Predicting the path and intensity of a hurricane is a complex science that employs not just satellite imagery, but also state-of-the-art drones that can dive, sail and fly straight into the heart of the most powerful storms (Wall Street Journal). St. Petersburg plays a role in this important work as a regional base for Saildrone at the Maritime and Defense Technology Hub.
Click here to watch a video by the Wall Street Journal: The High-Tech Drones Tracking the World's Most Dangerous Storms. You'll also see the Hub at one point in the background!
(This article was first featured in our September newsletter - to subscribe to our monthly newsletter click here)
The graduation of the CodeBoxx AI Literacy and Applications Bootcamp was held on Saturday, August 9th at the ARK Innovation Center. The celebration included a tour of the ARK building, a sneak peek at the Vu Studio, and a hackathon. This bootcamp is designed to give participants a competitive edge in the job market by teaching practical ways to use AI. AI literacy and tech communication are more important than ever, and we're incredibly proud of this graduating class for taking that step forward.
The Tampa Bay Estuary Program works to build public and private partnerships to restore and protect Tampa Bay. Critical to this effort is the use of environmental indicators to describe status and trends of bay health. Dr. Marcus Beck will describe his work synthesizing multiple data streams with reproducible workflows to develop and report on bay health indicators.
A joint venture by Tampa Bay Wave and USF, the 2025 cohort of the nationally recognized FinTech|X Accelerator kicked off on August 4th, supporting high-growth fintech startups through an intensive 8-week program. This year’s class includes St. Petersburg-based innovators HappiNest.AI and Congruit Inc. The program leverages USF’s world-class faculty, research, and business networks to help founders scale impactful technologies.