Black-owned, non-profit Energy Diamonds Corp. has won a silver medal in the social and cultural impact category at the 2023 Edison Awards.

Black Dollar Magazine first reported on the Black-owned non-profit in February. Rodney L. Williams’ organization provides renewable energy education, allowing students in Newark, New Jersey, to learn from industry professionals and benefit from internships and scholarships.

"Every year we are blown away by the companies from around the world that are solving critical issues with innovative solutions," Frank Bonafilia, executive director of The Edison Awards, said in a statement. "We are recognizing modern-day Thomas Edisons and hope that they will inspire future generations of inventors."

Twenty-three countries were represented by this year's winners, which brought networking opportunities and global discussions around innovation. Topics focused on included sustainability, economic development, infrastructure innovation and artificial intelligence.

Additionally, The Edison Awards announced a new cohort for the 2023 Lewis Latimer Fellowship, which includes six Black entrepreneurs. The accelerator program provides access to capital, networks, and resources.

The six fellows include:

Lisa Dyson, founder and CEO of Air Protein

Dr. Lisa Dyson is the founder of Air Protein, a NASA-inspired technology that converts elements in the air into sustainable protein. According to the company, "air meat" is crafted through a process similar to how beer and yogurt are made and can be produced exponentially faster than traditional meat production.

Dyson has a PhD in Physics from MIT, and is a Fulbright Scholar from the University of London where she received a Masters of Science in Physics.

She is also a researcher and scientist at heart, working on projects in bioengineering and physics at Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; Princeton University, the University of California, San Francisco, MIT, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories.

D. Fox Harrell, PhD., professor of digital media and artificial intelligence at MIT

D. Fox Harrell, PhD, is a professor of digital media and artificial intelligence in the Comparative Media Studies Program and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT.

Harrell’s interdisciplinary research — based in computer science, cognitive science, and digital media arts — explores the relationship between imagination and computation and involves inventing new forms of digital media and computer-based art.

In addition to virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality, he investigates other media forms, like synthetic media, that generate content using artificial intelligence-based techniques and other forms of interactive narrative technologies supported by AI.

Jacquelle Amankonah Horton, founder and CEO of Fave

Jacquelle Amankonah Horton is the founder and CEO of Fave, a new social platform dedicated to recognizing and rewarding superfans.

Horton became Google's first Black product manager in Europe at age 26. She then lead a team of more than 150 people working on the transformation of Google Assistant. Before this role, Horton was a product lead at YouTube where she doubled the user base of the creator app.

Her new venture recently won Startup of the Year in music tech and earned $2.2 million in seed funding from major companies such as Sony, Warner, HYBE, and more.

Shameik Moore, actor, singer, rapper

Shameik Moore is an American actor, singer, and music artist. He was most recently featured in "Wu-Tang: An American Saga".

He gained recognition with his portrayal of Malcolm in the 2015 film "Dope", which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. In 2018, he voiced Miles Morales in Spiderman in the film "Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse", and its upcoming sequels.

Ian Randall, founder and CEO of Maglev Aero Inc.

Ian Randall is the co-founder, president and CEO of MagLev Aero Inc., an innovative aerospace technology startup in Boston. The company develops novel Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) air vehicle platforms.

Randall has more than 10 issued patents, has raised capital, and built a team of talented engineers and scientists to build MagLev Aero into a global electric propulsion and aircraft leader.

He graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering and a minor in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in system design, and dynamics and controls.

Soton Rosanwo, founder and CEO at Centinel

Soton Rosanwo is an entrepreneur, science fiction writer, and artist. Her company Centinel.ai, is patent-pending technology that provides claims-free coverage for hard-to-insure risks, like climate or event disruption.

Before founding Centinal, Rosanwo worked at Allstate Insurance as senior manager of product innovation.