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Shanghai, Nov. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2023 WLA Prize Award Ceremony will take place in Shanghai on November 6, with an impressive attendance of over 300[1] experts and scholars, including the world laureates, academicians, senior scientists, young scientists, and professionals from 25 countries and regions. The ceremony will also be live-streamed online.

The World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize) is an international science prize established in Shanghai, in 2021, initiated by the World Laureates Association (WLA), managed by the WLA Foundation, and exclusively funded by HongShan. It aims to recognize and support eminent researchers and technologies worldwide for their contributions to science. Each year, the WLA Prize is awarded in two categories: "Computer Science or Mathematics" and "Life Science or Medicine", with the total award for each Prize being RMB 10 million.

The 2023 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics recognizes two scientists: Arkadi Nemirovski, the John P. Hunter, Jr. Chair Professor at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Yurii Nesterov, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scientific Researcher at the Center for Operations Research & Econometrics and Mathematical Engineering Department at the Universit Catholique de Louvain, "for their seminal work in convex optimization theory, including the theory of self-concordant functions and interior-point methods, a complexity theory of optimization, accelerated gradient methods, and methodological advances in robust optimization."

The 2023 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine recognizes three scientists: Karolin Luger, Professor and Jennie Smoly Caruthers Endowed Chair of Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, Daniela Rhodes, Emeritus Group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and Timothy J. Richmond, Professor of Crystallography of Biological Macromolecules (Emeritus) at ETH Zrich, "for elucidating the structure of the nucleosome at the atomic level, providing the basis for understanding chromatin, gene regulation, and epigenetics."

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Continuing last year's tradition, the ceremony will be held at the Opening Ceremony of the 6th WLA Forum, an annual scientific event which also features WLA Prize related academic lectures and dialogues starting from Nov. 5. The 2023 WLA Prize laureates will deliver academic lectures talking about their award-winning work.

"I have only been to China once, a long time ago, and I am excited to go back. With respect to the ceremony, I view this as a big celebration for the nucleosome," comments Prof. Luger. She also expresses her expectations to the 6th WLA Forum: "The forum sounds super interesting and I am really looking forward to stimulating discussion and to meeting new people."

This opinion is echoed by Prof. Nemirovski. He has "no doubts the organizers will make the Ceremony and the Forum a great success." While Prof. Nesterov also believes "it will result in a very interesting and productive exchange of opinions on the most important challenges of our life."

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About the WLA Prize

The World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize) is an international science prize established in Shanghai, in 2021, initiated by the World Laureates Association (WLA), managed by the WLA Foundation, and exclusively funded by HongShan. The WLA Prize aims to recognize and support eminent researchers and technologists worldwide for their contributions to science. It is intended to support global science and technology advancement, address the challenges to humanity, and promote society's long-term progress. Each year, the WLA Prize is awarded in two categories: "Computer Science or Mathematics" and "Life Science or Medicine", with the total award for each Prize, which may be divided among up to four laureates, being RMB 10 million.

About the World Laureates Association

The World Laureates Association (WLA)is a non-governmental and non-profit international organization. It is one of the world's highest-profile organizations of laureates with three missions: "promote basic science, advocate for international cooperation, and support the development of youth." Upholding the vision of "Science and Technology for the Common Destiny of Mankind," the WLA actively foster close scientific exchange among esteemed scientists and scholars around the globe.

About the WLA Foundation

The WLA Foundation is a non-public charitable foundation that supports all WLA missions and activities by bringing together social forces.

About HongShan

HongShan is a leading venture capital and private equity firm investing across technology, healthcare and consumer sectors. Since 2005, HongShan has been fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, backing more than 1,500 companies around the globe with transformative technologies, disruptive business models and high-growth potential. To date, more than 160 HongShan portfolio companies have listed on public stock exchanges, while nearly 130 private portfolio companies have reached unicorn status. It adheres to nurturing scientific talents and entrepreneurs, inspiring technology-driven enterprises, and fulfilling its social responsibilities in the fields of scientific and technological innovation. As the exclusive sponsor of the World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize), HongShan is dedicated to promoting scientific progress and industrial development in China and for humanity as a whole.

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The 2023 WLA Prize Award Ceremony to be Held in Shanghai on Nov. 6 - Yahoo Finance

Tue, 10/31/2023 - 04:02pm | By: Ivonne Kawas

New student clubs at The University of Southern Mississippis (USM) School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering (CSCE) aim to ignite the talents of the next generation of innovators and prepare students for todays dynamic tech industry: Google Developer Student Club and Robotics and Intelligent Machines.

Google Developer Student Club

The first university chapter of its kind in Mississippi, USMs Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) was established to provide a platform for students to learn, grow, and innovate together. Whether you're a coding maestro, a design enthusiast, or simply curious about the latest tech trends, the clubs activities are tailored to bridge the gap between different academic backgrounds and tech-driven ambitions.

Yaju Shrestha, who is majoring in computer science and applied economics, is serving as the GDSC club lead. He shares that the idea to start the club originated from a casual conversation among his friends, as they all have a common aspiration: pursuing careers in either software development or machine learning.

My introduction to GDSC came through LinkedIn, where I learned about another university chapter working on projects to bridge the gap between academia and industry, said Shrestha.

Intrigued, my friends and I decided to establish a club with a dedicated focus on these emerging fields.

Our vision was to create a space where students could explore and learn beyond the classroom. We understood that a club simulating the real-world coding environment would empower students to broaden their horizons, Shrestha added.

Shrestha later applied to lead a GDSC chapter at USM, with Dr. Nick Rahimi serving as the club's faculty advisor.

After navigating through various application processes and interview rounds, we finally received the green light to officially launch our chapter, said Shrestha.

In the upcoming academic year, the club will offer a myriad of activities and events, including regular tech talks and workshops on a variety of Google technologies; hackathons and hackathon preparation workshops; industry speaker events with Google engineers and other tech professionals; mentorship programs to connect students with experienced developers; and social events to build community and network with other students.

Students will have the opportunity to collaborate with industry professionals, attend conferences, and engage in real-world applications of Google technologies, said Dr. Rahimi, assistant professor in the CSCE. For example, students can apply to attend Google-sponsored conferences, such as I/O and DevFest. They can also participate in USM hackathons and other events, where they will have the opportunity to work on real-world projects using Google technologies.

Shrestha highlights that the clubs activities will focus on skill development, so students can excel in the fast-paced tech industry.

By creating an ecosystem where members acquire versatile skills, club members will be able to excel in the dynamic technological landscape. Ultimately, our vision is to inspire a new generation of fearless thinkers and creators who will shape the technological future, benefiting both students and the broader USM community, he said.

How to Join?

Students interested in joining the GDSC can initiate the process by contacting the club lead, Yaju Shrestha, via email.

The Google Developer Club is open to all students, regardless of their academic background or experience level. It is a student-led organization, and members are encouraged to take ownership of the club and its activities. The club is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive community where everyone feels welcome and supported.

Robotics and Intelligent Machines Club

USMs Robotics and Intelligent Machines Student Club aims to broaden the participation in technology applications aroundrobotics and machinesamong the campus community.

Muhammad Sabih Ul Hussnain, who is majoring in computer science, is serving as the president of the Robotics Club. He shares that the inspiration behind starting the club was the desire to be a part of a community that focuses on programming and electronics.

Ive always been interested in robotics. My interest stems back to 8th grade, when I started making small projects like a quadruped robot and other stuff. When I got to USM, I realized there wasnt a robotics club and there were a lot of students interested in joining a STEM club with a focus on programming and electronics, he said.

Hussnain attended the club's inaugural meeting for this semester, where it became official, and he was chosen to serve as the president, with Dr. Jose Martinez Cruz serving as the club's faculty advisor.

When students join theclub, they have access to several robots for learning experiences, said Dr. Martinez, assistant teaching professor in CSCE. Most of the robots that theclubhas, are small factor forms of industrial applications, so it will be easy for students to later engage in work environments wereroboticsapplications are part of the routine.

In the upcoming academic year, the club will offer different activities and events, including testing of different robotic assemblies for ground and underwater applications; participating in robotic competitions as volunteers, judges, or participants; and attending lectures with experts in the roboticsfield to learn about its applications in the industry.

Hussnain highlights that he is looking forward to facilitating future partnerships with other groups on campus.

How to Join?

Students interested in joining the club, can initiate the process by emailing USM Robotics Team.

Students from all backgrounds and any major are welcome to join. The only requirement is to have an interest in contributing to the development of technology. Current president is Muhammad Sabih Ul Hussnain and vice president is Nathan Anderson.

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Introducing New USM Student Clubs: Google Developer and ... - The University of Southern Mississippi

Research teams at the University of Michigan will share $575,000 to facilitate high-impact research across a broad range of domains, including sustainable energy, pandemic response, ultra-powerful computing, and generative artificial intelligence for science and education.

The Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering, a unit within the Office of the Vice President for Research, recently awarded funds to seven research teams as a part of its Catalyst Grants program.

This years Catalyst Grants focus on the development of novel generative artificial intelligence techniques for scientific applications. These projects are not just highly innovative, but also strategically important to U-M, particularly with respect to our evolving relationship with national laboratories, said MICDE Director Karthik Duraisamy, professor of aerospace engineering and of mechanical engineering.

U-M is leading the narrative in the development and deployment of generative AI across the spectrum of academic missions, and these projects are directly responsive to that ideal.

Since its Catalyst Grants program was launched in 2017, MICDE has supported a broad spectrum of research in computational science and engineering.

Our objective is to initiate these projects and support U-M researchers from the development of their conceptual ideas to making a global impact, said Vancho Kocevski, managing director of MICDE.

MICDE awarded grants for the following projects for 2023-24:

Liyue Shen, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science; Jeff Fessler, William L. Root Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and professor of applied physics, of biomedical engineering and of radiology; and Qing Qu, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will develop novel techniques to improve the training and sampling efficiency of generic diffusion models and introduce computationally efficient diffusion models for high-dimensional data to further enhance data, memory and time efficiency.

Michael Hayashi, clinical assistant professor of epidemiology; and Joseph N.S. Eisenberg, professor of epidemiology and of global public health, will develop a novel interdisciplinary approach that draws from modeling frameworks from both health and social sciences to capture the feedback between policymakers, members of the public, and disease transmission to prepare policymakers for the next pandemic.

Jeremy Bricker, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome, associate research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research; Seymour Spence, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; and Yulin Pan, assistant professor of naval architecture and marine engineering, will develop a novel high-fidelity and computationally efficient approach to predict the dynamic response of floating offshore wind turbines and a short-term early warning technology in extreme sea conditions based on deep learning.

Brendan Kochunas, assistant professor of nuclear engineering and radiological science; and Xinyu Wang, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will use program synthesis methods to take mathematical algorithm descriptions as input and produce functionally correct and performant code using machine learning, a novel approach in scientific computing.

Raj Rao Nadakuditi, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will develop a generative AI-based feedback and coaching chatbot that can transform the training of hundreds of computational scientists- and engineers-in-training at U-M.

Venkat Viswanathan, associate professor of aerospace engineering; and Vikram Gavini, professor of materials science and engineering and mechanical engineering, will train a foundation model on the largest available chemical dataset to achieve accuracy similar to quantum mechanical computational methods and will fine-tune the model for tasks relevant to electrolyte design.

Mosharaf Chowdhury, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science,aims to develop Oobleck, a resilient hybrid-parallel training framework, to enable resilient distributed training of large generative AI models with consistently high throughput even in the presence of failures.

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Grants to spur innovations in generative AI, computational science ... - The University Record

ByJason Cohen in Features, Nov | Dec 2023 on November 1, 2023 at 12:01 am |

Most days, youre likely to find Katie Genter, PhD 17, in front of a laptop just not quite in the way that she would have expected when she was studying computer science at the Gates-Dell Complex. And especially not where she expected.

In the first nine months of 2023, Katie and her husband, JT Genter, have been to 68 cities and 22 countries. They started the year with a flight from Birmingham, Alabama, through Dallas, Texas, to Sydney, Australia, with stops in Brisbane, Hamilton Island, and Melbourne. This summer, the Genters attended a music festival at the Gorge in Central Washington in between a July spent mostly in France and an August in South Korea, China, and Japan. They also snuck into Austin for a couple of days, visited their families in Florida and Georgia, and attended a professional conference in Minneapolis before flying out of New York City for two weeks in Bali. By the time this issue of the Alcalde hits your mailbox, theyll be on a trip to Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, and the United Arab Emiratesthe latter for just one day to catch a flight to London. On any given night, Katie and JT might be RVing in a state park or dining on a flight where the service is fancy enough to merit actually enjoying the food.

But the Genters dont spend much money on travel at all. They are what some call points and miles peoplemasters of frequent flier programs, hotel loyalty programs, and credit cardsas well as digital nomads, without a permanent physical home since they emptied out their apartment the year Katie graduated. They have managed to turn their passions for both travel and savings into careers.

In most cases, digital nomad might mean someone who spends a few months or a year in one exotic place, working for an American company. The Genters instead live week-to-week, and sometimes even day-by-day. They also arent remote working per se, because the travel is the job. They are simultaneously journalists, participants, and role models in how to use points and miles. Katie is currently a writer and senior editor for the The Points Guy website, to which shes contributed since 2015, while JT, who also previously wrote for TPG, is currently editor-in-chief of the points and miles tracking service AwardWallet.

If you travel frequently for work or pleasure, you probably have a preferred airline, perhaps with an affiliated credit card. You probably stick with that airline in order to rack up the bonus miles and perks (early boarding, a free checked bag, seat upgrades) that come with elite frequent-flyer status. Maybe youve even signed up for one or two credit cards in recent years specifically to collect a welcome bonus or certain useful statement credits.

But those fundamentals have little in common with the Genters strategy. To pull it off requires a lot of research, work, and elaborate spreadsheets. Less necessary are Katies PhD in computer science or JTs background in accounting, though both certainly help. It also takes a lot of credit cardsKatie and JTs current total between them is 56, including eight new ones just in the past year.

The lifestyle is, needless to say, not for everybody.

Most people shouldnt even have eight cards, much less get eight cards in a year, Katie says.

It all started at RoboCup.

Thats an international robot soccer tournament, not a Paul Verhoeven movie. And whether you call it a sport or an academic research project (its both), its yet another area where The University of Texas excels. Its also what initially brought Katie Genter to Austin and then turned both the Genters into travelers.

The daughter of an accountant (mom) and a programmer (dad), Katie grew up in Cumming, Georgia, about an hour north of Atlanta, and got her bachelors in computer science at Georgia Tech. Thats where she met JTand also where she first attended RoboCup. The tournament, in which computer science students from around the world program robots to compete in soccer, was held there in 2007. Genter volunteered at the event, where she first encountered Peter Stone, UT computer science professor and director of the Texas Robotics program. When she decided to look at graduate schools, Stones influence and the students she met who were already in his Learning Agents Research Group made UT the perfect fit. Her plan then was the same as most PhD candidates: to eventually teach and conduct research as a professor herself. But first, there was RoboCup.

In 2011, RoboCup had been held in Istanbul; that became Katie and JTs first big international trip together, with time built in for tourism. The next year, Katie helped lead UTs Austin Villa team to victory in Mexico City as a second-year grad student. Even though the 2012 tournament was relatively close to home, JT had to miss it due to work. But he still got to be a big part of the championship celebration, lobbying the Office of the President to light the Tower orange to commemorate Austin Villas win.

He vowed never to miss another one again, especially with Katie joining the events organizing committee in 2013. RoboCup became their annual vacation: the Netherlands in 2013, Brazil in 2014. Katies travel expenses, at least for RoboCup itself, were covered by the team, while JT found himself cheap flights.

Then came 2015, when the tournament was in Hefei, China, and he couldnt find anything for less than $2,000 round-trip. By then JT had started following this website called The Points Guy and had even met the eponymous Points Guy himself, Brian Kelly, at South by Southwest that year. Feeling inspired, JT decided to apply for a Chase credit card that offered 70,000 Chase Points upon creation of the account.

I had no idea what Chase Points could get you, JT says. But I found out you could transfer them to United. And what do United miles get you? Oh, you can fly one-way to China for 35,000 miles. I was hooked after that. Soon Katie would be, too.

Over the next couple of years, JT started blogging himself and then freelancing for TPG, including writing about that first trip to China. Eventually he was contributing so much that he took a sabbatical from his accounting job to write and travel for a while. Instead, Kelly asked him not to go back to accounting. And Katie eventually joined The Points Guy as a freelancer. She wrote a fair amount of her PhD thesison the potential use of robotics to keep birds from flying into plane propellers and wind farm bladesaboard an airplane.

After Katie graduated, the Genters decided to go all-in to pursue their love of travel and the points-and-miles lifestyle. They packed up their house in Austins Far West neighborhood even as Katie defended her PhD (the easy part, compared to writing the thesis) and sold or gave away everything they owned except whatever could fit in their respective cars, which they then stashed at their parents houses. Ditching nearly all of their possessions was emotional but ultimately freeing, Katie says.

But they had no idea if any of it would be sustainablementally, physically, or financially.

I think we figured we would be on the road for about a year, Katie says. Maybe more. That was more than six years ago.

Technically, the Genters home is in Neptune Beach, Florida, where JTs mom lives. Thats where they send their mail, go to the dentist, have a library card, and vote. They also keep an RV in Georgia, where both Katies parents and JTs father live.

The RV was acquired early in the COVID-19 pandemic, which almost trapped them in Johannesburg, South Africa. As borders began to close, JT was able to get them both on the second-to-last Delta flight back to the United States.

The airport was pretty much apocalyptic, Katie says. People were panicking, flights were being canceled and delayed. Youre hearing the prices some people paid, and we felt very thankful that we got back on points.

In the first year of the pandemic, they lived with their respective parents for a whileand then, naturally, found an RV relocation rental that would allow them to road trip from Los Angeles to Dallas for $1 a day. They eventually bought a used RV of their own and drove full-time for about a year before returning to international travel in the (mostly) vaccinated world.

Part of their job, including JTs social media presence, is to show people how it can be done. To paraphrase Rene Zellwegers character in Jerry Maguire, first class used to be about a better meal, and now its about a better lifebut there are lots of ways to improve the travel experience without making it to first class.

For example, its unthinkable for the Genters not to check a bag each; they are on the road too much and for too long not to. Contact lens solution alone would have to be restocked constantly if they could only carry it in 3-ounce bottles. But they certainly dont pay checked bag fees. And if a canceled flight strands them for eight hours at an airport, they are probably relaxing in a lounge and/or have delay insurance, plus elite traveler status that means they dont have to stand in one of those interminable customer service lines to get rebooked.

Were not the travelers that are sleeping on the chairs in the terminal, JT says. We were those travelers back when, but not anymore. (Though they still fly coach plenty, the Genters note, especially with Southwests companion pass.)

The line between work and play can be fineand the work is still work. The booking (JT handles the flights; Katie, the accommodations), the writing, the transit itself, and the fact that they move around so much instead of hanging somewhere for a long time.

It can be exhausting, Katie says. You can feel like youre always working, not experiencing the place.

But since they are both essentially business reporters rather than experiential travel writers, once they turn in the story, they can have their fun. If theyre at the pool, its because they want to go to the pool, not because they have to get a picture of the pool for a hotel review. And while they delight in getting fed the best possible food for the least amount of money when they are in hotels, airline clubs, or planes, they are also not going to let that keep them from hitting all the restaurants they want to in Japan.

Will it ever end?

Teaching may still be in Katies future, but not so long as shes nomadic. And they even managed to bring a pet along with them for a while: Their cat Gracie, whom theyd gotten in 2006, put in a lot of miles. (According to her European pet passport, she was of German origin.) Gracie once wrote a fairly withering review of the then-Kimpton New York City hotel the Ink 48, and lived with Katies mom when she didnt join in on the travels. She died in 2022which ended up being another time that points and miles served for more than just fun, when the Genters booked a last-minute, cross-country flight to Georgia to be with her.

And kids? They arent sure if they want to have them, but if they do, they would by no means give up travel. They have met others who still travel full-time with children, for whom the entire world becomes their school. There are also so-called traveling circuses, or groups of nomadic families who have teachers in their group.

People ask us about this all the time, Katie says. Like, oh, when are you going to settle down? Where are you going to get a house? When are you going to stop doing this? And weve always just said, whenever we dont want to be doing this anymore.

CREDITS: Photographs by Jon Pack and courtesy of Katie Genter

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This Longhorn Is a World Traveler and Points Master - The Alcalde