Local students awarded with Frank G. Paul Medal of Excellence
Seniors from high schools in Broome, Chenango, and Tioga Counties were honored for their academic excellence on Tuesday at SUNY Broome.
The top students in math and science at each school were given a $1,000 per year scholarship and a medal for their achievement.
This is the 24th year of the scholarship, which was established by Francis and Lillian Paul.
Francis was an IBM employee who believed everyone should have access to education regardless of their financial circumstances. He passed away in 1996.
The awards are given out each year by their daughter, Becky Komorowski.
'My heart is just full of love, and I really wish they were here. I really do. I brought a picture of them, and it's up on the front, and I'm just really proud to be able to speak for my family,' said Komorowski.
Komorowski says she hopes the scholarship encourages students to continue doing their best,
Students who attend first SUNY Broome will receive the $1,000 scholarship for all four years of college, should they go on to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Komorowski says she took the scholarship over from her parents, and her daughter plans to continue handing it out after she is no longer able to.
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Local students awarded with Frank G. Paul Medal of Excellence
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TechCrunch
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Israeli quantum startup Qedma just raised $26 million, with IBM joining in
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Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW Still, having a quantum computer execute a program that a classical computer can't simulate with the same accuracy would be an important step for the industry — and Qedma claims it is getting closer. 'It's possible that already within this year, we'll be able to demonstrate with confidence that the quantum advantage is here,' CEO and co-founder Asif Sinay said. With a doctorate in physics, Sinay previously worked as a physicist at Magic Leap, then a multi-billion-worth AR company with a large R&D center in Israel. Like the founders of several Israeli startups, from Metacafe to Wiz, he is also a Talpion — an alum from Israel's elite military program Talpiot, where one of his classmates was Lior Litwak. 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Recently, it also presented its collaboration with Japan's RIKEN on how to combine quantum with supercomputers. Image Credits:Qedma The joint Q2B Tokyo presentation was co-delivered by Qedma's CTO and third co-founder, Professor Netanel Lindner. An associate professor of theoretical physics and research group lead at Technion, he told TechCrunch he is hoping that some of his former doctorate students — or others they know — will join Qedma as part of the startup's hiring efforts. According to Sinay, Qedma will use the proceeds from its latest funding round to grow its team from around 40 to between 50 and 60 people. Some of these new recruits will be researchers and software engineers, but he said the startup also plans to hire for marketing and sales roles. 'We are selling our software to the end users, and our partners are the hardware manufacturers.' 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Scientific American
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CLIMATEWIRE | When extreme heat hits the Boston area, emergency departments are packed with people who are dehydrated, experiencing kidney or heart problems, or are having heat cramps. Now a health care system that serves 2.5 million patients across Massachusetts is turning to artificial intelligence for help. 'The stress of the heat exacerbates those conditions, and we'll see a 10 percent jump of people in the emergency department not just for heat illness, but also weakness or syncope or other conditions due to the heat,' said Paul Biddinger, chief preparedness and continuity officer at Mass General Brigham, the nonprofit academic health system that is working on a new alert system to warn people about the dangers of heat waves. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. In February, MGB was one of five applicants to join a Sustainability Accelerator run by IBM. The program seeks to help communities facing environmental and economic stress through technology. It had received more than 100 proposals for how to use AI to advance climate sustainability and resilience. The idea is simple: Use AI to comb through electronic health records to find patients who have health conditions or take medications that might make them particularly vulnerable to heat. The AI program would warn them when a heat wave is coming and tell patients how to protect themselves so they don't end up in an emergency room. The tool would include security features to protect patient health information. Ideally, the combination of personalized information, real-time heat data, and "actionable messages" will help empower patients to protect themselves. 'We think patients will pay more attention if it is their doctor, their hospital saying, 'Hey, you're at risk and here's what to do,' than if they just see on the news that it will be hot tomorrow,' Biddinger said. Heat kills an estimated 2,300 people every year in the United States, more than any other type of extreme weather event, and results in the hospitalization of thousands of others. Those numbers are expected to increase as climate change turbocharges temperatures, with one estimate calculating that emergency rooms could be inundated with an additional 235,000 visitors each summer. The same report, by the Center for American Progress, estimated that health care costs related to extreme heat would amount to $1 billion annually. Mass General Brigham offers training for doctors and nurses about how climate change could affect patients. Some particularly vulnerable patients with complex or overlapping medical conditions are assigned case workers to discuss those risks. 'Just as we want our patients to control their blood sugar if they have diabetes or not be exposed to poor air quality if they have a respiratory disease, trying to help them protect themselves from heat by communicating when they are at high risk is a health care responsibility, and we are trying to do better,' Biddinger said. But proactively warning patients is a tall order for humans to do on their own. Patients with complicated medical conditions are assigned care managers, who follow patients more closely and will contact them before a heat wave strikes to 'support their health.' But there's not enough staff to reach everyone who has a heart or kidney condition, or those whose homes might not have air conditioning. The AI program is still being developed, but Biddinger said he envisions it having a chatbot function, so patients can ask questions when they receive an alert. 'Our primary care doctors are so overwhelmed these days, and we don't want them to be stuck on hold waiting for their doctor when we can use AI to help them identify cooling centers or public places with air conditioning where they can go to stay cool,' he said. The AI alert system is meant to be a pilot program so the technology can be developed with IBM over the next two years. If it works, it could be shared with other hospitals. 'This is not being developed as a profits-driven product. It's meant to be a service to the community that health centers across the country could use to support their patients, too,' Biddinger said.
