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Los Angeles Times
19 hours ago
- Science
- Los Angeles Times
Orange County science reading challenge winners enjoy special JPL visit
Delaney Martinez was like a kid in a candy store. In reality, she was a kid in a laboratory when she and 11 other Orange County students took a special VIP tour of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge on June 17. Delaney, who makes science videos on her YouTube channel 'Science With Dee' and has more than 175,000 followers, certainly felt right at home. 'It was so much fun,' the 13-year-old said. 'My favorite part was definitely seeing all of the models of the Mars Rovers. Those were super-cool, because they had the very first model to the newest one. It was really cool seeing the comparison.' The students all earned the trip based on their work in the 2024 Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) Race to Space Reading Challenge. Founder Pat Burns said she started the Race to Space Reading Challenge in 2021 after the Orange County Children's Book Festival, which she co-founded, had to go virtual the previous year due to the coronavirus pandemic. 'I missed having the kids really engaged,' Burns said. 'So I decided to not do a virtual book festival in 2021. I wanted to do a reading challenge, but wanted to be able to encourage STEM. To my surprise, we had more than 1,600 kids register and we had more than 500 finish it.' She retired from running the children's book festival following the 2022 edition to devote her time to the reading challenge. In the reading challenge's three years, more than 4,000 total students have participated. Divided by age group into four levels, the students chart their STEM book-reading progress on an online platform called Beanstack. Anything they read past the requirements earns them bonus tickets, which they can enter to win things like Zoom calls with astronauts, the trip to JPL, laptop computers, sports tickets or book bundles from publishers. Ryan Melendez, an incoming seventh grader at the Pegasus School in Huntington Beach, said his teacher Jaime Kunze-Thibeau recommended the program to him. The trip to JPL was one of the coolest things he did all year, he said. 'My favorite part would be the mission control center,' Ryan said. 'There were a bunch of people on computers there. I thought it was pretty cool. That would be a fun job to do.' After perusing the lab with two scientist tour guides, the students got to go to the California Institute of Technology for a special buffet lunch at the Athenaeum, a private club on the Pasadena school's campus. 'It's just stunning inside,' Burns said of the Athenaeum, which opened in 1930 with a formal dinner to celebrate Albert Einstein's first visit to Caltech. 'The architecture, the detailed woodwork, the white tablecloths, the waiters. The kids, about half of them, liked it as much as they liked the tour, which shocked me. They really appreciated and knew they were someplace special.' Julia Rundzio, an incoming sixth-grade student at Sequoia Elementary School in Westminster, also entered several tickets into the drawing and was selected for the JPL trip. For the next S.T.E.A.M. Race to Space Reading Challenge, she might help promote the program within her school, said Julia's father, Remi Rundzio. 'It's an amazing program,' Julia said. 'It motivates kids to read books that are not just fiction, but also have science elements and help educate about different things that are going on around us.' Other county students who went on the JPL trip included Emma Zirney and Kenzie Murdie of Lake Forest, Andrew Lee Golden of Garden Grove, Harry Lee of Fullerton, Madelyn Perez of Mission Viejo, Matthew Jay of Irvine, Rinal Jamal of Yorba Linda, Sahas Yalamanchili of Irvine and Sai Sitaraman of Fullerton. The students ranged from elementary age to high school. Burns said the program has relied on generous donations for the bonus opportunities, as well as funding from grants. This is the first year the students have been able to tour JPL due to previous COVID protocols. The 2025 edition of the S.T.E.A.M. Race to Space Reading Challenge blasts off Oct. 3, with registration starting Sept. 19. Burns said she's looking to connect with Rocket Lab to organize a bonus tour, or Vast, another Long Beach-based company that is developing artificial gravity space stations.
The Standard
a day ago
- Science
- The Standard
Trump plans executive orders to power AI growth in race with China
An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. REUTERS
Indian Express
a day ago
- General
- Indian Express
CBSE Supplementary Exam Date Sheet 2025 Released for Class 10, 12: Check full schedule here
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued the CBSE Class 10 and 12 supplementary exam date sheet 2025 on its official website — As per the schedule, the CBSE Class 10 supplementary exams will be held from July 15 to July 22, 2025, while the Class 12 supplementary exams will take place in a single day on July 15, 2025. The Class 10 exams will commence with the Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence papers. For Class 12, all subjects listed for supplementary exams will be conducted on the same day. As per the official notification, CBSE has issued the following instructions for students appearing in the supplementary exams: –Carrying or using communication devices inside the examination centre is strictly forbidden. Any violation will result in disciplinary action. –Students are expected to maintain proper conduct during the examination. –The duration of each paper will be as specified in the official date sheet and the admit card. –The admit cards for CBSE supplementary exams 2025 will be released shortly. –Candidates will be given an extra 15 minutes before the start of the exam to read the question paper. Earlier, CBSE had declared the Class 10 and Class 12 board exam results on May 13, 2025. The overall pass percentage for Class 10 was 93.66%, with Trivandrum being the top-performing region at 99.79%. For Class 12, the pass percentage stood at 88.39%, and Vijayawada recorded the highest regional pass rate at 99.60%.
Android Authority
a day ago
- Android Authority
One UI 8 could make Now Brief even more useful with these additions
Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Samsung's Now Brief will reportedly receive new info cards and a new widget size in One UI 8. Now Brief could offer parking spot reminders, smart home alerts, and battery alerts for your wearables. These cards could join previously leaked info types like water intake reminders and custom cards. Samsung debuted the Now Brief feature on its One UI 7 software back in January. This gives you a summary of relevant info at various times of the day, bringing to mind Google Now on old Android phones. We thought this feature left plenty of room for improvement, though, but it looks like One UI 8 will bring some welcome additions. SammyGuru dug into a leaked One UI 8 beta (BYFB) and found that Now Brief will gain additional info card types. These new info cards are parking spot reminders, smart home alerts, and wearable battery alerts. For starters, the parking spot reminder info card will (surprise) remember where you parked your car. A screenshot of the feature, seen below, suggests that it could somehow rely on pictures you've taken. Meanwhile, smart home alerts in Now Brief could give you info about your smart home gadgets. Presumably, this means you can view info from these devices at the very least. As for wearable battery alerts in Now Brief, this info card will give you low battery warnings for your Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Buds. These new info cards would go a long way towards making Now Brief a full-fledged one-stop hub for information. Samsung might not be stopping here, either. Previous leaks show that Samsung could offer water intake reminders and even let users create custom cards. That means Now Brief could grow from a curiosity to a proper powerhouse app with One UI 8. SammyGuru also notes that the leaked One UI 8 software now features a 2×2 widget option (seen above) instead of the sole 2×1 size. Finally, the outlet says the leaked software reintroduces the Read Aloud option for Now Brief, which lets you get summaries in audio form. In any event, all these tweaks and additions would be a major upgrade from the initial release back in January. Colleague Joe Maring felt that the original version of Now Brief was a 'glorified weather and news app.' Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Mint
2 days ago
- Business
- Mint
India's new space revenue driver: surveillance satellites
New Delhi: India's private space firms may be getting the revenue boost they hoped for: Thanks to geopolitical tensions, several countries have tapped them to build satellites as demand for space-based surveillance grows. Bengaluru-based Ananth Technologies, a long-time engineering partner for the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), has been executing an order from Australia for defence surveillance satellites over the past year. Peer Digantara is also part of this contract under the Mission for Australia-India's Technology, Research and Innovation or Maitri programme. Norway, Hungary and Poland, besides nations from West Asia and the global south, are also engaging with multiple Indian space firms, including Adani Defence and Aerospace-backed Alpha Design, according to at least five industry executives Mint spoke with. Most of these countries do not have their own satellite programmes, but changing geopolitical alignments and global tensions have amplified the need for space surveillance. And while revenue generated from such projects has still not reached hundreds of millions of dollars, India's friendly relations are offering local space startups an opportunity to drive growth through such partnerships. Moreover, surveillance satellite giants in the US, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, focus mostly on large contracts, according to Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at global think-tank, Observer Research Foundation. Since most of the contracts coming India's way range from $5-25 million per year, Giri said these 'are too small for the American behemoths, but cumulatively could add up to a significant boost for India". Satellite assembly line Ananth Technologies and Digantara will offer end-to-end design and manufacturing of satellites and provide surveillance data to Australia. While neither divulged the exact size of the deals, both said the multi-year pactsare leading to monetization of their business models in India. 'We have three satellite manufacturing and design engineering centres across Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, where we build and design high-resolution surveillance, imaging and earth observation satellites based on requirements from clients," Subba Rao Pavuluri, chairman and managing director of Ananth Technologies, told Mint. The company has the reputation to back it, having manufactured surveillance satellites for India. These are in orbit and operated by Isro. In FY24, Ananth Technologies, incorporated in 1992, earned operating revenue of ₹270 crore, according to data from the ministry of corporate affairs. Digantara, incorporated six years ago, earned ₹3.2 crore and projects its revenue to increase to ₹250 crore by FY27 on surveillance satellite data and manufacturing contracts. Over ₹100 crore of Digantara's revenue growth is set to come from through its contract with India's ministry of defence, Mint reported on 13 June. Anirudh Sharma, chief executive of the Peak XV-backed startup, is also setting up the company's own satellite assembly line. Mint visited the company's headquarters in Bengaluru. The startup will offer satellite observation and data analytics services to paying customers. 'We're currently working with other clients, too, including the government of India as well as interested parties from the European Union," Sharma said. 'There is an increasing demand for sovereign surveillance capabilities around the world, for which we are offering white-label services to various governments." Surveillance as a service Beyond manufacturing for other nations, Indian space startups are looking to put their own surveillance satellites in orbit, and offer high-resolution surveillance data to countries. GalaxEye Space, a four-year-old, Chennai-headquartered startup, announced earlier this month that it will place its first, owned surveillance satellite in orbit as part of its business expansion plan. '...the current rise in interest for surveillance satellites is also boosting our case for innovation—where we are placing a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (Sar) satellite that can observe the earth at up to 0.5 metres resolution," said Suyash Singh, founder of GalaxEye. 'We're already having early-stage conversations with hundreds of clients, which is what spurred our decision to build this satellite. In the next six to eight months, we'll offer a revenue projection for the coming years, launch the satellite in orbit, and raise funds for our next phase of operations." The company's early-stage demand is largely coming from West Asia and the global south, Singh said. One year ago, the government of Australia signed an $18-million contract with Isro's commercial business unit, NewSpace India Limited (Nsil), to use its satellite launch services. Speaking with Mint on the sidelines of 2025 Indian Space Congress in New Delhi on Wednesday, Philip Green, high commissioner of Australia to India, said that space is an active area of collaboration between the two nations. 'We actively leverage the strength that each of us have in our nations to collaborate in various fields, including technology. In space, Australia is a global innovation leader—we bring this to India and tap its massive engineering talent pool with private firms that are highly skilled in niche areas. In turn, this helps both the geographies prosper and grow—Australia, leveraging this, is seeing its space economy already grow at 10% per annum," he said. 'With a strategic partner such as India, we can collaborate across the line and the ecosystem, and do so more intensively. That's where the India-Australia space collaborations are at the moment," Green said. ORF's Giri calls this a 'natural evolution". 'The US has moved on from manufacturing a long time ago, and Europe's markets are too expensive to manufacture at scale," he said. 'With the current geopolitical balances at play, India's biggest strength lies in leveraging this position to emerge as a default choice for global satellite manufacturing." Giri expects these contracts to help India's private space firms reinforce their reputation in the global market. 'With space and surveillance being seen as key areas of engineering and innovation, India is in a strong position to leverage its relations globally—and help private firms expand globally as critical infrastructure providers."
