State and local governments – facing technology skills gaps and difficulties hiring and retaining talent – can be especially vulnerable to cyber threats. Increasingly complex network infrastructures add new cybersecurity challenges. In a recent interview with MeriTalk, Mike Lauer, national director of public sector at Fortinet and former chief technology architect for the state of Iowa, discusses how platform approaches coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) can give state and local governments the boost they need against threat actors. 

State and local governments are under immense pressure as citizens demand faster, more convenient services and departments are expected to do more with less. Meanwhile, outdated IT systems are struggling to keep up, often bogged down by manual processes and inefficiencies that were never designed for today’s digital-first world. For many public sector CIOs looking […]

The Maryland Department of General Services has modernized its capital grants management system, replacing an old cumbersome, manual-reliant process with a new digital platform.

The National Science Foundation has awarded University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) nearly $1 million to help improve diversity and inclusion in STEM graduate programs.

Hawaiʻi has launched Digital Detectives, a new initiative that looks to map internet speeds across the state.

While the United States is home to more than half of the top universities in the world, there is more work to be done when it comes to artificial intelligence education – and that’s something NVIDIA is trying to improve. According to U.S. News & World Report, only 10% of the top global AI universities are in the United States.

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) announced that the Illinois Learning Technology Center (LTC) is partnering with CoSN on a program to improve student data privacy practices in Illinois school districts.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) has signed a $4.7 million contract to upgrade and install Road Weather Information System (RWIS) stations across the state.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has received more than 700 applications seeking $6.5 billion in funding for digital equity projects. NTIA noted that the total requested amount of funding is more than six times the available amount from the first round of the Digital Equity Act’s Competitive Grant Program funding. 

The University of Georgia (UGA) has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences that will be used to establish a research and development center with the goal of providing national leadership on best practices for using generative AI (GenAI) in schools.