delivered over 2,000 gen AI client projects and surveyed 3,450 business leaders across industries. Our analysis reveals both a widening performance gap—and an emerging playbook. Just 13% of companies are already realizing significant enterprise-wide value from gen AI. Yet, a striking 36% are scaling AI for industry-specific solutions. Those who move first, with clarity and conviction, are already seeing disproportionate impact. As Lovelace understood long before her time, it's not enough to possess advanced tools. What matters is how you use them—and who you empower along the way. Despite expanded access and availability of new technologies, a sentiment gap still lingers with some leaders expressing continuous skepticism on AI. In a recent conversation, Prof. Ethan Mollick at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania noted that some business leaders still believe AI and gen AI are in a hype cycle and not yet 'real' or mission critical, which means they are likely missing out on its economic potential. For example, though bullish on the technology with plans to increase their investments in gen AI over the next year, leaders are spending three times their technology budgets on technology rather than on their people. This gap will hamper not only a company's adoption of AI in the short term, but also the prospects of achieving parallel success in their reinvention efforts. In the face of increasing economic volatility, C-suite leaders across industries are looking to add and deliver value in new ways. But the uncertainty is prompting them to ask several key questions: Are we distributing our investments in a way that will generate the most payoff? How can we best apply gen AI to get the ROI intended across the business? What are the barriers to progress, and how do we get past them? How can we create more resilient organizations to navigate these volatile times, underpinned by AI? I've written in the past about gen AI being a partner to growth, helping increase competitiveness and transforming productivity within companies. Now, taking a page out of Ada's Note G algorithm and her prediction of technology completing much more complex tasks, imagine the next evolution of gen AI in the form of multiple AI agents, or a 'digital team' capable of reimagining entire workflows and completely changing how we think about the technology. It's clear that AI agents are entering the workstream, with our research suggesting three times as many companies are planning to invest in agentic architecture this year, compared to 2024. That number is even higher for companies already delivering enterprise-level value, which are 4.5 times more likely to have invested strategically in agentic architecture. This 'digital team' is comprised of three types of AI agents: an orchestrator agent that oversees end-to-end processes, breaking down silos and enabling seamless collaboration; super agent(s) that combine multiple functions, synthesizing data to drive strategic workflows; and utility agents that perform routine, high-frequency tasks that improve efficiency or effectiveness. The team works together in pursuit of a goal, each with a specific role—such as to observe, reason, plan, act or communicate. Agents can understand and reflect on both structured and unstructured information. Long-term memory, together with feedback loops, allow agents to learn and continuously enhance performance. What would this look like in real life? Let's take the auto industry as an example—which also benefited from Lovelace's vision that led to the creation of the GPS, cruise control and much more of what we take for granted on today's roads—considering the gains we see with gen AI when it's scaled for an industry-specific solution. Imagine you're running a car dealership, and a customer walks in with concerns that their car is making a strange noise. While the employee collects data from the customer about when they heard this noise, the 'orchestrator agent' begins coordinating the workflow by assigning cross-checks to the appropriate agents. The diagnostic 'super agent' helps identify what the noise could be using diagnostic databases. And in parallel, a solution 'super agent' recommends repairs and helps check parts availability with the help of 'utility agents.' Consequently, the employee can spend most of their time directly engaging with the customer rather than checking inventory dates, for example. And the customer can leave satisfied having gotten answers about their car repairs in a much shorter period, rather than wait hours or days for a diagnosis. These AI agents will be an accelerator for the reinvention of work—by integrating and transforming cross-functional teams across the enterprise. No doubt we see leaders investing more in agentic architecture. Three times as many organizations are planning to invest in these capabilities this year compared to last year, and organizations scaling gen AI successfully are 4.5 times more likely to invest in agentic architecture—building the foundation for continuous reinvention. When we began our comprehensive analysis looking at the thousands of gen AI projects that we've worked on for our clients, we paired our findings with insights sourced from 3,450 business leaders across industries. Our goal was to identify where companies were seeing tangible, measurable results with gen AI adoption and where they were struggling to scale. And as we looked back at the projects we delivered, here are the top five lessons for leaders to take away to align people, processes and technology so they too can drive growth with AI: Lead with value, and lead from the top: It was partly due to Babbage's encouragement that we know of Lovelace's contributions to computer science, as he gave her the opportunity to add extensive notes to the paper she was translating on his work. Mirroring Babbage's executive sponsorship of Lovelace, for leaders at the top today to effectively prioritize high-impact AI initiatives, they need to deeply understand the technology, trust its potential and know when and how to act. Our research confirms that when leadership is fully engaged, companies achieve 2.5 times higher ROI. Invest in people, not just technology: To scale and create value with gen AI, leaders need to ensure their people understand the tools and know when and why to use them, yet this remains a key barrier. Despite people being core to building workforce resilience and reinvention success, companies are still spending more than three times their technology budgets on technology than on their people. And only a third (35%) of executives have a framework for how gen AI will impact their workforce. That gap has to close to achieve the full value that technologies like gen AI present. And your workforce is calling out to help and to learn more. We've found that approximately 1 in 2 workers in the US are already spending at least 10% of their time on tasks with the potential for productivity gains of over 50%. Additionally, 94% of workers want to learn new skills to work with gen AI, but only 5% of organizations are currently providing them with the necessary training at scale. Prioritize industry-specific AI solutions: Rather than creating ad-hoc or general gen-AI solutions, apply the technology to what your clients, customers and people need. Companies need a secure digital core that's enabled by AI and supported by agentic architecture. We know 36% of companies are already applying gen AI to industry-specific solutions, and those that do—such as in banking, insurance or life sciences—deliver three times more ROI. Even more so, businesses that create enterprise-level value with gen AI are also 2.9 times more likely to prioritize embedding proprietary data sources into their products. Design and embed AI responsibly from the start: Responsible AI isn't just about reducing risk; if done effectively, it can create value. Leaders should consider embedding their responsible AI principles across the organization and creating a platform to monitor, test and address compliance issues across the enterprise. Accenture's Responsible AI Platform provides a comprehensive view of tools and industry standards for employees, for example. Reinvent continuously: Change is the one constant, and knowing that disruption remains at an all-time high, leaders must be able to navigate these changes and fortify their enterprise resilience on an ongoing basis—for both the short- and long-term. For example, a large electronics retailer uses a gen AI-powered assistant to provide self-service support for its customers, and its staff work with real-time AI tools so that their efforts can be better spent on high-value interactions. The initiative has led to quicker responses for customers and greater productivity for agents. It took nearly 100 years for Lovelace's work to be understood and fully appreciated, but today's leaders do not have the benefit of time. As technology drives business disruption and transformation at a pace we have not seen before, with 72% of leaders expecting more change this year, it's become even more critical for leaders to see ROI from their investments. Eighty three percent of CEOs and other C-Suite leaders told us that gen AI has already exceeded their initial expectations, and 86% of them anticipate increasing their gen AI investments this year. However, investment alone will not be enough—it will be the focus on, and across, the five key areas in unison that may unlock the 2.5 times more value across the enterprise that we see. The leaders that will win the AI race will be those that move fastest from a push approach of a hammer looking for a nail—or using technology for a simple arithmetic equation—to a pull approach, being bold in laying out the vision and ambitions for their companies underpinned by gen AI at scale and unlocked by people at the center.
CBC
24-04-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Rattlers to have entirely homegrown coaching staff this season
Social Sharing The Saskatchewan Rattlers return to the hard court in less than a month, and this year the Canadian Elite Basketball League team will be led by an all-Saskatchewan coaching staff. The homegrown talent includes newly-named head coach Eric Magdanz, originally from Yorkton, assistant coaches Steve Burrows from Regina and Saskatoon's Rob Lovelace. "Basketball across Canada is booming and coaching is kind of at the forefront of that," Magdanz said. "I think we're pretty lucky and fortunate that we get to be a part of that and use this league as a growth opportunity for ourselves." All three have been part of the Rattlers for a number of years. Before Magdanz joined the Rattlers, he spent seven years as head coach of MacEwan University in Edmonton. Burrows has been the head coach of the University of Regina Cougars men's team since 2013. Lovelace starred with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, was an assistant coach there and also was the president of Basketball Saskatchewan board of directors in 2023-24. Magdanz said there's a big difference in coaching in a pro league as opposed to university. "It's what can you do for us now, and what can you do for us over these next 24 games," Magdanz said. "We're dealing with adults. This is their career, this is their profession. So that holds a lot of weight in our decision-making." Rattlers general manager Barry Rawlick said the level of coaching in the province continues to get better. "The depth of the pool of coaches that are able to teach the game well has grown significantly," Rawlick said, adding it also gives the team some stability. "You want to try and build a culture and when you're starting from scratch every year, that's very difficult." Magdanz said coaches from Canada, and Saskatchewan, are making their mark across the world. "The Egyptian national team coach was Canadian, both German national team coaches are Canadian, including our very own Lisa Thomaidis," Magdanz said, referring to the the U of S women's basketball coach who led the Huskies to a national championship this year. He said Briercrest has won the a junior college title, and Humboldt's Paige Cozens represented Canada at the Olympics in three-on-three basketball "So for a province here of a million people, we hold our own very well." Lovelace began as a colour analyst on Rattler broadcasts, but then transitioned to being on the bench coaching a couple of years ago. He credits the people that coached him with helping elevate his skills. "We do a good job through our Basketball Saskatchewan program of getting our coaches trained and wanting to grow the game, grow our coaches," said Lovelace, adding this will this year's edition of the Rattlers will have a different look. "I think we've got a good plan going forward, so I'm excited for it." Magdanz said the focus will be looking after the defensive side of the ball. "We're going to be a defence first team that gets up and down the court and plays hard," Magdanz said.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ancient alligator-sized amphibians died under mysterious circumstances
A fossil trove uncovered in Wyoming is providing some of the best examples yet of an ancient species of alligator-sized amphibians. But while paleontologists describe the specimens as 'exquisitely preserved,' the reason behind their rapid die-off remains a mystery. The find is detailed in a study published April 2 in the journal PLOS One. Metoposaurid tenospondyls are some of the earliest ancestors of today's frogs, toads, and salamanders. The oldest known species in North America, Buettnererpeton bakeri, existed exclusively on the continent during the Triassic era around 230 million years ago. The squat, four-legged animal lurked in freshwater ponds, rivers, and lakes, where it fed on essentially anything it could fit into its mouth. 'Like other metoposaurids, it probably spent most, if not all, of its life in the water eating fish, other amphibians, or anything unfortunate enough to venture too far into the water,' University of Wisconsin-Madison paleolontologists and study co-authors Dave Lovelace and Aaron Kufner told Popular Science. Beyond that, not much is known about Buettnererpeton due to the scarcity of fossils. But according to Lovelace and Kufner, that may soon change thanks to their excavation work on the ancient floodplain site Nobby Knob in Dubois, Wyoming. There, paleontologists found dozens of fossilized Buettnererpeton remains—more than doubling the total number of known specimens. But these Triassic age amphibian fossils didn't accumulate over decades or centuries. Instead, they appear to have died during a single mass mortality event. 'It was a local die-off like we see when rivers dry up, or when lakes have influxes of nutrients that cause algae blooms, both of which can kill off aquatic life like fish,' Lovelace and Kufner explained. This particular die-off evidence stands out from others due to the rock in which it was found. The fine-grained soil and layered sediments indicate a low energy or calm depositional environment, meaning a lack of strong currents. Thanks to this, many of the skeletons are largely intact and well-preserved. 'There are some articulated bones that are nearly absent in other metoposaurid bone beds in North America, and completely unknown for Buettnererpeton,' said the paleontologists. New details include the discovery of articulated toothy plates that were embedded in the soft tissue of Buettnererpeton's mouth, as well as the unique way other fossils formed. 'They all lack any evidence of the calcium carbonate that would have formed most of their [fossil] shell… What seems to have happened is that the calcium carbonate dissolved after they were buried, and the outer organic layer (which helps prevent the shell from dissolving in freshwater during life) left an impression as the mud turned to rock then was later lost,' they explained. According to the study's authors, the mass burial was likely due to the existence of a nearby Buettnererpeton breeding colony, or a drought-induced restricted waterway that concentrated them together before they died. 'This assemblage is a snapshot of a single population rather than an accumulation over time,' Kufner said in a separate statement. The research team hopes their excavation work and taphonomic analysis (the study of an organism's death and subsequent preservation) will lead to future examinations of the site. Further studies may also increase our understanding of Buettnererpeton and the environment in which it lived. 'Taphonomic studies are commonplace today and much more common than they were over 50 years ago thanks to the work of dozens if not hundreds of geologists and paleontologists,' said Kufner and Lovelace, adding, 'There is plenty still to be done!'
