Month: March 2023

Like many innovation stories, Jahmir Hamilton’s began when he observed a need.

“I’ve been gaming on immersive role-playing platforms since I was about 10 years old,” Hamilton, now 19 and a sophomore at North Carolina Central University, said. “When a child is in that online world, it’s like they’re alone; they don’t have a parent or guardian to watch out for them. I had a couple of experiences with predators, people trying to get your personal information. By the time you click on something, it’s too late.”

Fortunately, Hamilton’s parents, Joseph and Tracy, had warned him of the dangers and he was able to keep himself safe. “A lot of my ideals come from my parents,” he said. “They taught me from a young age that it’s important to be the difference in the ways that you can.”

True to that mindset, Hamilton thought about the online safety issues and the potential for a responsible game development company to make a positive difference. So, he created IX Studio.

“IX Studio creates immersive role-playing games for people of all ages to enjoy,” Hamilton said. “What separates us from other game design companies is that we try to take accountability for the dangers our games could present through the Internet. We develop relationships with our gamers on [social platform] Discord to minimize the threats accessible to the kids. I feel it’s our responsibility to take safety seriously.”

On Feb. 3, Hamilton’s business idea placed first at the inaugural PNC North Carolina HBCU Initiative Pitch Competition, where the student-entrepreneur won a $2,500 cash prize for his pitch, IX Studio: Empowering others, through gaming. He competed against eight other teams, with entrants from Elizabeth City State University and Winston-Salem State University finishing second and third, respectively.

The competition, judged by a multi-disciplinary panel on attributes like innovation, feasibility and professionalism, builds on the Feb. 2022 launch of the PNC North Carolina HBCU Initiative, an effort designed to enrich the future of entrepreneurship and workforce opportunities for students at the five N.C. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) represented at the competition, which also included Fayetteville State University and Johnson C. Smith University.

A total of more than $2 million in grant funding from PNC Foundation is being awarded to these five institutions over a three-year period to support the development and delivery of entrepreneurship resources and programming.

A business owner at age 19

Hamilton learned of the pitch competition with just days to prepare. Collis Arrick, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at North Carolina Central, recommended him for the event after becoming an informal advisor to Hamilton, an IT major who needed some business advice.

“My company was already generating revenue, and someone was trying to buy it for $60K,” Hamilton said. “I have no business experience, and my dad and uncle gave me the advice to find someone in my business department who knows business.

“I met Mr. Arrick, who said he was going to have his son play one of my games that same night. The next day he called and told me about the pitch competition, saying, ‘You have four days. If you think you can do it, I want you to go.’ I immediately took the opportunity; win or lose, I’m here for the experience.”

Hamilton called the pitch competition a “very unique experience” that he never expected to win, especially when many other competitors had several months to prepare and had participated in pitch competitions at their respective institutions. “It was such a good environment, and I never saw such a group of creative ideas and bright minds,” he said. “The judges had great insights and offered everyone feedback.”

“The competition provided a forum for North Carolina’s future business leaders to share their unique approaches to entrepreneurship and the creation of innovative products, services and solutions – while demonstrating skills and learnings from entrepreneurship programming and resources made possible through the PNC North Carolina HBCU Initiative,” said Weston Andress, PNC regional president for Western Carolinas.

“Based on the student presentations we saw during the competition and the meaningful learnings and advancements taking place in these institutions’ classrooms and communities every day, it’s clear that the future is bright for innovation and entrepreneurship in North Carolina,” added Jim Hansen, PNC regional president for Eastern Carolinas.

True to his values

For Hamilton, growing as an entrepreneur pays off not just for him, but for a community of about 30 developers he has working with him from around the U.S. as contractors.

“Discord [a VoIP and instant messaging social platform] has a talent hub, and they reach out to me with their portfolios,” he said. “I try to help everybody increase their exposure, earn money and make sure they have a seat at the table. When I don’t know the answer, someone on the team knows the answer. It’s a great workspace where everybody is humble, collaborative and diverse.”

The value he places on diversity is one reason why attending an HBCU was important to Hamilton, a Charlotte native.

“Often we can’t get into spaces because we don’t understand those spaces, and a lot of students don’t understand the opportunities that college presents to them,” he said. “I want to try to get my hands into a little bit of everything and set a high standard that inspires my peers, so that they can go on to inspire their peers.”

“Jahmir’s goals are reflective of how HBCUs and their student-entrepreneurs are contributing to Black economic mobility in communities across the country,” said Gina Coleman, PNC’s chief diversity officer. “HBCUs have a rich history dating back to the 19th century, with many already engaged in activities designed to enhance Black entrepreneurship. The added investment of support and resources helps to propel these future business leaders, as they complete their higher education journey within these historic institutions.”

As for Hamilton’s business, he plans to put his $2,500 prize money right back into his games.

“I want to build at least two more games by the time I graduate in 2025 and help our platform get more reach to these kids, and not just for monetary gain,” said Hamilton. “I want us to be the company that makes it and keeps our values.”

A bright future

The PNC North Carolina HBCU Initiative aligns with PNC’s support for HBCUs throughout the country and complements the ongoing offerings of the Howard University and PNC National Center for Entrepreneurship. Additionally, the grant funding is part of PNC’s nationwide $88 billion Community Benefits Plan, which is inclusive of a previously announced commitment of more than $1 billion to support the economic empowerment of Black and low- and moderate-income communities.

Hamilton hopes to make an impact even closer to home.

“My brother, who’s a high school senior, plays a lot of games, and my sister is a high school freshman,” he said. “Not only do I want to protect them online, but I want them to be able to see that, whatever you want to do, you can make it happen.”

Originally published on NRG Energy Insights

By NRG Editorial Voices

Since 2011, NRG has awarded high school seniors the NRG Chairman’s Scholarship for displaying outstanding academic performance, exemplary extracurricular performance, and modeling NRG’s core values. Available to students of NRG employees, the scholarship honors Howard E. Cosgrove, NRG’s first Chairman of the Board and dedicated champion of education.

2022 scholarship winners:

Darshan Lakshimarayanan, Physics at Rutgers University

Sala Tran-Huu, Computer Science at the University of Houston

In addition to awarding this year’s winners, we followed up with several past recipients to hear how the award has impacted their lives. 

We also learned where former recipients are on their journeys.

Zenetta Hinojosa

The University of Texas at San Antonio

BS in Psychology with Neuroscience / Biology Minors

Graduation Year: 2025

Tell us a little about yourself

I’m originally from Corpus Christi, Texas. My favorite things to do when I have free time include painting, reading, and finding ways to make a better cup of chai tea.

Tell us about your current career ambitions and/or accomplishments

After I graduate from UTSA, I hope to gain admission into a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program. My future goal is to have my own research lab at a university and a private practice. To foster these ambitions, I have joined two psychology labs at UTSA focusing on identity development in minority populations. Last summer, I had the opportunity to conduct behavioral neuroscience research at The University of Pennsylvania in the Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation.

How has receiving the Chairman’s Scholarship positively impacted you?

The NRG Chairman’s Scholarship has granted me mobility in not only my educational ambitions but also my educational curiosities. Often, people are hesitant to explore their dreams fearing failure and the implications these fears could have on moving forward. Although this scholarship is a source of assistance, the faith and reassurance it instills is a continuous source of support. I am now a better student, but more importantly, a stronger learner.

What advice do you have for those considering applying for the scholarship?

For students applying for the scholarship, show that you have aspirations above being successful. How are your unique talents going to help people? Education is our unlimited potential. Remember that your work is valuable.

How do you empower others to make progress in their journeys?

As human beings, one of our greatest attributes is gratitude. Whenever I feel lost or overwhelmed, I write a list of things, large or small, that I can appreciate. If someone around me feels stuck, the first thing I recommend is to try encouraging or serving someone else. We often forget how much we inspire each other and how vital positivity can be on our journeys. In times of regret, intimidation, or worry, serving others is a safe haven.

Sam Dietrich

Harvey Mudd College

BS Engineering with Electrical / Computer Engineering focus

Graduation Year: 2017

Tell us a little about yourself

I am from Houston, Texas, and recently moved to the Seattle area. I have a one-year-old son who loves to hike (when it isn’t raining).

Tell us about your current career ambitions and/or accomplishments

After graduating, I spent four years in Los Angeles building hardware and software for experimental satellites and terrestrial research systems. I am currently at Microsoft developing programmable hardware accelerators for Azure. I hope to further develop my skills on both sides of the hardware/software divide.

How has receiving the Chairman’s Scholarship positively impacted you?

The scholarship enabled me to attend my first-choice school, where I discovered my passion and found great professors and opportunities. It made the potentially hard decision of choosing a post-secondary school much easier.

What advice do you have for those considering applying for the scholarship?

It is hard to find the motivation to submit more applications on top of college applications, and I was hesitant to apply for some scholarships because the acceptance rates seemed low. The right scholarship is worth much more than the time spent applying. Don’t filter yourself out of selection before it has even begun by not applying. Leave it up to the scholarship committee to determine if you are a good fit.

How do you empower others to be innovative?

Listening is the best way to empower people around you. Letting someone explain their ideas to you and asking meaningful questions helps their ideas fully develop. You often hear a new perspective you hadn’t considered before that will broaden your horizons and become a tool for your own innovations.

Bethany Holtz

Gettysburg College (BS), Saint Joseph’s University (MS)

BS and MS in Biology

Graduation Years: 2016, 2022

Tell us a little about yourself

I’m from Medford Lakes, NJ, where I’ve lived my whole life. I love my hometown nestled in NJ’s Pinelands. In fact, I ran (unsuccessfully) for a seat on the Borough Council. Growing up in a town filled with lakes helped develop my love for nature and water. In high school, I engaged in various environmental science activities like Envirothon and Science Olympiad. In college, I pursued a degree in Environmental Science and Art Studio. A winter break spent volunteering at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ, solidified my desire to pursue a career in marine biology. While there, I encountered my first sea turtle, and my heart set. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family, surfing, flying my drone, posting interior design creations on Instagram, and tending to my marine habitat, a saltwater aquarium filled with clownfish, starfish, and various invertebrates.

Tell us about your current career ambitions and/or accomplishments

I am currently the Outreach Manager at SEE Turtles, a nonprofit geared toward conservation and connecting the general public with sea turtles. I work on various projects, including Sea Turtle Week, an international public awareness and education event that occurs each June. I’ve conducted sea turtle research along the southern Atlantic coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean. While building field laboratories, I’ve studied sea turtles and their nesting areas in remote locations. My field research has been published, and I have presented at international sea turtle conferences.

To advance in my field and continue my research projects, I am looking to pursue a Ph.D. in marine biology. During this time, I hope to work on projects geared toward conserving these endangered animals. I also hope to engage and help educate the public about ocean conservation issues.

How has receiving the Chairman’s Scholarship positively impacted you?

The NRG Chairman’s Scholarship allowed me to go to a college of my choice. I was able to choose a small liberal arts school where I could pursue my love of science and art at the same time. Being in a smaller school without huge 400-student-sized lectures allowed me to connect personally with professors and develop meaningful relationships that have lasted to this day. One of these relationships with my professors led to my first research opportunity with sea turtles. This research question resulted in several projects I am still working on. Other relationships allowed me to develop my interest in photography, which I have used to photograph animals and ecosystems.

What advice do you have for those considering applying for the scholarship?

Applying for the NRG Chairman’s Scholarship is like applying for anything else. I recommend putting your best foot forward and highlighting what makes you unique. Use the application to share what makes you an individual and what your passions are. Grades and extracurricular activities are important, but the Scholarship Committee wants to know they are investing in someone’s future. Let the Scholarship Committee know what makes you different and what you hope to go on to pursue, and make that investment worthwhile.

How do you empower others to make progress in their journey?

Now that I have worked my way up in the science field, I try to provide others with what would have helped me at the beginning of my college career. For example, this past year, I was able to add an assistant to my field research project. I recruited a young woman who had taken care of my pet turtle and tortoise while I was traveling (she was in high school at the time). In her, I saw the same passion I had at her age. When the research assistant opportunity came along, she was a sophomore at Miami University on a marine biology track and my choice for the role. I brought her to St. Croix and introduced her to the unglamorous parts of being a field scientist — the long, hot sticky days and sandy nights. It was a real in-field experience, far from a classroom or university lab.

At grad school, I helped my lab mates navigate state and federal permitting processes to research protected turtle species and develop research proposals. My NRG-funded Gettysburg College experience catapulted me ahead in my chosen field. I am grateful for where I am and try to share my knowledge and experiences when they are helpful.

Catching up with the future

It’s inspiring to follow up with these talented young leaders-in-the-making as they move forward with focus, a good sense of themselves, and optimism for a world they will soon inherit. NRG is honored to provide scholarships that invest in our collective future.

Three-time patent-granted Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. engineer, Dr. Kelly Tchambake, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion manager, Tyrene Essell, came together to inform and inspire.

And this is a conversation you won’t want to miss: This astute inventor is putting her dreams, inspirations, obstacles, collaborations, resources, culture, and more on the table for you.

Tyrene Essell (TE): Tell us a little bit about yourself; Where did you grow up, and what inspired your interest in engineering?

Dr. Kelly Tchambake (KT): I was born and raised in Cameroon. I have three siblings, and my mother worked in a shipping company in Douala, Cameroon, Central Africa, where we lived. My father was a mechanical engineer who had a lot of ideas and created three startups back in Cameroon. And he had a real passion for technology, he used his phone a lot — like a lot. And he always mentioned about the heat he was experiencing from his phone. This motivated me to understand how mobile phones work, but also to understand and try to find a solution to the heating issue he had with his phone. Ultimately, this inspired me to become an engineer.

After graduating in Cameroon, I pursued undergraduate and my graduate studies, respectively, in Toulouse and Bordeaux. Then I attended Texas Tech University for a research internship. After serving as an application engineer intern at Broadcom Inc. in the San Francisco Bay area, I went to France for my PhD at Télécom Paris.

This is when things came full circle: My PhD subject was a new circuit to improve the efficiency of power amplifiers. Power amplifier is one of the most power-hungry components in our mobile phones. And this is one of the main heat sources that you may have experienced in your phone. And this is also — in part — why, after my PhD, I ultimately landed at Qualcomm in Cambridge.

TE: Can we talk about how that was a lot? Black History Month’s theme is resilience, and you are an inspiration to this value. You’ve worked at Qualcomm for five years that you’ve worked on radio frequency (RF) and analog design teams in Cambridge, England. Tell us about your work. What keeps you inspired and why Qualcomm?

KT: I work as an engineer on the design team at Qualcomm, focusing on voice and music applications. We work on state-of-the-art circuits and chips for products like headphones. My work is mainly to design blocks of the Bluetooth radio. Let’s say for example, in an ear bud, I design the Bluetooth subblocks inside this radio, which is pretty cool, to be honest. I particularly like the noise cancellation feature. So, we work on a lot of a lot of things.

At Qualcomm I really like and am inspired by, firstly, environment, which is to be honest, really good. People are open and my colleagues are very, very talented and are very human, they understand yourself… it’s great. Really, I really like my colleagues, to be honest.

TE: Wow, that’s great. It’s important to like your colleagues, especially because we all spend so much time together. Qualcomm really is a special place. And I do think there are so many teams across the company, that are just super supportive, very innovative, and great listeners. And it seems like you’ve been able to find all three of those things within your teammates. 

TE: I’d love to hear more about your journey as an inventor. What advice would you give to aspiring women and underrepresented minority inventors.

KT: When I interviewed at Qualcomm, I was inspired and impressed to see my colleagues’ ideas on the Qualcomm patent wall, knowing the end-user products have a big impact in people’s life. After joining the company, I started to work on a new analog-to-digital converter implementation, and after working several hours with two colleagues on this idea, we realized we had a new architecture that has not been implemented. That’s when we knew it was time to start our patent application. We applied for a patent and a year after the patent was granted. So that’s how I arrived at my first patent.

TE: What advice do you have for other women investors or inventor-hopefuls?

KT: To have a purpose. And to have a problem you would like to solve — this will be your drive. Plus, come up with new ideas: It’s ideal to have a problem to solve because you want to impact people’s lives.

Number two is to be curious: be resilient and persistent. This is important when you have doubts or need to overcome setbacks and challenges.

And number three — the most important one — is to reflect. Reflect on mistakes to avoid them in the future. But also reflect on successes to be more efficient the next time you face the same issue.

TE: Being resilient, being curious, and then also learning ways to be more efficient: I love that. It’s reflective, but it’s also forward thinking. How would you explain to someone how your patents and inventions help them enjoy their everyday lives? The work you do is very cool, but at the end of the day, does touch people’s everyday lives?

KT: My patents are on new architectures of analog to digital converters ADC, a device which converts an analog signal, which is sometimes a sine wave into a digital signal, which is a series of zeros and ones. The purpose of converting the signal is to process the data and process the signal with our phone… In our phones we have, for example, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and radios. In each of these radios, we have ADC, so we use ADCs a lot.

Nowadays we want to have smaller devices and devices that do not consume a lot of power. My invention allows people with earbuds, for example, to have a better sound quality, and to use a smaller device, which means that the buds can be even smaller.

TE: I know I love the smaller earbuds, and it just makes it seamless, whether I’m walking or exercising, and most of the things that you all are thinking about the factors that you’re considering when you’re working on this technology. So, I appreciate the work that you’re doing. 

TE: Let’s talk more about Qualcomm and the culture here, and how it’s supported your ability to invent and create new technologies.

KT: Qualcomm truly has a culture of innovation — purposeful innovation, to ease people’s life. We are encouraged to innovate and to express our ideas. And we have a lot of resources to find new ideas: we can go to conferences, we have internal conferences, and we have trainings. We also have a lot of resources to demystify the patent process, because patenting can be complicated if you don’t know how it works. There are also workshops, formal mentorships, and role models, all with support from the management.

In addition to that, we have a diverse team. For example, in my team, we have seven people from five different countries. So, when for example, someone comes up with a challenge, you can end up with at least three different ways to solve the problem. This diversity of culture encourages innovation.

In addition, we value collaboration. We’re encouraged to work with different teams; for example, we work with teams, other teams in Cambridge, but we also work with people in different countries — in the United States, France, Germany, India, and Taiwan. This inspires brainstorming to find new ideas. We are encouraged to express our ideas without any judgment. And that’s excellent for innovation.

TE: This speaks to Qualcomm’s value of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how inclusivity really fosters innovation and that collaborative community that is so central to Qualcomm’s culture. Thank you for sharing that. I want you meet your teammates, because they sound amazing. Is there anything else you’d like to share about your resilience and what continues to keep you motivated?

KT: I have a personal story about resilience: When I was in engineering school, we had mock interviews and identified real jobs we’d like to apply for. Weirdly, I went with two offers: one from Broadcom and the other from Qualcomm. I was dreaming of working for Qualcomm even back then.

This goes to show that, when you have your dream, do not give up on it. Keep pushing, keep chasing, keep working hard, and definitely, definitely there’s only one way to get success.

TE: Kelly, I appreciate you. Thank you for you sharing your story. It’s important for other inventors to hear it, especially women and underrepresented minority inventors. You’re keeping us all inspired.

IBM Blog

A 2021 United Nations report finds that 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries which, according to the World Health Organization, is expected to be exacerbated in some regions due to climate change and population growth.

To sustain lives on Earth, we must protect the health of its water resources and be efficient in our consumption, including minimizing waste in water distribution. These tasks involve a variety of equipment, assets, and people, and at IBM, we have deep experience in using technology to bring together data and systems to assist. We know how to connect and contextualize information from various sources, and how to leverage AI to translate such data into actionable insights—ones that can make a true difference in solving sustainability challenges like these.

Our sustainability solutions enable organizations to marry data with AI insights so they can better manage operations and optimize them. With data-driven technology, we can help organizations reduce waste and protect our precious water resources to meet the needs of current and future generations.

Eliminating Waste

One type of waste is unaccounted-for or non-revenue water (NRW)—water that has been produced but is “lost” before it reaches the user. The World Bank estimates that some 45 million cubic meters of water are lost daily due to issues like leaks and pipe bursts—adding up to a value of over US$3 billion per year. Merely cutting the amount of NRW in developing countries by half would translate to enough fresh water to serve around 90 million people.

The first step in cutting NRW is knowing where it is occurring, and that’s where IBM’s sustainability solutions can help. For example, the IBM Maximo Application Suite incorporates various sources of information from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and visual inspection data, and applies AI to detect anomalies in pipes or pumps. If the system pressure drops and flow levels surge, operators will receive a real-time alert that a pipe burst has occurred. Maximo is also effective at detecting smaller changes that are indicative of minor leaks or malfunctions in pumping equipment.

Another way to cut NRW involves better management of the overall health of water distribution systems. Many municipalities and companies operate infrastructure with aging components. Even in developed countries, water and sewer pipes can remain in use for well over a century. To maintain these systems, organizations will often schedule routine maintenance work based on the age of components. Yet the oldest pipes in a system might not necessarily be the ones that are in the worst condition.

Maximo—and the IBM TRIRIGA Application Suite—can help monitor and manage water infrastructure and provide predictive insights that enable more informed decisions. Maximo comes with out-of-the-box tools designed specifically for the water industry to predict where issues will likely arise based on the analysis of KPIs. With a range of custom predictive analytics tools, engineers and operators can have improved visibility to the integrity of their infrastructure and reduce NRW events. Utility companies can also avoid expenses associated with unnecessary maintenance on infrastructure that is performing perfectly fine.

To help improve access to safe drinking water to all, IBM is committed to continuing to offer our technology to support this cause. This year, the new cohort of our IBM Sustainability Accelerator—our global, pro bono social impact program—will apply IBM technologies and expertise to scale innovative water management solutions. IBM will look to support projects that help improve equitable access to safe drinking water for all, improve water quality by reducing pollution, increase water-use efficiency across all sectors, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, increase sanitation management, and reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity – among other purposes.

Protecting Quality

In addition to minimizing water waste, we must also protect the quality of water resources. For example, for the past 10 years, IBM has been working with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Lake George Association, a non-profit lake advocacy group, at Lake George in upstate New York. Our shared goal has been to monitor anthropogenic changes to the lake, or those environmental changes influenced directly or indirectly by people. The project employs a sophisticated system of IoT sensors, AI, analytics technologies, and predictive computer models to paint a detailed, real-time, and ongoing picture of the water’s quality and movement. When a health and public safety issue emerges—like a harmful algal bloom (HAB), which can render water undrinkable for humans and animals—this project helps us understand the cause.

At Lake George, IBM Research’s scientists and engineers developed an integrated platform to perform visualization and analytics of nearly every important aspect of the lake and its surrounding watershed. This platform pulled in detailed weather data from IBM at a 330-meter resolution and 10-minute intervals, including: temperature, precipitation, wind speed, air pressure, and solar radiation. The data is then fed into a hydrological model with information on rainfall and snow melt, so the team can understand the rate and direction of the water flowing into the lake. This combined data in turn feeds a hydrodynamic model, which explains how water is moving within the lake itself.

The result of this work is a picture of how the lake’s physics, chemistry, and biology are changing—from the rise in chloride levels caused by the runoff of anti-icing salt used on the surrounding roadways, to the presence of nutrients from septic systems, wastewater treatment plants, and fertilizers that could be contributing to HABs. The team then runs computer models to calculate how these alterations can be reversed through better controls and advises the local municipality on best practices for their remediation. In response to models that showed the lake’s resiliency, or, its ability to return to more pristine conditions should salinated runoff be curbed, the Lake George Association launched The Lake George Road Salt Reduction Initiative.

The open-source technology has already had its foundation applied to other lakes around the country, including Chautauqua Lake in Western New York and Skaneateles Lake in the Finger Lakes district in New York.

Improving Operations

Significant challenges exist toward meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of water and sanitation for everyone by 2030, and achieving these goals will need all of the good ideas and collaboration we can muster, aided by technology. Fortunately, collecting the underlying data necessary to assess our progress against sustainability goals is increasingly a priority for businesses and governments, and technology has not only enabled improved insights from, but also greater transparency of data. These insights and new transparency have allowed businesses, governments, and local communities to partner in new way through more holistic decision making that meet their collective needs.

For example, in Melbourne, Australia, the government-owned authority that protects and manages major water resources for the city, Melbourne Water, treats about 90% of sewage at their Eastern and Western Treatment Plants. One of Melbourne Water’s primary expenses is its energy consumption, which is required to support activities of water management. Their energy consumption accounts for about half the total carbon emissions of the state’s water sector. Mindful of the water-energy nexus, Melbourne Water is using the IBM Envizi ESG Suite to help proactively manage its portfolio of transactional energy data and to eliminate the data retention and reporting challenges hindering improvements in operational efficiency and advancements against sustainability goals.

Now, Melbourne Water stakeholders have a direct view into a single source of data for all of the organization’s energy and emissions metrics. Using Envizi reporting tools and leveraging the value of data to support its sustainability efforts, Melbourne Water has been able to focus on protecting the public water supply and meeting the needs of its customers while lowering its operational impact on climate.

While there are numerous important issues facing communities around the globe, IBM has been committed to environmental responsibility for more than 50 years. As indicated in its 2021 ESG Report, IBM views environmental leadership as a long-term strategic imperative, demonstrated today as we continue to set ambitious goals and apply our technologies to accelerate solutions to global environmental challenges. For example, as part of its 21 goals for environmental sustainability, IBM’s water conservation goal is to achieve year-to-year reductions in water withdrawals at larger IBM locations in water-stressed regions.

As we observe World Water Day this year, we are highlighting these examples to show how applying technology to solve the most pressing challenges like the global water crisis can help us make meaningful and demonstrable progress toward achieving our sustainability goals.  

Learn more about IBM Sustainability solutions

To raise awareness and funds for children’s health, AEG’s LA Kings partnered with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) to support its 8th annual region-wide fundraising campaign Make March Matter.

On March 13, 2023, LA Kings players Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Phil Danault, Alex Iafallo, Kevin Fiala and Gabe Vilardi, joined mascot Bailey to surprise patients at CHLA with an in-person visit and toys and gifts from the team. In addition to the visit, the Kings also hosted a blood drive at the LA Kings CHLA Blood Donor Center in Los Angeles, CA.

“We are honored to partner with CHLA to once again showcase the importance of children’s health during Make March Matter,” said Jen Pope, SVP of Community Relations and Hockey Development at the LA Kings. “It is an incredibly important initiative that allows us to give back and ensure that the hospital has the ability to provide sick and critically injured children with the best quality care.”

Additionally, the team organized a special Make March Matter ticket offer for fans. For every ticket purchased in March through Fevo.com, $5 dollars were donated towards CHLA’s Make March Matter initiative.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ Make March Matter is an annual campaign that unites businesses and the community in support of children’s health and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Shop, dine or participate in an event with a participating partner and funds will be donated to help ensure the hospital can provide sick and critically injured children with the best quality care. To donate or to learn more about Make March Matter, please click here.