This Texas company thinks canines deserve clean air, too. Courtesy photo

Leave it to an Austin company to give us what we really need during this pandemic: dog face masks. Unlike their human companions, however, these are not for use in the fight against COVID-19.

On August 27, locally owned The Good Air Team announced the release of its K9 Mask, an N95-caliber snout shield for dogs. Though they resemble muzzles, these specially designed masks filter smog, emissions, pollens, smoke from wildfires, dust, and even bacteria.

Basically, says the company, whenever a human is advised to wear a mask for environmental reasons, so should a canine. Exposure to toxic particles — particularly smoke — can cause pulmonary disease and vision problem in pups, among other issues.

Each mask is washable and outfitted with a removable four-layer air filter to help remove particles from the air as the dog breathes in. The air filter adheres to the Centers for Disease Control's requirements for an N95 mask, a hospital-grade face covering that filters 95 percent of the toxins in air.

Upon exhaling, the mask uses an "exhaust valve" to release air from the mask. The company claims the valve even releases heat to cool off a panting dog.

"Wildfires in places like California the last several years have unfortunately become the new normal. Finding solutions to the problems of air pollution, like wildfire smoke, is the number one goal of the Good Air Team," says CEO Kirby Holmes in a release.

Holmes and co-owner Evan Daugherty launched The Good Air Team in 2018. The K9 Mask project is the result of the company's successful March 2019 Kickstarter, where it surpassed its $10,000 goal to bring the line into production.

K9 Masks are available online for $59, come in small, medium, and large sizes, and are outfitted with adjustable neck and muzzle straps. Special five-packs of air filters can be purchased for an additional $24.88.

Adds Holmes: "We are empowering dog owners with new solutions to protect their pet's health."

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Rice University MBA programs rank among top 5 in prestigious annual report

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Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business MBA programs have been ranked among the top five in the country again in The Princeton Review’s 2025 Best Business Schools rankings.

The university's MBA program in finance earned a No. 3 ranking, climbing up two spots from its 2024 ranking. Finance MBA programs at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business and New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business were the only ones to outrank Rice, claiming No. 2 and No. 1 spots, respectively.

Rice's online MBA program was ranked No. 5, compared to No. 4 last year. Indiana University's Bloomington Kelley School of Business' online program claimed the top spot.

“These rankings reflect the commitment of our faculty and staff, the drive and talent of our students and the strong support of our alumni and partners,” Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice Business, said in a news release. “They are exceptional honors but also reminders — not just of our top-tier programs and world-class faculty and students but of our broader impact on the future of business education.”

Rice also ranked at No. 6 for “greatest resources for minority students."

The Princeton Review’s 2025 business school rankings are based on data from surveys of administrators at 244 business schools as well as surveys of 22,800 students enrolled in the schools’ MBA programs during the previous three academic years.

"The schools that made our lists for 2025 share four characteristics that inform our criteria for designating them as 'best': excellent academics, robust experiential learning components, outstanding career services, and positive feedback about them from enrolled students we surveyed," Rob Franek, The Princeton Review's editor-in-chief, said in a press release. "No b-school is best overall or best for all students, but to all students considering earning an MBA, we highly recommend these b-schools and salute them for their impressive programs."

Rice's finance program has ranked in the top 10 for eight consecutive years, and its online MBA has ranked in the top five for four years.

Rice and the University of Houston also claimed top marks on the Princeton Review's entrepreneurship rankings. Rice ranks as No. 1 on the Top 50 Entrepreneurship: Grad list, and the University of Houston ranked No. 1 on Top 50 Entrepreneurship: Ugrad. Read more here.

Houston named ‘star’ metro for artificial intelligence in new report

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A new report declares Houston one of the country’s 28 “star” hubs for artificial intelligence.

The Houston metro area appears at No. 16 in the Brookings Institution’s ranking of metros that are AI “stars.” The metro areas earned star status based on data from three AI buckets: talent, innovation and adoption. Only two places, the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, made Brookings’ “superstar” list.

According to Brookings, the Houston area had 11,369 job postings in 2024 that sought candidates with AI skills, 210 AI startups (based on Crunchbase data from 2014 to 2024), and 113 venture capital deals for AI startups (based on PitchBook data from 2023 to 2024).

A number of developments are boosting Houston’s AI profile, such as:

Brookings also named Texas’s three other major metros as AI stars:

  • No. 11 Austin
  • No. 13 Dallas-Fort Worth
  • No. 40 San Antonio

Brookings said star metros like Houston “are bridging the gap” between the two superstar regions and the rest of the country. In 2025, the 28 star metros made up 46 percent of the country’s metro-area employment but 54 percent of AI job postings. Across the 28 metros, the number of AI job postings soared 139 percent between 2018 and 2025, according to Brookings.

Around the country, dozens of metros fell into three other categories on Brookings’ AI list: “emerging centers” (14 metros), “focused movers” (29 metros) and “nascent adopters” (79 metros).