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Member news: October 2021

Arizona leaders launch new partnership aimed at boosting U.S. semiconductor industry

Arizona leaders from across the semiconductor industry announced a new national partnership on Tuesday aimed at advancing U.S. competitiveness in the chipmaking space. The new program is called the National Semiconductor Economic Roadmap (NSER) and it is focused on improving American infrastructure and supply chains for this critical industry. Intel Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., NXP,  Microchip and the Semiconductor Industry Association are leading the partnership, with other industry partners expected to join in the coming weeks. Read more >>


First look: Lucid Motors starts production in Casa Grande with first deliveries expected in October

Lucid Motors kicked off vehicle production in Casa Grande on Tuesday, marking a major production milestone for the first greenfield electric vehicle factory in North America. The company’s Advanced Manufacturing Plant, or AMP-1, is running, and the first batch of vehicles are projected to be delivered to customers by late October, starting with its top-of-the-line Lucid Air Dream Edition, which costs $169,000. Read more >>


NASA awards PADT and Penn State University a $375,000 Phase III STTR Research Grant

In a move that acknowledges its excellence and expertise in R&D for numerical simulation and 3D printing, PADT announced NASA has awarded a $375,000 Phase III Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant for PADT to collaborate with Penn State University. The partners will expand research into thermo-fluid and structural design optimization to provide engineers who design next generation launch and space crafts with better ways to design more efficient structures that experience loading fluids, forces, vibration, and temperatures. Read more >>


Intel breaks ground on new Valley fabs as White House seeks supply chain transparency

Intel officially kicked off construction on its two new semiconductor chip factories in Chandler on Friday, in a project that is expected to cost $20 billion and employ 3,000 people. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger was on hand for the ceremony and he told the Business Journal that the company is cooperating with the Biden administration’s recent effort to get supply chain data from semiconductor companies. Just yesterday, the White House raised the possibility of invoking the Defense Production Act to force compliance. Read more >>


$25M land purchased in Surprise for Tempe-based Carvana

Tempe-based Carvana purchased 148 acres in Surprise, Arizona for $25 million. The deal was represented by NAI Horizon Senior Vice President Isy Sonabend and Agent Drew Eisen. The land is at the NEC of Litchfield and Cactus roads in the Cactus Commerce Center. It has been owned by the Nitta family for decades, according to LoopNet. Read more >>


Tucson space company signs deal to build, launch satellites for internet-of-things tech provider

Tucson-based space transportation tech startup Phantom Space Corp. has signed a deal to manufacture and launch dozens of satellites for internet-of-things platform maker Ingenu Inc. The deal calls for the production of 72 satellites. Phantom will be in charge of system integration on the craft and getting them into space. Financial details of the agreement were not made public. Once in orbit, the satellites are intended to give Ingenu the ability to offer its internet of things, or IoT, and machine-to-machine products to connect equipment anywhere on earth. Read more >>


GitLens for Visual Studio Code, and its creator Eric Amodio, join GitKraken

GitKraken, creator of the world’s leading Git GUI and CLI, announced the acquisition of GitLens, the most popular Git extension for Visual Studio Code. GitLens was created by Eric Amodio in 2016, and has since been developed and maintained nearly exclusively by Amodio in his spare time. He joins GitKraken and will serve as the company’s Chief Technology Officer, to lead GitLens and GitKraken’s entire suite of popular Git collaboration and productivity tools. Read more >>


Waymo says it’s given thousands of driverless rides in first year of Phoenix service

Waymo’s first year of service in metro Phoenix resulted in thousands of autonomous drives, the ride-hailing company said Friday. Waymo said it completed “tens of thousands” of rider-only trips in the Phoenix market since last October, according to a press release. Waymo is the only company with a commercial and fully autonomous service in the U.S., giving riders the option to use the operation 24/7. Read more >>


Junior Achievement partners with Pipeline AZ to help youth understand career opportunities

Pipeline AZ, an Arizona career development and job skills exploration platform, and Junior Achievement of Arizona, a workforce, entrepreneurship and financial literacy preparation program for Arizona students, announced a new collaborative partnership pairing each organization’s unique tools and services to create a comprehensive and robust career readiness solution for Arizona K-12 students. This partnership will connect Arizona educators, employers, and students that participate in Junior Achievement under the singular Pipeline AZ platform, providing turn-key career development solutions that prepare students to succeed in work and life and put employers in direct contact with their future workforce. Read more >>


Tucson-based Stackhouse wants to transform housing with shipping containers, NFTs

Stackhouse co-founders Janelle Briggs and Ryan Egan have a vision of changing home ownership. Their imagined future is full of shipping containers. Stackhouse is a Tucson-based housing startup that plans to create buildings across the country where tenants will live in shipping containers. This type of construction isn’t a novel idea in 2021, but with Stackhouse the containers are removable, so residents can take their homes with them when it’s time to move. Read more >>


Lucid takes aim at concerns about Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ system with its new driver assistance technology

Lucid Group Inc. unveiled a new driver assistance system for its cars that’s designed to address a key shortcoming of the similar technology offered by rival Tesla Inc. When a driver of Lucid vehicle isn’t paying attention while the system is engaged, the feature will pull the car over. That’s something that Tesla’s technology, which it calls “Full Self-Driving,” doesn’t do. The electric vehicle giant has come under increasing fire as numerous accidents and deaths have been linked to drivers of its vehicles not paying attention while its assistance systems are operating. Read more >>


Tempe-based tech company Insight Enterprises names next CEO

Tempe-based Insight Enterprises Inc has named its next CEO. Joyce Mullen, the technology distribution company’s North American president, will take over as president and CEO of the company at the beginning of January, when Ken Lamneck steps down. Mullen has served in her current role for the past year. She came to Insight after working at Dell Technologies for just over two decades in a variety of roles that culminated at the position of president of Global Channel, Embedded & Edge Solutions for the company. Read more >>


UAT appoints new chief marketing officer 

The University of Advancing Technology (UAT) Board of Directors ratified several presidential actions during its summer board meeting. One of those actions was the pre-approval to promote Ms. Valerie Cimarossa to a C-level executive. Now, Ms. Cimarossa has been officially promoted to the position of UAT Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Ms. Cimarossa has been able to scale all UAT growth indicators 20% year over year for the last 24 months (including inquiries, apps, and enrolls). Read more >>


Automotive dealers recognize Digital Air Strike as leader in six consumer technology categories, including digital marketing, lead response, video messaging and social and reputation management

Digital Air Strike, the leading consumer engagement technology company, is excited to announce it was recognized again for its Digital Marketing, Reputation Management, and Social Media Management technology and services, and picked up top honors in four new CX technology categories in the 2021 Dealers’ Choice Awards from Bobit Media. The awards are even more meaningful because auto dealers choose the winners. The record six awards across multiple touchpoints in the automotive customer journey show the evolving reach of the DAS suite of CX technologies. Read more >>


Visit www.aztechcouncil.org/tech-events to view all of the Council’s upcoming virtual tech networking opportunities, engaging virtual tech events and in-person tech events.


 

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