eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

Space Force Outlines New Acquisition Plan For NSSL Phase 3 is published in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) Market Briefing and is included with your AWIN membership.

Already a member of AWIN or subscribe to Aerospace Daily & Defense Report through your company? Login with your existing email and password.

Not a member?  Learn how you can access the market intelligence and data you need to stay abreast of what's happening in the aerospace and defense community.

Safety Panel Outlines NASA Human Spaceflight Concerns is published in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) Market Briefing and is included with your AWIN membership.

Already a member of AWIN or subscribe to Aerospace Daily & Defense Report through your company? Login with your existing email and password.

Not a member?  Learn how you can access the market intelligence and data you need to stay abreast of what's happening in the aerospace and defense community.

timesreporter.com cannot provide a good user experience to your browser. To use this site and continue to benefit from our journalism and site features, please upgrade to the latest version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.

• Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome/
• Edge: https://www.microsoft.com/edge/
• Firefox: https://www.firefox.com/
• Safari: Update to latest version through the App Store

As humans we need and thrive on connections.

Laura Nguyen, president of CREW Coastal Virginia, said it’s apparent that more people are seeking those connections again due to the isolation they may have experienced throughout the pandemic.

Advertisement

In the business community, networking groups are continuing to pop up throughout Hampton Roads.

Nguyen, who is director of investor relations and marketing for Sentinel Net Lease, said that while Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other online platforms were wonderful tools that kept us safe and created efficiencies, they do not replace or match the in-person energy of networking.

Advertisement

“To see a warm smile in-person can change a person’s day,” she said. “I personally enjoy the opportunity networking provides for me to interact with people who are seeking common goals and connect my contacts so that we can all be successful.”

Because, Nguyen stressed, the key to success across all businesses is relationships.

“Networking groups provide the opportunity to create connections and build partnerships,” she said.

And networking provides professional benefits such as gaining industry knowledge, developing new ideas and solutions and improving personal and company visibility, she said.

“We saw a lot of change in the workforce and the workplace as a result of the pandemic,” Nguyen said. “When offices closed, our daily human interaction with colleagues came to a screeching halt. I think that is when people realized the power of their network and how important those relationships are to be successful.”

___

After a year of working as TechArk’s business development representative, Haley Morgan decided to start her own networking group, #DowntownNFKLadies.

Morgan, who will be promoted on April 1 to an account executive for the Norfolk-based website designer, said networking is her No. 1 job responsibility — one that has afforded her great relationships, mentors and the opportunity to create brand awareness for TechArk.

Advertisement

It seemed only natural for Morgan, a self-described people person known to use #yourfavredhead on LinkedIn, to bring female business professionals together in a “casual coffee chat environment.”

“I’m a big believer in connections and relationships,” Morgan said. “They are really the foundation of everything we do both professionally and personally.”

Started in November, the group really picked up traction in January, Morgan said. Her guest list currently totals 45 women representing a broad variety of industries. The group meets once a month in the morning in a different downtown Norfolk coffee shop.

“We talk about professional things, what’s going on in downtown Norfolk, what the industry trends are and how we can help each other professionally,” she said.

She also said it was about creating a safe space for mothers to talk freely about being working professionals.

Morgan said once a quarter, the group will meet for cocktails after hours to welcome those who can’t attend the morning meetings.

Advertisement

Within the next few months, Morgan said she will start #PeninsulaVALadies for female professionals on that side of the water.

And the two groups will likely converge for the cocktail hour as Morgan said she would like to connect women throughout the 757 — because that’s what networking is all about.

___

Nicole Campbell, assistant vice president of office leasing and sales for Divaris Real Estate, is in the beginning stages of creating her group, In-Motion Networking.

Campbell is looking for people in the business community, primarily in commercial real estate, who are interested in a different type of networking centered on fitness.

In her seventh year with the brokerage, Campbell, who said she considers herself to be healthy, realized she was sedentary between working at the computer and driving for work.

Advertisement

“As I was going into 2023, as most people do, I was trying to figure out what I can do for a new year to help my personal life that I hoped would bleed over into business,” Campbell said.

When she started to plan her upcoming calendar, Campbell steered away from the usual coffee and lunch dates and decided to pitch the idea for walking meetings instead.

John Kinsley, business development executive at Image Business Interiors, was the first to take Campbell up on her offer. The two met for an early morning walk at Mount Trashmore in January.

And that’s when the idea really seemed to have legs. Kinsley, equally excited, came up with the name.

“We thought it would be cool if we could try and figure out how to make this into a network business interaction but not just go to happy hour and have drinks,” Kinsley said.

Kinsley said being in the business development and sales world often leads to numerous networking events, and this just adds another option to the mix. Planned for biweekly, hourlong meetings every other Thursday afternoon, attendees can choose to walk, jog or run around the entire loop at the Virginia Beach park while talking shop.

Advertisement

If running or jogging isn’t on a participant’s agenda, Campbell said she hopes they will just come out to enjoy the fresh air and good company.

“I want to make sure that everybody knows they are welcome,” she said. “You don’t have to be a marathoner or be in super tiptop shape.”

___

Markella Mitcheison has always considered herself a “connector of sorts.” She founded Hampton Roads Networking Group in November 2020 on LinkedIn alongside Laurie DaPrano, real estate agent with Keller Williams Town Center, and Kim Nelson, account executive at 2-10 Homebuyers Warranty.

The three women, longtime friends and former employees on the advertising side of The Virginian-Pilot, created the all-inclusive and free group as a way to stay connected — first with each other and then with the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Advertisement

Mitcheison said Hampton Roads Networking Group started out virtually and evolved to monthly in-person events, ebbing and flowing as COVID waned and spiked. The group now has a large following of 400 members — the majority joining within the past three months.

While not all are currently active, Mitcheison said there is a large percentage of loyal followers, and she continues to poll members to ask the best times, days and locations for meetings.

“Sometimes we have mornings, sometimes we have lunch meetings, sometimes we have happy hours,” she said. “It’s nice because you get to see different people because it’s not always at the same time.”

Mostly South Hampton Roads-based to date, Mitcheison said she may add some events on the Peninsula in the future. The holiday event in December was held at Tapped Crafthouse in Virginia Beach with funds and blankets collected to benefit Samaritan House.

January’s event was at the Family Fun Xperience Theatre in Virginia Beach. February’s will be a speed networking event at Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group. March brings members to iFly in Virginia Beach; Eggleston Garden Center in Norfolk in April; and Rivers Casino Portsmouth in May.

“There’s been so much interest and not enough months,” she said.

Advertisement

Although casually formatted, most events consist of mingling, business card collection, a drawing, introductions and announcements, Mitcheison said.

HRNG is meant to not only connect people who may not meet otherwise, but also to help members promote themselves and their businesses, invite other local connections and, most of all, have fun, she said.

“I feel like it’s important to stay connected with others in the community and share ideas,” she said. “I think the more connections you have, it just seems like the more successful you’ll be.”

Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com

Hyperscale networking software company Arrcus today said it had gained $50 million in funding in a Series D round led by Prosperity7 Ventures.

Arrcus, formed in 2016, positions its software-defined networking technology as a ready solution for enterprises that want to flexibly connect to clouds, data centers and new 5G edge offerings.

An underlying driver of company growth is network modernization, Shekar Ayyar, Arrcus CEO and chairman, told VentureBeat. This modernization can include innovative implementations based on 5G “connected edge” networks that link hybrid and multicloud services with modern data centers.

Ayyar took the helm at Arrcus in 2021. This followed stints at VMware, Lucent and elsewhere. His background in both telecom and software is pertinent to Arrcus’ mission today.

“The market forces, as well as the technology evolution, has led to a blending of the infrastructure between enterprise cloud and communications,” Ayyar said. “Our use cases now are right at the nexus of this, though we’re squarely in the networking space.”

Ayyar described Arrcus as a disrupter, as software-defined architectures and “disaggregated infrastructure” play a role in the next generation of networking transport — primarily in routing and switching.

Expanding networking

As it pursues multicloud networking, Arrcus has forged partnerships with cloud infrastructure and services providers such as AWS, CoreSite, Equinix and others. Software players such as HashiCorp., RedHat, VMware and others also have worked with the company.

Activity also includes advanced network services development. Last year, Arrcus worked with SoftBank Corp to demonstrate automated 5G network slicing based on SRv6 Mobile User Plane, an architecture seen as important to next-generation mobile networking.

Arrcus also expanded in India, while growing its R&D operations and customer engineering support.

CoreSite chases software-defined flexibility

Arrcus’ support for software-defined programmability helps customers as they roll out new services and create new end-user interfaces. That’s according to Brian Warren, vice president of engineering and product at CoreSite, a carrier-neutral data center, co-location and peer services provider, and subsidiary of American Tower.

CoreSite has partnered with Arrcus in creation of the CoreSite Open Cloud Exchange, for high-performance cloud and data center interconnections. It can be described as cloud-connectivity as a service for enterprises.

Enterprises today implement complex solutions, Warren indicated. They need human expertise that can sometimes be a precious, hard-to-tap resource. So, networking applications need to become more end-user friendly.

“Traditional telecommunications services took weeks, if not months, to turn on or reconfigure,” he said. Now, with software-defined tooling, he continued, “the customer can go into a portal and program their connectivity between themselves and any other customer on the network.”

The Arrcus vision of the connected edge, multicloud networking and 5g are very complementary to CoreSite’s objectives, Warren said.

On the hunt for multicloud networking

Since its inception, Arrcus has built out an extensive product line, including the Arrcus Connected Edge (ACE) platform.

Also in the portfolio are solutions based on ACE such as its SRv6 Mobile User Plane for 5G networks, Virtualized Distributed Routing (VDR), Hyperscale Datacenter switching and the FlexMCN platform for multicloud networking connectivity.

Cloud migrations and anticipated private implementations of 5G networks are among the areas new Arrcus funding will help nurture.

With this financing round, Prosperity7 joins a collection of investors including Clear Ventures, Lightspeed, Silicon Valley Bank and others. Prosperity7 is a fund within Aramco Ventures, a subsidiary of Aramco.

TOKYO, Feb 1, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu will reveal how innovative open-network technologies and secure network solutions are creating new possibilities for a more sustainable world at MWC Barcelona 2023, the world's largest mobile industry exhibition.

This year's showcase will focus on the theme of "Opening innovation for people and the planet," with Fujitsu demonstrating how its latest network technologies, including solutions under Fujitsu Uvance, will contribute to the achievement of sustainability transformation (SX) for its customers and partners globally.

Fujitsu will additionally offer panel discussions with high profile guest speakers from customers and partners to deliver insights into prospects for network security in the present and future as it leads the way toward the realization of trustable networks, which will form the basis of a borderless world that promises to integrate physical and virtual space.

Fujitsu will welcome visitors this year to its exhibit at Booth 4E 20 (Hall 4), presenting a range of highlights, including:
- Demonstration of vRAN solutions that support mobile communications carriers and service providers to provide improved services while achieving carbon neutrality through low power consumption
- Demonstration of a network orchestration system that realizes automatic network control, leveraging Fujitsu's unique AI technology
- Presentation hosted by Rod Naphan, CTO of Fujitsu Network Communications, on network security initiatives, as well as a panel discussion with external experts focused on the creation of reliable and secure networks essential for connecting the physical and virtual space. Fujitsu's Session Page (MWC Barcelona 2023)
- Security services for open networks and initiatives to realize advanced security, delivering reliability to corporate activities in new digital domains, including the Metaverse and Web3
- Wireless access solutions that help reduce environmental impact through low power consumption and multi-band support
- Fujitsu's network vision for the 6G era and the high-performance semiconductor wafer technology that supports it
- Solutions to societal issues based on the theme of co-creation and the environment under Fujitsu Uvance, as well as private 5G solutions and edge computing services that support them

Overview of MWC Barcelona 2023 and Fujitsu Booth
Date: Monday, February 27, 2023 to Thursday, March 2, 2023
Venue: Fira Gran Via, Av. Joan Carles I, 64 08908 L 'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Fujitsu Booth: 4E 20 (Hall 4)

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu's purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. As the digital transformation partner of choice for customers in over 100 countries, our 124,000 employees work to resolve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Our range of services and solutions draw on five key technologies: Computing, Networks, AI, Data & Security, and Converging Technologies, which we bring together to deliver sustainability transformation. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$32 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 and remains the top digital services company in Japan by market share. Find out more: www.fujitsu.com.

Source: Fujitsu Ltd

Copyright 2023 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.

The public launch of ChatGPT has led to considerable dismay at schools and universities. However, a position paper authored by more than 20 scientists at TUM and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) working in educational, social, computer and data sciences shows that the so-called language models also present many opportunities for education. The work is published on the EdArXiv preprint server.

In this interview, the coordinator Prof. Enkelejda Kasneci explains how the new technology could benefit learners and make teachers' work easier.

The New York School District has banned the use of ChatGPT. It that the right way forward?

We think it's the wrong way. It's also the easy way out. The development of language models like ChatGPT is a technological milestone. There is no going back. The tools are in the world. They will get better and we have to learn how to use them constructively. We're convinced that they offer big opportunities for the empowerment of previously disadvantaged people. ChatGPT and similar programs can lead to greater educational equity.

Who could benefit from ChatGPT applications?

First, this is a tool that makes it possible for everyone in the world with internet access to learn—regardless of the quality of the education system in their own country. Second, it can help people to express themselves better in writing who otherwise have difficulty doing so, for example due to a disability. That can offer them new opportunities to participate in society.

And how about at school?

Here we see major potential for the personalized use of such tools to overcome the individual weaknesses of each child, to bring out strengths and contribute to constructive learning successes. We're talking about an AI-based tool that can recognize and produce various forms of text. Pupils could get suggestions for alternative wordings or better text compositions. That can help them Strengthen their ability to express themselves.

My research chair team has just developed a tool that can analyze an essay using large language models and provide feedback such as: "It would be better to use a consistent verb tense" or "You could pay more attention to the subjunctive." This feedback could be adjusted to the age and skill levels of the individual children.

At present, people seem to be panic that language learning will deteriorate.

We don't see it like that. On the contrary, applications like this can promote the understanding of language. But they can also be helpful in other subjects, for example by creating questions on a certain topic. Students preparing for exams at home could use it as a study partner that would focus on points where more work is needed. That is a level of individualized learning that would be difficult to achieve in the classroom.

So AI could make teachers' work easier, too?

We think so. Artificial intelligence could also support them in correcting schoolwork.

… that are generated with ChatGPT for pupils who want better grades.

Of course nobody can be certain that written homework is done without outside help. But these discussions remind me very much of the debates when Wikipedia was launched. Back then, people were panic that most homework would be copied from the internet. Then, as now, we have to start teaching children from the elementary school level the importance of not relying on the information of just one internet portal and that they need to check information and back it up with sources.

If a text automation program can write the answers for an exam, this also says something about the quality of the exam itself. We have to ask ourselves what teaching methods we are using and to what extent we are helping learners to acquire competencies such as critical thinking and problem solving skills.

What is needed to ensure that ChatGPT and similar models are actually used in beneficial ways in the classroom?

Researchers must deliver more robust conclusions on the effects of the language models on learning, how they can be used in a certain learning context and when they will be ready for use. Holistic teaching concepts and continuing education opportunities will also be needed for teachers. All of us need to work together and bring about a rapid response. And the providers must take issues surrounding data protection, security, bias and distortions in machine learning, intellectual property and transparency very seriously.

It will take some time before these goals are achieved. How can teachers deal with ChatGPT in the meantime?

We advise all teachers: try out these tools! Discover them together with your students. There are no limits on creativity as long as you maintain a critical perspective.