Category Archives: Technology

ANN ARBOR, MI -- A California-based company became a part of Ann Arbors technology industry on Nov. 5 with the opening of its second headquarters in the U.S.

KLA, which produces equipment that helps create electronic components, recently opened a $200 million research and development campus, featuring corporate functions and a clean room.

The Ann Arbor headquarters a six-story, 230,000-square foot building located on 18 acres in Ann Arbor Township is focused on advancing semiconductor manufacturing through research of manufacturing tools and machine learning applications.

The headquarters also features employee amenities such as a coffee shop, fitness center and electric vehicle charging stations, as well as corporate offices focusing on supply chain, procurement, IT, finance, legal and Human Resources departments.

Were super, super excited, said John McLaughin, the Ann Arbor site leader. It certainly will help us attract people to the business and Ann Arbor.

KLA currently has a team of 300 people at the new location, with an additional 300 planned hires over the next 12 to 18 months.

The 51,000-square foot clean room will help the company complete research and design for semiconductor manufacturing. McLaughin said KLA is focused on helping its customers improve yield of semiconductors during an ongoing technology shortage.

Our customers are the ones who actually make the chips, he said.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who attended the campus ribbon-cutting on Friday, Nov. 5, said KLA is part of the next generation of technology and innovation.

With KLAs bold investment and commitment to the community, well continue growing Michigans economy, creating good-paying jobs, and securing our position on the worlds high-tech stage, Whitmer said in a statement announcing the opening. Together, we will usher in a new era of prosperity for our families and communities.

KLA considered more than 350 North American locations before choosing Michigan, according to a press release from Whitmers office. In the end, KLA chose Ann Arbor because of its global accessibility and existing technology industry, McLaughin said.

Its a great collision of things, McLaughin said, adding that the company wanted to tap into a brand-new pipeline of talent.

Draws to Ann Arbor included high quality of life, increased accessibility to the global market via nearby international airports and a lower cost of living than its current Silicon Valley headquarters, McLaughin said, in addition to the current industry.

It was exciting to see a technology ecosystem in place here, he said.

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California-based technology company opens $200 million campus in Ann Arbor - MLive.com

MILL VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Redwood Trust, Inc.(NYSE: RWT),a leader in expanding access to housing for homebuyers and renters,today announced that members of senior management will participate in the Jefferies Real Estate Finance & Technology Conference on Tuesday, November 16, 2021.

Dash Robinson, Redwood Trust's President, and Ryan McBride, Chief Operating Officer of CoreVest (a division of Redwood Trust) and Chief Investment Officer of RWT Horizons, will be participating in the following conference session:

Webcast InformationA link to the live webcast of the presentation will be available through the Events and Presentationssection of Redwood Trust's Investor Relations website at https://ir.redwoodtrust.com/events-and-presentations/events.Anarchive of the webcast will be available shortly after the respective presentations at the same location for 30 days.

About Redwood TrustRedwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE: RWT) is a specialty finance company focused on several distinct areas of housing credit. Our operating platforms occupy a unique position in the housing finance value chain, providing liquidity to growing segments of the U.S. housing market not served by government programs. We deliver customized housing credit investments to a diverse mix of investors, through our best-in-class securitization platforms; whole-loan distribution activities; and our publicly-traded shares. Our consolidated investment portfolio has evolved to incorporate a diverse mix of residential, business purpose and multifamily investments. Our goal is to provide attractive returns to shareholders through a stable and growing stream of earnings and dividends, capital appreciation, and a commitment to technological innovation that facilitates risk-minded scale. Since going public in 1994, we have managed our business through several cycles, built a track record of innovation, and a best-in-class reputation for service and a common-sense approach to credit investing. Redwood Trust is internally managed, and structured as a real estate investment trust ("REIT") for tax purposes. For more information about Redwood, please visit our website at http://www.redwoodtrust.comor connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, orFacebook.

About RWT HorizonsRWT Horizons is Redwood's venture investment arm focused on early and mid-stage companies driving innovation in financial and real estate technology, digital infrastructure, and other related areas of focus. Investments made through RWT Horizons are designed to support companies whose technologies are accretive to Redwood's broader operations, including its residential and business-purpose lending platforms.

CONTACTInvestor Relations Lisa Hartman SVP, Head of Investor RelationsPhone: 866-269-4976Email: [emailprotected]

Media RelationsSard Verbinnen & CoEmail: [emailprotected]

SOURCE Redwood Trust, Inc.

http://www.redwoodtrust.com

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Redwood Trust to Participate In The Jefferies Real Estate Finance & Technology Conference - PRNewswire

BUFFALO, N.Y. & SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Unifrax, a leading manufacturer of high-performance specialty materials, today introduced its Battery Advisory Board, which will meet regularly to provide strategic guidance as Unifrax grows its battery portfolio and enters the silicon anode market with its new SiFAB Silicon Fiber Anode Battery Technology.

SiFAB, a scalable proprietary silicon anode battery technology demonstrated in wide-reaching applications, including electric vehicles, power tools, smartphones, personal computers, medical devices and aviation, can deliver up to 20% increase in gravimetric energy density in lithium-ion batteries. It has proven through advanced testing high reversible capacity of greater than 1,000 mAh/g. Unifrax recently broke ground on its first production line located in New Carlisle, IN, which is expected to come online in early 2022.

This transformational technology becomes part of a robust battery portfolio that also consists of world class thermal management products and separator media.

The advisory board will bring together four highly experienced professionals and visionaries in the battery technology, engineering and operations space, with experts from the nations top universities and esteemed technology companies.

Unifraxs Battery Advisory Board will include:

Were thrilled to have put together such a talented and influential advisory board, said John Dandolph, CEO, Unifrax. Their depth of experience and perspective in lithium-ion battery technology and novel chemistries spans multiple industries, including portable electronics, consumer devices and EVs, which will help us navigate the complex supply chains as we bring hundreds of metric tons of capacity to the market in the near future. I look forward to partnering with this group of industry icons as we transform battery safety, capacity, power, and charge times.

To learn more about SiFAB or to follow the latest updates on the technology, visit http://www.sifab.com.

About Unifrax

Unifrax develops and manufactures high-performance specialty materials used in advanced applications, including high-temperature industrial insulation, electric vehicles, energy storage, filtration and fire protection, among many others. Unifrax products are designed with the ultimate goal of saving energy, reducing pollution and improving safety for people, buildings and equipment by delivering on our commitment to our customers of greener, cleaner, safer solutions for their application challenges. Unifrax has over 60 global manufacturing facilities and employs 5,600+ employees globally. More information is available at http://www.unifrax.com. For updates, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About Clearlake

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a leading investment firm founded in 2006 operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit, and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlakes operational improvement approach, O.P.S. The firms core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has approximately $50 billion of assets under management and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 300 investments. The firm has offices in Santa Monica and Dallas. More information is available at http://www.clearlake.com and on Twitter @ClearlakeCap.

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Unifrax and Clearlake Announce Battery Advisory Board to Support Breakthrough Silicon Fiber Anode Battery Technology, Thermal Run-Away and Separator...

People on the autism spectrum often struggle to interpret facial cues, partially because they are unable to recognize how eye gaze direction is used to predict the actions and intentions of others. This can have huge implications for understanding behavior, language learning, and social interaction.

A Penn State study is developing a targeted intervention method using game technology designed to improve sensitivity to eye gaze cues, which could treat core symptoms of autism and help improve social skills.

The work appears inJCPP Advances, the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry Advances, published under the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

The intervention, Social Games for Autistic Adolescents (SAGA), has been in development since 2013, when Suzy Scherf, associate professor of psychology andSocial Science Research Instituteco-funded faculty member, and her team were awarded a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) grant. We wanted to develop a computer game intervention to improve sensitivity to eye gaze cues for individuals on the autism spectrum, she said.

In 2015, the work was featured on the Big Ten NetworksLiveBigspotlight segment shown during football and basketball games. Jason Griffin, doctoral candidate in the department of psychology who works in theLaboratory of Developmental Neurosciencedirected by Scherf, took feedback from participants who played SAGA during the filming of the segment to further refine the game.

During game play, participants progress through a narrative storyline and interact with animated characters using a range of nonverbal social cues, including eye gaze, to guide goal-directed behavior and solve problems in the game.

We built a narrative about being a pet detective, and we told participants that they had to find the lost pet, said Griffin. While they are progressing through the game, they are learning how to respond to the nonverbal social cues from the humanoid figures that feature slightly enlarged heads and eyes.

Scherf said the game strategy is a novel approach in this type of intervention, because skill learning is separate from the story line in the game. Participants get to make their own choices in the game narrative, while the game technology automatically calibrates to their performance to keep them engaged and learning. This means that participants spend hours engaged in the eye gaze task, which would be very hard to get them to do otherwise.

According to Scherf the game is a product of a Penn State cross-disciplinary collaboration, as a team of undergraduate and graduate visual arts students worked with the lab programmer to design game graphics.

The eye gaze of each character had to be exactly right and mimic human motion, which was very tricky. Jason iteratively tested the game and gave feedback, so the team could understand what we wanted to do as scientists. It was a total collaborative effort that also fit into the resources and timeline constraints of the project.

During the study, 40 adolescents on the autism spectrum were randomized into either the treatment or standard care control group. Adolescents in the treatment group were asked to play SAGA for 30-minute sessions at home three times a week over 10 weeks.

According to Griffin, after the 10-week period adolescents in the treatment group developed increasing sensitivity to human eye gaze cues, whereas the standard care group did not. Participants who experienced a sufcient dose of gameplay showed larger treatment-related improvements, such as the ability to perceive and interpret eye gaze cues from other people.

The improvements to human eye gaze cues translated to outside of the game as well. We showed participants pictures and movies of people and noted increases in eye gaze cues amongst our treatment participants, said Scherf.

However, the studys most relevant finding was that adolescents in the treatment group demonstrated improvements in social skills as documented by their parents. We found that the participants who showed the largest improvement to understand human eye gaze cues in the game had corresponding improvements in social skills. Parents had no knowledge of their childrens performance in the game, so their observations were completely unbiased, Scherf said.

Additionally, the researchers reported they were able to retain all participants throughout the study. Often, interventions take place in a clinic, and it may be difficult to get kids to want to participate. The kids found the game very engaging and were excited to play it, said Griffin.

Scherf is appreciative of Griffins commitment to the project, which spans over four years. Jason was the only graduate student collecting data and he also coordinated a team of full-time staff and students. Jason also took the lead in the coordinating of testing, in which families came in every weekend for months.

During the second phase of the project, researchers will develop improvements for the game to determine if skills learned translate into real-life conversations.

Other researchers on the project include SSRI co-funded faculty members Charles Greier, Dr. Frances Keesler Graham Early Career Professor and associate professor of human development and family studies; and Joshua Smyth, distinguished professor of biobehavioral health and SSRI associate director.

The work is being supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Link:

Using game technology to help adolescents on the autism spectrum - Penn State News

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. The ways Penn State is applying immersive technology in the classroom and how it can enhance learning will be discussed by President Eric Barron and a pair of University guests during the next episode of WPSUs Digging Deeper on Sunday, Oct. 31.

Barron will be joined by Patrick Dudas, interim director of the Penn State Center of Immersive Experiences, and Jennifer Sparrow, deputy chief information officer and associate vice president for Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT).

WPSUs Digging Deeper: Immersive Technology" will air at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on WPSU-TV and can be streamed on live.wpsu.org. WPSU is a Penn State Outreach service.

Sparrow said TLT is looking broadly at three different immersive technologies at Penn State: 360-degree video, augmented reality and virtual reality.

Throughout the pandemic, we may not have had the opportunity to get students physically into particular spaces, so we're able to do that through this 360 video, she said. There are places we can't take students. We can't take them to Mars today, we can't take them to the inside of a volcano. We are utilizing that within the classroom today so that students can get access to experiences, and experience places that they wouldn't be able to otherwise do.

Dudas said immersive technology lets students and researchers tackle problems they may not have been able to before.

It's allowing somebody to do a lot of the maybe more expensive or more difficult to put into a physical space, and allowing students and researchers to apply this to engineering problems, mechanic-type problems, physics space problems, he said.

WPSUs Digging Deeper explores how work being done at the University impacts the broader community. Penn State senior Andrew Destin serves as co-host and rounds out each episode by asking Barron questions that are on the minds of students, faculty, staff and community members.

Visit the WPSU website for more information on central Pennsylvanias public media station.

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How Penn State is applying immersive technology on WPSU's 'Digging Deeper' - Penn State News

OTTAWA, Oct. 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On October 28, the Kanata North Business Association will host global leaders in finance, academia and technology for the grand opening of Hub350, the physical gateway for Canadas largest technology park, where technology talent will have a space to converge and explore opportunities to live, work, play and learn.

Anchor partners at Hub350 include TELUS, RBC, Salesforce, Education City and world-leading post-secondary institutions including University of Ottawa, Carleton University, Algonquin College and Queens University. Hub350 will enable access to partnerships that form the foundational elements of growing local businesses and Ottawas economy.

Details:

When: October 28, 9:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m.

Where: Hub350 350 Legget DriveRSVP: jmadigan@syntaxstrategic.ca On-site contact: Jennifer Madigan

The grand opening will feature:

Main Stage Presentations

Hear from TELUS Chief Technology Officer, Ibrahim Gedeon, on the power of 5G in driving Canadian innovation. Also taking to the stage will be senior executives from RBCx and Salesforce and local leaders including Wesley Clover Chairman Sir Terry Matthews, Invest Ottawa CEO Michael Tremblay, and Education City partners including the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, Algonquin College and La Cite Collegial.

The main stage agenda runs from 9:00 a.m. 12:15 p.m.

5G Innovation ZoneAt the heart of Hub350 is the TELUS 5G Innovation Zone, powerered by Canadas fastest mobile network. 5G represents one of the most significant new advances in communications technologies to date, making the 5G Innovation Zone ideal for conceptualizing, developing, testing and, now, commercializing 5G.

The 5G Innovation Zone will allow Ottawa businesses to test their products for real-world applications on a 5G network, working alongside the 500+ businesses in the park.

Demonstrations showcasing the power of next-generation connectivity, such as an autonomous drone, connected smart glasses enabling remote healthcare, and more, will be available for interested media following the 3:00 p.m. ribbon cutting.

Story continues

A group of early-stage technology companies will also have displays and demonstrations available for visitors during the afternoon, highlighting the innovation and energy of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. This includes Cliniconex, InitLive Inc., Neurovine, and Teldio Corp.

Official Hub350 Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony and remarks

Merilee Fullerton, MPP for Kanata-Carleton and Minister for Children, Community and Social Services, will be joined by Jenna Sudds, Member of Parliament for Kanata-Carleton, Mayor Jim Watson, Sir Terry Matthews and others for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony and remarks.

Ribbon-cutting photo op will take place at 3:00 p.m.

More information about Hub350:

RBCx Finance Quarter

Anchored by Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Hub350 will establish a new financial industry cluster in the heart of the technology park. The Kanata North Financial Hub programs will encourage communication and connectivity amongst financial institutions, investors and government funders through shared interests, improved accessibility, and the creation of welcoming public spaces and events.

Investors such as Wesley Clover have partnered on the Finance Quarter project. Wesley Clover, a private, global investment management firm and holding company under the direction of founder, Chairman and serial technology entrepreneur Sir Terry Matthews, has a portfolio with more than 45 investments under active management around the globe. This includes start-ups in the incubation stage, first-product firms in the accelerator phase, and more mature companies that now trade publicly. All are focused on next-generation Cloud and SaaS applications for fixed and mobile communications, video analytics, security, customer engagement, business enablement and more. The solutions target at least 10 industry vertical markets in more than 20 countries.

Salesforce

Hub350s partnership with Salesforce will help drive innovation across Ottawas business community. Salesforces support will empower local technology entrepreneurs and start-ups to collaborate with industry experts and thought leaders, fostering the digital transformation required for businesses to succeed in todays digital-first, work-from-anywhere world.Salesforce is the #1 CRM provider, bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Founded in 1999, Salesforce enables companies of every size and industry to take advantage of powerful technologies cloud, mobile, social, voice and artificial intelligence to create a 360-degree view of their customers. For information, please visit http://www.salesforce.com.

CENGN

Hub 350 also includes a partnership with CENGN, Canadas Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks and key enabler of commercial growth and talent development in the digital economy. CENGN drives technology innovation and supports industry growth through its commercial grade network testbed, engineering resources, and expertise in technology validation. The CENGN testbed enables the commercial growth of Canadian tech startups as well as the talent development of professionals and students in the highly skilled sectors of cloud computing and networking. CENGN also fosters a large ecosystem of partners, including private companies, the federal government, and the Ontario government.

Digital Media Lab

Hub350 will open a state-of-the-art Digital Lab with the support of local technology company Ross Video to promote innovation and broadcast news, events and history from Canadas largest technology park. KNBA is establishing a live broadcast newsroom and Digital Lab to deliver integrated and experiential learning opportunities in the KN technology park.

Member companies will have access to a state-of-the-art digital lab and studio to deliver virtual customer events, user conferences and industry leadership keynotes.

Finally, the lab will also serve as a space for local, national and international media organizations to soft land and produce first-to-market technology news stories and interviews with executives from the heart of Canadas largest technology park.

Corporate and Academic Collaboration

KNBA and Hub350 are proudly partnered with academic anchors including uOttawa, Carleton University, Queens University, La Cite and Algonquin College to support and acquire top talent for our member companies.

Hub350 will offer a site where corporate and academic institutions, and emerging students, can explore opportunities to live, work, play and learn in Canada's largest technology park.

Our academic partners provide students with access to member companies offering exceptional career opportunities through hackathons, recruitment roadshows, career fairs and more. In fact, both uOttawa and Carleton have recently opened Kanata-North campuses, supporting the vital integration of post-secondary institutions into the technology park.

These academic partnerships will accelerate programs that will enable a deeper integration of local, national and international academic institutions, providing a space to soft land in the technology park in order to accelerate access to people skills, and global talent for member companies.

Area X.O / Invest Ottawa Lounge

Learn about Area X.O, a state-of-the-art R&D complex established and operated by Invest Ottawa, that enables and accelerates the safe and secure development, testing, and application of next-generation smart mobility, autonomy and connected technologies. These applications span intelligent transportation; telecom; smart agriculture; defence, security, and public safety; unmanned aerial vehicles; and smart cities. It is catalyzing new regional, national and global R&D, business and investment opportunities for companies in the tech park and throughout the Ottawa Region.

Kanata North Technology Park will continue to serve as the home of the Area X.O Public Innovation Facility and Test Track managed by Invest Ottawa, with supporting collaboration space at Hub350. Featuring 9 kilometres of public roads for testing, 5G and a wealth of connected, live city infrastructure including a smart intersection, the Area X.O Public Track enables the implementation of smart mobility and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technologies in a real-world environment. Following rigorous testing and validation at its gated Private Test Facility, Area X.O can implement approved innovations safely with collaborators in the Public Track. Hub350 is an ideal venue for collaboration with the 540+ members of the technology park and stakeholders across the Ottawa Region.

City of Ottawa

The City of Ottawa has committed to prioritizing and designating the Kanata North Technology Park as a Special Economic District in its next official plan. This designation will play a critical role in strengthening Ottawa, Ontario and Canadas global competitive position.

In order to attract talent from around the world and across the country to live, work, play and learn in Canada's largest technology park, we must transform from a single-industrial-use to a mixed-use, complete and connected community.

In the future, the Kanata North Innovation District will transform into a well-planned innovation district with residential and commercial development, sustainable green spaces, entertainment, culture and next-generation mobility solutions which will attract world-class talent to our area.

Ottawa Tourism

Hub350s partnership with Ottawa Tourism will foster collaboration between the technology sector and Ottawa Tourism to attract world-class events to Canadas capital, where the Kanata North Technology Park is situated. Hub350s partnership with Ottawa Tourism includes access to newsletters, events, and physical space. The goal is to highlight tools and resources that are available through Ottawa Tourismsuch as bid preparation assistance, images and video, site inspections, and moreto companies in Kanata North who wish to showcase their expertise by hosting conferences, meetings, product demonstrations, global training seminars, and the like in Ottawa.

Queensway Carleton Hospital

Our partnership with the Queensway Carleton Hospital will allow the hospital to extend its work beyond its physical walls, prioritizing much-needed mental and physical health education for employees and their families within the technology park. It will also create a direct connection between the experts at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and the technology being developed in Kanata North that could make a major impact on the way healthcare is delivered in Canada and around the world.

COVID-19 Safety Protocols

All interested media are asked to pre-register for the event and must show proof of vaccination upon sign-in.

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Global leaders in technology converge in Canadas largest technology park for the official opening of Hub350 - Yahoo Finance

Oct 30th 2021

SAN FRANCISCO

THE TECH industry recently appeared to be sitting on cloud nine. One record after another fell when quarterly results were reported three months ago. Revenues had grown by 40% on average compared with the same period a year ago and profits by 90% for the five Western technology titansAlphabet (Googles parent company), Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, collectively known as GAFAM. Indices of tech shares, such as the S&P 500 Information Technology benchmark, climbed to stratospheric heights.

If the latest round of quarterly earnings are any guidethree of the digital giants have already reported and results from Amazon and Apple are due to after The Economist goes to pressthe tech industry is coming back down to earth. Assuming that the pair meet analysts expectations, GAFAMs revenues and profits will both have increased but by a more modest 30%. Share prices are languishing. The slowdownor breather, if you willprovides additional evidence of the degree to which the pandemic has changed the tech industry. The question now is whether the sector is on a new trajectory or will revert to type over the next few years.

For starters, one of the first predictions when covid-19 hit in early 2020 was that it would make big tech even bigger. Those firms, ran the theory, would be best placed to benefit from an increased demand for digital offerings, whereas smaller firms, having fewer resources to get through the pandemic, would suffer most from its downsides. The first half of this prediction has come true: as the growth of the five firms market capitalisation shows. In January 2020 their combined value accounted for 17.5% of the S&P 500.Today their share hovers around 22%.

That said, many smaller companies have also grown in size and value. The pandemic has given rise to a group which could be called tier-two tech, the weight of which, measured by market capitalisation, has grown notably relative to the titans. In May we defined this group to include 42 firms with a market value then of no less than $20bn that were incorporated in 2000 or later. In February 2020 these had a joint market capitalisation of 22% of GAFAMs. Today the figure stands at 31%

The reasons for this new strength are multiple. One is the large number of listings of late, particularly of tech startups: more than 100 since the start of the year, says Renaissance Capital, a data provider. Despite some high-value deals, a backlash against big techs acquisitiveness has slowed the pace of mergers and takeovers this year. Most importantly, the pandemic has shown that there are big digital markets that are not dominated by GAFAM. The group of tier-two firms, for instance, is led by PayPal, a payments provider, that boasts a market capitalisation of $276bn.

Yet the most intriguing shifts are qualitative. The first is that the tech industry has become far cloudier than previously. We saw two years of digital transformation in two months, said Satya Nadella, the boss of Microsoft, early in the pandemic, referring mostly to the growth of its cloud. Taken together, revenues of the three biggest cloudsMicrosofts cloud business, Amazons AWS and Google Cloud Platform, which between them provide more than 60% of online-infrastructure serviceshave surged by more than a third from $27bn in the fourth quarter of 2019 to nearly $37bn in the second quarter of this year.

The gathering clouds bigger beneficiaries seem to be smaller firms, however. Taking a panel of 50-odd second-tier tech firms today, about fourth-fifths are providers of cloud services. Some are now forces to be reckoned with: Snowflake, a cloud-based data platform, is worth $104bn; Twilio, which provides corporate-communication services, some $61bn; and Okta, which manages employees digital identities, some $39bn.

Older tech firms are now also more firmly anchored in the cloud. Salesforce, a software giant, was one of its pioneers. Adobe, another software titan, has successfully reinvented itself for this new form of computing. Even the clouds laggards, Oracle and SAP, the worlds largest vendors of conventional corporate software, are at last making use of it. The biggest hardware-makersCisco, Dell and IBMare also increasingly selling their wares as-a-service, accessed remotely through the cloud on a pay-per-use basis rather than installed on office computers.

The industrys second shift is that lowly hardware has also made a comeback of sorts during the pandemic, despite the migration up into the computing skies. Most surprisingly, personal computers staged a revival as remote workers required better gear. In 2020 PCs saw their biggest growth in a decade, with more than 300m devices shipped, 13% more than in 2019, according to IDC, a market-research firm. Growth has since slowed, but mainly because shortages of chips and other components are holding back production. Dell, the worlds third-largest maker of PCs after Lenovo and HP, has done best, increasing shipments in the third quarter by nearly 27% compared with last year, according to IDCalmost guaranteeing good results when Dell reports on November 23rd.

Chipmakers give an even stronger signal of the return of hardware to the industrys core. Although Intel disappointed investors when it released its quarterly results on October 21st, sending its share price down, sales were up by 5% to $19.2bn and profits by 60% to $6.8bn. Samsung Electronics, the worlds largest memory-chipmaker, which will also reported results on October 27th, saw its profits jump to the highest level in three years. And TSMC, the top contract manufacturer of semiconductors, for its part said on October 14th that sales had continued to grow at a rapid clip, reaching $14.9bn with net income coming in at $5.6bn, an increase of 16.3% and 13.8% respectively.

The big question is whether the three companies can profitably follow through on their record-breaking investment plans. These are meant to satisfy growing demand for chips not just from cloud providers, but from firms making gear for what is called the edge: devices connecting to the cloud or extending it, from smartphones to intelligent sensors. Intel, for instance, has said that it will invest up to $28bn in 2022. TSMC plans to spend $100bn over the next three years to expand its chip-fabrication capacity.

The third big change to the tech industry during the pandemic may be the most consequential: increased competition. Although members of GAFAM have yet to attack each others main franchises, such as online search in the case of Google and ecommerce for Amazon, rivalries have heated up. So far, vigorously competing clouds and changes in Apples privacy policies on the iPhonewhich hurt Facebooks ad revenues according to results released on October 25thare the main examples. But on October 21st Google announced that it would lower the fee it charges providers of subscriptions in its app store to 15%, putting pressure on Apple to do the same. And with so many people now working remotely and probably continuing to do so, a platform battle has broken out between Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and Zoom, a popular videoconferencing service, over which will dominate the virtual office.

Other firms are also picking more fights with GAFAM. Facebooks social-media fortress looks a lot less safe now that it has at least two serious rivals: Americas Snapchat, a social network owned by Snap, and TikTok, the short-video app operated by ByteDance, a Chinese internet giant. According to data divulged in a recent wave of leaks, Facebooks teenage users in America now spend two to three times longer on TikTok than on Instagram, which belongs to the American social-media conglomerate. Amazon also faces more competition, both in the form of incumbents that have at last embraced the digital world, including Walmart, and newcomers, such as Shopify, which helps merchants sell online and fulfil orders. PayPals attempt to buy Pinterest, another social network, now seems to have been abandoned, but it would have helped PayPal to move deeper into ecommerce.

After nearly two years of covid-19 the tech industry is cloudier, more tied to hardware and more turbulent. Of these trends, the first two are unlikely to last for ever, at least in their current form. Digital meteorologists argue that the cloud has already reached peak centralisation, meaning that it will henceforth grow not so much through football-pitch-sized data centres, but at the edge, where its digital services touch the physical world. And given the economics of the semiconductor industryfabrication plants often cost over $10bn and take years to buildthe chip shortage could eventually turn into a glut.

A more open question is how long the new phase of competition will last. Optimists argue that, after a long period of ossification, the pandemic has helped push the industry into a more dynamic period, in which the giants compete with each other as well as with smaller firms. Pessimists say that this phase will not last longand that the industrys leaders will sooner or later shore up their fortresses and buy out competitors. And that is why, more than ever before, trustbusters should not let down their guard.

For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Cloudy with a dearth of chips"

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How the pandemic has changed the weather in the technology industry - The Economist

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Across many different industries, advances in technology are opening the door for new opportunities and new, more efficient ways of doing things. While not an industry known for being at the forefront of advances in technological processes, Public Relations is embracing these advances and benefiting from their use to minimize, and in some cases, eliminate existing manual tasks. In some cases, technologies are being designed specifically to benefit and enhance the work that PR agencies do, in order to streamline and find efficiencies in everyday data gathering processes. These processes can be extremely labor-intensive when performed by an employee, but through the use of technology, they can be automated based on a provided data set.

Public Relations agencies can access and adopt a variety of different types of technologies that will change the way they build and distribute their pitches and press releases to ensure maximum exposure and coverage.

Some of these options include Artificial intelligence programs used to suggest and recommend similar media contacts based on current contacts and the pieces that they cover. This will enable the PR agency to expand their database with a few quick clicks as opposed to hours of research. Artificial intelligence can have the ability to narrow in on an influencers preference for receiving media pitches, which will help the PR agency to understand the best approach for their release to increase the likelihood of coverage. There are even AI programs that will help you write press releases and blogs and help determine reporters and editors who might be interested in your news.

In large PR agencies, teams can often reach out to the same contacts and influencers for multiple press releases. With the new technologies available to PR firms, their teams can ensure that the contacts inside of their database arent being reached out to by multiple team members at the same time with different stories. While many agencies have programs available to them to track mentions as a means of counting impressions, one of the newest technologies allows PR agencies to track backlinks. These links can be far more valuable and provide a more sustainable media trail.

As podcasts continue to grow in popularity and gain listenership, the need for PR agencies to have the ability to track and identify media mentions inside of podcasts also increases. Google Analytics has a vast of information available for PR agencies to use and with the help of additional technology advancements, with some tech companies looking for ways to automate the tools used to track earned media.

Additional technologies are in existence and in ongoing development to continue to improve the way PR firms gather their impressions and media coverage to provide that data back to their client.

Related: How Technology Has Changed Business Communication

Overall, many of the technologies currently available or in development for use with PR agencies will be used to automate processes that are currently being done manually. This requires manpower, meaning employees are pulled away from helping to build and develop pitches, in order to determine potential contact leads, track media impressions, determine what pitches are successful and many other forms of analysis that clients want to know. Reverting these processes over to an automated technology program will allow PR agencies to free up their employees to focus their attention on building creative pitches. It will also enable the PR agency to provide its clients with a thorough report at the end of a press release or media pitch featuring a complete, comprehensive list of all coverage received through the course of the media blast.

When employees hear about the use of artificial intelligence and other technology capabilities in their industry, many of them may feel that their jobs are going to be phased out. This can cause employees to feel unsure about their future in their role and in the industry. The good news though is that the technology doesnt need to replace roles. If anything it is a good thing for employees working in PR. By removing many labor-intensive, time-consuming processes that are being done currently, technology allows the firms employees to focus their time and attention on building high-level pitches and creative ideas to benefit their clients. This will allow for more unique and well-thought-out media releases, which in turn will receive more coverage and an overall more successful campaign.

Technology is here to help. Embrace it and watch your client list grow.

Related: How to Use Different Social-Media Platforms to Build Press Relationships

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Harness the Power of New Public Relations Technology - Entrepreneur

Dublin, Oct. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "ID Technologies Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The ID technologies market was valued at US$61.211 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.48% over the forecast period to reach a market size of US$130.981 billion by 2026.

ID technology or identification technology includes smart cards, voice recognition, face recognition, biometrics, and barcodes among other techniques used to identify objects and individuals. Growing concern about data security and safety is driving the demand for ID technologies across a variety of industries.

Travel and tourism industries are booming globally, so national security uses of biometric technologies are on the rise, positively impacting the market growth of ID technologies. Emerging economies such as India are increasingly deploying centralized electronic identification systems, increasing the market's growth. Increased cyber-attack sophistication, cloud adoption, BYOD (Bring your own device) policies adopted by various organizations, and government compliance are the factors driving the ID technology market to grow.

Innovative ID technology is a top priority for many large multinationals For instance, IBM Corporation partnered with Imprivata, an IT security company, to launch a cloud-based identity and access management solution designed to help their customers manage provisioning tracking and de-provisioning of their hybrid cloud and on-premise environments.

Further, governments worldwide focus on creating stringent regulations to curb identity theft and work to secure legal identity for a global population. ID4D is an initiative of the United Nations and the World Bank aiming to provide everyone on earth with a legal identity by 2030. (Source: United Nations)

Growth Trends:

Growing number of identity thefts and frauds:Fraud on the internet has been an issue businesses have faced since the advent of e-commerce in the 1990s, and its threat only increases with each passing year. Out of the 3.2 million reports of identity theft and fraud that we received in 2019, 1.7 million were fraud-related, 9.0 million were complaints from other consumers, and 651,000 were identity theft complaints. 23% of the 1.7 million fraud cases reported financial losses. Over USD 1.9 billion has been lost to fraud by consumers. The FTC identified the top 10 fraud categories, with imposter scams ranking first among all fraud cases. USD 667 million was lost as a result. In 2019, identity theft accounted for 650,570 complaints, or 20% of all complaints. (Source: The Consumer Sentinel Network, maintained by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)).

Adoption of Blockchain Technology:In order to create a secure platform for preventing individuals' names from being stolen and defrauded, blockchain technology has begun to penetrate the identity management market area. Businesses are using blockchain technology to handle authentication and authorization issues. It provides a decentralized and reasonably secure way to store and verify the proof of identity. Blockchain-enabled Identification Management systems in organizations assist in reducing the operational risks and costs by eliminating the need for replicated identity repositories and data.

Magic, a blockchain-based identity authentication platform provider, announced it has raised $27 million to continue to commercialize the technology. As part of the round, which was led by Northzone, a host of prominent venture capital and angel investors participated, including Tiger Global, Reddit's Alexis Ohanian, and GitHub's Jason Warner.

Increase in use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning:Identity technology continues to evolve across various critical functions, including authentication and data security, in order to meet privacy compliance requirements. Technical and non-technical employees have access to contextually relevant information, making their work more efficient. Security tactics have been improved through the use of behavioral data analysis in identity management. A machine learning system can, for instance, detect password guessing and analyze user login attempts.

The American software company Ping Identity utilizes Al-driven analysis to monitor an organization's application programming interface (API) activity. The security industry is being radically transformed by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Restraints

Story continues

Lack of identity standards and budgetary constraints:Organizations across industry verticals are concerned about the increasing cyber threat landscape. Identification technology is stifled by a lack of identity standards and insufficient budget resources, as well as high installation costs. Due to the need to integrate robust security technologies, the initial investment and maintenance costs are high for this system. The insufficient budget continues to be a significant challenge to achieving ID security objectives. A number of major economies are experiencing tight budgets, such as some parts of the region, the Middle East, and Latin America, where companies are either self-funded or running with small capital.

COVID-19 Impact on ID Technologies MarketNumerous businesses have increased their identification verification efforts due to the pandemic of COVID-19. Since COVID-19 went into effect, 72% of online marketplaces have increased their adoption of ID verification technology. In addition, more than half of the financial services organizations have promoted the adoption. Consumers have been forced to use digital services for the first time due to lockdown restrictions, and the rapid adoption of identity verification shows how important it is to protect them.

Competitive Insights:

Digital identity verification is becoming increasingly important, as companies and governments take advantage of online services. In order to control financial crime, regulatory authorities are increasing their demands on businesses to comply with KYC and AML requirements. FATF (Financial Action Task Force) expanded the scope of reporting entities and recommended that member countries obligate legal professionals.

As part of the AML5 Directive (AML5), the European Union reduced the threshold for identity verification for prepaid cards from EUR 250 to EUR 150. The directive was implemented by all member states in January 2020. AML5 regulations aim at transforming KYC processes to comply with AML and eIDAS standards and procedures and establish guidelines for verifying customers at a high-security level.

LoginID Inc. and Ipsidy Inc. created a partnership that provides new tools to fight fraud in online activities in September 2020. As a result of the integration between Ipsidy's biometric identity verification platform and LoginID's FIDO as a Service platform, the companies will provide enhanced security and level of identity trust for users requiring FIDO2 authentication and login.

In order to differentiate itself from its competitors, Metal Pay, a peer-to-peer payments company that allows users to buy, sell, trade, and send crypto using crypto trading pairs or fiat money, wanted to offer an account opening process that is both quick and seamless. Identity verification during account opening became a critical element of minimizing risk and eliminating fraud at the company since it had to meet strict AML and KYC practices.

Jumio released its video verification solution with face biometrics in October 2020 for businesses in regulated industries to onboard new customers. Jumio Video Verification was designed specifically for businesses within the financial sector, such as banking, fintech firms, cryptocurrency exchanges, and digital wallets.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction

2. Research Methodology

3. Executive Summary

4. Market Dynamics4.1. Market Drivers4.2. Market Restraints4.3. Porter's Five Forces Analysis4.3.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers4.3.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers4.3.3. The Threat of New Entrants4.3.4. Threat of Substitutes4.3.5. Competitive Rivalry in the Function4.4. Function Value Chain Analysis

5. ID Technologies Market Analysis, By Technology5.1. Introduction5.2. Barcodes5.3. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)5.4. Biometrics5.5. Smart Cards5.6. Others

6. ID Technologies Market Analysis, By Components6.1. Introduction6.2. Data encoder6.3. Machine reader6.4. Data decoder

7. ID Technologies Market Analysis, By Application7.1. Introduction7.2. Forensics7.3. Security Checks7.4. Others

8. ID Technologies Market Analysis, By End-User Industry8.1. Introduction8.2. Government8.3. Security and Defense8.4. BFSI8.5. Others

9. ID Technologies Market Analysis, By Geography 9.1. Introduction9.2. North America 9.2.1. United States9.2.2. Canada9.2.3. Mexico9.3. South America 9.3.1. Brazil9.3.2. Argentina9.3.3. Others9.4. Europe 9.4.1. UK9.4.2. Germany9.4.3. Italy9.4.4. Spain9.4.5. Others9.5. Middle East and Africa 9.5.1. Israel 9.5.2. Saudi Arabia9.5.3. Others9.6. Asia Pacific 9.6.1. China9.6.2. Japan9.6.3. India9.6.4. Australia9.6.5. South Korea9.6.6. Taiwan9.6.7. Thailand9.6.8. Indonesia9.6.9. Others

10. Competitive Environment and Analysis10.1. Major Players and Strategy Analysis10.2. Emerging Players and Market Lucrativeness10.3. Mergers, Acquisitions, Agreements, and Collaborations10.4. Vendor Competitiveness Matrix

11. Company Profiles11.1. Technologies Plus11.2. ID Technology (Promach)11.3. Datalogic11.4. 3M11.5. Thales Group11.6. Fujitsu11.7. Agilent Technologies11.8. ImageWare Systems11.9. Precise Biometrics11.10. S.I.C. Biometrics

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6y06j

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Insights on the ID Technologies Global Market to 2026 - Adoption of Blockchain Technology is Driving Growth - Yahoo Finance

What does a typical work day look like for Kristie Curameng Bradford, MBA 05? Well, theres really no such thing and thats precisely why she loves her job.

No days look similar, says Bradford, director of intellectual property at IBM. There are so many things I could be doing in one day.

In her current role, she is responsible for monetizing innovations, from strategy development to transaction execution. Her focus is in quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and monetization via Venture Capital and Private Equity channels.

In her prior role as a business development executive, Bradford led healthcare-specific mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnership for IBM Watson, the well-known supercomputer best known for beating out contestants Jeopardy! in 2011. Of course, Watson is much more than that AI has come a long way in the past decade.

I help businesses think about whether they need to grow via partnership, create a joint venture, or actually acquire a business outright, Bradford says. When you do any of thatwhether its closing a deal or creating a strategy the day-to-day looks very different.

Business and technology are by necessity in constant collaboration. Bradfords position at IBM provides the perfect opportunity to put her expertise and business acumen to use. But she also gets to be a student of technology who is always learning something new.

One of the things that attracted me to IBM is that we use the word transform and we mean it, she says.

When people ask me what its like to be a part of this company, its interesting because were asked to look at the same things people have been looking at, but almost in an upside-down, inside-out way, she says. Its how can it be versus how it is today. Those are the fun things that we get to do.

To those she mentors, Bradford says that understanding business fundamentals is as important as understanding innovation. Lots of people say they want to join technology companies, and sign up for computer science classes, Bradford said. She believes that todays students should broaden their perspectives to include stages of business from the lab to the market, and understand how disciplines such as operations, sales and marketing, and finance translate to an innovations commercial success. I think tech-savvy and business acumen will be essential for the next generation of Smith students.

She also recommends taking time to strike a balance: building a successful and fulfilling career, while not forgetting the other cherished aspects of your life. She cites advice she received from her uncle, a role model in her life, as she was graduating from her MBA program at Smith: Time is precious, and you dont get it back.

Everyone else will prioritize themselves, so you must make sure to prioritize yourself, she says. Just take the time to be with the people that you love.

By Erica Spaeth. Spaeth is a 2023 MBA Candidate and a Fort and Smith Fellow. Originally from Potomac, Md., Spaeth worked in digital marketing, publishing, and most recently operations management, leading her to come to Maryland Smith.

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Thriving, Where Business and Technology Meet | Maryland Smith - Robert H. Smith School of Business