INDYCAR

The team that collaborated to develop the INDYCAR Hybrid unit was named May 16 as the recipient of the 2025 Louis Schwitzer Award.

Sharing a $10,000 prize from the Indiana Section of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International and award sponsors Cummins and Valvoline Global were Raoul Fernandes of Skeleton Technologies, John Martin of EMPEL Systems Limited, Matt Niles of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), Darren Sansum of INDYCAR, Rupert Tull de Salis of Dana Incorporated and formerly of Mahle Powertrain and Thomas Williams of Ilmor Engineering Ltd.

The innovative hybrid system is made up of the low voltage (48V) Motor Generator Unit (MGU) and Energy Storage System (ESS) – consisting of 20 ultracapacitors – both of which fit inside the bellhousing, located between the Chevrolet and Honda INDYCAR SERIES internal combustion engine and the gearbox. During regeneration, acting on the clutch shaft, the MGU builds power to be stored in the ESS. The additional horsepower is deployed through the same motor generator on driver demand.

For competition, options for automatic “regen” via braking or throttle position and manual “regen” via selected steering wheel paddles and buttons will be available. Deployment of stored energy will only be available manually through a latching button, similar to the existing Push to Pass system.

The INDYCAR Hybrid unit debuted last July at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and is used at every series race.

This award is a prestigious accolade in the automotive engineering industry, celebrating and recognizing groundbreaking innovations that push the boundaries of automotive technology. Named after Louis Schwitzer, an accomplished engineer and race car driver, this award has a rich history of honoring individuals and teams behind the innovative concepts introduced to the motorsport industry that increase competitive potential, meet NTT INDYCAR SERIES specifications and are related to the vehicle’s engine, powertrain, profile, chassis or safety.

The partnership announced this week between ASB GlassFloor and basketball analytics firm ShotTracker will see ShotTracker’s data collection and visualization capabilities integrated into ASB’s LED-embedded video courts — and the software operating system that controls them.

The deal formalizes a collaboration months in the making, beginning when ShotTracker installed its sensor-based shot and player tracking system, Helix, in ASB GlassFloor’s athlete testing facility in Orlando in January. Since, the companies’ combined capabilities have been a focal point of tech demonstrations to pro sports coaches, players and executives.

“We’re excited about the relationship,” ShotTracker Co-Founder & CEO Davyeon Ross told SBJ. “There’s some time before we see some of these [use-cases] come to fruition, but we’re going to continue to innovate and find ways that our applications can enhance the experience on the floor and work together to bring something incredible to the market.”

Helix — through sensors embedded around the facility, in basketballs and on athletes — collects shot and player tracking data that is accurate within two-to-four centimeters, then facilitates it being displayed through visualizations like heatmaps and shot plots. Typically, those visualizations are used as a training tool by coaches and players via tablets, but the 4K projection capabilities of ASB’s LumiFlex courts has now enabled displaying them on the court itself.

ShotTracker also has products that derive visualizations from recorded game footage (Pulse), retrieve play-specific video clips (Scout) and create sponsorable 3D visualizations (Hype). Those will all be embeddable in ASB’s system as well.

In the U.S., ASB’s LumiFlex courts have been used for NBA All-Star weekend exhibitions and a preseason scrimmage at the University of Kentucky. They are also permanently installed in the home arenas of EuroLeague clubs FC Bayern and Panathinaikos.

ASB’s vision for its futuristic floors is to create a partner-agnostic system through which data firms, wearable vendors and other tech providers can plug into its software operating system and use it to display anything from data visualizations to tracking animations to immersive fan engagement activations. In that vein, this ShotTracker partnership is not exclusive, but rather the first collaboration of what ASB’s Director/The Americas Chris Thornton hopes will continue to evolve into a multi-faceted offering.

“ASB GlassFloor and our GlassCourt OS [software] system can be a seamless extension of any coach’s analytics platform,” Thornton said, “enabling smarter decisions around training, game strategy and player development, right on the court.”

This week, I attended events by Amazon, Disney, NBCUniversal, and other streaming and network giants in New York, where they made their biggest pitches of the year to ad buyers.

The TV upfronts are an annual series of presentations and parties during which TV ad sellers do their best to sell the bulk of their inventory. Given the jittery macro environment and the decline of linear TV viewing, this year’s incarnation was expected to be a buyer’s market. A recent EMARKETER forecast estimated that tariffs could drag down this year’s haul by as much as $4.1 billion, a 23.5% decline from last year.

Still, the show must go on. And as far as I could see, the cloud of uncertainty didn’t keep people from coming out. They packed ballrooms and concert halls to get exclusive peeks at the fourth season of “The Bear” on Hulu and the sequel to “Wicked,” sip free booze, and catch Lady Gaga.

But the most entertaining moment of the week had to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came to Amazon’s upfront to plug his Christmas movie, “The Man With The Bag.” He had the crowd both groaning and laughing as he rambled on — until his “True Lies” costar Jamie Lee Curtis eased him off the stage.

Behind the parties and celeb antics, however, I could get a sense of the changing ad business — and five clear takeaways emerged.

1. The world has changed

Amid what’s usually a celebratory atmosphere, media companies couldn’t entirely avoid acknowledging that the world has changed. Sellers had to say enough to show they were sympathetic to the times, but not kill the vibe. This was a party, after all.

NBCUniversal’s sales chief, Mark Marshall, kicked off the week with a nod at the economic headwinds (and why they shouldn’t keep brands from staying on the air). Disney’s Rita Ferro also flicked at the uncertain climate and how Disney was all about flexibility, a play to fickle advertisers.

On the whole, though, execs tried to keep the mood light. So it was notable when ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel made an earnest plea for advertisers to support rival CBS’s “60 Minutes,” which is in President Donald Trump’s crosshairs.

2. YouTube loomed, even if media companies dared not speak its name

YouTube’s rising TV viewership — and the creator economy it’s built on — has been one of the biggest media stories of the past year.

Studios have taken note.

This year’s upfronts offered more signs of the shift, with Amazon renewing top YouTuber MrBeast’s “Beast Games” for two more seasons, and Fox’s free streamer Tubi bringing out social media stars like Noah Beck, who’s starring in “Sidelined 2: Intercepted.” And of course, YouTube reliably paraded out its biggest creators, including MrBeast and “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans, at Brandcast, its take on the upfront presentation.

Some legacy media giants like Disney went in the other direction by packing their presentations with famous franchises and Hollywood celebrities. Disney wanted you to know it had more than 100 talent on hand. The Mouse House seemed to be saying, hey, we have Hollywood-quality entertainment — and the stars most ad execs have actually heard of.

3. The upfronts aren’t just about TV anymore

Upfronts used to be about showing off your fall TV programming, but this week showed how media companies are trying to sell everything they have.

Everyone was promoting movies in addition to shows, for advertisers who like to be part of big marketing partnerships. Amazon trotted out the Kelce brothers of its Wondery podcast arm and Lizzo and DJ Steve Aoki to promote its Twitch streamer. Whole Foods appeared on the screen at one moment.

“Now it’s, let’s showcase everything that we have. It’s, ‘Here’s what we have, pick what appeals to your client,'” Alicia Weaver-McKinney, VP of media activation at ad agency Mediassociates, said of the broad menu on offer.

4. Sports are the new savior

Nearly every presentation was front-loaded with live sports as media companies leaned on the programming in their arsenal that’s most valuable to advertisers as they looked to drive deals in a shaky ad market.

“If you heard anything other than sports, it was item number two, three, four on the list,” longtime advertising advisor Michael Kassan said.

NBCU bragged that Peacock had more sports than any other streamer, and Jimmy Fallon didn’t miss a beat, quipping, “It’s great to be at the NBA upfront.”

NBA-less WBD was forced to talk up its tennis, the NHL, and women’s sports.

Some buyers privately wondered how sustainable the high prices media companies want for sports will be, though, given the glut of sports inventory out there and hesitance caused by economic uncertainty.

5. Big Tech is trying to change the language of TV

For the past few years, the tech companies have been crashing upfronts week, with Netflix and Amazon having their second in-person events this year.

Now, they want to change the way we talk about and value “TV.”

Netflix’s content head, Bela Bajaria, talked about slate, not slots, to differentiate streamers like Netflix from the old guard of linear TV, and pointed to its big engagement numbers to say Peak TV wasn’t over.

YouTube’s Neal Mohan emphasized how much people are watching podcasts on TV, the value of its creator-funded model of entertainment, and how it’s giving creators tools to spiff up their shows with TV viewers in mind.

And Amazon touted new interactive ads, data about how much its viewers shop on the platform, and the ability to get them to buy with the click of a remote, something no linear TV company can offer. Every Amazon presenter seemed to be required to utter the phrase, “Full funnel advertising at scale.”

The new Wellness Coach helps older adults set goals and build lasting wellness routines

Intuition Robotics is rolling out a new Wellness Coach feature for ElliQ, its AI-powered companion robot designed for older adults, as it looks to deepen its role in healthy aging.

The latest update allows ElliQ users to build personalized wellness routines and set goals across physical exercise, cognitive training, stress reduction and sleep.

According to Intuition Robotics, Wellness Coach has driven a 465% increase in physical activity sessions and strong user engagement, with 87% retention after 30 days and 76% after three months of beta testing. On average, participants completed 3.5 wellness activities per week.

“The data is very compelling, showing that an AI companion that creates trust and high engagement has the ability to drive real behavior change through motivation and empathy,” Intuition Robotics co-founder and CEO Dor Skuler said. “The Wellness Coach isn’t about telling older adults what to do—it’s about giving them agency and motivational support to decide on their goals and then achieve them, and we’re already seeing the incredible impact that can have.”

See Also

Wearable technologies are revolutionizing health care, but design limitations in adhesive-based personal monitors have kept them from meeting their full potential.

A new University of Arizona study, published in Nature Communications, describes a longer-lasting, 3D-printed, adhesive-free wearable capable of providing a more comprehensive picture of a user’s physiological state.

The device, which measures water vapor and skin emissions of gases, continuously tracks and logs physiological data associated with dehydration, metabolic shifts and stress levels.

“Wearable health monitoring traditionally depends on sensors that directly attach to the skin, but the skin itself constantly renews,” said Philipp Gutruf, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and member of the BIO5 Institute at the U of A who co-authored the study with lead author David Clausen, a doctoral student and researcher in the Gutruf Lab.

“This limits how long you can collect reliable data. With our sensor that tracks gaseous emissions from the skin, we overcome this constraint entirely,” Gutruf said.

Skin shedding weakens adhesives and clogs sensors, so wearables applied with adhesives must be reapplied every few days. Researchers in the Gutruf Lab at the U of A designed a device, worn on the forearm, that resembles a small 3D-printed cuff and can be worn continuously. The device sensors constantly measure gases emitted by the user, comparing their concentrations against normal outside air.

Unlike adhesive-based sports science and health monitoring wearables, which historically only record snapshots, the device developed by Gutruf and his colleagues delivers continuous, real-time data viewable on a smartphone or computer via secure Bluetooth.

“This opens an entirely new space of biomarkers,” said Gutruf. “For example, you can capture the metabolic signatures of exercise or stress without interrupting the subject’s normal routine. Previously, measurements of this kind required an entire room of equipment.”

Practical applications, proven results

With a device such as this, athletes can monitor hydration and exertion during training. The wearable could also record mental health and chronic disease symptoms to aid in prevention and treatment. In fact, tracking and monitoring physiological signs of stress in gas emissions can even help identify early metabolic disturbances, Gutruf said.

“Our design is stable even when exposed to everyday movement and environmental changes,” said Clausen. “We’re able to record data continuously over many days without recharge, all while capturing rich physiological data that isn’t typically possible in a wearable format or requires visible sweat.”

The researchers plan to expand the range of detectable biomarkers and integrate advanced data analytics to provide personalized health insights over even longer periods.