Education, Research & Public Sector

Los Angeles – October 02, 2026 -- Loyola Marymount University has received a $5.57 million gift from the Marymount Education Foundation (MEF), the largest contribution to date to its LMU Catholic High School Promise Program.

Gift funds up to 18 new scholarships annually across six partner high schools

The donation establishes the Marymount Scholars Program, a partnership between LMU, MEF and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles designed to guarantee admission and comprehensive financial support for qualified Catholic high school seniors. The program will support up to 18 new students each year from six participating schools: Bishop Conaty–Our Lady of Loretto High School, Bishop Mora Salesian, Cantwell–Sacred Heart of Mary College Prep, Junípero Serra High School, St. Bernard College Prep, and St. Pius X–St. Matthias Academy.

Singapore – October 02, 2026 -- AhaSlides has won the 2026 Training Magazine Network Choice Award in the Gamification & Game-Based Learning category, a prize decided entirely by votes from working L&D professionals rather than editorial judges.

Voting pool of 2,207 trainers cast 11,692 votes across 296 companies

The Choice Awards, run by Training Magazine Network's 100,000+ member base, collected ballots between April 28 and June 30, 2026, spanning seven categories. Training magazine Editor/Publisher Lorri Freifeld announced the results on September 29, 2026.

Denver – October 01, 2026 -- The Denver Museum of Nature & Science Board of Trustees has named Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History since 2012, as its next president and CEO, effective Feb. 1, 2027.

Johnson departs a museum holding 149 million specimens and drawing 4 million annual visitors

At the Smithsonian, Johnson has overseen the world's largest natural history collection and one of the institution's most visited sites. His tenure included the opening of the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils – Deep Time, a flagship exhibition tying Earth's biological history to contemporary issues.

Washington – October 01, 2026 -- The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) has awarded $1.5 million in scholarships to 100 students across 46 colleges and universities, naming its Class of 2026 Scholars as the organization approaches its 40th anniversary.

Nearly three-quarters of scholars attend HBCUs

Close to 75% of the 2026 cohort are enrolled at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The group spans 46 institutions, including Howard University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Technology and finance dominate scholar academic fields

Twenty-five scholars are studying computer science, information technology, data or cybersecurity, while 22 are pursuing finance, investment or banking. Seventeen are focused on business, management or supply chain, and 10 are studying engineering.

Charlotte, N.C. – October 01, 2026 -- Linewize, the North American division of Qoria, has won the Primary Education category of the Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence: Back to School 2026 for its EdTech Manager platform, while simultaneously launching the product's new Screen Time reporting feature nationwide this month.

EdTech Manager gives districts device-level visibility from classroom to student

The platform allows IT leaders and administrators to track daily screen time at the district, school, grade and individual student level, including splits between time spent at school versus at home. It also tracks app inventory, approval status, license costs, adoption rates and data privacy agreement compliance.

Alpharetta, Ga. – September 30, 2026 -- Mynd.ai, Inc. (NYSE American: MYND) said its subsidiary Promethean has launched an AI Companion for its Explain Everything app, using on-device artificial intelligence through Apple Intelligence to let educators convert classroom content into teaching materials within seconds.

AI Companion generates lesson materials directly on compatible Apple devices

Available now on devices running iPadOS 27 or iOS 27 with Apple Intelligence enabled, the tool lets teachers select text, images or drawings on an Explain Everything page and generate lesson plans, quizzes, vocabulary lists and suggested activities. Output appears directly within the Explain Everything canvas, eliminating the need to switch between platforms.

Los Angeles – September 30, 2026 -- USC has dedicated a new Korean Air Convergence Plaza at the center of its University Park Campus engineering corridor, formalizing a partnership tied to Korean Air Chairman and CEO Walter Cho, an alumnus of USC's MBA Class of 2006.

USC names outdoor collaboration hub after Korean Air at campus dedication event

USC President Beong-Soo Kim and Walter Cho, who also serves as Chairman of Hanjin Group, led Tuesday's ceremony alongside USC Trustees and guests. The plaza sits at the junction of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School for Computing and Artificial Intelligence, bordered by three academic buildings: the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Human-Centered Computation Hall, the Ray R. Irani Hall for Molecular and Computational Biology, and the Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience.

San Antonio – September 30, 2026 -- Frost & Sullivan has launched a Top Performers program to independently evaluate and spotlight high-performing college programs at U.S. institutions that often lack regional visibility beyond a 10-mile radius of campus.

Program targets program-level ROI rather than institutional rankings

The research analyzes academic programs based on graduate earnings, licensure outcomes, peer context, and career market indicators rather than evaluating entire institutions. Frost & Sullivan says most students attend college within 50 miles of home and compare a small number of nearby options primarily based on economic outcomes, a decision factor the company argues national rankings fail to address.

Pittsburgh – September 30, 2026 -- Nuventive has launched Executive Summary, a new AI capability within its Improvement Platform designed to cut the time higher education leaders spend surfacing insights from institutional data.

AI Tool Summarizes Institutional Narratives at Scale

Executive Summary uses AI to summarize data-informed narratives across an institution around key strategic initiatives, including learning outcomes, strategic planning, program review, and student success. The tool generates reports that highlight progress across programs, departments, and reporting cycles, using institution-defined prompts to surface information relevant to specific priorities.

Chennai – – September 30, 2026 -- MPS Limited said its Artificial Intelligence Management System has been certified to ISO/IEC 42001:2023, the first international standard for AI management systems, following a multi-stage external audit by DNV Business Assurance.

DNV audit confirms governed AI framework across risk, data and oversight controls

The certification, accredited by the Dutch Accreditation Council (RvA), confirms that MPS develops, deploys, and manages AI under a framework covering risk assessment, human oversight, data governance, transparency, and accountability across the full AI lifecycle. Every AI initiative within the certified scope is subject to structured risk and impact assessment, defined controls, and continuous monitoring.