Pittsburgh Tech Beat

Austin Orth

News and analysis of the Pittsburgh tech scene. https://www.pghtechbeat.com/ www.pghtechbeat.com

  1. FEB 12

    The Monthly Beat - February '26 Edition

    Good morning! The snow piled up everywhere around the city is finally melting. Now that my pipes have unfrozen, I can finally get around to writing this blog. While everyone may have been staying in during this cold weather, Pittsburgh tech companies were on the move. Let’s get into it. Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. What Happened the Past Few Weeks * Tech stocks have been getting cooked by AI fears, with Duolingo being the biggest loser from its 52-week high based on the above data from Deutsche Bank. A little over a year ago, I reported on how executives at Duolingo were saying “AI” a bunch, then selling all of their shares at an historically high price. In that post, I theorized that the selloff was a tacit acknowledgement from leadership that their stock was significantly overvalued from their “AI” posturing. We will likely never know whether the timing of this selloff was coincidental or intentional, but the market seems to have agreed that the stock was, in fact, overvalued. Could it come back? Is there any way to disable Lucy? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! * Wabtec expanded their operations in eastern India with a new service model that leverages existing Indian Railways infrastructure and staff. The company will be providing maintenance, supervision, material and warehouse management, shed control, logistics, and remote diagnostics to Indian Railways operators. Wabtec also landed a massive order from New York’s MTA for new hybrid locomotives loaded with the latest sensors and safety technology. * Niche.com quietly laid off a few employees, bringing its headcount back under 300 for the first time in several years. Discovered this initially through posts on LinkedIn and confirmed with sources. After its new college cost comparison tool was featured in the New York Times, the company is seeking to streamline its operations to become more profitable. * Aurora is now integrated with McLeod Software, allowing more carriers to use its autonomous trucks to handle shipments. McLeod makes Transportation Management System (TMS) software that allows users to manage and book trucking capacity. Now, anyone who has a subscription to Aurora Driver can “tender” (today I learned what this means in trucking, and it’s not referring to delicious fried chicken) shipments in their McLeod TMS to be handled by autonomous trucks, removing the need for separate web portals, etc. * Technical.ly published some pretty great Pittsburgh-based interview pieces this past month, including one of the City of Pittsburgh’s CIO who resigned after 8 years. Favorite quote from this one was, “Pittsburgh is not able to keep up with the salaries for high-tech IT workers… The further behind they get with that, the harder it becomes to fill those positions.” Max Polec, a well-known local startup coach who is now leaving Pittsburgh, also did an interview in which he clapped back at local critics, saying “I started my first business at 15. I’m 30 now. Do the math.” Finally, local CEO Cara Jones, who is using AI to fight human trafficking at Marinus Analytics, did an interview sharing her story. Her advice to founders: “As long as you’re making forward progress, and you’re making an impact, stay the course.” * Pittsburgh tech companies had a good showing at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. According to the Post-Gazette, Strip District-based Aurora, Canonsburg-based Ansys/Synopsys, Bloomfield Robotics in Lawrenceville, North Side-based Bucket Robotics, Hazelwood-based Motional, Squirrel Hill-based Hellbender, and Westinghouse in Cranberry were all in attendance. I would also like to be in attendance next year if anyone has an extra ticket? * Speaking of the Post-Gazette, on a meta note, I had the chance to attend this Pittsburgh Tomorrow event about the future of Pittsburgh journalism with the Post-Gazette announcing its closure. The event featured a panel of local leaders from the journalism community—WESA, The Trib, Public Source, Pittsburgh Courier, and more represented. I’ll have some more thoughts to share on this in an upcoming post, but looks like a billionaire is already swooping in to buy the Post-Gazette. * Local open source guru Chad Whitacre shared a post and documentary he released last month on how open source software can help fight tyranny. A great and hopeful watch! * Last but definitely not least, local physician Desmond Daley published a fantastic opinion piece entitled Pittsburgh’s AI skepticism isn’t ignorance. It’s memory. I’m not going to spoil it here, but it’s a must-read. For the Days Ahead * If you’ve been messing with AI lately, you’ve probably heard of Claude Skills. Local AI technologist Ian Cook built a hub for Claude Skills made by Pittsburghers: Skills N’At! You can try other people’s Skills that have already been uploaded or even submit your own on the site. Give it a try! * Got no plans TONIGHT? There’s an open mic night for local tech founders, researchers, and technologists to pitch companies and share ideas at that new coworking space in Hazelwood Green. Sign up here. * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * Monday, February 23rd, Code & Supply is hosting their recurring Build Night, a time to get together with other folks and build stuff with code at Avenu: Meyran. Sign up here. * Wednesday, February 25th, PyData Pittsburgh’s first event of 2026 will be Characterizing the Transient Universe with the Pitt-Google Alert Broker. Learn about cutting-edge AI applications in astronomy while exploring one of Pittsburgh’s most fascinating scientific landmarks, the Allegheny Observatory (tours will be offered after the talk)! I was at last year’s talk at the observatory, and I cannot recommend this enough. Sign up here. * Coming up on March 26th, PyData has another event at CoLab18 called An Unexpected Journey: Life Lessons from Conquering Tesla Solar with Python, a talk about “the unexpected lessons you learn when you trust your instincts and refuse to accept ‘it’s working fine’ as an answer.” Sign up here. * Do YOU have an event you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! That’s it for this month. Have a great rest of your 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

    8 min

  2. JAN 6

    The Monthly Beat - January '26 Edition

    Good morning and welcome back to the Monthly Beat. This month, I’ll be covering the most interesting pieces of news from both November and December 2025, local events you’ll want to check out in this brand New Year, along with some articles that were featured right here on this very blog! Let’s take a look at the tail end of 2025. Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. What Happened over the Holidays * As Allentown loses its T run and Pittsburghers generally continue to lament the lack of public transportation funding, Waymo has announced the expansion of its driverless taxi service to Pittsburgh. Gleefully appropriating the word “yinz” for their ad copy with a “Yinz ready to ride?”, the company says that several members of their team are already Pittsburgh-based and the city “has a special place in autonomous vehicle history.” While they are currently authorized to operate with a driver onboard in Philly, Waymo has yet to secure a compliance license from PennDOT to operate with or without a driver in Pittsburgh. * 10 years after its merger, Swedish assistive communication tech company Tobii Dynavox opened a new office in Coraopolis. This was a pretty lowkey headline, but I think it deserves a spotlight here because it’s a great Pittsburgh-centric tech story. Dynavox was an assistive device tech company founded and headquartered here in Pittsburgh that had some financial issues while competing with, well, the iPad. Tobii, a Swedish company that was also competing in the assistive technology space, saw a ton of value in Dynavox, and they offered to acquire it about 10 years ago. Fast-forward to now, the combined company employs over 300 people locally, and they’ve chosen to open a new office here in Pittsburgh rather than move elsewhere. * Astrobotic secured a $17.5M bag to develop reusable rockets. This infusion of funding “will accelerate development of both its Xodiac and Xogdor platforms, with three distinct vehicles in development.” (Is that… a reference to Trogdor the Burninator with an “X” swapped in for the “T”? Because if so, a multi-million dollar project is named after Trogdor and that’s hilarious.) * Previous shopping mall and beloved Pirates fan parking spot Nova Place is the latest thing to be marketed as a potential spot for an AI data center. Before anyone jumps to conclusions, I’m just going to quote the Post-Gazette article here: “Jeremy Kronman, vice chairman of CBRE’s Pittsburgh office, said listing the complex as a data center site rather than an office complex is a ‘pricing exercise’ meant to assess the property’s value as demand for data centers surges.” So in my opinion, this is at best a bad joke and at worst bubble behavior. * Speaking of AI, remember that “AI Strike Team”? They’re rebranding as “Strike Team 2.0” after shaking up their roster of executives. After taking credit for bringing Waymo to Pittsburgh (Side note: Show me the receipts, please. Waymo already had employees here for 10 years. While they seem to feel positively about the team, I’m not exactly sure what the team did.), and posting a few photos in suits, they now have many more actual tech people on the new roster. No one has a silly job title like “Senior AI Strategist” or is talking about “Stargate” anymore, so that’s probably a good sign. * And now for some quick hits. Synopsys is laying off 10% of its employees after acquiring Ansys. The layoffs are set to occur early this year, and it’s unclear how many of them will be of folks in the Pittsburgh area as of yet. * Gobble gobble! Just after Thanksgiving, Wabtec acquired Frauscher Sensor Technology Group for €675M (roughly $787.73M). The acquired Austrian company, with 700 employees located in 15 countries, makes railway signaling technologies that Wabtec is eager to incorporate with their other train tech. * Shortly after scoring a $3M contract to make AI drones for the military, AI company VISIMO filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Their reason for filing is perhaps a harbinger for the financial fates of other AI companies in 2026: “Continuous increase in debts”. * ICYMI, Pittsburgh-local software engineer Sean McPherson shared an opinion piece here on the blog, categorizing varying perspectives on AI. I’ve personally found this chart helpful in navigating conversations about AI with folks who think differently than I do about the technology. * Last but not least, I reported on two really incredible local events from the past two months, Pittsburgh Robotics & AI Discovery Day and CMU ETC’s Fall Fast. Check out those posts below if you’re interested! For the Days Ahead * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * The best local AI builders group, AI@Work, is having its 1-year anniversary event January 22nd at 5:30pm. I unfortunately will be out of town for an on-site, but I will absolutely be there in spirit. The past year I’ve spent with this group has helped me not only build out a solid working relationship with AI agents, but also make sense of the whirlwind of change we’ve all been experiencing. Sign up here. * ProductTank Pittsburgh is hosting a workshop on service blueprinting, January 29th, from 6-8pm at the CMU Integrated Innovation Institute. “Susanna Zlotnikov will introduce what service blueprinting is, why it matters, and how teams can use it to tame complexity, align decisions, and spark innovation opportunities.” Sign up here. * Do YOU have an event you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! That’s all for now. Have a great start to your New Year! —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

    7 min

  3. 09/09/2024

    The Monthly Beat - September '24 Edition

    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

    8 min

  4. 08/01/2024

    The Monthly Beat - August '24 Edition

    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

    8 min

  5. 07/02/2024

    The Monthly Beat - July '24 Edition

    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

    10 min

  6. 06/02/2024

    The Monthly Beat - June '24 Edition

    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

    11 min

  7. 02/06/2024

    The Monthly Beat

    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

    5 min

  8. 01/08/2024

    The Monthly Beat

    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

    7 min
See All (18)

About

News and analysis of the Pittsburgh tech scene. https://www.pghtechbeat.com/ www.pghtechbeat.com

Information

  • Creator
    Austin Orth
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Austin Orth
  • Show Website
    Pittsburgh Tech Beat