Archive for August 15th, 2008

Tech 50 Finalists Announced

The Pittsburgh Technology Council, now in its 25th year of operation, will feature 50 of southwestern Pennsylvania’s premier technology companies at its 12th annual Tech 50 awards on Thursday, October 16, 2008.

Presented in partnership with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, the awards recognize the premier companies among southwestern Pennsylvania’s technology sector, and it showcases small and large companies alike. Each year, the Tech 50 event honors those technology companies that demonstrated the strongest growth and advancement in product or sales success, financial strength, corporate citizenship, job growth and retention and innovative product or technology.

During the selection process, the Council surveyed the region for the most distinguished public and private technology-oriented companies. To be considered for the 2007 Tech 50, a company must be headquartered in the southwestern Pennsylvania counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Somerset, Westmoreland or Washington.

This year, finalists include:

Advanced Manufacturing

  • All Water Systems, Inc.
  • CardiacAssist, Inc.
  • Data Science Automation, Inc.
  • Neuro Kinetics, Inc.
  • Onmi Prepaid Group, LLC/Gift Cards.com LLC
  • The Proud Company
  • Respironics, Inc.
  • Tollgrade Communications, Inc.

Green Technology

  • BPL Global
  • CNX Gas Corporation
  • CONSOL Energy Inc.
  • Plextronics, Inc.
  • PRINT.NET, Inc.

High-Rise

  • Alcoa
  • ANSYS, Inc.
  • Eaton Corporation
  • McKesson Automation Inc.
  • MEDRAD, Inc.

Information Technology

  • Apangea Learning, Inc.
  • BitArmor
  • Carnegie Learning, Inc.
  • Confluence
  • InterTECH Security Group, LLC
  • Motionplan, Inc.
  • Tower Care Technologies, Inc.
  • Vivisimo, Inc.

Life Sciences

  • Celtic Healthcare, Inc.
  • invivodata, inc.
  • MED3000 Inc.
  • medSage Technologies, LLC
  • Net Health Systems, Inc.
  • RedPath Integrated Pathology, Inc.
  • ReGear Life Sciences, Inc.
  • Starr Life Sciences Corp.

Rising Star

  • Bright Innovation
  • ClearCount Medical Solutions
  • Cohera Medical Inc.
  • e-STAFF Consulting Group, Inc.
  • Etcetera Edutainment
  • MobileFusion, Inc.
  • Thorley Industries, LLC
  • Virtus Advanced Sensors

Service Provider

  • FTI Consulting
  • Guru.com
  • Ideal Integrations
  • IMPAQT
  • Information Systems Services, Inc.
  • Newton Consulting
  • SiGenix
  • SYCOR AMERICAS Inc.

CEO of the Year

  • Gregory S. Babe, Bayer MaterialScience LLC
  • James E. Cashman III, ANSYS, Inc.
  • Dr. Giorgio Coraluppi, Compunetics, Inc./Compunetix, Inc./Chorus Call, Inc.
  • D. Raja, Computer Enterprises Inc.
  • David A. Souerwine, McKesson Automation Inc.

Category leaders from this list will be announced at the Tech 50 awards ceremony on October 16, 2008.

Sheldon Ingram, WTAE Channel 4 reporter, will serve as master of ceremonies for the evening.

The featured speaker this year will be Regis McKenna, who according to the San Jose Mercury News is one of the 100 people who made Silicon Valley what it is today. McKenna has written and lectured extensively on the social and market effects of technological change advancing innovations in marketing theories and practices.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, McKenna worked with a number of entrepreneurial start-ups during their formation years including: America Online, Apple, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Intel, Linear Technology, Lotus, Microsoft, National Semiconductor, Silicon Graphics, 3COM, and many others. McKenna helped launch some of the most important technological innovations of the last thirty years including the first microprocessor (Intel Corporation), the first personal computer (Apple Computer) and the first recombinant DNA genetically engineered product (Genentech, Inc.). In the last decade, McKenna consulted on strategic marketing and business issues to industrial, consumer, transportation, healthcare, and financial firms in the United States, Japan, and Europe. McKenna continues to be involved in high tech start-up companies through his venture activities.

Event sponsors include Catalyst Connection, Highmark, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, PNC Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Supporting sponsors include Innovation Works, DQE Communications, FiberTech and On Assignment Lab Support. Production sponsors include Production Masters, Inc. and Champ Printing.

Breaking News in Pittsburgh’s Tech Industry

Hardly a day goes by without our e-mail boxes filling up and phones ringing off the hook announcing news from across Pittsburgh’s technology industry. Check out these fresh headlines!

Carnegie Learning Sells $5 Million in Cutom Math Curricula in Georgia

Sales of Carnegie Learning, Inc.’s new Georgia Mathematics 1 and 2 curricula have reached $5 million since publication of the program earlier this year, according to the company. Carnegie Learning, a leading provider of research based math curricula for middle schools, high schools, and the higher education market, reports that over 130 Georgia middle and high schools have adopted the education publisher’s customized Georgia Mathematics 1 and 2 designed, specifically, to meet new, more rigorous high school math requirements being implemented by the Georgia Department of Education this fall.

RMU Students Receive Prestigious Engineering Scholarships

For the second consecutive year, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) has awarded scholarships to three Robert Morris University (RMU) students. SME awarded only nine scholarships to students in Pennsylvania, and no other institution in the state captured as many scholarships as RMU.

Arif Sirinterlikci, associate professor of engineering and advisor to RMU’s student chapter of SME said, students received this recognition due to their excellent academic performance and their contributions to the field of manufacturing engineering.

The RMU scholarship winners are:

  • Chris Bird, a senior from Bridgeville, Pa, who received the $5,000 SME Directors’ Scholarship
  • Kayla Miller, a senior from Manns Choice, Pa., who received the E. Wayne Kay Scholarship for $2,500.
  • Justin Laughner, a junior from Indianapolis, who also received the E. Wayne Kay Scholarship.

Undergraduate engineering programs at RMU include a bachelor of science in engineering with concentrations in software engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and biomedical engineering; and a bachelor of science in manufacturing engineering. Both programs are accredited by ABET Inc. RMU also offers a master’s of science degree in engineering management.

Compunetix VP Selected for IMCCA Post

Compunetix is proud to announce that Mr. Gerard Pompa, Vice President and General Manager of the company’s Communications Systems Division has been selected to participate in the Interactive Multimedia Collaborative Communications Alliance (IMCCA) as a member of the Board of Directors. Read more for full details.

Company: Robert Morris University Robert Morris University
Web Site: www.rmu.edu
Location: Pittsburgh, PA 15108
Description: Robert Morris University, founded in 1921, is one of the leading universities in the Pittsburgh region and among the largest private institutions of higher learning in Pennsylvania. Nearly 5,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from 30 states and 20 countries are enrolled at Robert Morris University. Read more.
 
Company: Compunetix Compunetix
Web Site: www.compunetix.com
Location: Monroeville, PA 15146
Description: Compunetix is a sophisticated electronics manufacturer specializing in state-of-the-art multimedia collaboration and telecommunications systems for audio conferencing, videoconferencing and mission-oriented applications. Compunetix also provides design, engineering and professional services in support of those solutions.
Read more.

CircuitSpace Foundation with Cross-Probing Released

DesignAdvance Systems, Inc., a leading developer of intelligent EDA solutions for PCB design, announced CircuitSpace Foundation with Cross-Probing. The new product combines many of CircuitSpace’s feature rich capabilities such as auto-clustering and checkpoint compare reporting with the new Cross-Probing technology.

“We have worked closely with our key customers in developing this new technology,” stated Mr. David Ringer, Principal Product Engineer of DesignAdvance. “Since unveiling Cross-Probing in May, our customers have been actively deploying the solution throughout the PCB design process, providing PCB Designers, hardware engineers, test engineers and manufacturing engineers a valued mechanism for design, review, verification and test,” continued Mr. Ringer.

The new Cross-Probing technology allows the user to have bi-directional communication between layout and a (PDF) schematic. The new technology works seamlessly within Cadence’s Allegro and the Allegro Viewer environment, and gives both Designers and Engineers instant selection and verification of design elements such as components, nets, or pins, within Cadence Allegro and the (PDF) schematic.

CircuitSpace Foundation with Cross-Probing Featured Capabilities:

  • Interactive clustering
  • Intelligent physical design reuse – Define and Save physical design templates
  • Bi-directional Cross-Probing between Layout and (PDF) Schematic
  • Automated product change report between layout designs
  • Concurrent layout development corporate wide
  • Template generation for global library usage across divisions
  • Population of any Allegro selection set

 

Company: DesignAdvance, Inc. DesignAdvance, Inc.
Web Site: www.designadvance.com
Location: Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Description: DesignAdvance Systems, Inc. was founded in November 2003, based on research and technology developed by Dr. Jonathan Cagan at Carnegie Mellon University. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, its management team comprises industry veterans from technology startups; Fortune 100 software, EDA and hardware design companies; and world renowned research universities. Read more.