Latest news with #Viya
What's On
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- What's On
A guide to the best golf courses in the UAE
It's time to par-tee… The UAE's golf scene is unmatched – whether you're new to the sport or confident walking in the footsteps of golfing greats – there's a course for you. With summer fast approaching, book an early morning or nighttime tee (with some great discounted rates) and keep working on your swing all season long. The Earth Course, Jumeirah Golf Estates One of Dubai's most iconic golf courses is found at Jumeirah Golf Estates. Designed by acclaimed golf course architect Greg Norman, the par 72 Earth Course is recognised for its perfectly manicured fairways, challenging bunkers and water hazards. It's the backdrop for one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the calendar – the DP World Tour Championship, and as such has been played by champions including Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton. Golfers make their way around an 18-hole course designed to challenge and delight golfers of all abilities, teeing off from and returning to the Clubhouse, where facilities include The Crafty Fox gastropub and refined Italian eatery, Bussola. Rates from Dhs1,050. Book via the Viya app The Majlis Course, Emirates Golf Club Emirates Golf Club set the gold standard for golfing in the UAE when it was established in 1988 as the first grass course in the Middle East. In the decades that have followed, it's drawn sporting elite from across the globe to try their hand at its challenging layout, backdropped by the iconic Marina skyline. The 18-hole Championship golf course is a firm favourite of those who come to the emirates to play golf, thanks to its world-class facilities, lush fairways and deliberately placed bunkers. Rates from Dhs1,500. Book via the Viya app Yas Links Abu Dhabi Adding to the thrilling array of attractions found on Yas Island – including Ferrari World, Yas Waterworld, Yas Marina Circuit and Warner Bros World – is Yas Links. Recognised as the first Links Golf Course in the Middle East, the Kyle Phillips-designed course is consistently regarded as one of the world's leading golf courses. Located on the island's west shores, its world-class facilities range from the floodlight practice ranges to the state-of-the-art Toptracer range technology. Then there's the course itself – fast fairways, challenging greens and scenic views that command your attention as much as the game. Rates from Dhs620. Book via the Viya app Al Hamra Golf Club, Ras Al Khaimah Lending itself well to golfers of all abilities, add a round on the par-72, 18 hole championship golf course at Al Hamra to your Ras Al Khaimah bucket list. Designed by Peter Harradine, the course centres scenically around four interconnected water lagoons, with a collection of villas dotting the edges. Each hole comes with five tee options, and the whole course features 5 million cubic metres of sand that have been expertly shaped to create gentle elevation that ranges from one to eight metres across the course. With the region's short daylight hours, Al Hamra has created a composite 9-hole course combining holes from the front and back nines designed for night golf, perfect for an after-work game or simply enjoying a challenging environment to hone your skills. Rates from Dhs265. Al Zorah Golf Club, Ajman Since opening in 2015, Al Zorah Golf Club has established itself as one of the most scenic spots for golf fans in the emirates, nestled within the verdant Ajman mangroves. Golf legend Jack Nicklaus' company Nicklaus Design are behind the 18-hole championship layout, which features two lakes and 88 bunkers. Water levels shift with the tides throughout the day, paired with the stretching views of the mangroves, provides a serene location for a game with your mates. The two-teed driving range is the perfect place to warm up, while the golf club restaurant is the perfect place to fuel up after your round. Rates from Dhs375. Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club A shooting range, archery, escape rooms and paintball – there are lots of exhilarating attractions to blow off some steam at with a visit to this emporium of active fun. But the golf course is arguably the jewel in the crown. Another Peter Harradine-designed course, the fully floodlight 9-hole course is described as a pleasure to play but a challenge to par. There's an array of water features, generous fairways, and large, challenging bunkers to put you through your paces. Through the summer, off-peak, mid-week rates start from just Dhs95, making it one of the most affordable rounds you'll find. Rates from Dhs95.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Butterfly Data wins SAS Hackathon with tool to fight misinformation
Powered by SAS Viya, it helps decision makers identify trustworthy data CARY, N.C., May 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The flood of misinformation and disinformation is becoming a major problem, often negatively influencing decisions and causing harm. The overall winner of the 2024 SAS Hackathon is working to address this problem. Team Butterflies from Butterfly Data, a SAS Partner, has developed an AI-powered tool to help analysts and decision makers assess data sources for their reliability and credibility. Based in the UK, Butterfly Data is a diverse team of experienced technology consultants specializing in data science and data management solutions that help organizations turn data into strategic assets. SAS is a leader in data and AI. The SAS Hackathon-winning solution uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) and classification models to check the trustworthiness of open source data. With Butterfly's tool, organizations can verify data sources, spot unreliable information and ensure the use of ethical information to make decisions. "In a world where data can shape decisions with real-world consequences, it is essential to ensure its reliability. Combating misinformation with trusted data leads to better and more transparent decisions," said Luke Coldridge, Senior Consultant at Butterfly Data and Team Leader for Team Butterflies. "We believe this tool can be a force for good, helping combat disinformation and promote a more informed world." Powered by Viya To create the solution, Team Butterflies used SAS' data and AI platform, SAS® Viya®, as well as SAS Viya Workbench and SAS Viya Copilot. They also leveraged open source tools like Git, Python and Visual Studio (VS) Code. Released in 2024, SAS Viya Workbench is a cloud-based coding environment purpose-built for developers, data scientists and modelers. It significantly improves speed and efficiency and makes it easier to conduct data management, analysis and model development using SAS or Python code, through VS Code or Jupyter Notebook. Built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, SAS Viya Copilot is an AI-driven conversational assistant embedded directly into the SAS Viya platform. It gives developers, data scientists and business users a powerful personal assistant that accelerates analytical, business and industry tasks. SAS Viya Copilot is currently available via an invitation-only private preview, with general availability coming later this year. Detecting disinformation Created using Agile software development principles, Team Butterflies' solution uses SAS Viya for advanced analytics and machine learning, with Viya Workbench and Viya Copilot accelerating model development and integrating large language model (LLM) technology. Open source tools supported flexible coding and seamless collaboration, while the Cloud Analytics Services (CAS) data-processing engine within Viya enabled centralized data management and real-time dashboards. SAS Information Catalog APIs further enhanced transparency by tracing data lineage and quality, boosting user confidence in the insights delivered. SAS Hackathon The 2024 SAS Hackathon boasted 1,731 registrants from more than 70 countries. This led to an all-time high of 145 approved teams that participated in the month-long hack, supported by 110 SAS mentors. SAS produces the annual SAS Hackathon, which was sponsored by long-time SAS Partners Microsoft and Intel. During the SAS Hackathon, teams of data scientists, business analysts, technology enthusiasts and students come together – often virtually across continents – to network, learn from each other and from a SAS mentor, and experiment with new technologies that spark innovation and improve lives. "Team Butterflies and all SAS Hackathon teams clearly demonstrate the potent combination of curiosity, innovation and AI technology to address big problems in business and society," said Einar Halvorsen, Global Hackathon Producer at SAS. "As a caterpillar transforms into something more, Team Butterflies' AI-powered tool transforms data into better insights and trustworthy decisions." The announcement of Team Butterflies as overall SAS Hackathon winner was made this month at SAS Innovate, the SAS data and AI technology conference. In November, Team Butterflies was named a 2024 SAS Hackathon winner in four categories, including EMEA region, Models technology, and Channel Readiness and Trustworthy AI special awards. More than 100 judges participated in the evaluation of SAS Hackathon projects. About SAS SAS is a global leader in data and AI. With SAS software and industry-specific solutions, organizations transform data into trusted decisions. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2025 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. Editorial Contact: Mike Nemecek SAS 919-531-5140 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE SAS Error 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
Time of India
08-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
SAS digital twins on Unreal Engine transform manufacturing
SAS is poised to help transform critical processes in the manufacturing industry with enhanced digital twins that combine SAS' powerful AI and advanced analytics with Unreal Engine (UE) from Epic Games. With these digital twins, manufacturers like Georgia-Pacific (GP) can experiment with new strategies in simulated digital worlds, then take the best approaches and implement them in the real world. Today's factories generate huge quantities of data from multiple systems and thousands of sensors. This data, if properly harnessed, can help optimise operations and achieve unprecedented efficiency, productivity and innovation. Digital twins at Georgia-Pacific One of the world's leading manufacturers of paper and wood-based building products, GP is piloting these enhanced digital twins at its Savannah River Mill, which manufactures napkins, paper towels and toilet tissue. GP is leveraging SAS' technology to optimise its use of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and other processes. Operation Sindoor 'Op Sindoor's precision & execution was unimaginable': Rajnath Singh Operation Sindoor: India repels drone, missile attack across LoC Operation Sindoor: Several airports in India closed - check full list 'With the help of SAS and Unreal Engine, we can create realistic simulations of factory operations. Imagine watching AGVs navigate through a bustling factory floor, reacting to proximity alerts, obstacles and rare adverse events in real time," said Roshan Shah, GP's Vice President of AI & Products. 'The powerful analysis and photorealistic simulations delivered by SAS' enhanced digital twins can enable decision making and boost output at Savannah River Mill. And they hold great promise for improving productivity, safety and efficiency at other GP facilities.' SAS used RealityScan, a mobile app developed by Epic, to capture photorealistic renderings of GP's Savannah plant and import them into UE. Combining SAS analytics and UE is helping GP fine-tune operations without disrupting actual production lines. The pilot is expected to deliver cost savings and higher-quality products. The tech behind the digital twins 'With SAS' advanced analytics and Unreal Engine, GP created an amazing example for how a digital twin can create real-world value for businesses,' said Bill Clifford, Vice President and General Manager of Unreal Engine at Epic Games. 'SAS is opening the door for manufacturers to bring complex data and automated systems to life through 3D visuals. This will make high-fidelity, interactive digital twins more accessible so manufacturers can upgrade their operations, gain better real-time insights and save money. ' SAS software, including SAS® Viya® , helps turn massive amounts of data from factory operations and sensors into useful insights and smarter decisions. Part of the SAS offering connects UE simulations with Viya optimization routines. By integrating Viya capabilities into digital environments, users can run realistic simulations to find the best solutions. Instead of testing these solutions in the real world – which can be time-consuming and expensive – businesses can use detailed and accurate digital twins to spot any issues they might have missed. UE, the world's most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool, enables developers and creators to build interactive 3D experiences. Epic also operates Fortnite, battle testing the latest UE rendering technology in one of the world's largest games. Epic makes this same technology available for use across games, film and television, architecture, automotive, simulation and other industries. The fidelity of Unreal's physics simulation and its next-generation lighting and refractive surface effects help create highly detailed and realistic digital models. These features allow manufacturers to visualise and interact with their operations in a digital environment, and when combined with advanced AI, lead to more accurate predictions and better business decisions. Beyond the manufacturing floor 'As manufacturers hire the next generation of workers, they need to make the use of data and AI more engaging and appealing,' said Bryan Harris, Chief Technology Officer of SAS. 'Gaming technology – for a generation that grew up playing video games – is one important way to transform business decision making from charts and spreadsheets to immersive experiences with amazing visual fidelity. Gamifying business processes and tasks can make them less repetitive and more engaging, boosting productivity and bottom-line results. ' The enhanced digital twins offered by SAS and tapping UE make advanced analytics more accessible to a wider group of people with varying job roles and experience. In addition to data scientists and quantitative experts, frontline workers, machine operators and engineers can now more easily use data and AI. SAS plans to extend these capabilities to additional manufacturers and explore other industries that could benefit from enhanced digital twins . For instance, in health care, these enhanced digital twins could significantly strengthen hospital operations by simulating and optimising patient flows, predicting equipment maintenance and enriching staff training. This technology could improve patient outcomes, reduce operational costs and ensure resources are used efficiently. Similarly, in urban planning, enhanced digital twins can model and optimise the development of smart cities, helping create more sustainable and livable urban environments. This announcement was made at SAS Innovate , the data and AI experience for business leaders, technical users and SAS Partners. This year's event is supported by our partner sponsors, including Microsoft, Intel and AWS.
Korea Herald
08-05-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
From synthetic data to AI agents, new SAS Viya innovations boost speed, productivity and trust
ORLANDO, Fla., May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SAS Innovate -- Data and AI leader SAS today announced its latest offerings on the SAS ® Viya ® platform, spanning the latest leaps in AI advancement to scale and galvanize human productivity and decision-making. "SAS is evolving its strategy and portfolio to embrace a broader ecosystem of user personas, preferences, and technologies within an enterprise's AI technology stack," said Kathy Lange, research director for AI Software at IDC. "SAS continues to develop offerings that streamline and automate the AI life cycle and enable organizations to make better business decisions faster." The latest and upcoming SAS Viya debuts include: Unparalleled productivity, trusted results SAS is breaking through the AI and GenAI hype to deliver real capabilities that drive real results with SAS Viya – a comprehensive data and AI platform that empowers people of all skill levels to participate in the analytics process. The SAS Viya platform delivers users a choice to be a builder of AI with end-to-end platform tools, or buyers of AI solutions and model packages – each delivering scale and productivity to enable better decisions and faster time to value. Developers, data scientists, IT professionals and business analysts can collaborate seamlessly within the SAS Viya ecosystem and throughout the data and AI life cycle to make intelligent decisions. SAS Viya accelerates productivity across diverse industries and regulatory landscapes, offering a clear advantage to organizations, particularly CIOs and IT leaders. In fact, a 2024 Futurum Group AI productivity study revealed that SAS Viya helps users accelerate the AI life cycle, enabling them to collect data, build models, and deploy decisions 4.6 times faster than selected competitors – all while helping them increase innovation, expedite decision making and drive revenue growth. "The current economic climate and rapid pace of AI innovation can feel intense and overwhelming," said Bryan Harris, Chief Technology Officer at SAS. "Our goal is to deliver cutting-edge AI capabilities that help organizations navigate the hype and disruption, make breakthroughs in problem solving, and gain a decision advantage." Supporting global conservation with data and AI The power of SAS Viya extends beyond improving business outcomes to boosting global conservation efforts. Fathom Science, a technology start-up building digital twins of the ocean, tapped SAS Viya to tackle an impractical problem that brought together the unlikely combination of ocean data, AI and a species in need of a lifeline. To validate their state-of-the-science whale location prediction model that helps prevent vessels from striking critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, Fathom Science used SAS Data Maker to create synthetic data with the characteristics of the actual shipping lane data to expand to 500,000 data points. With the data in hand, SAS Viya Workbench was used to develop models to calculate the probability of whales' distance from shore. The result? Fathom Science gained statistical and machine learning validation of its whale location prediction model. Today's announcement was made at SAS Innovate, the data and AI experience for business leaders, technical users and SAS Partners. Keep up with the latest news from SAS by visiting or follow us on LinkedIn or X. About SAS SAS is a global leader in data and AI. With SAS software and industry-specific solutions, organizations transform data into trusted decisions. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW ®. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2025 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.
Techday NZ
07-05-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
SAS Viya launches agentic AI framework for ethical decisions
SAS has introduced a new framework for customisable AI agents on its SAS Viya platform, focusing on transparent, governed and ethically calibrated decision-making for enterprise customers. The announcement details the SAS Viya agentic AI framework, which enables organisations to design, deploy and manage AI agents with oversight on both human and AI autonomy. According to the company, this system aims to create collaborative environments where AI and human decision-makers work together based on the complexity and risk of tasks. Nick Patience, Vice President and Practice Lead, Artificial Intelligence Software and Tools at The Futurum Group, said: "SAS' approach to agentic AI strikes the critical balance between autonomous decision-making and ethical governance. Its intelligent agents represent not just technological advancement but a pragmatic framework for responsible enterprise AI adoption – precisely what organizations need as they navigate this rapidly evolving landscape to gain a competitive advantage." The structure of the SAS Viya agentic AI framework rests on three main pillars. The first is a hybrid decisioning method, combining deterministic analytics with large language models (LLMs) to offer reliable and precise decision outputs. This approach, the company says, allows AI agents to function effectively under the necessary business rules and regulatory requirements that are essential in highly regulated sectors. The second pillar focuses on balancing the degree of autonomy between human input and AI. The platform lets organisations determine the level of control AI agents have for different kinds of tasks, distinguishing between those that are suited to fully autonomous operation and those where ongoing human oversight remains essential for ethical judgement and strategic guidance. The third aspect is governance, with Viya's embedded framework intended to ensure that output not only meets performance standards but also supports data privacy, organisational ethics and wider regulatory compliance. Tiffany McCormick, Research Director, Digital Business Models and Monetization at IDC, stated: "As organizations evolve toward open, interoperable AI ecosystems across multi-cloud and hybrid environments, trust and explainability in AI governance are emerging as key differentiators among tech vendors. SAS is taking industry-leading steps to address the growing demand for agentic AI, with a clear commitment to ethical rigor and differentiated execution in AI decisioning." SAS Viya is presented as supporting organisations throughout the entire lifecycle of building and maintaining AI agents—from initial data ingestion and processing, through to deployment, monitoring and adaptation. The framework provides mechanisms for continuous oversight, including audit trails, bias detection and compliance checks. The company outlined future plans for its agentic AI roadmap, which include introducing co-pilot productivity assistants into the Viya ecosystem, aimed at helping users expedite their workflows while remaining aligned with enterprise requirements. There are also plans to release pre-packaged, domain-tailored AI agents for use in specific scenarios such as data engineering and supply chain optimisation. These domain-specific agents are designed to ease adoption and reduce time-to-value for customers without eroding their confidence in the automation. Marinela Profi, Global AI Market Strategy Lead at SAS, commented: "SAS Viya builds agents that don't just act – they decide with purpose, guided by analytics, business rules and adaptability and grounded by decades of SAS' trusted governance. SAS' unified, governed, decision-first framework turns AI agents from a science experiment to a business differentiator." SAS said it aims to position its platform as a comprehensive and regulated solution for organisations looking to integrate agentic AI into their digital workflows while maintaining confidence and clarity in AI-powered business decisions.
