Astera Institute

In 1999, two science-based companies with shared visions came together to form AstraZeneca: Sweden's Astra AB and the UK's Zeneca Group PLC. This strategic merger combined decades of pharmaceutical expertise, creating a global powerhouse uniquely positioned to push the boundaries of scientific discovery. What began as a union of strengths has evolved into a relentless pursuit of breakthrough therapies, with the company investing billions annually in research and development to transform patient outcomes across oncology, biopharmaceuticals, respiratory, and rare diseases. Today, AstraZeneca stands at the forefront of precision medicine and next-generation therapeutics, harnessing the power of data science, AI, and innovative technologies like cell therapies. With 197 projects in the pipeline and 16 blockbuster medicines, the company operates from six strategic R&D centres spanning Cambridge, Gothenburg, Gaithersburg, Boston, Shanghai, and Beijing. Their bold aspiration to deliver 20 new medicines by 2030 reflects an unwavering commitment to following the science and putting patients first - values that have driven every decision since that pivotal merger more than two decades ago.

We have been enterprise cloud management pioneers ever since managing the world's first production instance of SAP on the public cloud. We are a proactive global comprehensive managed services partner offering full visibility into your system, workloads, and operations. Our trusted team guides you from discovery to migration and beyond with the deepest technical cloud and ERP expertise. That team is Protera. Since 1998, we have been reimagining how SAP-centric organizations work in the cloud - think Microsoft Azure and AWS. We're not your typical serious tech company. While we're obsessed with delivering top-notch IT solutions, we're all about keeping it real, approachable, and enjoyable. We work hard, but we also play hard - whether we're collaborating on cloud optimizations, enhancing security, or just hanging out as a team. Our values are simple: stay curious, stay authentic, and make meaningful connections.

At SANS Institute, we believe that making the digital world safer starts with empowering practitioners who defend it every day. Founded in 1989 as a cooperative for information security thought leadership, we've grown into the world's largest and most trusted source for cybersecurity training, certifications, and research. Our community-driven approach means real practitioners - the ones on the front lines of cyber defense - create and deliver our courses. When you train with SANS, you learn from professionals who have faced the threats they're teaching about, bringing authentic battlefield experience to every classroom and online session. What sets our culture apart is an unwavering commitment to practical, applicable skills that can be used the moment students return to work. Our faculty members - all active cybersecurity practitioners - have collectively created over 150 open-source tools and authored 40+ books on information security. We offer 85+ courses with 1,700+ hands-on labs, ensuring every student builds muscle memory, not just theory. With core values of integrity, trust, honesty, and flexibility guiding everything we do, we've built an environment where authentic bonds form between instructors and students, creating a global network of cybersecurity professionals who learn from and support each other long after training ends.

Isentia is Asia-Pacific's leading media intelligence company, empowering over 5,000 clients to understand their brand and reputation across the complex media landscape. Founded in 1982 by advertising pioneer Neville Jeffress, Isentia has grown from a press clipping service into a comprehensive media monitoring and insights platform. With more than 1,000 staff across 18 offices throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia, the company analyzes data from over 6 million sources to deliver actionable intelligence 24/7/365. Isentia's comprehensive media intelligence platform provides monitoring across online news, TV, radio, print, and social media channels, supported by award-winning research teams and proprietary machine learning technology. The company generates over 20,000 reports monthly and manages more than 65,000 active searches for clients ranging from government agencies and Fortune 500 companies to startups and not-for-profit organizations. Since being acquired by Access Intelligence in 2021, Isentia continues to innovate its AI-powered solutions, recently launching Lumina to help PR and communications professionals make data-driven decisions that protect and enhance their organization's reputation.

We're building a connected operating system that's making autonomous robots work together seamlessly. Our team has been leading the open-source movement for over a decade, creating AuterionOS as the foundation for everything from delivery drones to defense systems. We believe in open standards and interoperability - our platform lets you control diverse fleets of vehicles from multiple manufacturers through a single, unified interface. Most of us came from the open-source PX4 and Pixhawk projects, so we know firsthand how painful proprietary, closed systems can be. We're building the software we wish existed when we started - platform that enables network-centric operations where teams of autonomous vehicles can coordinate and accomplish missions that would be impossible for isolated systems working alone. From enterprise drone operators to government defense programs, our technology is helping organizations rethink what's possible with autonomous systems.

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. The University expects all areas of the institution to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world. Columbia University operates a comprehensive academic enterprise spanning sixteen schools, a world-renowned medical center, twenty-five libraries, and more than one hundred research centers in New York City. For more than 250 years, Columbia has been a leader in higher education in the nation and around the world, combining the intimate scale of a small college with the vast resources of a major research university.