Learners Live

Did you Know?
Menu

AI Changes Search Game for Marketers

William Attardi on May 12, 2025

 In a matter of months, artificial intelligence has begun to change how people search for things online in ways that alarm some marketers. Consumers who use traditional search engines like Google and Bing are now greeted atop their search results by AI-generated summaries of the topics at hand. OpenAI said last month that ChatGPT will soon roll out a shopping button that redirects users to a merchant’s website, where they can buy the product they were researching. OpenAI says ChatGPT now processes roughly one billion searches a week, but Google handles 5 trillion searches each year, or around 100 times that total, according to its most recent figures.  “This is not big for us yet, but it could be,” Joy Howard said of LLM searches.  Q1i1BlXWfajcTTkzC3B2-WSJNewsPaper-5-12-2025.pdf

Google to Fund NECA Training Program

William Attardi on May 2, 2025

Google is announcing a new paper and support for an effort to train 100,000 electrical workers and 30,000 new apprentices in the United States. This is Google’s news release: AI presents the United States with a generational opportunity for extraordinary innovation and growth. The deployment of AI will grow the American economy, create jobs, accelerate scientific advances and more. Fully realizing these opportunities requires an effort to rapidly increase the capacity of the nation’s existing, sometimes antiquated energy system. This in turn requires accelerating innovation and investment in advanced energy technologies; optimizing use of the existing grid and unlocking construction of new transmission infrastructure; and developing the labor force needed to build new energy infrastructure. Through shared public and private efforts to introduce and support training programs like this one, the U.S. can develop a model for training the next generation workforce. Google to Fund NECA Training Program – electrifiED

Improving Building Operations with Cloud-Based Applications by Rahul Chillar

William Attardi on April 28, 2025

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the integration of internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and further smart building technologies is transforming the operational management of real estate. With an increasing need for data-driven decision making, the implementation of building operation systems gains momentum. Since 75% of commercial buildings are not managed as efficiently as they could be, there is huge potential to build on. Cloud-based building operation applications can be viewed as indispensable for future-proof facilities management. As the number of connected devices is expected to exceed 75 billion by 2025, data collection in commercial buildings is becoming more relevant than ever. Now buildings can be operated remotely and conveniently from anywhere. This transformation was possible as technology, such as sensors, have been integrated into building equipment, providing essential data. Strategically deployed throughout the property, sensors are monitoring critical areas such as Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), lighting, water management, fire safety, or security. Once the sensors have collected the data, they can display it in a cloud-based building operations application. Improving Operations: Cloud-Based Building Operation Systems

Cultivating Healthier Spaces Through Lighting Design by Grant Kightlinger & Lauri Tredinnick

William Attardi on April 21, 2025

How designers are using breakthroughs in biologically effective lighting to mimic natural light cycles and improve human health at home and at work. Circadian lighting — and biologically effective lighting more broadly — is an exciting frontier in the design industry with immense potential to improve occupants’ quality of life. These strategies focus on creating lighting conditions that harmonize with our biological clock, improve alertness, and support hormonal balance. The ongoing exploration of light’s effects on health is paving the way for significant advancements in biologically effective lighting design. Innovations such as simplified controls, adjustable spectrum luminaires, and artificial daylight solutions can help create environments that not only meet aesthetic and functional needs but also enhance well-being. As we continue to refine our approaches, the potential for cost-effective circadian lighting solutions that align with our biological rhythms becomes increasingly feasible, ultimately fostering healthier living and working environments.  Breakthroughs in Biologically Effective Lighting Design | EC&M

Eye on the Storm by Tim Kridel

William Attardi on April 16, 2025

The new ANSI/NEMA C137.10 standard is designed to keep streetlights on during extreme weather. But in normal times, it also creates opportunities in the smart cities market. By the end of this decade, the North American smart city market will be worth close to $1 trillion, a roughly fourfold jump from 2024, Grand View Research A new standard from NEMA’s Lighting Systems Division should help electrical contractors and electrical design firms grab a share of that burgeoning market by leveraging upgrades aimed at bolstering outdoor lighting resiliency. ANSI/NEMA C137.10-2024 creates a vendor-agnostic format for data produced by sensors installed on light poles along roadways and pedways. That standardization enables municipalities, utilities, and other lighting infrastructure owners to have a mix of hardware and software vendors without risking data incompatibility. ANSI/NEMA C137.10 Standard and Lighting System Interoperability | EC&M

Say Hello to Your New Colleague, the AI Agent By Marc Benioff

William Attardi on April 7, 2025

I’ve been part of many waves of technology in my 25 years at Salesforce—from cloud computing to mobile, social and the early stages of AI. But nothing compares to the transformation we’re seeing now. While much of the AI conversation is about large language models, the real revolution is happening in AI-driven digital labor: autonomous, intelligent agents. Because such agents act on their own, collaborate and continuously learn and improve, companies of any size can scale beyond human limits.  Today’s CEOs are the final generation of executives leading exclusively human workforces. Going forward, we’ll need to learn how to manage human workers and digital labor to work together to deliver efficiency and productivity. Integrating AI agents into daily operations will become a leadership skill that separates companies that thrive from those that fall behind. Mr. Benioff is Chair and CEO of Salesforce. iq4POgFJIwS2n9NdKvjD-WSJNewsPaper-4-4-2025.pdf

Data Centers: More Power to Them by Jim Lucy

William Attardi on April 1, 2025

2025’s surge in data center construction will be fueled by the greater demands of AI (artificial intelligence) for electrical power. The explosive growth in data center construction and the related increases in demand for the electrical system installation and supply and logistical services they require is quite unlike anything the electrical business has ever seen. Over the years there’s been booms in speculative office construction, energy-efficient lighting retrofits and the installation of power quality industrial automation products. But the dollars being spent on new data centers – and the electrical construction materials that help power them – may very well be unmatched. This all means big business for electrical contractors, design engineers and other electrical professionals involved with data center construction. Data Centers: More Power to Them | Electrical Wholesaling

Andy Jassy Just Shared 5 Career Tips for Amazon Staff Who Want to Get Ahead at Work. Check It Out

William Attardi on March 25, 2025

In a blog post published on Friday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy rounded up five of career tips for staffers who want to build successful careers. His tips largely boil down to being experimental, driven, and open to learning.

  1. Seek out work that builds on your passions, which will allow you to do work you find fulfilling.
  2. Adopt an experimental approach to your career by trying out different fields.
  3. Don’t fear failure. Instead……be self-aware and learn from mistakes.
  4. Have a strong work ethic and be a good team player. Position yourself as someone people can trust.
  5. Be a “great learner” to excel. You should be learning all the time.

Lastly he added: A person’s success often hinges on their attitude to work. There’s so many things you can’t control in your work life, but you can control your attitude.

Andy Jassy just shared 5 career tips for Amazon staff who want to get ahead at work. Check it out.

Implementing AI in Electrical Applications— Part 1 by Michael Morris

William Attardi on March 17, 2025

From the EC&M e-books library: How the industry is incorporating artificial intelligence into the electrical space.  Ever since the rise of ChatGPT in November 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has been unavoidable. Just about every industry is developing ways to incorporate AI into their field, and the electrical industry is no different. EC&M has followed the rise of AI in order to keep our readers informed on how the technology is impacting the electrical industry. This content has been immensely popular, so we decided to collect some of the best articles into our first e-book of 2025. The topic of artificial intelligence and its role in the electrical industry is such an important and rapidly evolving one that we decided we’ll need two e-books to do it justice. Stay tuned for “Implementing AI in Electrical Applications — Part 2” releasing later in 2025.  67d1dc96c1db52f96511aefc-ecm_ebook_implementing_ai (1).pdf

5 Trends That Will Transform the Building Industry in 2025 by Michael Westerfield and Brent Lowe

William Attardi on March 14, 2025

Keeping up with building industry trends is essential for reducing costs, streamlining operations, and improving equipment efficiency. Commercial building management is undergoing seismic change as advanced technology with deep-data analysis becomes more affordable and available. Analystsestimated the smart building software market at nearly $7.3 billion at the close of 2022 and forecast it to reach $11.8 billion by 2028. This change affects everything in the building management space. We track shifts carefully through our conversations with systems integrators and facility executives, and these are five trends we expect to gain traction throughout this year:

  1. Cybercrime Will Make Digital Security A Priority For Facilities Managers In 2025
  2. Shrinking Labor Pool Will Drive Consolidation And Out-Sourcing
  3. Leveraging Technology To Navigate Compliance Costs
  4. Energy Efficiency Will Increase As A Selling Point In Office Spaces
  5. Preparing For Fluctuating Energy Costs

5 Trends That Will Transform The Building Industry In 2025

It’s Back to School – How Some of Our Most Acknowledged Universities Got Their Name – Who were the true visionaries who would donate half of their estate to sculpting the minds of the future. These stories are monuments to history and culture. Let’s take a stroll through academia’s memory lane and uncover the origins of these storied university names!

  1. Ah, Harvard! The Ivy League giant was once a small college in the Massachusetts Bay Colony settlement called New Towne. But where did “Harvard” come from? Enter John Harvard, a clergyman who, in 1638, decided to bequeath half his estate and his library (a whopping 400 books!) to the fledgling college. Grateful for this generous gift, they promptly named the institution after him.
  2. A gem of New Haven, Connecticut, Yale is another Ivy League powerhouse known for its prestigious law and drama schools. It owes its name to Elihu Yale, a wealthy merchant who, in 1718, donated a modest shipment of goods (including portraits, books, and textiles) to a struggling collegiate school. Those goods were auctioned off, raising a much-needed £562 –a small fortune at the time.
  3. Dartmouth is renowned for its beautiful rural setting, nestled in the picturesque town of Hanover, New Hampshire. It was named after the Earl of Dartmouth, William Legge, a British nobleman who supported the college’s founding –despite never actually setting foot in America!
  4. Brown, this Rhode Island Ivy University, known for its open curriculum and emphasis on student choice, was founded with a mouthful of a name – the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It was renamed in 1704 for Nicholas Brown, Jr., a prominent merchant whose family donated generously to the school.
  5. Perched atop a hill overlooking Ithaca, New York, Cornell is celebrated for its diverse academic programs and its stunning natural surroundings. Founded by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, this university was unique for its commitment to practical education, allowing students the freedom to choose their own course of study. It was a revolutionary notion at the time, which would guide a curricular reform across the country.
  6. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford is renowned for its entrepreneurial spirit and its close ties to the tech industry. But this California powerhouse has a touching origin story. Leland Stanford, Jr., the founder’s son, tragically died young from typhoid fever. His father Leland Sr., railroad magnate and former state governor, and his mother Jane, founded the university in his memory, ensuring his legacy lived on through the pursuit of knowledge.
  7. This North Carolina research giant, known for its strong medical and law schools, underwent a bit of a name change in its history. Originally called Trinity College, it was renamed Duke University in 1924 after James Buchanan Duke, a tobacco and electric power industrialist who founded the American Tobacco Company. He established The Duke Endowment, to which he donated throughout his life and left half his estate after his death.
  8. Nestled in Nashville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt is a renowned research university with a vibrant campus life. It owes its name to “The Commodore,” Cornelius Vanderbilt, a shipping and railroad magnate, who provided the initial gift to establish the university.
  9. Texas businessman William Marsh Rice provided the initial funding for this Houston university, but did not live to see its opening. He was murdered by his valet as he slept, in a plot to forge the man’s will. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Rice University flourished through the years, becoming an institution known for its strong engineering and science programs.
  10. Who was Harvard named after? Origin of university names