Public Sector, Education & Research

Shanghai – September 24, 2026 -- WhalesBot has launched EliteMind, a modular Physical AI robot that lets elementary and middle school students deploy AI models built on-screen into real-world sensing and action tasks.

EliteMind runs on WhalesBot's proprietary W-Hong LLM

The robot integrates intent recognition, voice interaction, visual understanding, and AI-powered creation with physical control, forming a complete perception-reasoning-action loop. Its lightweight, modular design allows sensors and actuators to be reconfigured across different robotic builds, letting students test varied real-world AI applications.

Grand Rapids – September 24, 2026 -- The Grand Rapids Housing Commission (GRHC) hosted camera crews from the Public Television series "All Access hosted by Andy Garcia" on September 23, 2026, for a segment examining how the agency is combining rental assistance, affordable housing development, and resident services to address a tightening West Michigan housing market.

GRHC administers federal rental assistance to thousands of West Michigan households

The Commission delivers housing support through public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, Project-Based Vouchers, and other federally funded programs, reaching thousands of individuals and families in Kent County.

Shanghai – September 24, 2026 -- Pearson has warned that early-career workers in skilled trade, technical and service occupations are entering the workforce without the AI literacy, human skills and hands-on experience employers now require simultaneously. The findings come from a new report, "For Every Future: Preparing Early-Career Skilled Trade, Technical and Service Talent for an AI-Infused World," launched at the WorldSkills International Conference 2026 in Shanghai.

Oakland – September 24, 2026 -- The Kapor Center unveiled its PRIME Alliance at the Clinton Global Initiative, selecting El Paso, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Oakland, California as the inaugural cohort for a multiyear program designed to fast-track partnerships between local governments and startups tackling housing, child care, health care, education, workforce development, and financial stability gaps.

September 24, 2026 – New York -- Funders for Mutual Aid in Sudan, a coalition coordinated by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP), has mobilized more than $16 million for community-based relief groups and pledged an additional $5 million in flexible funding by the end of 2027.

Clinton Global Initiative honors Sudanese responders with 2026 Citizen Award

Former President Bill Clinton presented the Clinton Global Citizen Award to Sudan's community-based mutual aid groups at the CGI 2026 Annual Meeting in New York, recognizing networks such as the Emergency Response Rooms that have delivered food, education and other services to more than 20 million people since the civil war began in April 2023.

Portland, Ore. – – September 24, 2026 -- Asian Hall of Fame (AHOF) will host its annual Power of Portland gala at Waverley Country Club on September 25, raising funds for 100 National Scholarship Awards benefiting women in tech, entertainment and sports.

Scholarship fund draws applicants from 32 states and Puerto Rico

The awards support qualified women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds seeking to remain in school and advance career goals in technology, entertainment and sports sectors. KOIN 6 Anchor Elizabeth Dinh will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the event, which runs from a 4:30 p.m. red carpet preshow through a dinner program ending at 7:30 p.m.

San Diego – September 24, 2026 -- CollegeSource CEO Kerry Cooper has been named a Best Global EdTech Leader Finalist in the 2026 Tech Edvocate Awards, recognizing more than five decades of work on transfer credit and degree-planning technology for higher education institutions.

Cooper has led CollegeSource since 2005 after joining the firm in 1973

Cooper's tenure spans the transition from printed college catalogs to cloud-based platforms and current AI-enabled tools used by registrars and academic advisors. CollegeSource serves more than 2,100 institutions and millions of students through its transfer and degree-completion products.

Richmond Hill, ON – September 24, 2026 -- Edsby has launched Forms & Workflows, a digital approvals system designed to eliminate paper-based permission slips, medical disclosures and code of conduct sign-offs across K-12 school districts.

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board becomes first deployment partner

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, an Ontario district serving 34,000 students and an Edsby client since 2014, is among the first to roll out the new system, using it to digitize field trip permission processes. Owen McIntosh, the district's Information Technology Manager, said the board evaluated multiple vendors before selecting Edsby, citing the company's willingness to tailor the solution to the board's specific approval hierarchy.

Samarkand, Uzbekistan – September 24, 2026 -- Timur Turlov, a candidate for FIDE President, has proposed that Ukraine nominate its own candidate for FIDE Vice President should his ticket win the September 26 election in Samarkand.

Turlov calls for a dedicated Ukrainian voice in FIDE leadership

Turlov, running alongside five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, made the proposal in a post on X, describing Ukraine as "one of the world's great chess nations" with generations of players and coaches. He argued that FIDE "cannot operate in isolation from what is happening in the world" and that Ukraine "should have its own voice in the room when decisions are discussed and made."

Ventura County – September 23, 2026 -- Ventura County's nonprofit sector generated more than $3.6 billion in economic activity in 2024, roughly 5% of the county's GDP, yet 46% of operating nonprofits recorded an operating deficit that year, the highest rate in a six-year study period, according to a new report from the Center for Nonprofit Leadership (CNL) at California Lutheran University.

Nonprofit revenue per resident trails California by 63%

The 2026 Ventura County Nonprofit Sector Report found nonprofit revenue per resident stood at approximately $4,388 in 2024, about 37% of California's statewide level. Nonprofit assets per resident reached roughly $5,836, only 29% of the state figure, despite Ventura County having a comparable number of nonprofits per capita as California overall.