Category: May 2020

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2020 May 2020 News

SMU profs and students launch artificial intelligence lab to seek COVID-19 solutions

Computer science, the digital humanities and students eager to make a difference are all in the mix for a high-stakes collaboration tapping brainpower and the gift of time.

What if university computer scientists, biologists and historians collaborated to use modern artificial intelligence and machine learning to examine a massive trove of infectious disease research papers, text mining for abstract patterns, elusive insights and hard-to-spot trends related to COVID-19 and the coronavirus family of viruses?

Imagine the energy such a group could generate if their students, working remotely and cut off from the normal distractions of student life, jumped in to volunteer for the project? Welcome to the nascent SMU Artificial Intelligence Lab.

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2020 Alumni May 2020

Ray W. Washburne ’84 named to industry group charting recovery

M Crowd Restaurant Group co-founder and co-owner Ray W. Washburne ’84 has been tapped by President Donald Trump to serve on a task force developing a recovery plan for the nation’s food and beverage industry.
The prominent restaurant and real estate investor will join a host of the nation’s business leaders apppointed to the president’s Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups.
Washburne received a bachelor’s degree in history from SMU and serves as CEO and president of Charter Holdings, a Dallas-based investment company involved in real estate, restaurants and diversified financial investments. His M Crowd Restaurant Group includes the Mi Cocina and Katy Trail Ice House chains. He is also president and managing director of Highland Park Village.
He was named to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board in 2019. From August 2017 to February 2019, he served as the president and chief executive officer of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the United States government’s development finance institution. From 2000 to 2017, he served on the board of directors of Veritex Holdings, Inc. He also has served as an adjunct professor at SMU’s Cox School of Business. He is a member of the American Enterprise Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations and the advisory board for the United States Southern Command.
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2020 Alumni June 2020 May 2020

Changing course to fight COVID-19

In just 48 hours, Lucy and Andy Rieger ’09 pivoted J. Rieger & Co. – their family distillery in Kansas City, Missouri – from producing whiskey to making hand sanitizer for hospitals, nursing homes and the community.
The distillery is making sanitizer in two-liter bottles by the pallet these days, working to keep up with the requests pouring in. “I’ve been getting about 500 a day.”
Rieger said it started on a much smaller scale with a request from a nursing facility and a small offering to the public, but the demand was huge.
“It felt for a while there like I was playing God,” Rieger said. “People calling, saying, ‘I have nowhere else to turn; can you help us?’”
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2020 Alumni May 2020

Alumna Ti Martin ’82 adds new chapter to Commander’s Palace legend

Since its doors opened in 1893, Commander’s Palace has been New Orleanians’ go-to for celebratory brunches and festive dinners. The novel coronavirus has now forced the beloved gathering place to temporarily close its doors, but co-proprietor Ti Martin ’82 and her team have found other ways to keep the restaurant’s hospitable spirit alive.
Read more at Southern Living.

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2020 Alumni June 2020 May 2020

Necessity is the mother of reinvention

For the Odee Company, co-owned by Steve and Sarah Lodwick Holland ’80, the ability to adapt to shifting demands has kept the business going since 1923. Now the printer is churning out hospital gowns for frontline health workers.
Hospital gowns may not seem like a natural transition for a print shop, but they actually got the idea when a local hospital reached out to them asking if they’re up to the task.
They are now pumping out hospital gowns by the thousands.
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