Something strange happened at University of California campuses this fall. For the first time since the dot-com crash, computer science enrollment dropped. System-wide, it fell 6% this year after declining 3% in 2024, according to reporting this past week by the San Francisco Chronicle. Even as overall college enrollment climbed 2% nationally — according to January data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — students are bailing on traditional CS degrees.
This all might look like a temporary blip tied to news about fewer CS grads finding work out of college. But it’s more likely an indicator of the future, one that China is much more enthusiastically embracing. As MIT Technology Review reported last July, Chinese universities have leaned hard into AI literacy, treating AI not as a threat but instead as essential infrastructure. Nearly 60% of Chinese students and faculty now use AI tools multiple times daily, and schools like Zhejiang University have made AI coursework mandatory, while top institutions like Tsinghua have created entirely new interdisciplinary AI colleges. In China, fluency with AI isn’t optional anymore; it’s table stakes.
U.S. universities are scrambling to catch up. Over the last two years, dozens have launched AI-specific programs. MIT’s “AI and decision-making” major is now the second-largest major on campus, says the school. As reported by the New York Times in December, the University of South Florida enrolled more than 3,000 students in a new AI and cybersecurity college during its fall semester. The University at Buffalo last summer launched a new “AI and Society” department that offers seven new, specialized undergraduate degree programs, and it received more than 200 applicants before it swung open its doors.
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The transition hasn’t been smooth everywhere. When I spoke with UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts in October, he described a spectrum — some faculty “leaning forward” with AI, others with “their heads in the sand.” Roberts, a former finance executive who arrived from outside academia, was pushing hard for AI integration despite faculty resistance. A week earlier, UNC had announced it would merge two schools to create an AI-focused entity — a decision that drew faculty pushback. Roberts had also appointed a vice provost specifically for AI. “No one’s going to say to students after they graduate, ‘Do the best job you can, but if you use AI, you’ll be in trouble,’” Roberts told me. “Yet we have faculty members effectively saying that right now.”
Parents are playing a role in this rocky transition, too. David Reynaldo, who runs the admissions consultancy College Zoom, told the Chronicle that parents who once pushed kids toward CS are now reflexively steering them toward other majors that seem more resistant to AI automation, including mechanical and electrical engineering.
But the enrollment numbers suggest students are voting with their feet. According to a survey in October by the nonprofit Computing Research Association — it members include computer science and computer engineering departments from a wide range of universities — 62% of respondents reported that their computing programs saw undergraduate enrollment declines this fall. But with AI programs ballooning, it’s looking less like a tech exodus and more like a migration. The University of Southern California is launching an AI degree this coming fall; so are Columbia University, Pace University, and New Mexico State University, among many others. Students aren’t abandoning tech; they’re choosing programs focused on AI instead.
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Boston, MA | June 23, 2026
It’s too soon to say whether this recalibration is permanent or a temporary panic. But it’s certainly a wake-up call for administrators who’ve spent years wrestling with how to handle AI in the classroom. The debate over whether to ban ChatGPT is ancient history at this point. The question now is whether American universities can move fast enough or whether they’ll keep arguing about what to do while students transfer to schools that already have answers.
After an unexpected postponement last month, T.H.E. Enterprises is bringing its Total HiFi Experience back to where it all started, announcing the 30th Anniversary of T.H.E. Show in Las Vegas from March 20-22, 202 at the Alexis Park Resort. The three day event is expected to showcase over 60 high-end audio brands, host live entertainment, and feature a first-ever T.H.E. Vintage Lounge exhibition.
T.H.E. Enterprises is marking the Las Vegas 30th Anniversary event with a special tribute to its late founder, Richard Beers, inviting longtime attendees to share a favorite photo, article, or personal memory from past shows. On Friday, March 20 (opening night), the event will host a dedicated Remembrance celebrating the torch Beers lit three decades ago and the community he helped build. Since its founding, T.H.E. Show has grown into a four city U.S. network, and the Las Vegas gathering honors both Beers’ original vision and its evolution alongside today’s audio industry. Attendees are encouraged to take part, share their memories, and help celebrate a legacy that continues to shape American hi-fi.
Emiko E. Carlin CEO & Owner T.H.E. Enterprises, LLC, President, T.H.E. Show (photo by Jeffrey Miller)
“Returning to Alexis Park feels like a true homecoming. This is the venue where T.H.E. Show first took its wings under our late and beloved founder, Richard Beers, and being back here allows us to honor that history while showing how far we’ve evolved,” said Emiko E. Carlin, President of T.H.E. Show and CEO of parent company T.H.E. Enterprises.
Ms. Carlin further stated, “We’re finally bringing the ‘Total HiFi Experience’ to life by bridging the gap between HiFi, live music, and film. In order to last another 30 years, we must not only meet the changes of today’s world, we should be encouraged to get out in front of them, leading the charge by integrating new initiatives and partnerships that are launching at T.H.E. Vegas (stay tuned for those surprises!) to welcome a new generation into the world of HiFi. It’s no longer just about the components and systems; it’s about the emotional connection to sound and building a celebration of culture that carries Richard’s legacy into the future.”
What is T.H.E. Las Vegas?
T.H.E. Show Las Vegas marks the 30th Anniversary of the event with a three day hi-fi audio exhibition open to the public and media, running March 20-22, 2026 at the Alexis Park Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show brings together state of the art home audio, personal audio, and home theater systems from companies around the world.
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Founded in 1996, T.H.E. Show has built its reputation on creating original, engaging, and community driven experiences for both attendees and exhibitors across the audio and home entertainment landscape.
The Las Vegas show is designed for seasoned audiophiles, industry professionals, music creators, and film fans, as well as anyone who simply loves great sound and big screens done right.
Where is it?
Alexis Park Resort, 375 E. Harmon Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89169 (Google Map)
How to Get Tickets
Tickets for all T.H.E. Show events are available via the official ticketing site, and attendees holding tickets from the postponed January event will have them honored with a complimentary upgrade to the next ticket tier.
Veterans and active duty U.S. Armed Forces members receive complimentary entry with proof of service, and children under 12 attend free when accompanied by an adult ticket holder.
T.H.E. Lone Star Audiofest: May 1-3, 2026 in Austin, Texas
T.H.E. Show SoCal: June 26-28, 2026 at Hilton Orange County Costa Mesa, California
T.H.E. New York International Audio Show: Fall 2026 (date TBD)
The Bottom Line
This year’s hi-fi show calendar is jam packed, and hi-fi enthusiasts may note the Montreal Audiofest will take place over the same dates. Nevertheless, T.H.E. Show’s Las Vegas return kicks off a full anniversary year that continues in Austin, moves to Costa Mesa for the flagship T.H.E. Show SoCal, and concludes in New York later in the year with dates to be announced.
About T.H.E. Enterprises:
T.H.E. Enterprises, the parent company of T.H.E. Show, is dedicated to fostering and championing supreme excellence in high-fidelity experiences through its audio shows, live events, and more. The company has been expanding this mission to larger, international audiences via growth into multiple avenues, addressing the needs and wants of audiophiles, cinephiles, and creators of music and film alike through the launch of their record label, forthcoming new network, and film festival.
PC Gamer recently noted that, among the 21 most popular PC games of 2025, only five make use of hardware-accelerated ray tracing. While the demanding technology is gaining traction in visually ambitious AAA titles, it has yet to trickle down to games optimized for mainstream hardware. Read Entire Article Source link
Apple is reportedly devoting iOS 27 development time to revamp older parts of the iPhone operating system, aiming to increase battery life by improving performance.
iOS 27 is now expected to feature performance and battery life improvements
It’s already been claimed that iOS 27 will concentrate on Apple Intelligence, but also that Apple’s internal code names for the work have recently changed. Now Bloombergsays that a major focus for the operating system update will be about reworking existing elements. Specifically, Apple is said to be rewriting parts of iOS for the new update. it’s also removing long-standing code elements that have been superseded, and it’s also planning to improve the performance of some apps. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
In December, NASA took another small, incremental step towards autonomous surface rovers. In a demonstration, the Perseverance team used AI to generate the rover’s waypoints. Perseverance used the AI waypoints on two separate days, traveling a total of 456 meters without human control.
“This demonstration shows how far our capabilities have advanced and broadens how we will explore other worlds,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Autonomous technologies like this can help missions to operate more efficiently, respond to challenging terrain, and increase science return as distance from Earth grows. It’s a strong example of teams applying new technology carefully and responsibly in real operations.”
Mars is a long way away, and there’s about a 25-minute delay for a round trip signal between Earth and Mars. That means that one way or another, rovers are on their own for short periods of time.
The delay shapes the route-planning process. Rover drivers here on Earth examine images and elevation data and program a series of waypoints, which usually don’t exceed 100 meters apart. The driving plan is sent to NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which transmits it to one of several orbiters, which then relay it to Perseverance. (Perseverance can receive direct comms from the DSN as a back up, but the data rate is slower.)
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AI Enhances Mars Rover Navigation
In this demonstration, the AI model analyzed orbital images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera, as well as digital elevation models. The AI, which is based on Anthropic’s Claude AI, identified hazards like sand traps, boulder fields, bedrock, and rocky outcrops. Then it generated a path defined by a series of waypoints that avoids the hazards. From there, Perseverance’s auto-navigation system took over. It has more autonomy than its predecessors and can process images and driving plans while in motion.
There was another important step before these waypoints were transmitted to Perseverance. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a “twin” for Perseverance called the “Vehicle System Test Bed” (VSTB) in JPL’s Mars Yard. It’s an engineering model that the team can work with here on Earth to solve problems, or for situations like this. These engineering versions are common on Mars missions, and JPL has one for Curiosity, too.
“The fundamental elements of generative AI are showing a lot of promise in streamlining the pillars of autonomous navigation for off-planet driving: perception (seeing the rocks and ripples), localization (knowing where we are), and planning and control (deciding and executing the safest path),” said Vandi Verma, a space roboticist at JPL and a member of the Perseverance engineering team. “We are moving towards a day where generative AI and other smart tools will help our surface rovers handle kilometer-scale drives while minimizing operator workload, and flag interesting surface features for our science team by scouring huge volumes of rover images.”
AI is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in our lives, showing up in places that don’t necessarily have a strong use case for it. But this isn’t NASA hopping on the AI bandwagon. They’ve been developing automatic navigation systems for a while, out of necessity. In fact, Perseverance’s primary means of driving is its self-driving autonomous navigation system.
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One thing that prevents fully-autonomous driving is the way uncertainty grows as the rover operates without human assistance. The longer the rover travels, the more uncertain it becomes about its position on the surface. The solution is to re-localize the rover on its map. Currently, humans do this. But this takes time, including a complete communication cycle between Earth and Mars. Overall, it limits how far Perseverance can go without a helping hand.
NASA/JPL is also working on a way that Perseverance can use AI to re-localize. The main roadblock is matching orbital images with the rover’s ground-level images. It seems highly likely that AI will be trained to excel at this.
It’s obvious that AI is set to play a much larger role in planetary exploration. The next Mars rover may be much different than current ones, with more advanced autonomous navigation and other AI features. There are already concepts for a swarm of flying drones released by a rover to expand its explorative reach on Mars. These swarms would be controlled by AI to work together and autonomously.
And it’s not just Mars exploration that will benefit from AI. NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moonTitan will make extensive use of AI. Not only for autonomous navigation as the rotorcraft flies around, but also for autonomous data curation.
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“Imagine intelligent systems not only on the ground at Earth, but also in edge applications in our rovers, helicopters, drones, and other surface elements trained with the collective wisdom of our NASA engineers, scientists, and astronauts,” said Matt Wallace, manager of JPL’s Exploration Systems Office. “That is the game-changing technology we need to establish the infrastructure and systems required for a permanent human presence on the Moon and take the U.S. to Mars and beyond.”
Tesla’s lack of CarPlay support is allegedly down to the slow adoption of iOS 26, with a Maps compatibility fix supposedly one of the last hurdles in CarPlay’s way.
A Tesla, without CarPlay
Tesla has long been one of the holdouts when it comes to CarPlay support. While there have been many rumors about CarPlay finally making its way to Tesla’s impressive in-car infotainment system, it has still yet to appear. In Sunday’s “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman says that CarPlay is still expected to arrive. Tesla is still planning to have CarPlay operational, running in a window within the Tesla software interface, but there are still some hiccups to manage. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
An iPhone 17e with A19 and MagSafe is expected to launch imminently, and the rumored budget-friendly MacBook could arrive soon after. Here’s what Apple’s 2026 product lineup looks like.
A new budget-friendly MacBook is on the way
Ever since Apple launched Apple Silicon, rumors have suggested Apple could use the highly efficient chipsets to revive the MacBook. That product, along with the iPhone 17e, could broaden Apple’s reach in the budget-friendly market. The latest hints at Apple’s development pipeline comes from the Power On newsletter. While this week’s provides a brief overview and hints at colorful MacBooks, last week’s gave a wider view of the year’s launches. Rumor Score: 🤯 Likely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
MicroSD Express cards are still a little hard to find, considering they’re pretty new and only really started becoming popular last year once the Switch 2 came out. These upgraded versions of microSD cards are the only ones compatible with the Switch 2 for expanding its storage, os if you’re already starting to feel the crunch on your console, it’s worth picking one up. Samsung’s P9 microSD Express card is on sale right now — you can grab the 512GB version of $80, which is 33 percent off and one of the best prices we’ve seen.
The P9 boasts transfer speeds of up to 800MB/s, making moving games to the card that much faster. As for load times, in our testing we found that any microSD Express, the standard the Switch 2 requires, will offer roughly the same performance. This format is pretty new, so there aren’t a ton of cards on the market. As such, the P9 makes our list of best microSD cards for the Nintendo Switch 2.
The P9 microSD Express is also compatible with the Steam Deck or any other gaming console that accepts the format, as well as cameras and more.
Prom.dev lets users share and browse various AI prompts. (Prom Image)
Seattle startup Prom.dev is emerging from stealth with $1.5 million in funding to build a platform for sharing and discovering AI prompts. Pioneer Square Labs and Mayfield led the pre-seed round.
Founded in November, the startup is betting that “prompts are the new software,” as described by CEO and founder Heather Jackson, a former Amazon product leader who recently sold a gaming company.
Prom turns AI prompts — the instructions people give tools like ChatGPT — into shareable artifacts that function more like lightweight apps.
“Everyone is building with AI, but there’s no GitHub, there’s no app store — there’s no way to actually share what you’ve made,” Jackson said. “Prom is that layer.”
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Prom.dev CEO Heather Jackson. (Prom Photo)
On the platform, users can bring in a prompt they’ve been using, add design elements and input fields, and publish it as a shareable artifact. A prompt might become a form with inputs and outputs, a static page that tracks stock performance daily, or a simulation where an AI persona critiques your startup pitch. Once published, other users can discover it, use it, and remix it into their own version — an open-source ethos applied to the prompt world.
“We’re kind of like if GitHub and Pinterest had a baby — that’s where we sit in terms of usability,” Jackson said.
While Prom is initially targeting developers, Jackson said the platform is designed to bridge the gap between power users and people who are just getting started with AI. Someone who doesn’t know how to write a great prompt can find one on Prom, use it, and tweak it.
Jackson sees room for Prom in the current AI tools landscape. She doesn’t consider major AI companies like OpenAI or Anthropic as likely competitors. Those companies are focused on building models and selling to enterprises, she argued — not on fostering open communities of builders.
“Who is incentivized to build a community space? Who is incentivized to create a voice for AI?” she said. “I don’t see anyone building that way.”
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For now, Prom is free, and Jackson said she’s focused on attracting the best content to the platform before adding paid features. She envisions a business model similar to GitHub’s: free for public sharing, with paid tiers for private team workspaces and heavier usage.
Jackson, who grew up in a small town in Kentucky, said her background shaped a passion for building community. After graduating from Vanderbilt, she joined Restaurant Brands International, worked in operations and technology at Burger King and Tim Hortons, earned an MBA from Harvard, and later moved to Seattle to work in Amazon Games, where she focused on social gaming and network effects.
She later founded Astra Logical, a strategy-focused video game publisher that shipped more than a dozen titles and reached more than 2 million players before being acquired in October. While running Astra, she built internal AI workflows and collected prompts in Notion to share with her team — an experience that helped spark Prom.
Alex Ray, a partner at PSL, sees Prom as infrastructure for a shift in how software is created.
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“For the past 20 years, we’ve shipped code as static, versioned apps,” Ray said. “Prompts can be more dynamic, almost alive: prompt-based software can constantly adapt to your exact use case on a moment’s notice. Prom is the infrastructure that enables that dynamic software.”
Seattle-based PSL and Mayfield, a longtime Silicon Valley venture firm, partnered in 2024 to fund early stage AI startups.
Jackson is currently a solo founder, working out of Foundations and other Seattle tech spaces. She said activating the local AI community is a central to her mission.
Apple’s budget MacBook is reportedly not plastic, and is rumored to get vibrant colors echoing the the 24-inch iMac for its aluminum enclosure.
Apple’s MacBook could be green
The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines are relatively limited when it comes to appearance, with the Air sold in four muted shades and the Pro in just two. When it comes to the much-rumored MacBook with an iPhone chip, it could expand the external color palette a lot more. Writing in Sunday’s “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman claims that Apple will be going with playful colors. While it will be aimed at enterprise users as well, this seems to be a play to maximize sales with students. Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
In the realm of first-world problems, your cheap wall clock doesn’t keep time, so you have to keep setting it. The answer? Of course, you connect it to NTP and synchronize the clock with an atomic time source. If you are familiar with how these generic quartz clock movements work, you can probably guess the first step is to gut the movement, leaving only the drive motor.
The motor is somewhat like a stepper motor. The ESP8266 processor can easily control the clock hands by sending pulses to the motor. The rest is simple network access and control. If the network time is ahead, the CPU gooses the clock a little. If it is behind, the CPU stalls the clock until it catches up.
If you’ve ever done a project like this, you know there is one major problem. At some point, the processor needs to know where the hands are now. On initial setup, you can force the issue. However, if the power goes out, it won’t work well. If the power goes out at, say, 8 AM and turns back on at 9 AM, the CPU will be happy to correct the time to agree with the NTP time. The problem is that the processor has no idea that the hands started at 8 AM, so the time will be off.
To combat this problem, the design uses an EERAM chip to store the current time. In the event of a power failure, the CPU knows where its hands are and can adjust accordingly.
![Heathrow has said passenger numbers were 60% lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads. The UK’s largest airport said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels. This week ministers said passengers arriving in the UK would have to take a pre-departure Covid test, as well as a post-flight test, because of fears about the spread of the new variant. “[The] high level of cancellations by business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas because of pre-departure testing shows the potential harm to the economy of travel restrictions,” the airport said in an update. Heathrow said the drop in traveller confidence owing to the new travel restrictions had negated the benefit of reopening the all-important corridor to North America for business and holiday travel last month. Eleven African countries have been added to the government’s red list, requiring travellers to quarantine before reuniting with families. “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas,” said John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow. “It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow. Let’s reunite families for Christmas.” Heathrow said that if the government could safely signal that restrictions would be lifted soon, then employers at Heathrow would have the confidence to hire thousands of staff in anticipation of a boost in business next summer. The airport is expecting a slow start to 2022, finishing next year with about 45 million passengers – just over half of pre-pandemic levels. This week Tui, Europe’s largest package holiday operator, said it expected bookings for next summer to bounce back to 2019 levels. However, Heathrow said on Friday not to expect the aviation industry to recover for several years. “We do not expect that international travel will recover to 2019 levels until at least all travel restrictions (including testing) are removed from all the markets that we serve, at both ends of the route, and there is no risk of new restrictions, such as quarantine, being imposed,” the airport said.](https://wordupnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1100012546-scaled-400x240.jpg)
![Heathrow has said passenger numbers were 60% lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads. The UK’s largest airport said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels. This week ministers said passengers arriving in the UK would have to take a pre-departure Covid test, as well as a post-flight test, because of fears about the spread of the new variant. “[The] high level of cancellations by business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas because of pre-departure testing shows the potential harm to the economy of travel restrictions,” the airport said in an update. Heathrow said the drop in traveller confidence owing to the new travel restrictions had negated the benefit of reopening the all-important corridor to North America for business and holiday travel last month. Eleven African countries have been added to the government’s red list, requiring travellers to quarantine before reuniting with families. “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas,” said John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow. “It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow. Let’s reunite families for Christmas.” Heathrow said that if the government could safely signal that restrictions would be lifted soon, then employers at Heathrow would have the confidence to hire thousands of staff in anticipation of a boost in business next summer. The airport is expecting a slow start to 2022, finishing next year with about 45 million passengers – just over half of pre-pandemic levels. This week Tui, Europe’s largest package holiday operator, said it expected bookings for next summer to bounce back to 2019 levels. However, Heathrow said on Friday not to expect the aviation industry to recover for several years. “We do not expect that international travel will recover to 2019 levels until at least all travel restrictions (including testing) are removed from all the markets that we serve, at both ends of the route, and there is no risk of new restrictions, such as quarantine, being imposed,” the airport said.](https://wordupnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1100012546-scaled-80x80.jpg)
