Mathematics

PPG, PPG Foundation invested more than $17.5 million in communities worldwide in 2023

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 15, 2024

PPG (NYSE:PPG) and the PPG Foundation today announced that they invested more than $17.5 million worldwide in 2023, an increase of $1.3 million over 2022.

Key Points: 
  • PPG (NYSE:PPG) and the PPG Foundation today announced that they invested more than $17.5 million worldwide in 2023, an increase of $1.3 million over 2022.
  • View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240215307583/en/
    PPG and the PPG Foundation invested more than $17.5 million worldwide in 2023 to support over 450 community partners and programs that are focused on advancing education and delivering community sustainability while encouraging PPG employee volunteerism.
  • The PPG Foundation partnered with AdoptAClassroom.org to equip teachers and 10 schools in PPG communities with STEM education tools.
  • 60 COLORFUL COMMUNITIES® projects completed in 2023 in 16 countries:
    In 2023, PPG’s global Colorful Communities program reached its 500th project milestone .

Telesat Opens Annual Scholarship Programs for Women & Indigenous Students

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 15, 2024

“With these programs we aim to provide women and Indigenous students with access to impactful education and career opportunities while developing STEM talent throughout Canada.”

Key Points: 
  • “With these programs we aim to provide women and Indigenous students with access to impactful education and career opportunities while developing STEM talent throughout Canada.”
    Women in STEM Scholarship Program:
    Through the Women in STEM scholarship, Telesat will award $5,000 CAD scholarships to eight full-time undergraduate students pursuing studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
  • With this scholarship, Telesat hopes to empower more women to engage in these important, emerging, and high-paying fields.
  • Telesat intends for this program to reflect Canada’s broad diversity and the company strongly encourages Indigenous, visible minority students, and students with disabilities to apply.
  • Scholarship Partners Canada (SPC), a division of Universities Canada, administers the scholarship program on behalf of Telesat.

“Tech for Good” Sponsor Broadcom Foundation Brings Twenty-five Champions to the National STEM Festival

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Broadcom Foundation announces its “Tech for Good” sponsorship of the inaugural National STEM Challenge and is funding twenty-five of the one hundred and twenty-six National STEM Champions.

Key Points: 
  • Broadcom Foundation announces its “Tech for Good” sponsorship of the inaugural National STEM Challenge and is funding twenty-five of the one hundred and twenty-six National STEM Champions.
  • These students will be recognized at the first-ever National STEM Festival in Washington, D.C., co-presented by EXPLR and the U.S. Department of Education from April 13-14, 2024.
  • Coding enables young people to become creative STEM problem-solvers who can think critically, communicate, collaborate, be persistent, and become experts in the digital world.
  • Broadcom Foundation’s support for “Tech for Good” recognizes the importance of coding in solving problems and challenges in the community.

Gwynne Shotwell Awarded the 2023 Green Sands Prize for Her Contributions to the Space Industry & STEM

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

The 2023 Prize was focused on the Space industry.

Key Points: 
  • The 2023 Prize was focused on the Space industry.
  • Moreover, the industry has become a symbol of human aspiration, inspiring future generations to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers.
  • The committee unanimously selected Gwynne Shotwell as the 2023 recipient of the Inspiration Prize.
  • “Gwynne’s combination of symbolic significance, business acumen, and technical engineering made her the obvious winner of the Green Sands Prize in the Space Industry.

NASA Updates Equity Action Plan, Adds Focus on STEM Education, More

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

"At NASA, we are committed to advancing equity to ensure our work benefits all humanity," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Key Points: 
  • "At NASA, we are committed to advancing equity to ensure our work benefits all humanity," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
  • "The Equity Action plan deepens our long-term commitment to recognize and overcome systemic barriers that limit opportunity in underserved and underrepresented communities.
  • This year, NASA has identified STEM education as an area to engage and inspire the diverse talent of our future leaders.
  • For more information about the 2023 Equity Action Plan, and to follow along as NASA continues its journey toward Mission Equity, visit:
    View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-updates-equity-action-plan...

Subaru of America and AAAS Announce Winners of 2024 Prize for Excellence in Science Books

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

CAMDEN, N.J. and WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Subaru of America, Inc. , and the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, today announced the 2024 winners of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books .

Key Points: 
  • CAMDEN, N.J. and WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Subaru of America, Inc. , and the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, today announced the 2024 winners of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books .
  • "AAAS believes that, through good science books, this generation, and the next, will have a better understanding and appreciation of science," said Sarah Ingraffea, the AAAS/Subaru Book Prize Award manager at AAAS.
  • Awards are given in four categories: Children's Science Picture Book, Middle Grades Science Book, Hands-on Science Book and Young Adult Science Book.
  • With today's announcement, the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books has now honored 76 books and more than 100 authors and illustrators.

MDA ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF YUNG WU TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

BRAMPTON, ON, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - MDA Ltd. (TSX: MDA), a trusted space mission partner to the rapidly expanding global space industry, is pleased to announce the appointment of Yung Wu to MDA's Board of Directors, effective February 14, 2024.

Key Points: 
  • BRAMPTON, ON, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - MDA Ltd. (TSX: MDA), a trusted space mission partner to the rapidly expanding global space industry, is pleased to announce the appointment of Yung Wu to MDA's Board of Directors, effective February 14, 2024.
  • Serving as an independent director, Mr. Wu's appointment increases the size of the Board to nine directors, in accordance with MDA's by-laws.
  • "We are pleased to welcome Yung Wu to our Board of Directors," said Mr. John Risley, Chair of the MDA Board.
  • He is also a member of MENSA, the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D) and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).

We designed wormlike, limbless robots that navigate obstacle courses − they could be used for search and rescue one day

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

These robots could come in handy in search-and-rescue situations, where they could navigate collapsed buildings to find and assist survivors.

Key Points: 
  • These robots could come in handy in search-and-rescue situations, where they could navigate collapsed buildings to find and assist survivors.
  • With slender, flexible bodies, limbless robots could readily move through confined and cluttered spaces such as debris fields, where walking or wheeled robots and human rescuers tend to fail.
  • However, even the most advanced limbless robots have not come close to moving with the agility and versatility of worms and snakes in difficult terrain.

Undulators and mechanical intelligence

  • Our team wanted to figure out a way to simplify these systems by highlighting mechanically controlled approaches to dealing with obstacles that don’t require sensors or computation.
  • Animals don’t rely solely on their neurons – brain cells and peripheral nerves – to control movement.
  • While computational systems are governed by the laws of mathematics, mechanical systems are governed by physics.
  • To achieve the same task, scientists can either design an algorithm or carefully design a physical system.
  • If you compare a diverse set of undulating organisms with the increasingly large zoo of robotic “snakes,” one difference between the robots and biological undulators stands out.


To get to the bottom of this question, our team built a new robot called MILLR, for mechanically intelligent limbless robot, inspired by the two bands of muscle on snakes and worms. MILLR has two independently controlled cables that pull each joint left and right, bilaterally.
We found this method allows the robot to spontaneously move around obstacles without having to sense its surroundings and actively change its body posture to comply to the environment.

Building a mechanically intelligent robot

  • This way, it mirrors the muscle activation methods that snakes and nematodes use, where the left and right sides take turns activating.
  • This activation mode pulls the body toward one side or another by tightening on one side, while the other side relaxes and is pulled along passively.
  • When the robot collides with an obstacle, depending on the cable tension, it selectively maintains its shape or bends under the force of the obstacle.
  • If, alternatively, the robot experienced a force that opposed the bend, it would remain rigid and push itself off the obstacle.

Testing MILLR

  • We sent MILLR through a similar course and compared the results.
  • We noticed that the worms made the same type of body movements when they collided with obstacles as MILLR did.


This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Physics of Living Systems Student Research Network, NSF-Simons Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology, Army Research Office Grant, and the Dunn Family Professorship.

BNP Paribas Exane Grows Global Team with Five Senior US Analyst Appointments

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Sam has been with BNP Paribas Exane for eight years, and previously based in London where he was the Sector Head for Telecom Research.

Key Points: 
  • Sam has been with BNP Paribas Exane for eight years, and previously based in London where he was the Sector Head for Telecom Research.
  • Prior to joining BNP Paribas Exane in 2015, he spent five years at Sanford Bernstein on the European telecom research team.
  • Today’s appointments deliver on this ambition and are also another step in building out our BNP Paribas Exane US Research.
  • In 2021 BNP Paribas acquired 100 percent of Exane following a successful 17-year partnership and in November 2022, BNP Paribas launched BNP Paribas Exane in the US.

McGraw Hill and Maarif Education Partner to Accelerate Hybrid Learning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- McGraw Hill and Maarif Education have entered an agreement that makes McGraw Hill the exclusive learning partner for Maarif Education across all 10 of its campuses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Key Points: 
  • Over 23,000 students along with 2,888 teaching and academic staff will benefit from access to McGraw Hill's world class educational resources in both print and digital, supported by digital learning platforms including ALEKS, ConnectEd, and Open Learning Platform (OLP)
    RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- McGraw Hill and Maarif Education have entered an agreement that makes McGraw Hill the exclusive learning partner for Maarif Education across all 10 of its campuses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
  • The programs will be accompanied by McGraw Hill's state-of-the-art digital learning platforms including ConnectEd, Open Learning Platform (OLP) and ALEKS.
  • The partnership is one-of-a-kind for Saudi Arabia in that it's rare for a K-12 education group of Maarif Education's size to entrust a single learning partner for all its educational needs.
  • Ihab Ibrahim Osman, CEO of Maarif Education, remarked, "At Maarif Education, we believe that digital learning goes hand-in-hand with print-based learning methods and is imperative for the future success of our students.