Good morning!

Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend. This month’s edition is coming a little later because of the holiday and because, well, you know how it is with folks trying to squeeze 5 days of work into 4. As always, lots to talk about from this past month.

Let’s get into it.

What Happened in August

The Big Story

In a scathing post, the folks behind Pittsburgh Startup News (PSN) pulled back the curtain on a spout of infighting among local tech leadership. The post details how XchangePgh, a prominent former tech entrepreneurship initiative, was essentially forced out of existence (hence the 403 Forbidden error on their TLD) by a conglomerate of the current City administration, Google Pittsburgh, Walnut Capital, Pittsburgh Tech Council, and other groups. Then, that same group of corporations and government officials launched a website for an upcoming “Tech Week Pittsburgh” which rehashed some branding elements from XchangePgh. PSN ends the post advocating for a more community-focused effort, labeling the current direction as little more than a corporate PR stunt.

At the time of my writing this, it looks like “Tech Week Pittsburgh” has since modified some of the branding to distance it from XchangePgh. Outside of that, I am just shocked at how bad the website looks while having Google prominently displayed as a sponsor. Outside of that, while this definitely seems like a highly opinionated piece, I think the PSN folks do make some good points. Lastly, I should say PSN posted this on September 3rd, but I felt I should include it early here rather than wait till next month’s edition.

The Headlines

* Local technologist Adrian Jones’ augmented reality app, Looking Glass, which allows users to experience Black history as they walk around Pittsburgh, exited Beta this month and is now available on iOS. This is a super cool concept and really does a lot to unearth the hidden history of Pittsburgh. I highly recommend you give it a try if you’re on iPhone. It’ll be available on Android later this year.

* Local frontend dev Brad Frost and several other notable frontend folks rocked out at Mr. Small’s for the Frostapalooza benefit concert. Ryan Trimble of css-tricks.com said, “At times it felt like the Wu-Tang Clan of CSS on stage.”

* Economic adviser to President Biden, Lael Brainard, quietly visited the ARM Institute at Mill 19, a former steel manufacturing site that has now been transformed into a center for robotics innovation. The visit highlights Pittsburgh’s growing national reputation as a robotics hub, even though we didn’t get the “tech hub” designation from the feds earlier this year.

* Duolingo published a blog post detailing their engineering interview process. To me, this all sounds like an absolute pain in the ass and a waste of time. Would love to hear what you think in the comments, though! This month, Duolingo also reached a deal with Sony to feature licensed music in their app.

* Ed-tech company Niche.com announced that over 100 colleges have now joined its Direct Admissions program, which provides prospective college students with real-time acceptance and scholarship offers. Nearly 930,000 students have received at least one acceptance and scholarship offer through the program.

* Astrobotic published a report detailing the reasons behind its lunar lander failure. It states that “the most likely cause of Peregrine’s anomaly was the failure of a singular helium pressure control valve, called PCV2, within the propulsion system.” In the wake of the lander failure, the company is now turning its attention to building a solar array for NASA.

* In AI news, healthcare megacorporation Kaiser Permanente has now contracted with local AI transcription company Abridge to provide ambient scribes at its clinical locations in 8 states and D.C. The move is being hailed as “the biggest rollout of generative AI in healthcare so far.” Abridge was also featured in Politico recently for developing regulatory policies and standards around their AI.

* For some morning reads, NEXTPittsburgh published a couple of tech pieces this month—one showcasing the growing level of Pittsburgh-based startup investment and the other profiling a local law firm that has just introduced its first AI assistant. On the AI assistant, the firm’s CTO says, “We just haven’t gotten to the point where we’re comfortable opening it up to other law firms yet.” So you’re safe (for now) from being thrown into jail by an AI.

* Now for a few quick hits. After a $6 million fundraising round in June, local crowdfunding platform Honeycomb Credit just launched their mobile app, which is now available on iOS and Android.

* Velo.ai was awarded $200k by the US Department of Transportation to improve transportation safety for cyclists through data collection and their bike-mounted AI system.

* Technical.ly published their “ReaLIST Engineers” of 2024, a list of local engineers honored for their contributions to their companies and the surrounding community.

* Finally, PublicSource’s Atiya Irvin-Mitchell interviewed Pittsburgh-based writers who are concerned that unfair AI practices could jeopardize their craft.

For the Months Ahead

* September 25th at 6:30pm, Code & Supply is hosting a Résumé Build Systems talk “to inspire you on how to productionalize your résumé or CV pipeline” followed by another Build Night on Monday, September 30th.

* October 14th, CMU is hosting an AI summit at Bakery Square with some big names in attendance.

* As mentioned earlier, Tech Week Pittsburgh is apparently October 14-17th, but the site still looks like trash and has no info on it, so we’ll see what happens there.

* As always, I’m looking for guest writers and podcast interviews! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: It’s not a paid gig, but I would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish it somewhere else as well.

And that’s it for this month. I’ll see you 30 pumpkin coffees from now!

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

Good morning!

Hope you all are having a fantastic summer. As I’m writing this, I am recovering from COVID-19, so I’m blaming any mistakes in this month’s edition on brain fog and too much DayQuil. Otherwise, it’s been a great summer for me, but a mixed bag for the local tech scene.

Let’s get into it. All companies are local to Pittsburgh, unless otherwise noted.

What Happened in July

* A botched CrowdStrike software update crippled businesses and public services around the world, and Pittsburgh was no exception. PRT riders couldn’t purchase new tickets on the mobile app, the Pittsburgh Zoo had to go cash only, and the Bridgeville DMV had to close entirely for several hours. (If your local business was affected by the CrowdStrike incident, I would love to hear your story in the comments!)

* In a huge blow to Astrobotic, NASA canceled their plans to use their lander for their moon rover mission. The blame was placed on increased costs ($433.5M → $609.6M) and testing taking too long—classic. Despite this setback, Astrobotic still plans to launch the lander as a demonstration, and it now has about 1,000 pounds of spare cargo space that it’s looking to fill. Personally, I think it’d be sweet to send an IC Light or some other yinzer stuff up there, provided it wouldn’t burst open while exiting the atmosphere.

* A staple of the Pittsburgh city skyline, 4Moms, has now been acquired by global baby products company UPPAbaby. There’s no word yet on whether or not they’re giving up that office space or laying off staff as part of the deal.

* Skild AI, a local artificial general intelligence robotics startup founded last year by two ex-Meta AI researchers, is now valued at a massive $1.5 billion. The company is using massive data models to train robots to do things like humans.

* Warehouse automation company Lucas Systems announced the launch of their new AI-powered Dynamic Slotting product. What does that even mean, you ask (don’t worry, that’s what I asked too)? Slotting is the process of organizing warehouse inventory to maximize efficiency, or, in other words, putting things where they’re easy to get to. So by using Dynamic Slotting, you’re having an AI choose where you store various items rather than having a human make those choices, which Lucas promises will deliver a 20–40% increase in overall throughput.

* Duolingo acquired Hobbes, a Detroit-based animation and design studio. The acquisition will form a new twelve-person in-house motion design team to add more fun to their product.

* Speaking of Duolingo, the PTB Good Read of the Month Award goes to this essay about Pittsburgh tech scene by Noelle Mateer. I tried to skim this one initially and got totally lost because of how much it jumps around. Once I sat down and read it straight through, it hit different. I’m definitely interested in what other folks’ thoughts are on this one in the comments.

* In local government tech news, PublicSource published a piece that looks into how the City of Pittsburgh is regulating the use of AI. The City is actively evolving its policy based on the recommendations of the 250+ municipal agencies that make up the Government AI Coalition, a group founded by the City of San Jose, California.

* Also in tech-adjacent local government news, the vote on whether or not to expand Bakery Square got pushed back to September 3rd. TL;DR: Walnut Capital doesn’t want to pay for infrastructure changes, and the Pittsburgh City Planning Commissioners said “pause.”

* Near Earth Autonomy is teaming up with Honeywell and Leonardo to fully automate helicopters for the Navy. The helicopters already have an autopilot system made by Honeywell, but this project will both enhance its in-flight capabilities and automate take-off and landing.

* Carnegie Mellon and Meta are partnering up to make a wearable wristband that translates muscle signals into computer input. The goal of the project is primarily “to enable people with different motor abilities to perform everyday tasks and enjoy gaming in digital and mixed reality environments.”

* You might remember Abridge, the doctor voice-to-text AI company, from a previous Monthly Beat. Well, now they’re expanding the product to serve nurses as well.

* Northside-based XYCOM, in partnership with the UK-based Watson Institute, is building immersive learning environments for students with special needs. Check out the article for some photos of a few of the environments here in Pittsburgh.

For the Months Ahead

* Pittsburgh Startup News posted an updated version of their top Pittsburgh coworking spaces if you’re a remote worker and looking to get out of the house. I’m thinking about trying out Alloy26 here soon.

* August 17th, local frontend dev Brad Frost is throwing Frostapalooza, a benefit concert featuring the musical performances of several other local devs. See the full lineup and get tickets here!

* August 26th, Code and Supply is hosting another build night at the Code & Supply Community Center. Build Night is a time to get together and build some awesome stuff with code!

* October 14th, CMU is hosting an AI summit at Bakery Square with some big names in attendance.

* I’m still looking for guest writers and guest podcasters! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: It’s not a paid gig, but I would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish it somewhere else as well.

That’s all for now! Make the most of this last month of summer!

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

Good morning!

I want to start this month’s post off with a huge thank you to each of you who have subscribed to this little blog of mine in the past year. You’ve made the headlines, specifically this one:

Pittsburgh Tech Beat Reaches 100 Subscribers

The Origin Story (feel free to skip to get to the news)

Last year, I realized I had been living in Pittsburgh and working in tech locally for 7 years, but I had no idea what cool things local companies were doing outside my employer. I scoured the web, looking for a central place where I could read news from the local tech scene, and found a few reliable sources. However, the combination of annoying user interfaces, sans-serif fonts, and stories about boring corporate things left me wanting more. So I just started writing down the most interesting highlights of what I was already reading, putting it all into this cool new platform called Substack that I had just discovered from reading economics blogs. Then Substack came out with podcasts, so I started putting a voiceover on every post.

Self-promotion has always felt weird to me, so I really only mentioned the blog to my friends and coworkers when they asked what was new with me. Then, this year, Patrick Harrison over at PyData Pittsburgh graciously emailed me out of nowhere and offered to suggest my blog on PyData’s Substack (Thank you, Patrick!!). Since then, it seems word of mouth has really spread, and I’ve been getting new subs every week.

So thanks again for subscribing! I hope this blog continues to be a helpful resource and/or a mildly interesting read for you with your morning coffee.

Without further ado, here’s the news. All companies mentioned are local to Pittsburgh unless otherwise noted.

What Happened in June

* The Wall Street Journal published an article publicizing how Westinghouse is helping Ukraine replace their nuclear reactors. Essentially, Westinghouse has been supplying Ukraine with fuel bundles that are compatible with all of Ukraine’s reactors and is now helping Ukraine develop the capabilities to manufacture that fuel itself. In addition, Ukraine is going to be building 9 new reactors designed by Westinghouse.

* Apollo Neuroscience, a new Pittsburgh-based wearable tech startup, wants your employer to buy you a vibrator. No, not that kind of vibrator. This one goes on your wrist and makes “personalized soothing vibrations to restore sleep and energy, improving employee wellbeing and reducing burnout.” Pretty cool, but, to you employers out there, may I also suggest another solid way to avoid employee burnout: raises?

* AI-powered medical transcription company Abridge made it onto TechCrunch this month. The article is a glowing review of the company and its software, which leverages an LLM to help doctors easily take notes. Two highlights I found were that “large hospitals are… buying multi-thousand seat licenses of Abridge” and “earlier this year, Abridge gained a right to be integrated inside Epic.” Epic is being used more extensively by UPMC locally, so it’s only a matter of time before your and my doctor’s notes end up in an LLM.

* Technical.ly published a piece revealing that Duolingo’s taco shop made $700k last year. Have you been there? Is it good? $700k good? Let me know in the comments. I haven’t been there yet, as I have a Condado way closer to me, so I usually just hit that up when I want tacos.

* Titan Robotics, a local company specializing in robots that remove paint from jet planes, has decided to relocate to an office outside the Pittsburgh airport. Honestly, I had never heard of these folks before this month, and it’s super cool to see a startup like this choosing to stay in Pittsburgh after growing.

* Ekto VR, a local VR startup, patented its System and Method of Robotic Virtual Reality Footwear this month. Here’s what may be your next pair of real-life kicks for you to show off your $10,000 in-game Jordan’s with full mo-cap:

* Aurora announced a partnership with Uber Freight that they’re calling “Premier Autonomy.” There’s a lot of jargon in this press release, but essentially, customers of Uber Freight will be able to order shipping on trucks that leverage Aurora’s autonomous trucking systems by the end of this year. All of this shipping will only be available in Texas at first, where (conveniently) Aurora has already been testing their self-driving technology.

* NextPittsburgh published a great profile piece on Neuraville, a new artificial general intelligence (AGI) startup in Oakland that is using robotic toys to train people on how to use AGI tooling. In case you want to play with some of their stuff yourself, here’s their open-source AGI GitHub repo, and you can try out their Neurobotics Studio software here.

* Everyone loves observability these days, and now you can have observability into the health of downtown Pittsburgh with IndexPGH. There are a bunch of dashboards on there, so go ahead and throw one up on that kiosk TV next to that big spike in latency on your Grafana dashboard that’s about to page someone!

* Ansys announced a new SaaS product that allows engineers to simulate and design powertrains for electric vehicles. It estimates metrics like drivable range based on a number of components, including the car’s battery, motor, inverter, and transmission.

* CoPilot Fitness, a Pittsburgh-based fitness app startup offering one-on-one trainers, has now rebranded to Trainwell to avoid confusion with other notable copilots. Smart move.

* Researchers at Pitt helped develop light-controlled artificial maple seed robots. Yeah, they’re wild.

* PyData Pittsburgh hosted a talk from Dr. Rory Brenner at CMU: Radically improving neural networks with insights from modern neuroscience. Key takeaways and speaker decks are available through Pittsburgh Startup News at the link!

* Last but not least, Astrobotic revealed their simulated lunar surface for lander testing, and it looks like something out of the Hideo Kojima video game Death Stranding. Seriously, I can’t stop thinking about it. Here’s a photo of the simulated surface and a screenshot from Death Stranding for comparison.

For the Months Ahead

* Code and Supply has three events this July being held at the Code & Supply Community Center:

* Software job hunting in 2024 "does not meet expectations" so let's rant about it is an experimental event to share frustrations and celebrate the successes of job hunting, on Tuesday, July 9th, at 6pm.

* Crafting Clarity: Enhancing AI with Conversation Design (w/ WtD PGH) invites you to join local tech writer Emily Ferris as she explores the challenges and opportunities for technical writers collaborating with teams to build and document AI systems on Tuesday, July 16th, at 7pm.

* Build Night is a time to get together and build some awesome stuff with code on Monday, July 29, from 6-8:30pm.

* Local frontend dev Brad Frost is throwing Frostapalooza on August 17th, a benefit concert featuring the musical performances of several other local devs. See the full lineup and get tickets here!

* I’m still looking for guest writers and guest podcasters! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: It’s not a paid gig, but I would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish it somewhere else as well.

Annnnd that’s it for this month! Hope you all have a great Independence Day. I’ll see you in a month.

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

Good morning!

First, I want to welcome all the new folks who subscribed to my blog through PyData Pittsburgh’s Substack recommendation. Thank you so much, and I’m happy to have you here! I’ve been doing monthly summaries here for a bit, but I’m hoping to expand to different types of content soon. Also, if you click the play button on this post, you can listen to me read the news instead, if you prefer that to reading! This audio version also exists as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, and no, it’s not an AI. It’s actually me reading the news!

Second, my apologies for missing last month’s post! I was in the thick of a job search. Now that I’ve accepted an offer, I should be able to keep up with the blog much more easily. I also had my incredible friend ZM Nishimura-Russ do a rebrand for me, so you’ll notice a few new changes to the style of these posts and the overall blog, should you choose to visit!

I figured I would just do a double feature this time around, so this post includes everything interesting that happened in the past two months. All companies mentioned are local to Pittsburgh, unless otherwise noted.

What Happened in April and May

* The layoffs continue. UPMC laid off 1000 employees. I spoke to an engineer who was laid off from UPMC Enterprises, the company’s R&D arm that handles a lot of its software development. They admit, “[Management] did kinda nail it. We haven’t done f***ing ANYTHING in 3 years lol.” Self-driving startup Motional also reportedly laid off several employees. (If you were also affected by these layoffs, please reach out! I would love to hear your perspective.)

* PyCon US was held in Pittsburgh, May 15–23. I had an absolute blast and learned a ton of stuff about various Python tools and internals. I would highly recommend you check it out next year, as it will once again be hosted in Pittsburgh! If you missed it or want to catch a talk you weren’t able to attend, videos will be posted here in the months to come.

* Duolingo published a blog post highlighting how they’re engineering to solve various product problems. Their solutions include tracing, reducing database writes, and (you guessed it) using AI. I also talked to two release engineers from Duolingo at PyCon about how they are still using Jenkins for builds and deploys. In my humble opinion, that’s a more important problem to solve than those described in the article, but I digress.

* This is the last Python thing, I swear! PyData Pittsburgh hosted an excellent meetup at Code & Supply on the emerging AI regulatory landscape. If you missed it, you can watch the presentation here:

* These two months were pretty big for Astrobotic. The company entered into an R&D agreement with the U.S. Airforce Research Laboratory. The agreement will “enable joint work on new rocket engine technologies, including their applications to in-space propulsion, along with their early flight demonstrations.” The company also announced two new partnerships, one with Mission Control for a joint rover demonstration on the Moon and one with a project called MOONRISE to bring 3D printing to the Moon. The actual flight to the moon is planned for 2026. Finally, Astrobotic was selected by NASA to run a couple studies to understand how their spacecraft may be used for missions to Mars. Conducted in partnership with Arizona State University and Malin Space Science Systems, these studies will be focused on delivering payloads to the planet’s surface.

* NEXTPittsburgh highlighted how the Pittsburgh Technology Council is building the area’s connections with the U.S. Air Force and Space Force. The Council is doing this through the formation of a new coalition of local defense-related companies and scheduling various industry events.

* Speaking of flying things, a new drone built for military cargo transportation had its first flight using Near Earth Autonomy’s systems. The drone will be competing in a “fly-off” in July in hopes of becoming the main resupply vehicle for the Marines.

* AI safety company Preamble launched their flagship product, Preamble ATP, and is now contracted by AFWERX (the Air Force’s innovation arm). You can use it to make sure your AI doesn’t do terrible things, such as launching nukes or telling your spouse that you’re leaving them to be with a robot.

* Speaking of AI, GPT Fever continues, with Ansys announcing AnsysGPT. It works basically like any other GPT. Ansys technology is also now certified for use by TSMC, the big Taiwanese chipmaker that has made a lot of national news lately.

* Gecko Robotics was highlighted in Fortune magazine, announced a partnership with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (which will be using their AI and robots to do predictive maintenance at gas sites), and was featured by CNBC. They just. Keep. Winning!

* Lucas Systems hit a big product milestone: 100 billion warehouse picks (where individual items are picked from a facility for order fulfillment) have now been made with their warehouse automation software.

* Uber is launching a shuttle service in Pittsburgh to shuttle folks to and from the Pittsburgh airport. Each shuttle will reportedly seat 14–55 people (which makes one think that these shuttles may look more like buses in some cases...)

* I want to pause and give a quick shoutout to Atiya Irvin-Mitchell at Technical.ly, who has been a fantastic source of local tech news for a while now. She’s no longer with the publication, but in her last month there, she posted this solid directory of coworking spaces in Pittsburgh.

* Last but not least, Aurora released a whitepaper showing how autonomous trucking can help fight climate change. The main factors here are reduced fuel consumption from limiting highway speeds, reducing overall road congestion by having trucks drive at off-peak hours, and optimizations to overall truck operations. Volvo’s first production-ready autonomous truck using Aurora’s autonomous driving systems was also unveiled, and it looks pretty sweet. These trucks will be assembled at Volvo’s plant in Virginia. No word in the article on where or when they will first hit the road.

For the Months Ahead

* June 11th, PyData Pittsburgh is hosting a talk from Dr. Rory Brenner at CMU: Radically improving neural networks with insights from modern neuroscience. RSVP here!

* Local frontend dev Brad Frost is throwing Frostapalooza on August 17th, a benefit concert featuring the musical performances of several other local devs. See the full lineup and get tickets here!

* I’m looking for guest writers and guest podcasters! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: It’s not a paid gig, but I would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish it somewhere else as well.

Annnnd that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading, and hope you have a great start to your summer.

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

Good morning! I hope you had a great January. 2024 is off to a great start for Pittsburgh tech, so let’s take a look at what’s cooking.

All companies mentioned are local to Pittsburgh, unless otherwise noted.

Here’s what happened in January:

* Astrobotic’s lander made national news as it malfunctioned and burned up. Before this catastrophe, there was quite a lot of hype locally. Canonsburg-based Ansys announced that their technology was used in the design of the lander, and multiple local and national outlets reported on the launch. Fortunately, the overall mission wasn’t a complete failure—the rocket also carried a payload of people’s ashes that were to be jettisoned into space. And now, the lander’s ashes join them. RIP.

* Ansys was acquired by Silicon Valley company Synopsys. This seems to have been a controversial move internally, as Ansys recently posted slower revenue growth. I wonder what they’re thinking now after the lander situation. Hopefully, their new partnership with NVIDIA for simulating autonomous vehicles will be more fruitful.

* Speaking of autonomous vehicles, Aurora laid off 3% of their workforce. This came shortly after their announcement that, in partnership with trucking company Continental, they have finalized the hardware design and architecture for the mass-produced version of the Aurora Driver, the company’s flagship self-driving system. Continental plans to start production of the hardware in 2027, so given we are still a few years off from seeing wide use of the Driver, it makes sense that Aurora would look to cut costs through layoffs. (Side note: if you were affected by these layoffs, I want to hear your perspective! Please reach out on LinkedIn.)

* Several Pittsburgh tech companies presented at the Consumer Electronics Show, including VeloAI, which completely sold out of its first batch of the Copilot. In case you missed it, the Copilot is a safety device consisting of a smart sensor, camera, and light combo that cyclists can attach to their bikes for audio alerts and reactive tail light patterns based on the user’s surroundings. Because of this early success, the company is now considering raising up to $3 million this year to expand their workforce and, thus, their ability to produce more of this nifty product.

* CMU announced that it experienced a security breach last August that leaked the personal information of 7,300 people. The week this was announced was data privacy week, ironically. The university is offering free credit monitoring to victims, at least.

* Finally, on a more fun note, Lucas Systems published a study showing that warehouse workers prefer gamified workplaces. The company plans to use these findings in the development of its warehouse automation systems. In my opinion, all workplaces should be gamified! Everyday tasks would be so much more enjoyable if I got some sort of in-game currency for doing them—or is that just what my salary is?

For the months ahead:

* PyCon US will be in Pittsburgh, May 15–23. There will be tons of talks, tutorials, job opportunities, and more for Python programming language users at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Register here. I’ll be there!

* I’m looking for guest writers and guest podcasters! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: It’s not a paid gig, but I would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish it somewhere else as well.

Thanks so much for reading. Hope you have a great week!

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

A good evening and happy New Year to you!

I figured I’d wait till everyone had definitely recovered from their hangovers to post this December edition of the Monthly Beat. Also, I’m sending this out in the evening to switch things up a bit. We’ll see how it goes. Let’s get into it!

All companies mentioned are local to Pittsburgh, unless otherwise noted.

Here’s what happened in December:

* Astrobotic announced that their lander is ready for liftoff for its mission to the Moon, and it’s launching tomorrow at 2:18 a.m. EST! You can watch the livestream of the launch at the link below, if you’re a night owl. Otherwise, you can visit that link after the fact for a recording of the launch.

* Lots of military contracts are rolling into Pittsburgh firms. Westinghouse, in partnership with Astrobotic scored a contract with the US Air Force to develop a nuclear-powered satellite. And the US Army is now partnered with Neya Systems and Carnegie Robotics to build prototype autonomous military vehicles.

* More details dropped about the Iranian hack of Aliquippa’s water authority. We now know that the hackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in programmable logic controllers made by Israeli company Unitronics. It was also announced that four other utilities and an aquarium were also breached, but deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said, overall, these attacks didn’t have any serious impact. It’s never a bad time to revisit your firewall rules, though.

* The Pittsburgh airport is adopting new identity verification technology from a company called CLEAR to allow fliers to get through security faster. The technology verifies a person’s identity through an eye or fingerprint scan rather than using a person’s government ID and boarding pass. But, alas, even if you’re a CLEAR subscriber, you and your carry-on still have to get scanned by TSA, which nullifies the benefits of the $99/year/person cost in my opinion.

* Gecko Robotics was highlighted in Bloomberg for having raised $100 million in funding and separately in a foreign publication, Aletihad, for establishing a partnership with the United Arab Emirates to provide the country with robots for environmental catastrophe response. These are some big moves for such a small company!

* Gridwise, in partnership with Bosch, launched their new RideCare Companion product. The device combines a dash cam, SOS button, live emergency response service, and cloud storage to help keep Uber, Lyft, and other ride-share drivers safer when they’re out on the road. At $250 per device with a $10 per month subscription, though, it may be somewhat financially out of reach for most part-time drivers, who are already notoriously underpaid. Maybe buy one as a gift for the driver in your life!

* After opening their taco joint, Duolingo is hungry for more—specifically, more office space. Word on the street is that, in a world where other companies are trying to sell their office spaces, Duolingo is looking to buy in East Liberty. Personally, I find it pretty wild that any non-government or healthcare tech company is still in office five days a week, but they seem to have enough clout to make it work for now.

* The City of Pittsburgh was recognized by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance for its efforts to close the digital divide through affordable broadband, digital skills training, and low-cost tech support. This feels good after the EDA denied us a tech hub designation earlier in 2023.

* NEXTPittsburgh published a great company profile of Pittsburgh Drone Services, the city’s foremost company for flying drones. I remember seeing a couple of drones flying around Mt. Washington a while back and wondering, “How does someone even get permission to do this?” This profile sheds light on how difficult it is to get a business like this off the ground (That’s right, a drone pun to start the new year. No one asked for this, I know.)

For the months ahead:

* Early bird registration discounts for PyCon US end on the 12th of this month, so register today! The conference is here in Pittsburgh, May 15–23. There will be tons of talks, tutorials, job opportunities, and more for Python programming language users at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Register here. I’ll be there!

* ProductTank Pittsburgh is hosting an interactive product roadmapping experience at Code & Supply on Tuesday, January 23rd at 6pm. Explore different strategies and techniques for product roadmapping through this hands-on experience. Sign up here!

* I’m looking for guest writers! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: it’s not a paid gig, but I would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish it somewhere else as well.

Thanks so much for reading. Hope you have a great week!

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

Good evening!

I hope you had a great November, including a Thanksgiving filled with good food and a surprising lack of family drama. Personally, I ate a slightly above-average amount of food, brewed way too much espresso with my sister-in-law’s espresso machine, and checked out a vinyl record expo outside Philly the weekend after. It was awesome. But enough about Turkey Day—let’s take a look at what happened in the Pittsburgh tech scene this past month!

All companies mentioned are local to Pittsburgh, unless otherwise noted. The audio version of this post will be published later this week. Sorry for the wait!

Here’s what happened in November:

* Just north of Pittsburgh, the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa was hacked by Iran. The hack stopped water from pumping at a station that regulates water pressure for two towns, forcing crews to manually intervene to maintain stability. The FBI has not revealed how they were hacked yet.

* Pittsburgh is losing one of its only robotics machine shops, RE2, which is based in Lawrenceville. The company’s new parent, Sarcos, originally planned to continue operations. It has since decided to fire everyone at the Lawrenceville shop by January 16th, 2024, and is shifting its focus to—you guessed it—AI. The linked article shares the voices of some of the workers who are losing their jobs, and I would definitely recommend a read.

* UPMC is in the midst of consolidating its patient systems into a centralized Epic system, and reviews are mixed. UPMC currently uses multiple electronic medical record systems (EMRs) in various locations of its business. Some staff are reluctant to move away from their current EMRs and are dreading the training necessary to learn the new system. However, on the tech side, I talked to one engineer who said the transition was definitely worth it and that the current state of using multiple EMRs makes it difficult to do anything innovative. I’ll be keeping tabs and reporting on this transition as it develops over the coming months.

* Gecko Robotics, a firm focused on infrastructure inspection and monitoring tech, signed a contract with the Navy to help build nuclear submarines. This seems like it’s mostly going to be a data operation, where Gecko will provide data from “digital weld inspections” that reduces the time needed for inspection during both the manufacturing process and ongoing sub maintenance. Meanwhile, they’re also helping to build the Pittsburgh airport with xBridge.

* Elsewhere in robotics, Astrobotic acquired a vacant building on the North Shore, where it plans to perform $20 million in renovations and hire 238 new employees. This includes $4 million in funding from Governor Josh Shapiro’s administration.

* Diamond Kinetics, in partnership with Marucci Sports, has successfully developed the world’s first smart baseball bat with an integrated swing tracking sensor that never needs to be charged. Bat sensors are currently banned in the MLB, so they’re starting small and trying to get the bat approved for use in NCAA and high school leagues.

* Lucas Systems, a warehouse automation startup, established a new research partnership with Carnegie Mellon University with the goal of optimizing packaging processes to reduce waste. The research will contribute to Lucas’s overall goal of building smart software that helps warehouse workers fulfill orders in the most environmentally and financially efficient way possible.

* Ansys announced a partnership with Sony to develop simulations of automotive sensors. This is on top of their new partnership with Microsoft and TSMC to develop new three-dimensional integrated circuit technology and their project to build a nuclear reactor. They’ve been busy down there in Canonsburg!

* Hazelwood Green continues to gain steam with the launch of CMU’s Extended Reality Technology Center. The center will host researchers and industry professionals who are developing extended reality tools while providing training for consumers on how to use them.

* The Pittsburgh Business Times published a great piece this month on the future of AI in Pittsburgh. The article features quotes from local tech leaders and professors from local universities.

* Duolingo posted an interesting article on how they maintain growth through a sense of urgency. The article describes how they consolidated several teams into a single unit focused on growing their daily active user count and describes the principles behind their operations. While I don’t agree with 100% of the methodology described, I nonetheless found it super insightful.

* The City of Pittsburgh launched a new digital city archive site. You can find some pretty cool stuff on here, but I’ll warn you, it’s pretty laggy.

* And finally, the Pittsburgh Technology Council published their annual Tech 50 awards. Did your company make the list?

For the New Year ahead:

* PyCon US is coming to Pittsburgh May 15–23, 2024! The conference will provide tons of talks, tutorials, job opportunities, and more for Python programming language users at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Register at the link. I’ll be there!

* I’m looking for guest writers! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: it’s not a paid gig, but I would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish somewhere else as well.

Thanks so much for reading. Wishing you a merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a fantastic new year! See you in '24.

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

Good morning everyone!

Now that spooky season is behind us, I’m counting down the days till I can eat a ridiculous amount of stuffing and mashed potatoes (the two best Thanksgiving sides, don’t @ me) and counting up the things that happened in Pittsburgh’s tech scene last month. This month was chock full of news, so let’s take a look at what’s been up.

All companies mentioned are local to Pittsburgh unless otherwise noted.

Here’s what happened in October:

According to the Feds, Pittsburgh is apparently not a “tech hub.” The US Economic Development Administration selected 31 areas for technology funding, and Pittsburgh was not one of them. Boooooooooooooo!

* PNC started layoffs, and said it will lay off a total of 4% of its workforce by the end of Q4. I mention this because it includes tech workers, so if you are in a position to hire, now’s a great time to give a helping hand to locals in need of a new opportunity and grow your workforce.

* Fifth Season filed for bankruptcy. I’ve previously reported on Fifth Season, a Braddock-based robotic vertical farming startup that produced over half a million pounds of vegetables on its farm for several different regional grocery stores (Giant Eagle, among them). Its original closure announcement was kind of overshadowed by the ArgoAI closure earlier this year, so sorry I missed that. It seems like they’re trying to restructure now, though, so hopefully they can get people (and robots) back to work!

* Greene County is getting broadband, so if you work remotely and have been thinking of moving out to the exurbs, you will have some more housing options south of the city by spring of next year!

* Duolingo is adding math and music educational subjects to its platform. The mindset behind these additions is that both math and music “transcend cultures and people, just like languages do.” It will be interesting to see if these new additions make as much sound in the market as its language learning tools (puns absolutely intended), especially given that Duolingo executives have sold over $10 million in stock since September.

* This next one is the last pun for this post, I swear! Train fans rejoice: U.S. Steel just introduced the first battery-powered locomotive engine in the Mon Valley. "The future of transportation is electric, and today U.S. Steel's future really is on track," punned Kurt Barshick, VP of U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works during the announcement.

* In healthcare tech, Resilient Lifescience, a biotech startup, has started in-human medical testing of opioid overdose detection devices. The device measures various health metrics, including breathing, with the end goal of automatically delivering a dose of naloxone if an overdose is detected to keep the individual alive.

* Another healthcare tech startup, Leda Health, is moving into Lawrenceville. The firm provides at-home sexual assault evidence kits, an accompanying mobile app, 24/7 care team, STI testing, and emergency contraception resources to victims of sexual assault. The main impetus for the move, according to CEO Madison Campbell, is that their previous location, Brooklyn, NY, was simply unaffordable for their employees.

* In robotics, Gecko Robotics launched an AI-driven decision making platform to be used in defense, manufacturing, and energy sectors. To be honest, this source article was full of a lot of corporate hyperbole, but the main use case they described here is that this new platform, called Cantilever, allows teams to generate and act on repair plans for hardware in a much faster way than previously possible.

* Astrobotics successfully completed four flights for University of Central Florida, collecting helpful data to inform the next manned flight to the Moon. In addition, they successfully shipped their lunar lander to Florida and are preparing for a launch on Christmas Eve. Seems like a lot of hype around the Moon lately, perhaps because of a certain spooky holiday?

* COhatch, a Midwest-based coworking space chain, opened a new location in the Southside Works. The opening event was a Halloween party complete with full bar service and costumes. The space’s private offices are 60% full at the time of this writing, so if you’re looking for a new place to work that isn’t your house, it may be worth checking out!

* In more spooky news, Deeplocal made an AI-based Ouija board that “summons” a character and spells out things aligned with its personality based on a user’s audio input. The company has a demo video on their Instagram profile if you want to see it in action.

* Stack AV has now hired 150 workers and an entire fleet of trucks for testing its new autonomous trucking platform. That’s a pretty quick turnaround after formally launching the company, so they must have had this cooking in the background for a while. Also, I came to the realization this weekend that SoftBank, a Japanese financial firm that is Stack AV’s primary source of funding, is also the same firm that lost billions in the WeWork fiasco. Let’s hope this investment proves more fruitful than the previous one.

* Near Earth Autonomy, a UAV tech company based in Homewood, has landed a contract with the US Army to demonstrate an unmanned aerial resupply system that can deliver up to 800lb loads to locations over 100 miles away. The price of the contract remains undisclosed, but involves the integration of Near Earth’s software platform into new heavy-lift vertical takeoff and landing UAVs.

* In the world of old school Pittsburgh tech companies, Westinghouse is moving to Etna to develop a transportable nuclear battery. They just signed a lease for a 87,420-square-foot building and will be hiring for at least 40 new jobs at the location. The battery, dubbed “the eVinci microreactor,” will be capable of providing 5 megawatts of electricity every day for 8+ years without additional nuclear fuel. Wild.

* Wrapping up this post with some good reads on locally developed tech products that were published this past month. NEXTPittsburgh profiled Luca.AI, an AI-based learning system to assist dyslexic students. As with most of these posts, I had no idea anyone was doing something like this locally beforehand. It seems like an awesome product, and the piece is definitely worth a read.

* Lastly, Technical.ly interviewed folks from OtterTune, a local database performance optimization startup. The interview describes how the company’s used their $12 million Series A investment round this year to improve their product, and is also worth a read if you have any interest in Postgres.

For the months ahead:

* PyCon US is coming to Pittsburgh May 15-23, 2024! The conference will provide tons of talks, tutorials, job opportunities, and more for Python programming language users at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Register at the link. I’ll be there!

* I’m looking for guest writers! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: it’s not a paid gig, but would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish somewhere else as well.

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great rest of your Sunday!

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

Hey everyone!

Autumn is upon us. Get something pumpkin or otherwise fall-ish and cozy up in your favorite reading chair. There is plenty of local tech action to cover from this September.

All companies mentioned are local to Pittsburgh unless otherwise noted.

Here’s what happened in September:

* Duolingo has been up to a lot this past month. Firstly, they launched a new early childhood education program for local Pittsburgh organizations. The 9 organizations that are receiving funding are Brightside Academy Early Education-East Liberty, Child’s Way, Davis Family Childcare, Eastminster Child Care, Homewood-Brushton YWCA, Hope Academy Powered by Hosanna House, McCoy’s Learning Center, LLC, Mt. Ararat Early Childhood Development Center, and Shady Lane School. Each organization will receive up to $80k in funding. Outside of charity, Duolingo also deployed a new tool for learning to read Japanese and announced plans to roll out new music education on the app as well. Awesome to see the company giving back to the community, and I may have to give the Japanese tool a try so I can improve my manga reading skills.

* The PRT now supports paying fare with your phone on all buses the T, and even the Mon and Duquense inclines. Unfortunately, you can’t just use Apple or Google Wallet, and instead have to rely on either the Transit or Ready2Ride apps. This functionality is supplied by Masabi, a tech firm based in London. You can find more info here on how to buy tickets and passes. Huge for those of us who don’t regularly carry a PRT card.

* The cofounders of former Ford and Volkswagen-backed self-driving company Argo AI have now publicly launched their new startup, Stack AV. The newly formed company has nearly $1 billion in backing from the massive Japanese investment firm SoftBank. But get this: they aren’t doing cars anymore. They’re doing trucks, says Bryan Salesky in this QnA. He says it’s because of the market opportunity, but I also just wonder if it may be because self-driving trucks are easier to implement than self-driving cars. Sounds a lot like another Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle firm I know, so it’ll be interesting to see which is more successful in the years to come. They’re also hiring like crazy if you’re looking to get into something like this.

* Speaking of Aurora, their CEO testified to congress this past month about the future of autonomous trucking. He argued that the technology will only complement the current workforce of truckers, not replace it, emphasizing an observed labor shortage of 80k truckers. He also responded to questions about the safety of the technology and how it would be deployed. I wonder if Bryan Salesky is jealous.

* Astrobotic has begun work on two contracts from NASA to research better ways to land on the moon. This includes replicating moon gravity in a test environment as well as simulating the cratering caused by rockets on moon soil when landing.

* Pitt’s BioForge is now approved for construction at Hazelwood Green, paving the way for cell- and gene- therapy technologies to be developed there. With the approval, Pitt has re-emphasized its commitment to providing training and job opportunities to Hazelwood residents. It seems like earlier concerns about the development have been mostly assuaged, as there was only one public comment at the hearing process.

* Pittsburgh Technology Council published their State of the Industry report this past month. NEXTPittsburgh wrote up a great summary of its findings, with the highlight being an expectation that AI will greatly impact the local tech industry (where is AI not having an impact these days?)

* Last but not least, Out in Tech, an international non-profit community connecting LGBTQ+ tech professionals, started a Pittsburgh chapter! If you’re interested in getting involved, you can sign up over here.

For the months ahead:

* Pittburgh Robotics Discovery Day is back at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center November 16th. The event showcases robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence technologies featuring live demonstrations and opportunities to connect with local companies. Get free tickets here!

* I’m looking for guest writers! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: it’s not a paid gig, but would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish somewhere else as well.

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great weekend!

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

Hey everyone!

Hope you had a decent Monday. Welcome back to the monthly summary of the most interesting Pittsburgh tech news I could find from the past month. You’ll notice some slight format changes below as I continue to experiment with the format. Also, the podcast is back! If you prefer to listen to your news, check it out on Apple Podcasts or by clicking the play button on this post.

All companies mentioned are local to Pittsburgh unless otherwise noted.

Here’s what happened in August:

* Niche launched Direct Admissions, a real-time college acceptance and scholarship program. The program effectively eliminates the need for a traditional college application process by connecting students with schools based on the information in their Niche profile. Niche plans to have 100 different schools participating in the program by the end of the year.

* A collection of local organizations launched a new fellowship called PEER (Promoting Emerging Entrepreneurs in Robotics) to equip local underrepresented groups for work in robotics and connect them to the local tech scene. Check out the link for information on how to sign up and be sure to share with friends who might be interested!

* Future tech hub Hazelwood Green continues to develop. Pitt outlined its plans for “BioForge,” a cell- and gene-therapy facility, which will be under construction starting this fall pending permits from the city. Hazelwood residents have mixed feelings, with some saying they feel out of the loop concerning what has been planned for the neighborhood.

* Preamble AI, a startup offering software that embeds security measures and ethics into AI, was selected to be part of NVIDIA’s business development program. Hopefully it’s successful, as it seems like AI is mostly getting more evil on the daily.

* Speaking of evil AI, the Office of the District Attorney of Allegheny County is deploying AI to assist in gathering digital evidence in the cloud. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this.

* Speaking of offices, global tech company Fujitsu is moving into new offices in Oakland in preparation for tripling their local presence, and word on the street is that the Argo cofounders are buying another office in the Strip and starting another self-driving business. There’s a chance it could be that conspicuously empty building that was being built next to the highway right when the pandemic hit, but that might not have enough room depending on what they’re planning to do. This is a very interesting development, given that Ford has already moved on to Latitude AI for its future assisted-driving needs.

* Uber enabled audio recording for trips in Pittsburgh. We love more surveillance from a company that already has a terrible track record for it.

* In case you stop at a 7-Eleven for a pop while Ubering, don’t worry. You’ll still be under surveillance, or rather your pop will be. Shelfmark, an inventory monitoring startup that uses cameras and software to monitor inventory levels, now has cameras up and running in several 7-Eleven stores around Pittsburgh. Oh thank Heaven?

* Mega Cat Studios in Bloomfield has launched a new video game, WrestleQuest. It’s a turn-based RPG with beautiful animations and stars 30 real-life wrestlers, including “Macho Man” Randy Savage, the creeeeeam of the crop!

* In other entertainment news, live music performance software startup Conduction put on a show with a 40-person orchestra in Munhall. The software allowed a DJ to manipulate the sounds produced by the orchestra live to create electronic dance music.

* Amazon is opening a new warehouse in New Stanton, outside Pittsburgh. The warehouses will continue until deliveries improve.

* Speaking of Amazon, Pitt is now using their Just Walk Out technology at the Market, allowing students to “just walk out” with stuff and get charged like at an Amazon Store. You still have to scan your app when you enter the store, though. So, is it better than just checking out like normal? If you’re a current Pitt student, I’d love to hear your take in the comments!

* Finally, Agtech startup Four Growers is now harvesting cucumbers with robots, in addition to their existing tomato harvesting capabilities. So now, theoretically, you could have a cucumber tomato salad prepared entirely by robots.

For the month ahead:

* NEXTPittsburgh published an awesome profile of velo.ai, a startup that is creating an AI copilot for bikers. Even if you don’t bike, it’s a great read for a slow morning.

* ProductTank Pittsburgh, a local meetup group for Product Managers to exchange ideas and experiences about everything Product is back in action after a long hiatus! They’re hosting a relaunch event on September 21st. Sign up here!

* Local agile coach and scrum master Nick Yingling’s Agile Decision Games have a new home on Medium. I especially enjoyed the Let the Product Owner Cook game from last month. New games are posted every two weeks, with answers posted the following week, so be sure to follow his page to never miss a game!

Thanks so much for reading. Future posts will go out on the first Monday of each month now that I’m all caught up. Have a great week!

—Austin

Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com