BEIJING, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — This is a report from China.org.cn:

The Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University (AADTHU) held a major academic conference in Milan, Italy, on Nov. 15-16, under the theme “Future Context: A New Paradigm for Art and Design Education.”

The Tsinghua International Conference on Art & Design Education (ICADE) was hosted by Tsinghua University and organized by AADTHU, the Tsinghua University Milan Institute of Art & Design and the China-Italy Design Innovation Hub.

More than 100 university leaders, professors, scholars and industry representatives from art and design institutions across China, Italy, Australia,  Austria, Belgium, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries gathered in Milan for the event.

Over two days, the conference featured eight keynote speeches, two roundtable discussions with university leaders, four thematic forums, two parallel seminars, and a series of international art and design workshops. The program facilitated in-depth cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural dialogue as participants shared their experiences and explored how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping artistic expression and educational paradigms.

At the opening ceremony, Qin Chuan, secretary of the CPC Tsinghua Academy of Arts & Design committee, noted that the five years since the conference’s inception have coincided with dramatic global changes, including revolutionary breakthroughs in AI.

“On such an international platform, we firmly believe that regardless of how the global landscape and emerging technologies may change, we remain steadfast companions in art and design education, always seeking to enhance communication and deepen cooperation — this is our shared aspiration,” he stated. “We are also profoundly aware that art and design serve as a universal language capable of connecting the world amid these uncertain times.”

He said this year’s ICADE focuses on establishing a collaborative framework for the future, reflecting the deep integration of technology and culture. Discussions centered on redefining creative logic in the AI age, restructuring educational systems within interdisciplinary contexts and discovering possibilities for symbiotic coexistence amid cultural diversity.

“We look forward to working with all participants at this conference to collectively envision the future of art and design education, and to establish sustainable cooperation frameworks that face the world and embrace tomorrow,” he said.

The opening ceremony also featured speeches by Anna Barbara, president of POLI.design, a consortium of Politecnico di Milano; Dalia Gallico, executive vice president of the World Olymp’Arts Council; Lorenzo Imbesi, president of the Cumulus Association; and Wu Jian, head of the Haier Innovation Design Center. Wu Qiong, dean of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, sent a congratulatory letter. The ceremony was hosted by Shi Danqing, associate dean of AADTHU.

“Design as a discipline stands at a crucial turning point, where technological advancements, pressing social issues and evolving business models are collectively reshaping its boundaries and core,” Wu’s letter said. “May this conference serve as a catalyst for in-depth dialogue on how to reconstruct educational models and integrate art with technology within new contexts, thereby inspiring renewed vitality.”

On the first day, keynote speeches and a leaders’ roundtable brought together leaders from world-renowned art and design institutions, as well as pioneering founders of newly established schools that have garnered global attention. The speakers bridged the gap between classical heritage and future trends, focusing on current innovations to promote the sustainable development of art and design education.

Distinguished speakers included Anna Barbara, president of POLI.design; Rebecca Wright, dean of the S School at Central Saint Martins College of Art; Rachel Dickson, deputy director of the Glasgow School of Art; Francesco Zurlo, dean of the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano; Yang Dongjiang, chair of the academic committee at AADTHU; Kun-Pyo Lee, dean of the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; and John Ochsendorf, founding director of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design.

Barbara called the digital revolution a “revolution of time,” urging designers to focus on shaping time rather than just physical space. She said AI will serve as a tool to harmonize human needs with the environment, helping to resolve the conflicts of a digital world and create a more sustainable shared economy.

Wright said that in the face of an uncertain future, design education needs to maintain a positive mindset, and constructing a new “design language” is key to addressing challenges. She emphasized that the real challenge lies not in whether to adopt AI, but in how to integrate technology with uniquely human wisdom.

Dickson said design education should break through traditional disciplinary frameworks and promote educational innovation through cross-field collaboration. She proposed building future design education on a balance of tradition and innovation, with curiosity at its core. She also called for a more inclusive, interdisciplinary system capable of solving global challenges like sustainable development.

Francesco Zurlo elaborated on the concept of interdependent design in his speech, emphasizing that design education must confront complexity rather than simplify problems. He said contemporary design needs to reunite humanistic values with technology. This philosophy, he argued, is essential for training designers who can address complex social challenges and build a sustainable future.

Yang discussed how design education must transform in the AI era. He said the field needs to shift its fundamental value from being technology-oriented to thinking-oriented. He emphasized the need to break through traditional linear knowledge structures and build new teaching systems that maintain professional skill training while focusing on developing students’ innovative thinking and systematic reasoning capabilities.

In his speech, Lee traced the historical evolution of design paradigms to reveal the transformation direction of design education in the AI era. He proposed that designers should become “final decision-makers” or “ultimate stewards,” urging educators to focus on sharpening students’ critical thinking and value judgment.

Ochsendorf emphasized that university education needs to accelerate its transformation. He said every student should possess fundamental design capabilities and complete a personal project portfolio, noting that designers need to lead the application of AI technology while ensuring it serves human needs.

Later that day, two roundtable discussions were held with leaders focusing on the themes “The Future Mission of Design: Interdisciplinary Education and Global Challenges” and “The Coordinates of Institutions Within the Contemporary Context.”

The second day featured thematic forums and seminars spanning diverse professional and academic fields. Scholars and industry experts from fields including spatial environments, fashion design, industrial design, information design, smart manufacturing, contemporary art, craft art and digital art engaged in wide-ranging discussions. The topics included “Rhetorical Translation: Aesthetic Resonance Across Cultures,””Double Subjects: Human-Machine Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Integration,””Plural Spaces: The Narrative Tension of Multi-Dimensional Experience,” and “Sensory Verbs: Bodily Experience and Artistic Expression.”

In addition, the RE-ACTOR: International Art & Design Workshops were held in Milan on Nov. 16, focusing on the theme “AI Protocols for New Space: Embodied Experiences and Ritual Habitats.”

Tsinghua art academy AADTHU hosts global conference in Milan exploring art & design education

http://www.china.org.cn/2025-12/01/content_118204360.shtml

TP recognized for advancing Africa’s outsourcing landscape through its strategic integration of technology, emotional intelligence, and sustainable growth initiatives.

SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Frost & Sullivan is pleased to announce that global digital services leader TP has been recognized with the 2025 African Company of the Year Recognition in the outsourcing industry for its outstanding achievements in digital transformation, operational excellence, and customer-centric innovation. This recognition underscores TP’s leadership in integrating human expertise and empathy with advanced technology to deliver measurable business outcomes, drive sustainable growth, and transform the African outsourcing ecosystem through scalable, high-value services.

Frost & Sullivan evaluates companies through a rigorous benchmarking process across two core dimensions: visionary innovation & performance and customer execution. TP excelled in both, demonstrating its ability to align strategic initiatives with market demand while executing them with consistency, efficiency, and scale.

“Through a forward-looking blend of GenAI, emotional intelligence, and hyper-automation, TP enables brands to scale personalization, shorten resolution times, and gain predictive insight into customer behavior and operational performance. These capabilities are applicable as part of a unified architecture that balances automation with human touch, differentiating from competing solutions that do so in isolation,” said Bernardin Arnason, Industry Director, Frost & Sullivan.

Guided by a long-term growth strategy focused on digital innovation, local partnership, and sustainable ecosystem development, TP demonstrates exceptional agility in a rapidly evolving market. By embedding itself within Africa’s dynamic technology and service delivery landscape, the company continues to strengthen its regional footprint while aligning its capabilities with global outsourcing trends.

Innovation remains central to TP’s vision. Its unified architecture safely orchestrates AI, experts and technology at scale to create seamless, emotionally attuned customer interactions. This model delivers enhanced customer care that is simpler, faster, and safer for the world’s biggest brands and their customers.

TP’s strong commitment to inclusive growth further distinguishes it in the market. Through its deep engagement with national stakeholders—such as partnerships in Kenya to digitize public services—the company plays an active role in modernizing Africa’s service economy. Its people-first approach, combined with robust infrastructure investments, enables TP to deliver high-quality, multilingual support while creating meaningful local employment opportunities.

Frost & Sullivan commends TP for setting a new standard in competitive strategy, execution, and market responsiveness. The company’s vision, technology roadmap, and inclusive operating model are redefining the outsourcing industry across Africa—building an agile, innovation-driven framework that supports sustainable economic growth and strengthens Africa’s role in the global delivery ecosystem.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents the Company of the Year Recognition to organizations that demonstrate outstanding strategy development and implementation, resulting in measurable improvements in market share, customer satisfaction, and competitive positioning. The recognition honors forward-thinking companies that are reshaping their industries through innovation, strategic excellence, and sustainable impact.

Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices recognitions identify companies across regional and global markets for their superior performance in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic development. Industry analysts evaluate market participants through comprehensive interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices that advance industry standards.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Recognition

Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Recognitions honor companies across regional and global markets that exhibit exceptional achievement and consistent excellence in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer experience, and strategic product development. Each recognition is the result of a rigorous analytical process in which Frost & Sullivan industry experts benchmark performance through comprehensive interviews, deep-dive analysis, and extensive secondary research. The goal is to identify true best-in-class organizations that are driving transformative growth and setting new industry standards.
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Contact:
Ashley Shreve
E: ashley.weinkauf@frost.com 

ABOUT TP GROUP 
TP is a global leader in digital business services which consistently seeks to blend the best of advanced technology with human empathy to deliver enhanced customer care that is simpler, faster, and safer for the world’s biggest brands and their customers. The Group’s comprehensive, AI-powered service portfolio ranges from front office customer care to back-office functions, including operations consulting and high-value digital transformation services. It also offers a range of specialized services such as collections, interpreting and localization, visa and consular services, and recruitment process outsourcing services. The teams of multilingual, inspired, and passionate experts and advisors, spread in close to 100 countries, as well as the Group’s local presence allows it to be a force of good in supporting communities, clients, and the environment.

For more information: www.tp.com.

Collaboration will fuse rapid software innovation with combat-tested systems integration to outpace global rivals

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and SPARKS, Nev., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — In a move signaling how quickly autonomous systems are reshaping modern warfare, physical intelligence leader Applied Intuition and global aerospace and defense company SNC today announced a partnership aimed at accelerating delivery of next-generation autonomous defense technologies.

Everything that moves is quickly gaining autonomy – especially on the battlefield – and Applied Intuition is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to all moving machines on the front lines. The Silicon Valley company’s dual-use autonomy software expertise combines with SNC’s long history of trusted open architecture mission systems development and integration to create a bridge between the need for rapid innovation and operational readiness.

The partnership aims to put mission-ready autonomy into the hands of warfighters, faster. Together, the companies will explore key opportunities to integrate Applied Intuition’s leading autonomy and simulation software with a variety of SNC’s mission-tested systems across domains. The joint work will concentrate on challenges in localized missile defense and counter-UAS operations, areas where distributed autonomy and real-time sensor fusion could dramatically shorten response times and reduce risk in contested environments.

A near-term focus is on SNC’S Expeditionary Area Air Defense (EAAD) systems. These horizontally integrated, ready-to-deploy defense solutions can now be built on Applied Intuition’s vehicle intelligence platform, combining off-road autonomy with TRL-9 air defense. Reinforced by SNC’s proven systems integration and global support structure, Autonomous EAADs reduces both personnel risk and the number of personnel needed, accelerating affordable air defense capability to provide customers with a defense that’s easily adaptable to diverse mission profiles.

Autonomous EAAD systems deliver increased effectiveness while removing personnel from harm’s way, reducing complexity and shortening deployment timelines. They provide scalable, cost-effective protection across multiple platforms and environments. Autonomous EAADs leverages Applied Intuition’s Vehicle OS, Acuity Ground Autonomy, and Axion Mission Control.

“This partnership epitomizes the merger of Silicon Valley’s innovation pace with advanced defense rigor, setting a new standard for rapid, effective and operationally relevant technology deployment,” said SNC CEO Fatih Ozmen. “Together, we are building a future that is responsive, flexible, cost-effective and crucial for safeguarding lives and enhancing mission success in increasingly complex environments.”

“The Department of War is shifting from experimentation to operational autonomy, and Applied Intuition is helping enable that transition through our partnership,” said Applied Intuition CEO and Co-founder Qasar Younis. “Combining Silicon Valley speed, innovation and engineering power with decades of experience in complex defense systems, Applied Intuition and SNC are determined to make battlefield autonomy not just a concept for the future, but a capability ready for deployment now.”

The announcement follows a surge of momentum for both companies. Earlier this year, Applied Intuition closed a $600 million Series F and tender offer at $15 billion valuation. The investment underscored the growing importance of defense applications in the company’s strategy, particularly as the Department of War looks to adopt commercial-grade software to modernize its fleets. Applied Intuition’s Axion and Acuity defense product families have been used across major programs in the Department of War, and the company has become a trusted partner to each branch of the military.

Concurrently, SNC has quickly earned a global reputation for delivering expeditionary counter-drone capabilities with incredible speed and effectiveness. The company’s BRAWLR air-defense platform, part of its EAAD family of systems, has earned praise for its reliability and responsiveness enabled by SNC’s open architecture hardware and software solutions. Developed and deployed on an expedited timeline, this technology represents the latest in a long line of game-changing innovations that SNC has developed swiftly in response to customer needs that have proven to be both highly successful and lifesaving.

The new collaboration between Applied Intuition and SNC reflects a broader shift within the defense industry, where speed and adaptability have become as important as scale. By pairing a software-defined autonomy platform with a leading defense integrator known for rapidly deployable, combat-ready, open architecture systems, Applied Intuition and SNC hope to shorten the cycle between concept and deployment for warfighter-focused solutions that will have a positive impact on the battlefield. That, in theory, could allow militaries to field, test and update capabilities faster, without sacrificing safety or mission assurance.

Together, Applied Intuition and SNC are delivering cutting-edge autonomy fusing commercial software agility with deep defense engineering and integration mastery. To learn more about how Applied Intuition is powering the future of physical intelligence, visit applied.co.

About Applied Intuition
Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at applied.co.

About SNC
SNC is a trusted global leader in aerospace and national security. Our innovative solutions enable connected protection through command, control and communications systems, as well as ISR, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum management, and other high capabilities for national security systems across all domains – sea, land, air, space and cyber. As a longstanding leader in defense technology, SNC is at the optimum intersection of commercial, defense and non-traditional contractors. We are one of the only privately owned mid-tier A&D contractors and we pride ourselves on our ability to invest early and often to ensure mission success on or ahead of schedule. It’s part of our mission to always stay one step ahead; working on solutions today to solve the problems of tomorrow. Founded in 1963, SNC is owned by Chairwoman Eren Ozmen and CEO Fatih Ozmen. For more information, visit sncorp.com.