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Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering Brian Butz and his wife Susan, CPH 85, have made a transformative donation to Temple Universitys College of Engineering that will support the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) research at the college. The gift, which is valued at more than $2.5 million, includes an immediate investment in AI research projects, as well as a future endowed chair position to help Temple push to the forefront of the AI industry. It is the largest gift in the College of Engineerings history.

This is the right time for a landmark investment in AI research, said College of Engineering Dean Keya Sadeghipour. It will allow Temple Engineering to not only expand our current AI research but also become a true leader in the field that will have a major impact on the future.

This donation is just the latest example of the Butz familys commitment to philanthropy. In total, the familys gifts to Temple have a value of more than $3 million. In 2020, the Butzes donated $100,000 to establish the Brian and Susan Butz Term Scholarship in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and $100,000 in support of research at the College of Public Health.

The Butzes commitment to enhancing academic and research opportunities at Temple is evident, not only in their latest donation, but in their history of giving back to the university, said Mary Burke, vice president for institutional advancement. Their gift will have an immeasurable impact on the advancement of a cutting-edge discipline, and it will also serve as an inspiration to others who may want to follow in their footsteps in supporting the university.

The importance of support for endowed chairs at Temple University cannot be overstated, Burke added. Its critical to attract and retain faculty members who are at the top of their field.

This current gift is especially significant to the Butzes given its ties to AI, an area in which Brian was an early pioneer.

In the early 1990s he helped launch Temples Intelligent Systems Application Center, where he led undergraduate and graduate AI research projects funded by the National Science Foundation. During that same era, he led a research project in collaboration with the Fox Chase Cancer Center, which used AI to develop treatments for prostate cancer patients.

Butz led numerous other research projects and taught courses related to AI throughout the 1990s, at a time when few other institutions were offering courses on the technology. He was inspired to make this donation after witnessing firsthand the growing reliance on AI.

AI has become very popular. There have been a lot of recent improvements which give students the chance to participate in innovative research in an academic environment, said Butz, who served as a faculty member at the College of Engineering for more than 30 years. We made this gift to open doors for the students and faculty alike, through the scholarship, the research fund and the endowed chair.

In the decades since Butz began his work at Temple, AI research has spread throughout all departments in the College of Engineering. Faculty are investigating AI in areas such as supply chain optimization, urban planning, robotics, data science, human-machine collaboration, and predictive maintenance in infrastructure and healthcare settings.

The gift also advances the Butzes mission of making a quality Temple education more accessible to students of all backgrounds. Its a mission born from Brians personal experience as the first in his family to attend college.

Brian has always been keen on providing research and scholarship opportunities to students, because hes a first-generation college student and he really values his education, said Li Bai, ENG 96, chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Bai came to Temple as an undergraduate student in 1993 when Butz was serving as chair of the department. The two formed a strong bond that has lasted throughout their Temple careers.

It was hard being the first in my family to go to college, because I felt a real obligation to do well. I think a lot of students experience that, too, Butz added. I saw myself in these students, and I knew I could help them and educate them. That is what influenced this donation the most.

The Butzes legacy will have a lasting impact, not only in the advancements and breakthroughs made at the College of Engineering, but also through the students who will lead the next chapter of AI research.

Computers are going to run the world one day, theres no avoiding that, said Jared Levin, Class of 2025. Levin was the fall 2023 recipient of the Brian and Susan Butz Term Scholarship in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also serves as the president of Temple Robotics, and he plans to pursue a masters degree in robotics upon graduating.

AI is the future of engineering, so people need to learn it, he added. This gift will create great opportunities for Temple Engineering students.

Originally posted here:

College of Engineering receives the largest gift in its history - Temple University News

Laura Bell Main, author of Agile Application Security and founder of SafeStack, recently presented a webinar titled Decoding Dev Culture 2024, in which she provided a "from the ground view" of security in 2024. Drawing from her experience, and a 12-month SafeStack survey, Bell discussed the need for DevSecOps practioners to move away from an overfocus on SAST and other tooling. She advocated for a better understanding of the developer experience associated with security processes and tooling. Bell explained that effective security ownership can be encouraged through improved communication, and positively impacting engineer productivity.

Praising DevSecOps for its aim to unite development, security, and operations into "fullstack-capable" teams with a "shared sense of purpose," Bell also highlighted a concerning trend. She noted a shift toward siloing of DevSecOps capabilities. According to Bell, in practice, DevSecOps is often segregated into dedicated or SRE teams, detached from the delivery teams. This segregation, she explained, stems from cultural and operational challenges, such as security initiatives that are tightly coupled to CI/CD tooling, rather than the development teams running those pipelines.

Nikki Robinson, author of Effective Vulnerability Management, gave a talk at DevOps Summit Canada last November, titled Where Platform Engineering and Security Meet. Robinson discussed the discipline of "platform security engineering," as the practice of supporting developers in securing complex systems by treating the engineering teams as customers. She discussed the importance of taking a developer experience targeted approach to not just tooling, but also processes and collaboration models. Robinson said:

Similarly, Bell explained that contrary to the DevSecOps goal of "combining development, security and operations together," she was now seeing a repeat of historic patterns when security was "adopted into operations." Explaining the tensions which lead to this situation, she elaborated:

Bell observed that instead of focusing solely on DevSecOps, development teams are now prioritising their own engineering productivity. To ensure security remains a priority, she suggested strategies like reducing developer cognitive load through early visibility of upcoming security initiatives, improving tooling to reduce toil, controlling false alarms, and minimising factors which constrain autonomy, such as approval bottlenecks. SafeStacks ongoing application security surveyshowed that most companies have 1 application security professional for every 50 to 100 developers, highlighting the risk of such bottlenecks.

SafeStack survey on the ratio of dev to security professionals. (Source: SafeStack: Decoding Dev Culture 2024 - A Security Leadership Perspective)

Furthermore, Bell stressed the importance of security specialists being mindful of any additional friction they may introduce to engineering teams. Instead of exacerbating existing challenges, she advocated for approaches that facilitate adoption of improvements and accelerate development processes. She said:

Robinson also encouraged platform security engineering teams to invest in building relations and communicating with team members. She emphasised the importance of understanding the friction and challenges of security practices in order to better optimise for tools and processes supportive of individual and team context. She said:

By prioritising the reduction of developer toil and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, organisations can drive meaningful change and ensure the holistic security of their software infrastructure. Bell, who recently hosted the Securing Modern Software track at QCon London and guides thousands of organisations on their security journeys, closed her webinar by urging security leaders to support development teams in not just managing new systems, but also ensuring the security of legacy applications. She said:

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Application Security Optimised for Engineering Productivity - InfoQ.com

Highlights

TORONTO, April 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - NetZero Metals Inc. ("NetZero Metals" or the "Company"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada Nickel Company Inc. ("Canada Nickel") (TSXV: CNC) (OTCQX: CNIKF) today provided an update on the progress of engineering studies for two processing facilities a nickel processing facility and a stainless steel and alloy production facility in the Timmins Nickel District.

Key engineering contracts for the facilities have been awarded to SMS group ("SMS"), Metso and Ausenco Engineering Canada ULC ("Ausenco").

NetZero Metals is advancing design work to develop two processing facilities to fill a critical link in the development of North American critical minerals supply chains and the province's electric vehicle strategy. Each production facility is expected to utilize Canada Nickel's carbon storage capacity at its Crawford Nickel Project to deliver net zero carbon nickel and stainless steel and alloy production through capture of the CO2emissions from the downstream operation. The studies are progressing well and completion of feasibility studies remains targeted for year-end.

Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel, said, "We are very pleased to work with global engineering leaders like SMS, Metso, and Ausenco to advance our NetZero Metals processing plants. These processing facilities will position the Timmins Nickel District and Canada at the forefront of the global transition to greener energy and materials. We are proud to lead the way in the development of new capacity to meet the growing demand for the local supply of critical minerals, and most importantly, zero carbon, environmentally responsible production in North America."

SMS group, an industry leader in the supply of steel making equipment and plant design, has been awarded the initial scope for the NetZero Metals stainless steel and alloy plant, which will treat the Crawford iron-chrome-nickel concentrate and other feeds to produce a blend of stainless steel and alloys. The target start up date of the steel plant is year-end 2027, aligned with expected first production from Crawford.

Andy Gribben, VP of Metallurgy Sales at SMS group, said "We are thrilled to have been chosen by NetZero Metals for such a pivotal role in advancing sustainable nickel and stainless steel production. At SMS group, we have made it our mission to create a carbon-neutral and sustainable metals industry. Our metallurgical know-how and engineering skills combined with our digital expertise and plant technology enables us to be the leading partner on this project. We look forward to contributing our expertise to this transformative, environmentally responsible project."

Metso, an industry leader for the supply of pyrometallurgical process equipment, has been awarded the key portions of the initial nickel plant scope, which will process the Crawford nickel concentrate as well as third party feeds to produce a blend of nickel and nickel-cobalt products suitable for the steel and battery markets. The Company is targeting an early start up of the nickel plant in the first part of 2027 by leveraging an existing brownfield site for which positive discussions are already underway.

Ausenco, a long term partner of Canada Nickel Company, is performing the overall facility engineering and packaging of staged engineering studies.

About SMS

SMS group is renowned worldwide for its future-oriented technologies and outstanding service for the metals industry. The company applies its 150 years of experience and its digital know-how to provide the industry continuously with innovative products and processes even beyond its core business and generates worldwide sales of around 3.1 billion euros. SMS is the right partner for challenging projects, and supports its customers throughout the lifecycle of their plants, enabling profitable and resource-efficient value creation chains. Paving the way for a carbon-neutral and sustainable metals industry is the company's stated goal. For more information on SMS group and their portfolio, visit their website atwww.sms-group.us.

About Metso

Metso is a frontrunner in providing sustainable technologies, end-to-end solutions and services for the aggregates, minerals processing and metals refining industries globally. By helping its customers increase their productivity, improve their energy and water efficiency and environmental performance with process and product expertise, Metso is the partner for positive change. Metso's Fluid Bed business has been recently engaged to carry out fluid bed testwork and preliminary flowsheet development at its research and development center in Frankfurt, Germany. Metso has been developing world class fluid bed roasting applications for the non-ferrous industry since the 1950s.

About Ausenco

Ausenco is a global diversified engineering, construction and project management company providing consulting, project delivery and asset management solutions to the resources, energy and infrastructure sectors. Ausenco's experience in mining projects ranges from conceptual, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for new project developments to project execution. Ausenco has been supporting Canada Nickel since 2020 when Ausenco was first engaged to lead the Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for the Crawford Nickel Sulfide Project. After successfully completing the study, Ausenco continued to support Canada Nickel through the Feasibility Study, which was released in the fourth quarter of 2023, by supporting the metallurgical pilot plant program, the process plant and building design and the site water management design, all while coordinating project consultants. Ausenco is now leading Front End Engineering and Design activities at Crawford as it advances towards a construction decision in 2025.

About the Nickel Processing Facility

Over three phases, the nickel processing plant is expected to reach a capacity of more than 80,000 tonnes of nickel annually, which is expected to make it the largest nickel processing facility in North America. Subject to permitting approvals, the plant plans to begin production by the start of 2027 utilizing third party feeds. The facility is expected to be further expanded with the startup and expansion of Canada Nickel's Crawford project. This plant is expected to utilize proven, low environmental footprint technology to produce high-quality nickel products, catering to the needs of both the stainless-steel/superalloy and the electric vehicle markets.

About the Stainless-Steel and Alloy Processing Facility

In addition to the nickel processing plant, a stainless steel and alloy production facility is expected to be established to process the iron-chrome-nickel concentrate from the Crawford Nickel project and other feeds to be transformed into more than 1 million tonnes of alloy products, including more than 500,000 tonnes of 304-grade stainless-steel annually. The facility is expected to grow along with the expansion at Crawford Nickel project and would become the largest stainless-steel production facility in Canada. Production is planned to begin by year end 2027, aligning with the planned start-up of the Crawford mine, subject to permitting approvals. Discussions are currently underway with leading global ferroalloy and stainless producers to partner on this project.

Qualified Person and Data Verification

Arthur G. Stokreef, P.Eng (ON), Manager of Process Engineering & Geometallurgy and a "qualified person" as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release on behalf of Canada Nickel Company Inc.

About Canada Nickel Company

Canada Nickel Company Inc. is advancing the next generation of nickel-sulphide projects to deliver nickelrequired to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Companyhas applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, NetZero IronTMand is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and ironproducts. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel in low political risk jurisdictions.Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in theheartoftheprolific Timmins-Cochraneminingcamp.Formoreinformation,please visitwww.canadanickel.com.

For further information, please contact:Mark Selby, CEO Phone: 647-256-1954 Email: [emailprotected]

Cautionary Note and Statement Concerning Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain information that may constitute "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking information includes, but is not limited to, the timing, outcome and completion of study activities including preliminary economic assessments, feasibility studies and/or front end engineering and design, the outcome of procuring a brownfield site, the product blend and overall production capacity of NetZero Metals and steel and alloy plants, the timing of plant start-up and expansions, the viability of either or both of the downstream processing lines including the nickel and steel and alloy processing lines, the ability to achieve zero carbon production from the nickel and or steel and alloy plants, the outcomes of the construction decision, the timing of first production at the Crawford Project, the receipt of permits, the ability to sell marketable materials, strategic plans, including future exploration and development plans and results, and corporate and technical objectives. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon several assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals, the future demand for metals, the results of drilling, inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the property, environmental liabilities (known and unknown), general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, results of exploration programs, risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, and failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. Canada Nickel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Canada Nickel Company Inc.

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NetZero Metals Awards Engineering Contracts and Advances Engineering Studies on Two Processing Facilities - PR Newswire