Is Toyota Breaking Ground, or Playing Catch-Up?
Laura Putre | IndustryWeek
Nov 11, 2015
With what’s under the hood fast becoming less important that what’s in the programming and circuitry, the race is on for automakers to stake a claim in Silicon Valley. The latest contender is Toyota, which last week announced it was investing $1 billion in a new company dedicated to artificial intelligence research.
The Toyota Research Institute Inc. will straddle two coasts, with headquarters in Silicon Valley near Stanford University and a second facility in Cambridge, Mass., near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Toyota is also investing an additional $50 million each in Stanford and MIT to establish joint artificial intelligence research centers.
For the rest of the story visit Industry Week.
Alabama helps NASA 3-D print what astronauts need – even a backscratcher
By Lee Roop
on November 16, 2015 at 3:54 PM, updated November 17, 2015 at 3:27 PM
What’s astronaut “Butch” Wilmore’s favorite of the objects he worked on as the first person to 3-D print objects in space? The torque wrench was pretty cool, but it just might be his custom backscratcher.
“One thing we did not have on station was a backscratcher,” Wilmore said on a Monday visit to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. “My back was itching, and I was pushing against the bulkhead and sooo wanted a back-scratcher.”
Wilmore made history as the first astronaut to 3-D print objects in space this year, and it might sound like he’s joking. But the backscratcher story reveals how complicated this process can be.
For the rest of the story visit AL.com.
SEUS Japan: How Japan business ties add horsepower to Southeast growth
By Made in Alabama
November 16, 2015
As leaders from seven Southeastern states gather with their Japanese counterparts for a high-level forum in Birmingham, this longstanding Trans-Pacific relationship is positioned to strengthen as trade and investment ties expand.
Those strong economic bonds provide the foundation for the SEUS Japan 38 joint forum that began this past weekend in Alabama’s largest city, an event that drew scores of corporate leaders, political officials and economic development specialists from Japan and across the region.
SEUS Japan 38 is a reminder of the significant cultural and commercial links between the Asian nation and the states that make up the Southeast-U.S. Japan Association: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
For the rest of the story visit Alabama News Center.