Houston tech co. to build powerful supercomputer to help reach net-zero goals

big upgrade

The new supercomputer is expected to be one of the world’s most powerful owned by an enterprise. Photo courtesy of HPE

A Houston tech company is building a next-generation supercomputer for one of the world’s largest energy providers.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced its plans to build HPC6 for Italian energy company Eni. Eni will use the system to advance scientific discovery and engineering toward accelerating innovation in energy transition to help aid its goal in getting to net zero. HPC6 is expected to be one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers owned by an enterprise.

HPC6 will be built with the same innovations that power the world’s fastest supercomputer to support data and image-intensive workloads across artificial intelligence, modeling, and simulation. According to a news release from HPE, the system will “augment Eni’s existing research that is focused on studying and identifying new energy sources, including renewable energy.”

Eni’s HPC6 will be installed in the company’s energy Green Data Center in Italy. The center will be upgraded to support HPE’s direct liquid-cooling (DLC) capabilities.

"Businesses are finding themselves balancing the huge business opportunities enabled by their AI investments with the responsibility of mitigating the environmental impact of these powerful systems," Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE, says in a news release.

"As the leader in developing energy efficient AI and supercomputing solutions, HPE is uniquely positioned to help organizations minimize power consumption while maximizing business outcomes," he continues. "We are excited to play a role in Eni’s commitment to decarbonization supported by digitalization and innovation."

Originally announced in 2020, HPE moved its headquarters to Houston in 2022.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

The transaction, which was approved by both companies' boards, is expected to close either later this year or early next year. Photo courtesy of HPE

Houston-based HPE to acquire cloud infrastructure co. in $14B deal

M&A moves

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is buying Juniper Networks in an all-cash deal valued at about $14 billion, which is anticipated to double HPE's networking business.

Shares of both companies rose before the market open on Wednesday. A Wall Street Journal report about a potential deal saw Juniper's stock surge 22 percent and HPE's stock dip 9 percent before an official announcement was made.

HPE will pay $40 per Juniper share.

Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, California, helps companies access the cloud infrastructure that serves as the foundation of digital and AI strategies.

“This transaction will strengthen HPE’s position at the nexus of accelerating macro-AI trends, expand our total addressable market, and drive further innovation for customers as we help bridge the AI-native and cloud-native worlds, while also generating significant value for shareholders," HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri said late Tuesday in a statement.

Juniper CEO Rami Rahim will lead the combined HPE networking business. He will report to Neri. HPE was spun off from Hewlett-Packard, one of the founding companies of Silicon Valley, in 2015 and is now based in Houston.

The transaction, which was approved by both companies' boards, is expected to close either later this year or early next year. It still needs approval from Juniper shareholders and regulators.

Last March, HPE announced its plans to acquire OpsRamp, a software-as-a-service company with an IT operations management, or ITOM, platform that can monitor, automate, and manage IT infrastructure, cloud resources, and more.

These Houston employers reign supreme when it comes to the best workplaces. Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Houston company crowned No. 1 large employer in Texas by Fortune Magazine, joining 21 local firms on list

love your job

Houstonians looking for their next employment opportunity might want to consider these 22 Houston-based companies that were just named the best workplaces in Texas by Fortune Magazine and Great Place to Work.

David Weekley Homes was named the No. 1 large employer in Texas, with workers celebrating that their company goes "above and beyond in almost every way possible" and values trust more than anything else.

"They trust you to get your work done and you never feel guilty about having to leave early for a medical appointment, or to pick your kid up from school," the report says. "They trust you to get your work done while maintaining a normal personal life."

The report also speaks highly of the construction company's 401K matching plan, and that workers can become owners in the company after two years of employment.

The remaining Houston companies that make up the top three best large Texas employers include information technology providers Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (No. 2), and real estate investors Camden Property Trust (No. 3).

Also earning a spot in the top 10 is Hilcorp Energy Company (No. 8).

Speaking on Camden Property Trust, employees in the report say their leaders have developed a "one-of-a-kind" workplace culture, similar to a large family.

"Our celebrations, conferences, meetings feel like a family reunion," the report says. "Our leaders truly care about each and every single person and make decisions with everyone's best interest in mind."

The Best Workplaces in Texas award, which saw some of the same companies on the 2022 list, is the only one of its kind in the U.S. that "selects winners based on how fairly employees are treated," according to a press release. The companies are evaluated based on how well they treat their employees across several factors, including race, gender, age, disability status, and more.

The other Houston-based companies that made it onto Fortune's Best Large Workplaces in Texas 2023 include Transwestern (No. 12), Cornerstone Home Lending, Inc. (No. 14), and KBR (No. 24).

Furthermore, 17 additional Houston employers made it onto Fortune's Best Small and Medium Workplaces in Texas ranking. While Dallas companies dominate the top three, Houston's continuing education and learning center Continued made it into No. 4.

"[Continued] provide[s] so many benefits to better our home and work-life balance," the report says. "There is also a great focus on appreciating diversity and inclusion."The other Houston employers that earned spots on Fortune's Best Small and Medium Workplaces in Texas 2023 report are:

  • No. 12 – Hilltop Residential
  • No. 13 – WizeHire
  • No. 14 – Republic State Mortgage Co.
  • No. 16 – E.A.G. Business Holdings, Incorporated
  • No. 23 – Venterra Realty
  • No. 26 – Optimum Consultancy Services
  • No. 39 – 9th Wonder
  • No. 40 – Entelligence
  • No. 52 – Detechtion Technologies
  • No. 53 – Tricon Energy
  • No. 57 – Eagle Point Solutions
  • No. 64 – Hatch Agency Real Estate
  • No. 66 – Simucase
  • No. 69 – Crestwood Equity Partners

Just outside Houston, Cypress-based Specialized Assessment and Consulting ranked No. 31 and TK Trailer Parts in Madisonville ranked No. 65 in the small and medium workplace report.The full list of 2023's best workplaces in Texas can be found on greatplacetowork.com.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Here's what workplaces young professionals are the most happy. Photo via Getty Images

These 10 Houston companies rank among best U.S. employers for young professionals

workplace praise

Ten businesses in the Greater Houston area are clocking in among the country's best employers for millennials, according to a new report.

The Best Workplaces for Millennials list is published annually by Fortune magazine and compiled by Great Place to Work, a company that focuses on improving workplace culture.

Looking at the 10 Houston-area employers, mega developer David Weekley homes takes the top spot. The company appears at No. 12 on the list of large employers.

"It's an honor to once again be recognized as a top company for working millennials," said Robert Hefner, David Weekly vice president of human resources, in a statement. "We are very proud to offer a rewarding workplace culture as well as competitive benefits and amazing perks to draw this group of young talent to our award-winning team."

In that survey, 97 percent of staffers called David Weekley Homes a great place to work. The home builder previously ranked at number 26 on the 2020 list.

Joining David Weekly on the list are these large, mid-size, and small Houston-area companies:

Large employers:

  • Camden Property Trust, No. 32
  • Hilcorp, No. 37
  • Cornerstone Home Lending, No. 38
  • Transwestern, No. 65
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise, No. 95

Small and mid-sized employers:

  • Continued, No. 33
  • Venterra Realty, No. 49
  • Republic State Mortgage, No. 90
  • E.A.G. Services, No. 91

Here's how employers in Texas' other major metro areas fared.

Dallas

  • Plano-based Granite: No. 6
  • Addison-based Credera, No. 36
  • Dallas-based Pariveda Solutions, No. 76
  • Dallas-based Embark, No. 97
  • Dallas-based PrimeLending lands at No. 29
  • Dallas-based Ryan LLC at No. 35.

Austin

Large employers:

  • Round Rock-based Dell Technologies, No. 75

Small and mid-sized employers:

  • Austin-based OJO Labs, No. 51
  • Austin-based SailPoint, No. 60
  • Austin-based Sedera Health, No. 69
  • Austin-based The Zebra, No. 86

San Antonio

Large employers:

  • San Antonio-based NuStar Energy, No. 91
  • San Antonio-based USAA, No. 98

"The Best Workplaces for Millennials treat their employees like people, not just employees," says Michael Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. "These companies foster caring and respect for one another, at every level of the organization. The result is millennial employees who say they look forward to coming to work and — as our research says — are 50 times more likely to stay a long time."

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Houston's tech workforce makes double the average salary — but when it comes to job growth, the city needs improvement, according to a new report. Photo via Pexels

Report: Here's how Houston ranks when it comes to tech salaries and job growth

by the numbers

It truly pays to work in the tech sector in the Houston metro area.

A report published January 11 by Austin-based tech company Spanning Cloud Apps LLC shows workers in the Houston area can more than double their pay when they hold down a tech job. In fact, Houston ranks fifth among the country's largest metro areas for the pay advantage in tech occupations versus all occupations.

According to the report, the median annual pay for a Houston-area tech job stood at $91,190 in 2019. By comparison, the median annual pay for all occupations sat at $40,570. That puts the area's median tech pay 124.8 percent higher than the median pay for all occupations, giving Houston a fifth-place ranking in that category.

At 124.8 percent, Houston is sandwiched between fourth-place Dallas-Fort Worth (127 percent) and sixth-place San Antonio (124.7 percent) in terms of the pay premium offered by tech jobs. At No. 27 is Austin, with a 106.1 percent pay premium for tech jobs.

As for median tech pay, DFW ($91,760) claims the No. 12 spot among large metro areas. Meanwhile, Houston is in 15th place ($91,190), Austin is in 24th place ($85,640), and San Antonio is in 30th place ($81,870).

The report identifies 84,040 tech workers in the Houston area. In that regard, Houston ranks 13th among large metro areas, with DFW at No. 5 (158,490), Austin at No. 18 (66,800), and San Antonio at No. 35 (28,200).

While Houston earns a high ranking in the Spanning report for the pay gap between tech jobs and all jobs, it's toward the bottom of the pile when it comes to the share of tech jobs, the report indicates. Among large metro areas, Houston ranks 41st for the share of computer and math occupations in the workforce, 2.8 percent.

San Jose, California, takes the No. 1 spot in that category, with 12.7 percent of employees working in computer and math occupations. Austin ranks sixth (6.2 percent), DFW holds down the No. 13 spot (4.3 percent), and San Antonio comes in at No. 42 (2.7 percent).

Spanning based its report on data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In February 2020, the Greater Houston Partnership indicated the region was home to about 150,000 tech workers, far above the number tallied in the Spanning report. The partnership says the region boasts the 12th largest tech sector in the U.S., generating an annual economic impact of $28.1 billion. Among the country's 20 largest metro areas, Houston ranks first for the share of tech workers at non-tech employers.

From August to September, Houston saw an 11 percent rise in postings for tech jobs, according to a third-quarter report from tech career hub Dice. That was one of the highest growth rates among the country's largest metro areas.

"As the home of NASA's human space program and headquarters to the global energy industry, Houston has long been known for its engineering prowess," the Greater Houston Partnership says. "Although most of Houston's technology talent is embedded in some of the area's largest industries such as energy and health care, subsectors such as software development, programming, and database management are also growing."

In the tech sector, Houston is bound to benefit from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (HPE) shifting its headquarters from Silicon Valley to its campus under construction in Spring. The company praises Houston as "an attractive market for us to recruit and retain talent, and a great place to do business."

HPE already employs about 2,600 people in the Houston area. The move of its headquarters to Spring could mean the addition of hundreds of local jobs in the coming years.

"HPE's headquarters relocation is a signature moment for Houston, accelerating the momentum that has been building for the last few years as we position Houston as a leading digital tech hub," Bob Harvey, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, said in December.

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TMC lands $3M grant to launch cancer device accelerator

cancer funding

A new business accelerator at Houston’s Texas Medical Center has received a nearly $3 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

The CPRIT grant, awarded to the Texas Medical Center Foundation, will help launch the Accelerator for Cancer Medical Devices. The accelerator will support emerging innovators in developing prototypes for cancer-related medical devices and advancing them from prototype to clinical trials.

“The translation of new cancer-focused precision medical devices, often the width of a human hair, creates the opportunity to develop novel treatments for cancer patients,” the accelerator posted on the CPRIT website.

Scientist, consultant, and entrepreneur Jason Sakamoto, associate director of the TMC Center for Device Innovation, will oversee the accelerator. TMC officials say the accelerator builds on the success of TMC Innovation’s Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics.

Each participant in the Accelerator for Cancer Medical Devices program will graduate with a device prototype, a business plan, and a “solid foundation” in preclinical and clinical strategies, TMC says. Participants will benefit from “robust support” provided by the TMC ecosystem, according to the medical center, and “will foster innovation into impactful and life-changing cancer patient solutions in Texas and beyond.”

In all, CPRIT recently awarded $27 million in grants for cancer research. That includes $18 million to attract top cancer researchers to Texas. Houston institutions received $4 million for recruitment:

  • $2 million to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to recruit Rodrigo Romero from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City
  • $2 million to MD Anderson to recruit Eric Gardner from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City

A $1 million grant also went to Baylor College of Medicine researcher Dr. Akiva Diamond. He is an assistant professor at the medical college and is affiliated with Baylor’s Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Musk’s SpaceX spends $17B to acquire spectrum licenses from EchoStar

SpaceX Update

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has reached a deal worth about $17 billion with EchoStar for spectrum licenses that it will use to beef up its Starlink satellite network.

The deal for EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses includes up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock. SpaceX will make approximately $2 billion in cash interest payments on EchoStar debt through November 2027.

SpaceX and EchoStar will enter into a long-term commercial agreement which will allow EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers to access SpaceX’s next generation Starlink Direct to Cell service.

Shares of EchoStar surged 19% before the market opened Monday.

Last month AT&T said that it will spend $23 billion to acquire wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, a significant expansion of its low- and mid-band coverage networks.

EchoStar said that it anticipates that the AT&T deal and the SpaceX transaction will resolve recent inquiries from the Federal Communications Commission about the rollout of 5G technology in the U.S. The FCC had been calling for hearings on whether Echostar was properly using the spectrum that it is now selling, and its efforts to make 5G more available to communities.

EchoStar said Monday that it will use the proceeds from the sale partly to pay down debt. Current operations of Dish TV, Sling and Hughes will not be impacted, the company said.

Houston students develop cost-effective glove to treat Parkinson's symptoms

smart glove

Two Rice undergraduate engineering students have developed a non-invasive vibrotactile glove that aims to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease through therapeutic vibrations.

Emmie Casey and Tomi Kuye developed the project with support from the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) and guidance from its director, Maria Oden, and Rice lecturer Heather Bisesti, according to a news release from the university.

The team based the design on research from the Peter Tass Lab at Stanford University, which explored how randomized vibratory stimuli delivered to the fingertips could help rewire misfiring neurons in the brain—a key component of Parkinson’s disease.

Clinical trials from Stanford showed that coordinated reset stimulation from the vibrations helped patients regain motor control and reduced abnormal brain activity. The effects lasted even after users removed the vibrotactile gloves.

Casey and Kuye set out to replicate the breakthrough at a lower cost. Their prototype replaced the expensive motors used in previous designs with motors found in smartphones that create similar tiny vibrations. They then embedded the motors into each fingertip of a wireless glove.

“We wanted to take this breakthrough and make it accessible to people who would never be able to afford an expensive medical device,” Casey said in the release. “We set out to design a glove that delivers the same therapeutic vibrations but at a fraction of the cost.”

Rice’s design also targets the root of the neurological disruption and attempts to retrain the brain. An early prototype was given to a family friend who had an early onset of the disease. According to anecdotal data from Rice, after six months of regularly using the gloves, the user was able to walk unaided.

“We’re not claiming it’s a cure,” Kuye said in the release. “But if it can give people just a little more control, a little more freedom, that’s life-changing.”

Casey and Kuye are working to develop a commercial version of the glove priced at $250. They are taking preorders and hope to release 500 pairs of gloves this fall. They've also published an open-source instruction manual online for others who want to try to build their own glove at home. They have also formed a nonprofit and plan to use a sliding scale price model to help users manage the cost.

“This project exemplifies what we strive for at the OEDK — empowering students to translate cutting-edge research into real-world solutions,” Oden added in the release. “Emmie and Tomi have shown extraordinary initiative and empathy in developing a device that could bring meaningful relief to people living with Parkinson’s, no matter their resources.”

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