Navigating by the Stars To Achieve a Brighter Future for Hometown Scientists
In 2013, to avoid monitoring by his manager, a truck driver at a New Jersey engineering firm purchased an illegal $50 GPS jammer that plugged into his vehicle's cigarette lighter. The device inadvertently also jammed the satellite system navigation capabilities of the entire Newark airport every time he drove by. The signals emanating from the vehicle were blocking the reception of GPS frequencies used by the air traffic control system, and planes were unable to safely land or take off, forcing the airport to close.
'People don't realize how vulnerable GPS is,' said Dr. Joshua Morales, owner and founder of StarNav, a startup tech company that provides hardware and software solutions enabling safe, reliable positioning and timing. 'StarNav's products convert terrestrial and low-Earth orbit satellite signals into reliable positioning and timing information, working even when GPS fails. Because GPS is used in critical U.S. infrastructure, such as time keeping, currency, communication, navigation, and energy, having a secondary way for keeping the country synchronized is an imperative.'
Navigational guidance by the stars is an ancient concept, but Morales and his team are innovating navigation for the future, and this work-with-what-you-have ethos has shaped much of Morales' journey. As part of this he is determined to keep his company in the Inland Empire area of Southern California, in order to create a profitable career hub for brilliant scientific minds who graduate from the areas many universities, rather than feeding into the intellectual exodus to the Silicon Valley that Inland Empire scientists currently face. StarNav began at one such local institution, the University of California, Riverside (UCR) as part of their Entrepreneurship Center (EPIC) which specializes in providing training, mentorship and access to capital to innovative, technology intensive businesses.
Over the past two years, U.S. Bank provided corporate contributions totaling $95,000 in support of UCR's Zero-to-Entrepreneur program, which is part of the SoCal OASIS™ regional economic development strategy focused on sustainability, innovation, social inclusion and workforce development in Inland Southern California and home to StarNav's early beginnings.
Morales earned his Ph.D. from UC Irvine in 2020. After completing his doctorate, he returned to Riverside, which is where attended UCR for his B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He has been a part of the vibrant innovation hub on the campus since beginning StarNav, which is where he also met U.S. Bank Business Access Advisor, and fellow Inland Empire native, Heli Castaneda.
'It has been a joy to support the business owners and students who participate in the programs at UCR,' said Castaneda.
As a native of the Inland Empire who is raising his children there, Castaneda shares Morales' desire to invest in his community.
'This is where I have the privilege of being able to be of service to local businesses and students,' Castaneda said. 'My role at U.S. Bank is all about bringing information, resources, and building bridges. My services are offered for free, and entrepreneurs don't have to be a U.S. Bank customer to work with me, and I really enjoy that part of my job! I'm here to help everyone.'
The relationship between U.S. Bank and UCR began with the work of Inland Southern California community affairs manager Rossina Gallegos, who saw the vision to empower Inland Empire residents, particularly underserved individuals, to launch high-growth, sustainably focused technology startups that create quality jobs. The program's first year concluded in March 2024 and received glowing participant feedback, with many calling it 'immensely valuable.' In addition to the funding, in 2023 and 2024 small business specialists from U.S. Bank participated in the selection of the SoCal OASIS Pitch Competition to help select the award winners of the program.
'At U.S. Bank, our whole mission is to invest our hearts and minds into powering human potential,' Gallegos said. 'We are happy to be able to support programs that serve brilliant students and innovative entrepreneurs who are equally invested in making our Inland Empire communities a better place to live and work.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Wire
5 hours ago
- Business Wire
Sandisk Forms HBF™ Technical Advisory Board to Guide Development and Strategy for High-Bandwidth Flash Memory Technology
MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced the formation of a Technical Advisory Board to guide the development and strategy of its groundbreaking High Bandwidth Flash (HBF™) memory technology. The board includes industry experts and senior technical leaders from both within and outside the company. Appointed today, Professor David Patterson and Raja Koduri will provide strategic guidance, technical insight, market perspective, and shape open standards as Sandisk prepares to launch HBF. 'We're honored to have two distinguished computer architecture experts join our Technical Advisory Board,' said Alper Ilkbahar, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and HBF Technical Advisory Board member at Sandisk. 'Their collective experience and strategic counsel will be instrumental in shaping HBF as the future memory standard for the AI industry, and affirming we not only meet but exceed the expectations of our customers and partners.' Professor David Patterson, Pardee Professor of Computer Science, Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley and a Google distinguished engineer, will lead the Technical Advisory Board and guide the group toward actionable insights and decisions. He is a prominent computer scientist known for co-developing Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC), which revolutionized processor design. He played key roles in the development of Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), and Networks of Workstations (NOW). Patterson co-authored the seminal textbook Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach and was also awarded the 2017 ACM Turing Award for his contributions to the industry. 'HBF shows the promise of playing an important role in datacenter AI by delivering unprecedented memory capacity at high bandwidth, enabling inference workloads to scale far beyond today's constraints,' said Professor Patterson. 'It could drive down costs of new AI applications that are currently unaffordable.' Raja Koduri is a computer engineer and business executive renowned for leading graphics architecture, with previous positions at AMD as Senior Vice President and Chief Architect and at Intel as Executive Vice President of Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics. He directed the development of AMD's Polaris, Vega, and Navi GPU architectures, Intel's Arc and Ponte Vecchio GPUs, and spearheaded Intel's foray into discrete graphics. In early 2023, he founded a startup focused on generative AI for gaming, media, and entertainment, and joined the Board of Tenstorrent in the AI and RISC‑V semiconductor space. Most recently, he serves as Founder/CEO of Oxmiq Labs and Co-Founder of Mihira Visual Studios and continues to shape graphics and AI innovation through advisory and board roles across the semiconductor industry. 'HBF is set to revolutionize edge AI by equipping devices with memory capacity and bandwidth capabilities that will support sophisticated models running locally in real time,' said Koduri. 'This advancement will unlock a new era of intelligent edge applications, fundamentally changing how and where AI inference is performed.' Introduced at Future FWD: Sandisk 2025 Investor Day, HBF is a breakthrough memory solution designed to augment High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI inference workloads, offering comparable bandwidth while delivering up to 8x the capacity at a similar cost. Enabled by BiCS technology and CBA wafer bonding, HBF leverages proprietary stacking with ultra-low die warpage for 16-high configurations. Its architecture has been developed over the past year with input from leading AI industry players. For more information about HBF, please visit this Fact Sheet. About Sandisk Sandisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) delivers innovative Flash solutions and advanced memory technologies that meet people and businesses at the intersection of their aspirations and the moment, enabling them to keep moving and pushing possibility forward. Follow Sandisk on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Join TeamSandisk on Instagram. Sandisk and the Sandisk logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sandisk Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. Product specifications subject to change without notice. © 2025 Sandisk Corporation or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Hamilton Spectator
9 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
VERSES® Featured in IEEE Spectrum
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — VERSES AI Inc. (CBOE: VERS) (OTCQB: VRSSF) ('VERSES'' or the 'Company'), a cognitive computing company specializing in next-generation agentic software systems, has been featured in IEEE Spectrum, the flagship publication of the IEEE, the world's largest professional organization devoted to engineering and the applied sciences. The article, co-authored by VERSES CEO Gabriel René, addresses questions such as: Why does the Spatial Web matter? How, exactly, can it make the world better? These are answered with five example use cases for the Spatial Web: VERSES CEO Gabriel René said 'I am delighted to see our vision of the Spatial Web in IEEE Spectrum. These standards will make it easier for our product, Genius™, to interconnect a physical world-full of devices, phones, wearables, robots, drones, and even AI agents. For Genius customers, this can mean quicker development and deployment and lower integration costs.' The article can be found at: About VERSES VERSES® is a cognitive computing company building next-generation intelligent software systems modeled after the wisdom and genius of Nature. Designed around first principles found in science, physics and biology, our flagship product, Genius,™ is an agentic enterprise intelligence platform designed to generate reliable domain-specific predictions and decisions under uncertainty. Imagine a Smarter World that elevates human potential through technology inspired by Nature. Learn more at , LinkedIn and X . On behalf of the Company Gabriel René, Founder & CEO, VERSES AI Inc. Press Inquiries: press@ Investor Relations Inquiries James Christodoulou, Chief Financial Officer IR@ , +1(212)970-8889
Business Wire
9 hours ago
- Business Wire
Arch Introduces New Supplemental Health Insurance Products to Help Bridge Coverage Gaps
HUNT VALLEY, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arch Insurance's Accident & Health business unit, a leading provider of both business and consumer insurance products, is pleased to announce the launch of its new Individual Supplemental Health product suite. These products are designed to help individuals manage out-of-pocket expenses not typically covered by major medical plans, including deductibles, co-insurance and out-of-network charges through a variety of benefits including Accident Medical Expense, Hospital Indemnity, Critical Illness and Accidental Death. Arch's products provide an added layer of financial cushion when unexpected health events occur to individuals including employees, independent contractors, gig workers and association members. The products are available with no medical underwriting and are fully portable, allowing policyholders to keep their coverage through job or life changes. Arch's digital technology enables partners to generate quotes and complete enrollments in minutes. Arch's fully licensed call center provides sales and customer service support for both partners and clients. 'By offering access through our APEX™ digital platform or seamless API integration, we're making it easier than ever for our distribution partners to deliver these products efficiently and effectively to their clients,' said Jim Villa, Senior Vice President, Arch Accident & Health. For more information or to schedule a call to discuss how our individual supplemental health products can add value to your company, please visit our website or contact us at accidentandhealth@ About Arch Accident & Health Arch Accident & Health is a leading provider of innovative insurance solutions, committed to redefining industry standards through technological advancements and unparalleled client support. With a focus on excellence and a dedication to delivering value-driven products, Arch Accident & Health continues to lead the way in the insurance sector. About Arch Insurance North America Arch Insurance North America, part of Arch Capital Group Ltd., includes Arch's insurance operations in the United States and Canada. Business in the U.S. is written by Arch Insurance Company, Arch Specialty Insurance Company, Arch Property & Casualty Insurance Company and Arch Indemnity Insurance Company. Business in Canada is written by Arch Insurance Canada Ltd. About Arch Capital Group Ltd. Arch Capital Group Ltd., a publicly listed Bermuda exempted company with approximately $22.1 billion in capital at March 31, 2024, provides insurance, reinsurance and mortgage insurance on a worldwide basis through its wholly owned subsidiaries. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward−looking statements. This release or any other written or oral statements made by or on behalf of Arch Capital Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries may include forward−looking statements, which reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and financial performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in or incorporated by reference in this release are forward−looking statements. Forward−looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward−looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe" or "continue" or their negative or variations or similar terminology. Forward−looking statements involve the Company's current assessment of risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. A non-exclusive list of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements includes the following: adverse general economic and market conditions; increased competition; pricing and policy term trends; fluctuations in the actions of rating agencies and the Company's ability to maintain and improve its ratings; investment performance; the loss of key personnel; the adequacy of the Company's loss reserves, severity and/or frequency of losses, greater than expected loss ratios and adverse development on claim and/or claim expense liabilities; greater frequency or severity of unpredictable natural and man-made catastrophic events, including the effect of contagious diseases on our business; the impact of acts of terrorism and acts of war; changes in regulations and/or tax laws in the United States or elsewhere; ability to successfully integrate, establish and maintain operating procedures as well as integrate the businesses the Company has acquired or may acquire into the existing operations; changes in accounting principles or policies; material differences between actual and expected assessments for guaranty funds and mandatory pooling arrangements; availability and cost to the Company of reinsurance to manage our gross and net exposures; the failure of others to meet their obligations to the Company; an incident, disruption in operations or other cyber event caused by cyber attacks, the use of artificial intelligence technologies or other technology on the Company's systems or those of the Company's business partners and service providers, which could negatively impact the Company's business and/or expose the Company to litigation; and other factors identified in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The foregoing review of important factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with other cautionary statements that are included herein or elsewhere. All subsequent written and oral forward−looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on the Company's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company's forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release or as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward−looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Source — Arch Insurance North America Tag — arch-insurance
