10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs

Founded in January 2019, Mayvue is the premier software solutions provider to public agencies as they build and maintain the critical infrastructure necessary for today and into the future. With 75% of all infrastructure in the United States being funded and maintained by state and local agencies, it is critical that the most up-to-date tools and expertise are available to empower them to efficiently and effectively maintain infrastructure assets.

Building on the industry skills and experience of our founding team, Mayvue re-envisions the technologies used by public agencies to further their impact and to guide them into the future.

Attorney Kimberly Bennett of Jackson Lewis details the upcoming H-1B Visa Lottery deadline. H-1B Visas for “specialty occupation positions” or professional positions requiring a bachelor’s degree. They are employer, location and job specific.

Kimberly details how there is an annual quota for new H-1B visas – 85,000, including 20,000 reserved for individuals with US Master’s degrees

Because there are a limited number available each year, USCIS holds an annual lottery:

• • The Lottery is a two-stage process – application and selection
  • Application – Electronic application period, only open for two weeks in March
  • Selection – Selections occur between April and September, until all 85,000 visas are allocated.

Certain Employers are Exempt from the annual H-1B Lottery – exempt from the annual “H-1B CAP," includes:

• • • Institutions of Higher Education (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))
    • Non-Profit Research organizations
    • Non-Profit organizations affiliated with an institution of higher education
    • Government research organizations
    • Employers who are employing staff working at one of the qualifying organizations above

Now is the time to prepare for the H-1B lottery. If you miss this year’s lottery, you will not be able to try again until March 2024.

Sunday's TechVibe Radio featured CorePower Magnetics, a Pittsburgh startup redefining the limits of magnetic solutions for EVs and the grid through advanced materials, manufacturing and component design. CEO Dr. Sam Kernion and CTO Dr. Paul Ohodnicki stop by to discuss how the electrification of transportation, greater energy efficiency and grid modernization require advances in power electronics and power conversion systems. Magnetics have presented a critical limitation in advancing these technologies. With the ability to custom engineer the features of magnetic cores, CorePower Magnetics’ components represent a step change in efficiency and power density.

When The Brookings Institute released "Revitalizing PA's Innovation Economy" in October 2022, it revealed that the Commonwealth lags behind competing states' innovation sectors.

To take a deeper dive into the report on the heels of the new Shapiro Administration, the Allegheny Conference invited the Brookings Institute to review the report and provide recommendations through a webinar last week.

Brookings Senior Research Analyst Robert Maxim stepped up to the One Mic Stand to provide us with key report takeaways. He says Pennsylvania's unique strengths in technology, manufacturing and agriculture give it a unique advantage to better leverage its innovation. Listen and learn.

MAPS Technologies, LLC are developers and providers of a cloud-based business communication, management and sales automation solution, MAPS.

Founder Steve Weismann tells us how the platform is offered to meet the needs of the end-user and offered as three subscription levels corresponding to the selection of business tools.

Steve says MAPS is the ideal solution for non-profits and foundations that want all the tools necessary to help increase their donor base, operate, and quantify donor events, coordinate volunteer activities, create automated DRIP campaigns, and even organize/manage golf events. Listen and learn more.

The Tech TechVibe Radio Neighborhood Tour's last broadcast from Huntington Bank in the Strip District features Locomation CTO Tekin Meriçli.

Locomation is literally trucking into 2023 testing its Autonomous Relay Convoys and freight optimization services to deliver safe autonomous trucking solutions with economic value today.

It's an amazing story and its happening right here in Pittsburgh. Hear from the man behind the technology!

The tables have been turned on the Pittsburgh Technology Council's Jonathan Kersting! For the last 25 years, he's been the one asking Pittsburgh tech leaders all of the questions. Until now...

Ingrid Cook Moravitz, Founder and CEO of Shzoom, took control of the mic and asked Kersting about his journey telling stories across Pittsburgh's tech ecosystem.

Moravitz digs in to see how he's navigated the decades and what drives him to keep telling stories. You might hear Kersting blushing a little. He's not used to all of the attention!

TechVibe Radio jumps back into 2023 continuing it Neighborhood Tour at the Huntington Bank branch in the Strip District featuring Patrick Mondi, CEO of Thoro.ai.

You might have seen Thoro's technology in action autonomously cleaning floors at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Patrick details how Thoro.ai's mission is to deliver the benefits of autonomous mobile robotics safely, quickly and broadly. It all starts with the Thoro autonomy platform, which integrates with industrial equipment to make such equipment perform without supervision or intervention.

Listen and learn!

Jeanne Berdik and Anne Crawford, Co-Directors of The Pittsburgh Chapter of the ARCS Foundation stop by TechVibe Radio to tell you how the organization sustains the best emerging scientists, by providing financial support to the most promising graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. 

Since the chapter’s founding in 2003, it has grown from a dedicated core of women, supporting a single scholar, to a vital group of nearly 120 members.  It has provided three-year awards to 157 scholars. The aggregate of paid or pledged awards through 2023 totals over $2.2 Million, which includes $75,000 to be paid through the recently established CMU endowments.

As a chapter, however, ARCS believes that its mission goes beyond mere check-writing.  Members also believe that advancing science in America requires us to support our scholars with more than just funding.  A key emphasis of its initial membership was to introduce the scholars to opportunities in the Pittsburgh region and encouraging these brilliant young scientists to seek their fortune here (as our forebears did with such great success).  

With the Holiday Season in full swing, TechVibe Radio will broadcast this Saturday (12/24) at 8:30 AM in stead of its usual Sunday time!

We have a special guest joining TechVibe as we welcome Jessica Hammer of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Transformational Play.

​To create a home for transformational games and to strengthen Carnegie Mellon University's research and development of them, the School of Computer Science launched the Center for Transformational Play last month. Jessica will detail how the research center will invite collaborations with faculty, students and staff from across the university.

Plus, WGL Energy is stopping by the show to detail how it will offer gas service to businesses and residents in the Pittsburgh region starting in 2023.