AT&T pledges cash to boost graduation rates
AT&T Inc. will donate $100 million over four years to programs aimed at boosting high-school graduation rates, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson is to announce Thursday.
“Far too many students are dropping out of high school in this country — one every 26 seconds — creating a serious threat to our nation’s global economic leadership,” Stephenson said in a statement ahead of a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago on Thursday.
AT&T will devote the money to schools and nonprofit organizations and fund research and community “dropout prevention summits” run by America’s Promise Alliance, a coalition of nonprofits and corporations that was founded by Colin Powell.
AT&T will also give 100,000 students the opportunity to “shadow” AT&T employees on the job, “to give them a firsthand look at the skills they will need to succeed,” the company said. The cost of the 400,000 AT&T employee hours to be devoted to this program are not included in the $100 million pledge.
Where to see the robots: How robots act, think and sense the world around them will be the focus of an upcoming exhibit billed as the largest and most comprehensive nationwide on robotics.
The Carnegie Science Center plans to open a robotics exhibition next spring called roboworld that will encompass an array of mechanized devices, including a welder that’s been modified to pick up basketballs and shoot them through a hoop.
The $3.4 million permanent display — similar to a traveling exhibition that’s been on the road since 1996 — will emphasize three aspects of artificial robotic behavior: sensing, thinking and acting. And it will include members of the Carnegie Mellon University Robot Hall of Fame.
The exhibition, which also will pay homage to portrayals of robots in popular culture, will capitalize on the work of area universities and businesses that have developed an international reputation in robotics, said museum director Joanna Haas.
The museum hopes by mounting the exhibit to encourage young people to pursue careers in science, math and technology, among other fields related to robotics, she said.
Anthony Daniels, the British actor who played C-3PO in all six “Star Wars” movies, said the world needed more scientists.
“My father was a scientist — I was a disappointment,” said Daniels, who read a statement on behalf of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl at a news conference last week declaring April 9, 2008, “Carnegie Science Center Robot Day.” “We need hands-on, real scientists.”
AOL moves into its new digs: With little fanfare, AOL began occupying new headquarters in New York this week to bring itself closer to the heart of the media and advertising industry as it transforms itself into an ad-supported business.
About 300 senior executives and content producers, many already located elsewhere in the city, were the first to move to the new digs at 770 Broadway in Greenwich Village, once home to the grand Wanamaker department store.
AOL’s ad sales representatives are to follow at a still-unspecified date.
Many senior executives will keep second offices at AOL’s former headquarters in Dulles, Va. Although AOL has laid off thousands of employees, few of those dismissals result from the headquarters move, announced in September.
AOL plans to maintain a large presence in Dulles, which became its headquarters in 1996.
Once an Internet powerhouse, AOL has seen subscription revenue plummet as Americans switch from dial-up to broadband access. It has slowed its revenue decline with advertising dollars, but its growth in advertising too has been slowing in recent quarters.
From Herald news services
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