Houston health institute launches advanced translation platform to reach more patients online

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The Texas Heart Institute — located in the Texas Medical Center — has upgraded its tech to reach more patients. Photo via texasheart.org

The Texas Heart Institute launched a new translation technology on its websites this month that will allow speakers of more than 100 languages to learn from and interact with its digital resources.

Known as a neural machine translation network, the artificial intelligence service has been deployed on THI's texasheart.org and texasheartmedical.org to translate heart-health information in several Spanish dialects, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, and numerous other languages.

Now, when users visit these sites they are presented with a drop down menu of a long list of languages to choose from. Once they make their selection, the website is shown in their native or chosen language in a form that's nearly identical to its presentation in English. These thousands of shifts were achieved through machine translation that predicts the likelihood of a sequence of words in a sentence.

“The Texas Heart Institute remains committed to serving as a trusted source of health information and patient empowerment by simplifying access to our extensive library of knowledge,” Dr. Joseph G. Rogers, CEO and President of The Texas Heart Institute, said in a statement.

Neural machine translations, or NMTs, are considered to be more accurate that statistical translations when translating to and from the English language. Rather than running a set of rules to translate a set of words and phrases in a sentence, known as machine or statistical translations, NMT uses a series of nodes to look at the language as a whole and understand the context to create a more fluent translation.

NMT translations have accuracy scores of 8.3 out of 10, and are expected to improve with more adoption, THI shared from a 2021 study by the UCLA Medical Center. Human translations have accuracy scores of 8.5 out of 10.

According to the institute, the shift aligns with THI's mission of providing access to heart-health information, regardless of language barriers. In 2011, the institute launched heart-health topics and articles in Spanish on its sites. Those pages are among the most used on the side today, the institute says, and people from about 235 countries, territories, and dependencies visit THI's website every year.

Last year, Innovation Map spoke with THI's then-newly appointed manager of innovation partnerships Allison Post, whose mission is to support THI's in-house inventors while making sure it is bringing in the best new external technologies out there to its patients. Click here to learn more or listen to the full interview on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

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Houston robotics co. unveils new robot that can handle extreme temperatures

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Houston- and Boston-based Square Robot Inc.'s newest tank inspection robot is commercially available and certified to operate at extreme temperatures.

The new robot, known as the SR-3HT, can operate from 14°F to 131°F, representing a broader temperature range than previous models in the company's portfolio. According to the company, its previous temperature range reached 32°F to 104°F.

The new robot has received the NEC/CEC Class I Division 2 (C1D2) certification from FM Approvals, allowing it to operate safely in hazardous locations and to perform on-stream inspections of aboveground storage tanks containing products stored at elevated temperatures.

“Our engineering team developed the SR-3HT in response to significant client demand in both the U.S. and international markets. We frequently encounter higher temperatures due to both elevated process temperatures and high ambient temperatures, especially in the hotter regions of the world, such as the Middle East," David Lamont, CEO of Square Robot, said in a news release. "The SR-3HT employs both active and passive cooling technology, greatly expanding our operating envelope. A great job done (again) by our engineers delivering world-leading technology in record time.”

The company's SR-3 submersible robot and Side Launcher received certifications earlier this year. They became commercially available in 2023, after completing initial milestone testing in partnership with ExxonMobil, according to Square Robot.

The company closed a $13 million series B round in December, which it said it would put toward international expansion in Europe and the Middle East.

Square Robot launched its Houston office in 2019. Its autonomous, submersible robots are used for storage tank inspections and eliminate the need for humans to enter dangerous and toxic environments.

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Houston's Ion District to expand with new research and tech space, The Arc

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Houston's Ion District is set to expand with the addition of a nearly 200,000-square-foot research and technology facility, The Arc at the Ion District.

Rice Real Estate Company and Lincoln Property Company are expected to break ground on the state-of-the-art facility in Q2 2026 with a completion target set for Q1 2028, according to a news release.

Rice University, the new facility's lead tenant, will occupy almost 30,000 square feet of office and lab space in The Arc, which will share a plaza with the Ion and is intended to "extend the district’s success as a hub for innovative ideas and collaboration." Rice research at The Arc will focus on energy, artificial intelligence, data science, robotics and computational engineering, according to the release.

“The Arc will offer Rice the opportunity to deepen its commitment to fostering world-changing innovation by bringing our leading minds and breakthrough discoveries into direct engagement with Houston’s thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches said in the release. “Working side by side with industry experts and actual end users at the Ion District uniquely positions our faculty and students to form partnerships and collaborations that might not be possible elsewhere.”

Developers of the project are targeting LEED Gold certification by incorporating smart building automation and energy-saving features into The Arc's design. Tenants will have the opportunity to lease flexible floor plans ranging from 28,000 to 31,000 square feet with 15-foot-high ceilings. The property will also feature a gym, an amenity lounge, conference and meeting spaces, outdoor plazas, underground parking and on-site retail and dining.

Preleasing has begun for organizations interested in joining Rice in the building.

“The Arc at the Ion District will be more than a building—it will be a catalyst for the partnerships, innovations and discoveries that will define Houston’s future in science and technology,” Ken Jett, president of Rice Real Estate Company, added in the release. “By expanding our urban innovation ecosystem, The Arc will attract leading organizations and talent to Houston, further strengthening our city’s position as a hub for scientific and entrepreneurial progress.”

Intel Corp. and Rice University sign research access agreement

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Rice University’s Office of Technology Transfer has signed a subscription agreement with California-based Intel Corp., giving the global company access to Rice’s research portfolio and the opportunity to license select patented innovations.

“By partnering with Intel, we are creating opportunities for our research to make a tangible impact in the technology sector,” Patricia Stepp, assistant vice president for technology transfer, said in a news release.

Intel will pay Rice an annual subscription fee to secure the option to evaluate specified Rice-patented technologies, according to the agreement. If Intel chooses to exercise its option rights, it can obtain a license for each selected technology at a fee.

Rice has been a hub for innovation and technology with initiatives like the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, an accelerator focused on expediting the translation of the university’s health and medical technology; RBL LLC, a biotech venture studio in the Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park dedicated to commercializing lifesaving medical technologies from the Launch Pad; and Rice Nexus, an AI-focused "innovation factory" at the Ion.

The university has also inked partnerships with other tech giants in recent months. Rice's OpenStax, a provider of affordable instructional technologies and one of the world’s largest publishers of open educational resources, partnered with Microsoft this summer. Google Public Sector has also teamed up with Rice to launch the Rice AI Venture Accelerator, or RAVA.

“This agreement exemplifies Rice University’s dedication to fostering innovation and accelerating the commercialization of groundbreaking research,” Stepp added in the news release.

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