Latest news with #SHI
Business Wire
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Rutgers Swimmer Brooke Thompson Named SHI Brand Ambassador
SOMERSET, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SHI International, one of the world's leading IT solutions providers, named Rutgers University swimmer Brooke Thompson as its newest official brand ambassador. Thompson will help represent the SHI brand while she prepares to compete in the 2025 Deaflympics in Tokyo this November. Thompson, a rising junior at Rutgers University, holds the USA Deaf Swimming Record in the 50-meter freestyle (23.53), which she set at the 2025 Big Ten Championships. The Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, native also captured the ECAC 200 Medley Relay Championship in March. Born completely deaf, Thompson is an advocate for adaptive technology and workplace inclusion for individuals with disabilities. She received her first cochlear implant at age 1 and her second at 4. Thompson joins LPGA Tour golfers Jennifer Kupcho, Gurleen Kaur, and Allisen Corpuz, as well as North Carolina Courage and U.S. Women's National Team goalkeeper Casey Murphy, on the company's team of brand ambassadors. 'Brooke embodies the qualities we value most at SHI: dedication, perseverance, and a commitment to helping others succeed,' said Ed McNamara, Senior Director of Communications at SHI. 'Her athletic achievements are remarkable, but what truly sets Brooke apart is her willingness to share her story, answer every question and advocate for greater awareness of adaptive technologies that can help level the playing field. We're thankful that Brooke is joining the SHI brand and look forward to supporting her journey to Tokyo and beyond.' Thompson discovered her passion for swimming after her parents enrolled her in lessons for safety reasons. While the Thompson family enjoyed Michigan's abundance of lakes and summertime water sports, swimming can pose a unique set of challenges for beginners with cochlear implants. Concerned that it may be difficult to communicate with Brooke during a potential emergency, her parents encouraged her to become the best possible swimmer in the water. She has since won 11 medals in two World Deaf Swimming Championships and won five gold medals and three bronze medals in the 2022 Deaflympics in Brazil. 'Swimming has given me opportunities I never imagined, from competing at the highest level to connecting with the deaf community worldwide,' Thompson said. 'Partnering with SHI feels natural because they understand that success comes from hard work, collaboration and a culture that ensures all people have the tools they need to succeed or the ability to request them. I'm eager to represent SHI while showing that with the right technologies and mindset, barriers can become steppingstones.' Thompson, who is majoring in business leadership and management, first told her story to SHI customers, partners, and employees at an SHI End User Computing Summit in 2024. Addressing a 300-preson audience responsible for supporting tens of thousands of end-users around the globe, Thompson raised awareness about the importance of ensuring businesses have both the policies and inclusive culture in place to ensure employees have – or feel free to request – whatever adaptive technologies they need. Her advocacy focuses on helping organizations understand that simple accommodations can make profound differences for employees with disabilities. As a member of the delegation the USA Deaf Sports Federation (USADF) is sending to 2025 Deaflympics in Tokyo this November, Thompson will compete against deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes from around the world, where all participants compete without hearing assistance to ensure equal competition conditions. About SHI SHI International Corp. is a $15 billion transformational technology solutions provider serving the needs of more than 15,000 corporate, enterprise, public sector and academic customer organizations around the world. It helps companies achieve business goals through the use of technologies ranging from software licensing and end user computing devices to innovative cloud and edge solutions. With over 6,000 employees worldwide, SHI is the largest Minority and Woman Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) in the U.S. To learn more about SHI, please visit
Business Wire
25-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
SHI Launches Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform with NVIDIA and HPE
SOMERSET, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SHI International, one of North America's largest IT solutions providers, has launched its Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform in close collaboration with NVIDIA and HPE. The platform incorporates HPE Private Cloud AI and AI technologies from NVIDIA. This provides enterprises with an expert-guided ability to rapidly design, build, and deploy custom AI-powered digital humans, transforming customer engagement across multiple industries including retail, health care, and financial services. The SHI Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform dramatically accelerates development and deployment timeframes, allowing businesses to go from concept to fully functional digital humans in just six weeks, a process that typically takes 12 to 18 months. This speed is achieved leveraging SHI's AI & Cyber Labs services, with pre-validated NVIDIA AI Blueprints, access to NVIDIA NIM microservices, and HPE's robust Private Cloud AI, a turnkey AI factory for enterprises. 'Businesses are urgently seeking more engaging, human-like AI interactions, but complexity and long development cycles have been major barriers,' said Jack Hogan, Vice President of Advanced Growth Technologies at SHI. 'Our Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform provides a true end-to-end solution. Enterprises are now able to enhance customer experiences and realize tangible results far faster than ever before, thanks to SHI AI & Cyber Labs' ability to rapidly develop sophisticated, custom brains for AI ambassadors.' This unique capability is a direct result of the collaboration between three technology leaders: SHI: Provides advanced AI engineering, data science expertise, and full-stack integration, developing the custom AI 'brains' and deploying the end-to-end solution NVIDIA: Offers NVIDIA NIM microservices, part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise platform, a set of easy to use microservices for secure and reliable deployment of performance optimized AI models HPE: Provides the secure and scalable private cloud for AI solution and GreenLake management platform, which hosts the digital AI ambassadors 'Enterprises need robust, secure, and agile infrastructure to power these demanding AI workloads,' said Robin Braun, VP, AI Business Development, Hybrid Cloud at HPE. 'HPE Private Cloud AI provides an NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory validated design in a turnkey, full-stack AI infrastructure, so innovative solutions like SHI's Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform can be deployed quickly and confidently.' 'AI agent ambassadors can help enterprises scale customer engagement and connection,' said Craig Weinstein, Vice President of Business Development at NVIDIA. 'With NVIDIA AI software and accelerated computing from HPE, SHI's Digital AI Ambassadors combine the precision of AI agents with the adaptability of personalized service, allowing organizations to deliver responsive and relevant interactions for every customer.' The SHI-delivered Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform supports diverse applications and business verticals such as retail concierge services, health care intake assistants, financial advisory support, 24/7 intelligent customer service agents, and interactive information kiosks for large venues and smart cities. The service will continue to develop in SHI's AI & Cyber Labs, which are focused on next-generation AI capabilities and advanced avatar interactions. Attendees at HPE Discover, June 23-26 in Las Vegas, can experience a live demonstration of SHI's Digital AI Ambassador, Kira, created using the development service, at Booth 2010. Learn more about SHI's Digital AI Ambassador development service. About SHI SHI International Corp. is a $15 billion transformational technology solutions provider serving the needs of more than 15,000 corporate, enterprise, public sector and academic customer organizations around the world. It helps companies achieve business goals through the use of technologies ranging from software licensing and end user computing devices to innovative cloud and edge solutions. With over 6,000 employees worldwide, SHI is the largest Minority and Woman Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) in the U.S. To learn more about SHI, please visit
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SHI Launches Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform with NVIDIA and HPE
New SHI-led service empowers businesses to deploy lifelike, AI-powered digital humans in six weeks, leveraging unique technology collaboration SOMERSET, N.J., June 25, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SHI International, one of North America's largest IT solutions providers, has launched its Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform in close collaboration with NVIDIA and HPE. The platform incorporates HPE Private Cloud AI and AI technologies from NVIDIA. This provides enterprises with an expert-guided ability to rapidly design, build, and deploy custom AI-powered digital humans, transforming customer engagement across multiple industries including retail, health care, and financial services. The SHI Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform dramatically accelerates development and deployment timeframes, allowing businesses to go from concept to fully functional digital humans in just six weeks, a process that typically takes 12 to 18 months. This speed is achieved leveraging SHI's AI & Cyber Labs services, with pre-validated NVIDIA AI Blueprints, access to NVIDIA NIM microservices, and HPE's robust Private Cloud AI, a turnkey AI factory for enterprises. "Businesses are urgently seeking more engaging, human-like AI interactions, but complexity and long development cycles have been major barriers," said Jack Hogan, Vice President of Advanced Growth Technologies at SHI. "Our Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform provides a true end-to-end solution. Enterprises are now able to enhance customer experiences and realize tangible results far faster than ever before, thanks to SHI AI & Cyber Labs' ability to rapidly develop sophisticated, custom brains for AI ambassadors." This unique capability is a direct result of the collaboration between three technology leaders: SHI: Provides advanced AI engineering, data science expertise, and full-stack integration, developing the custom AI "brains" and deploying the end-to-end solution NVIDIA: Offers NVIDIA NIM microservices, part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise platform, a set of easy to use microservices for secure and reliable deployment of performance optimized AI models HPE: Provides the secure and scalable private cloud for AI solution and GreenLake management platform, which hosts the digital AI ambassadors "Enterprises need robust, secure, and agile infrastructure to power these demanding AI workloads," said Robin Braun, VP, AI Business Development, Hybrid Cloud at HPE. "HPE Private Cloud AI provides an NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory validated design in a turnkey, full-stack AI infrastructure, so innovative solutions like SHI's Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform can be deployed quickly and confidently." "AI agent ambassadors can help enterprises scale customer engagement and connection," said Craig Weinstein, Vice President of Business Development at NVIDIA. "With NVIDIA AI software and accelerated computing from HPE, SHI's Digital AI Ambassadors combine the precision of AI agents with the adaptability of personalized service, allowing organizations to deliver responsive and relevant interactions for every customer." The SHI-delivered Digital AI Ambassador Development Platform supports diverse applications and business verticals such as retail concierge services, health care intake assistants, financial advisory support, 24/7 intelligent customer service agents, and interactive information kiosks for large venues and smart cities. The service will continue to develop in SHI's AI & Cyber Labs, which are focused on next-generation AI capabilities and advanced avatar interactions. Attendees at HPE Discover, June 23-26 in Las Vegas, can experience a live demonstration of SHI's Digital AI Ambassador, Kira, created using the development service, at Booth 2010. Learn more about SHI's Digital AI Ambassador development service. About SHI SHI International Corp. is a $15 billion transformational technology solutions provider serving the needs of more than 15,000 corporate, enterprise, public sector and academic customer organizations around the world. It helps companies achieve business goals through the use of technologies ranging from software licensing and end user computing devices to innovative cloud and edge solutions. With over 6,000 employees worldwide, SHI is the largest Minority and Woman Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) in the U.S. To learn more about SHI, please visit Press ResourcesSHI Corporate Website: SHI Blog: SHI X Handle: @SHI_Intl View source version on Contacts Matt McLoughlinGregory FCA for SHI International610.228.2123SHI@
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'Happening in our community': Advocates seek justice for victims, greater awareness of predatory abuse
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Pennsylvania scores very low – with a D grade – in Shared Hope International's 2023 analysis of how the state handles child and youth sex trafficking. Its mark of 62 out of 100 is weighed down by three Fs – in identification of and response to victims, continuum of care, and prevention and training. The commonwealth's best scores are As in criminal provisions and tools for a victim-centered criminal justice response. Even with the poor point total, a D was an improvement from 2021, when Pennsylvania received an F. Issuing the scorecards for states is one of the ways in which Shared Hope International, a Vancouver, Washington-based nonprofit, brings attention to the issue of human trafficking. Sidney McCoy Sidney McCoy is director of advocacy with Shared Hope International. She holds a juris doctorate from the Penn State Law School. Sidney McCoy, a director of advocacy and a Penn State Law School graduate, said a main mission for the organization is to help people 'understand that this is very much happening.' 'It's happening in Philadelphia the same way that it's happening in Johnstown, the same way that it's happening in State College,' McCoy said. 'It doesn't matter if it's a rural community, an urban community, a suburban community. This is happening. This is not just an issue in border states. It's not just an issue internationally. It is happening in our community.' Former U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, a Republican from Washington, founded Shared Hope International in 1998, inspired by seeing the brutal sex slavery happening in Mumbai, India's brothel district. SHI assists survivors, helps craft legislation, and provides training and education. 'Our mission is really dedicated to preventing, restoring and bringing justice to the victims of child sexual abuse trafficking,' McCoy said. 'Don't know the signs' Shared Hope International is one of the numerous anti-trafficking groups working in Pennsylvania, including The Asservo Project, Greenlight Operation, Hope Inspire Love, Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect, county organizations and The Villanova Law Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation. Greenlight Operation, located in Cumberland County, was founded in 2018. It provides education, legislative assistance, restorative care for survivors, seminars and educational events with the mission of making people 'equipped and empowered to then get involved,' according to Jordan Pine, the nonprofit's founder and CEO. 'We're also in the process of opening our restoration home to serve survivors of human trafficking because, as education awareness grows, so do the reports,' Pine said. 'We have many survivors who are seeking services and need some help in that healing process.' Pine referenced SHI's D grade for Pennsylvania, saying that anti-child trafficking work is 'very, very important' and that she thinks the need for improvement applies to how adult trafficking is handled, too. 'As it relates to Pennsylvania and how can we do better, No. 1, our public is still largely unaware that human trafficking is happening here,' Pine said. 'They don't know the signs to look for. And, because of that, naturally they're not going to get involved because they don't even know it's an issue they need to be involved with.' 'Scope of this problem' Joseph Sweeney, co-founder and CEO of The Asservo Project, is a former SWAT operator, bomb squad commander, and U.S government explosive security specialist who was involved in counterterrorism. In 2017, he transitioned to the role of fighting human trafficking, forming the Allegheny County-headquartered group with his wife. 'Before we started, it wasn't a knee-jerk reaction,' Sweeney said. 'I knew what I was getting into. I knew it was a behemoth. Did I want to turn my life upside-down – and my wife's? Obviously we did. That's how it started. "It wasn't some knee-jerk – 'Let me go get my body armor and go kick in some doors' – although I would love to do that to these people. I was born to do it. But you can't. In this environment that I'm in now, we found a better way to help. That's what we do and not be a problem.' He was originally asked to rescue some children who had been taken illegally to South America, which led to him researching human trafficking. 'When we really uncovered the scope of this problem, I just couldn't let it go,' Sweeney said. 'I just felt compelled to do something.' Much of the work done by Asservo members is online. It is conducted within the confines of the law, operating under private investigator licenses and sharing information with law enforcement. 'For every predator we can identify online and have arrested and convicted, that's 75 to 100 children who will not be exploited by that individual online, so that's why it's an important piece of our work,' Sweeney said. 'The physical rescues, we don't do a lot of those. Now we do support those.'
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
One Of America's Biggest Entrepreneurs Emerges As A Key Nvidia Partner For Enterprise AI
Thai Lee speaks at the recent opening of the AI Labs in New Jersey. Nvidia is opening another distribution strategy for its GPU capacity, by establishing a network of IT consulting firms as partners to test and sell AI solutions. The partners use new Spark machines and sell Nvidia infrastructure to enterprises, based on public information and the recent opening of one of the first partner sites. One of the first partners to emerge is SHI, one of America's largest women-owned businesses. SHI, which has more than $14B in revenue, recently opened an AI and Cyber Labs in Piscataway, N.J., equipped with new Nvidia Spark machines. SHI also trained its staff to help companies build and test AI applications. Nvidia has established a DGX SuperPOD Specialization Partner program, which suggests they're building a network of specialized partners who can deploy and manage their high-performance AI infrastructure, said David A. Bader, distinguished professor in Data Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, by email. ePlus, another IT services provider, has also become certified as a partner. The DGX SuperPOD is what Nvidia calls its AI supercomputer, accessed through the Cloud. Nvidia is facing more competition from Chinese models for AI development, and needs to move quickly to cement its edge in enterprise AI. 'The work being done in SHI's AI & Cyber Labs showcases the accelerating shift toward AI-driven innovation across industries,' said Craig Weinstein, vice president of the America's Partner Organization, Nvidia, in an e-mailed statement. From AI agents helping people develop business strategies, to AI-assisted fraud detection, organizations are moving beyond experimentation to tangible results with SHI's labs, transforming how they operate and compete in the AI era.' Working with trained partners – humans – makes sense since given the complexity of enterprise AI deployments. Many enterprise AI projects are stumbling on cost and data problems, according to outside researchers. The move also makes sense for Somerset-based SHI, which is expanding into AI-as-a-service. The new lab, opened to fanfare in April, will give teams from corporations access to the infrastructure needed to develop AI applications. They'll pay to rent time on Nvidia Sparks – new desktop AI development devices – at the Lab, along with receiving the advice of the SHI team based there. 'We believe we're developing capabilities that are going to be very useful,' said Thai Lee, CEO, in an interview. 'Many organizations that I talk to are afraid their business models today are not going to keep them alive.' She said companies will need to adapt to the next wave of AI, including agentic AI and physical AI – meaning, the capacity of robots and autonomous vehicles. Currently, companies that want to work on AI applications have to contract to engage with GPUs, which were housed in data centers requiring massive energy and cooling. Different models are now emerging for AI application development. The Spark, which is being sold as a personal AI computer, costs about $4,000, and contains Nvidia GPUs. 'These systems, powered by the Grace Blackwell platform, represent a democratization of AI computing power that was previously only available in data centers,' said Bader. 'For researchers, data scientists, and organizations exploring AI applications, having local access to this level of computing power through SHI's facility provides tremendous advantages. It enables experimentation with large language models and complex AI systems without the latency, cost, or data sovereignty concerns that can come with cloud-based approaches.' The idea behind the Lab is that people will rent time there and with the assistance of more than 100 trained SHI staff, develop or test applications. Jack Hogan, vice president of advanced growth technologies at SHI, gave an example of how this has played out in practice. 'A large pharmaceutical company came to us, that is literally spending billions of dollars a year in AI infrastructure hosted in the could and on premises,' he said. 'They had a specific use case to ensure that the eight-figure purchase they were about to make was going to work.' SHI charged them for a six-week engagement, with a price tag in 'the low six figures.' 'They ultimately proved to themselves that their data wasn't ready,' he said. 'They prevented themselves from making a substantial mistake in just going out and buying this equipment without knowing that it was going to work.' SHI is also working with Nvidia on creating synthetic data for companies, so that even if they don't share their data, they can validate their use cases in the Lab. Many enterprise-level AI projects are failing, according to research by Gartner. 'Cost is one of the greatest near-term threats to AI and generative AI (GenAI) success. Gartner estimates that more than half of organizations who are embarking on AI initiatives beyond 'everyday AI' are abandoning their efforts due to unexpected cost overruns,' according to a Gartner Research Note, titled Toolkit: Customer Calculation of AI and GenAI Multiyear Costs by Use Case, issued in March 2025. About 30% of AI projects that make it past proof of concept will be abandoned due to poor data quality, inadequate risk controls, escalating costs or unclear business value, the research firm also predicted. However, at the same time, the successful AI projects will make a difference, it said reporting that through 2026, GenAI will reduce manually intensive data management costs up to 20% each year while enabling four times as many new use cases. Nvidia, with a market capitalization of $2.6T, is one of the world's most valuable companies. By teaming up with it, SHI is further emerging as one of the most significant IT service companies in the United States, Lee said SHI may open more labs across the country, working with Nvidia or others. 'The age of the GPU is here and it is going to completely transform the way that the computing world is been operating,' said Lee. She also gave an interview on her leadership style, here.
