Pittsburgh – September 22, 2026 -- Viam will debut BoxBot, a robot arm that opens taped cardboard boxes, at IROS 2026 in Pittsburgh, running September 27 through October 3. The system was trained on just 125 teleoperated demonstrations collected in roughly five hours over four days, using a fine-tuned open-source vision-language-action model with no custom architecture required.

Los Angeles – September 22, 2026 -- Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has expanded Zum's AI-powered CMX platform to its in-house school bus fleet starting this school year, unifying technology across both district-operated and Zum-operated vehicles.

Kennedy Space Center, Fla. – September 22, 2026 -- The International Space Station National Laboratory's Orbital Edge Accelerator has expanded its second-year cohort to eight startups, up from six in 2025, while raising available per-startup funding to a range of $500,000 to $750,000, up from a prior cap of $500,000.

Aurora, Colo. – September 22, 2026 -- University of Colorado Anschutz has received an anonymous $50 million gift, one of the largest in campus history, to expand its CSF Leak Program into a world-leading center for diagnosis, treatment and research of cerebrospinal fluid leaks.

Dallas-Plano, Texas – September 22, 2026 -- Sportball is opening its first corporate-operated location in the United States in Dallas-Plano this fall, marking a shift from a two-decade-old franchise-only U.S. model to direct company operations. The Canadian youth sports company will also add a new franchise in Frisco-McKinney, expected to open in early 2027.

Fremont, Calif. – September 22, 2026 -- THINK Surgical, Inc. has appointed Rick McDowell as Vice President, Sales, tasking him with leading the orthopedic robotics maker's national sales organization as it scales commercial operations.

McDowell reports directly to Executive Vice President Chris Marrus

McDowell will drive market strategy and growth for THINK Surgical's commercial team, reporting to Chris Marrus. He arrives with more than 20 years in medical device commercialization, clinical strategy, and capital sales across the surgical robotics sector.

St. Louis – September 22, 2026 -- The Gateway Business Health Coalition (Gateway BHC), which represents roughly 70 employers nationwide including Fortune 500 companies and public sector organizations, has partnered with Rezilient Health to expand employer access to a hybrid primary care model.

London – September 22, 2026 -- The Natural Diamond Council has rebranded as The Diamond Collective, launching a new global strategy to rebuild consumer demand for natural diamonds amid rising competition from synthetic alternatives.

San Antonio – September 22, 2026 -- Texas A&M University-San Antonio advanced nine spots to No. 31 in the U.S. News & World Report Top Performers on Social Mobility category, its largest single-year gain in the ranking.

University moves up in three separate U.S. News categories

A&M-San Antonio also rose one spot to No. 28 among Top Public Schools and held its position at No. 56 among Regional Universities West, a category spanning 14 states including Texas, Washington, Nevada and California.

Austin, Texas – September 22, 2026 -- Mendocino Farms opened its 102nd restaurant nationwide on September 22, marking its third Austin location at 1100 South Lamar Boulevard, Suite 1125, and expanding its Texas footprint to 14 restaurants statewide.

Chain expands Austin presence following two prior openings

The South Lamar site follows earlier debuts at Arbor Trails and West 38th Street, building out the fast-casual chain's third foothold in the Austin market since entering the city in 2025.