Archive for February, 2009

Pittsburgh Tech News! We’ve Got Your Tech News Here!

Published February 27, 2009 General , Knowledge Center , News Leave a Comment
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We’ve reached the end of another week and once again, time is conspiring against me. A ton of tech news lands on the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s desks and it’s tough to get it all out.  Friday seems like a great time to wind out the week and publish some news that we couldn’t get to over the past four days. Check out these news nuggets:

McGinnis Venture Competition on Tap

Carnegie Mellon University is holding its sixth annual McGinnis Venture Competition on March 12-14, 2009, at the Tepper School. Every year, Carnegie Mellon hosts about 20-30 graduate-student teams from across the country (and the world) to compete in three tracks (Technology, Life Sciences and Sustainable Technology) for a $20,000 grand prize (in each track) and some in-kind awards.  The old Techburgher will try to get you a list of this year’s winners once they are available. Stay tuned!

Eaton Collaborates with Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering

Industrial manufacturing powerhouse Eaton Corporation  will collaborate with the University of Pittsburgh’s (Pitt’s) Swanson School of Engineering to help train students in the burgeoning electric power engineering field and usher in the next generation of power-delivery technology.

Supported with a $500,000 sponsorship from Eaton, the collaboration will focus on developing courses across a broad range of electric power engineering and system topics including the growing field of smart power grids and a digitized, efficient electricity delivery system recently cited as a priority by President Barack Obama’s administration. The collaboration will also cultivate new and ongoing research related to power systems, power quality, energy efficiency and alternative energy systems.

ReGear Hires Karen Fry

ReGear Life Sciences hired Karen Fry as Vice President of Sales.  Fry has joined ReGear with more than 22 years of executive sales management and selling experience, ranging from highly technical sales and solution selling to managing national accounts and operating effectively in rapid growth situations.  ReGear will be her third start-up company.  She joined Pittsburgh-based ReGear from CoolSystems, Inc. – makers of Game Ready, a cold and compression therapy device used by professional and collegiate sports teams, physical therapists,and orthopedic surgeons.

CTC Nabs VPP STAR Award

Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) was awarded the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) “VPP STAR” designation for workplace safety and health excellence for the Company’s Johnstown facilities.  CTC now is one of approximately 2,000 STAR sites across the country.

ARMTech Set for August

The 11th annual ARMTech Showcase of Industry and Technology will be held on August 19th – 21st, 2009.  Each year, the Armstrong County Board of Commissioners and the Armstrong County Industrial Development Council (IDC) host the event at the Belmont Complex, located in Kittanning, PA.  The three-day Showcase will feature exhibits from across the country, which will allow regional businesses and organizations to build relationships with respected industry professionals. 

Exhibitors from the fields of electro-optics, advanced manufacturing, medical research, aerospace and defense contracting will be joined by U.S. Rep. John Murtha at the Showcase.  The ARMTech Showcase is part of the Armstrong County Regional Manufacturing Initiative.  For additional details, please contact Justin Nolder with the Armstrong County IDC at 724-548-1500 or by email at jrnolder@co.armstrong.pa.us.

MSA Announces Record Fourth Quarter and Full Year Sales

Published February 26, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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msa-logoAdmist all of the gloom and doom, we always try to keep things positive here on the TECHburgher. Here is some good news going on in Pittsburgh’s Tech scene from Council member Mine Safety Appliances Company:

MSA (NYSE: MSA) today announced that net sales for the year ended December 31, 2008 were $1,134.3 million compared with $990.3 million in 2007, an increase of $144.0 million, or 15 percent. Net income for the year ended December 31, 2008 was $70.4 million, or $1.98 per basic share, an increase of $2.8 million, or 4 percent, compared with $67.6 million, or $1.89 per basic share, for 2007. Net income in 2007 benefited from a $7.7 million after-tax gain on the sale of real estate, providing a gain of $0.22 per basic share.

Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2008 were $288.8 million compared with $267.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2007, an increase of $21.3 million, or 8 percent. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2008 was $16.5 million, or 46 cents per basic share, a decrease of $1.0 million, or 5 percent, compared with $17.5 million, or 49 cents per basic share, for the same quarter last year.

“I am pleased to report the highest fourth quarter and full year sales in MSA’s history,” said William M. Lambert, MSA President and CEO. “Our revenue performance in the fourth quarter was especially satisfying considering the current economic environment. This growth in revenue reflects strong shipments against government contracts, the diversified nature of our end-user markets and our continuing focus on expanding our geographic presence,” he said.

“During 2008, we saw meaningful sales growth in each of our three geographic segments and we achieved new performance benchmarks for the company,” Mr. Lambert commented. “However, the global economic recession has deepened in recent months and MSA is not immune to its effects. These are uncertain economic times, to be sure, requiring our global teams to closely monitor the markets we serve and continuously adjust our response to meet market realities. We have recently intensified our efforts to reduce costs across MSA and we have taken actions to reduce staff and better align our factory workforce with customer demand. While I am pleased that we saw strength in our core business throughout most of 2008, we must continue to be diligent in our efforts to reduce costs and manage our business in ways that allow us to weather the current downturn and seize opportunity when recovery occurs,” Mr. Lambert concluded.

BodyMedia Releases New Features for GoWear

Published February 26, 2009 General , Knowledge Center , News , PTC Member 1 Comment
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gowearBodyMedia, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based pioneer in wearable body monitoring systems, released several new features for GoWear® fit, its lifestyle and calorie management system.

In response to user feedback the company has received since launching the product in November, 2008, and consistent with its mission of offering user-friendly body-monitoring products that deliver the highest level of accuracy, BodyMedia has added the following new online features.

Daily Food Logging; BodyMedia’s user data shows that people consistently overestimate the calories they burn and underestimate the calories they consume.  GoWear® fit takes the guesswork out of how many calories users are burning versus consuming and now enables them to track these measurements daily.  This feature also now offers a complete breakdown of micro- and macro-nutrients, helping users make dietary changes to help them reach their goals.

MET Level Adjustments; While the present Metabolic Equivalent (MET) levels — the intensity level of one’s exercise/activity — are based on national standards, GoWear® fit now allows users to adjust the levels to more accurately reflect their unique activity.  For example, if a user finds that they got 4 hours of moderate exercise a day, when they have only taken a few short walks, or no vigorous activity when they spent 40 minutes lifting weights, they can now adjust MET levels to better reflect their lifestyle.

Interactive Updates, which deliver enhanced personalized information, including mouse-over data access and a new color scheme that instantaneously denotes calories consumed v. calories burned.

Different from a simple pedometer, accelerometer or heart rate monitor, GoWear® fit is a lifestyle and calorie management system that tracks five key physical characteristics that can directly affect your health — number of steps taken, amount of calories burned, amount of physical activity, and sleep duration and efficiency.  No other comfortable, convenient, continuous body-monitoring products can measure physical activity and calories burned with BodyMedia’s level of accuracy, which is more than 90%.

Since launching GoWear® fit in November 2008, BodyMedia has gathered data from initial users who, on average, wear the armband for 18 hours per day, and are losing one pound per week.  GoWear fit has been one of the fastest selling products at Amazon.com this year and has ranked in the top five products in the Health Monitor category.

BodyMedia has a proven track record in health and weight management.  Their SenseWear® BMS and WMS products are behavior therapy solutions used by the world’s leading obesity, nutrition and exercise research clinicians to help patients manage metabolic disorders. 

GoWear® fit and the Online Activity Manager are available at www.gowearfit.com and Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods retail and online stores.

Pittsburgh-based General Dynamics Viz Seeks Engineering and Design Professionals

Published February 25, 2009 Events , General , Knowledge Center , News , PTC Member Leave a Comment
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gd1So here’s some really great news. General Dynamics Viz on the Southside is looking to hire more than 20 engineering and design professionals. The company is holding a “technical openhouse” tomorrow. Here are the details:

What:   Technical Open House

When:    Thursday, February 26, 2009; 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Where:  General Dynamics Viz, 2730 Sidney Street, Building 2, Suite 310, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15203

General Dynamics Viz is hosting a technical open house for engineers and designers interested in developing next-generation visualization and collaboration technologies for the U.S. military, government and industry.

There are 22 open positions. Needed skill sets include: Information design, Infrastructure service engineer, Software developers and Systems engineers.

Job descriptions, requirements and the ability to submit a resume electronically are available at www.gdc4s.com/careers.

Duquesne’s Dr. Alan Seadler Encourages Funding for Pharmaceutical Science

Published February 24, 2009 Knowledge Center , News , PTC Member , Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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nipteDr. Alan W. Seadler, associate academic vice president for research at Duquesne University and treasurer of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE), will be among the representatives meeting on Capitol Hill tomorrow to encourage public backing to develop, manufacture and deliver pharmaceutical products more efficiently, more safely and at a lower cost to the consumer.

Current manufacturing methods are failing to keep pace with underlying progress in medical science and poses a risk to public health, says NIPTE, a nationwide consortium including Duquesne and 10 other cutting-edge pharmaceutical and technological institutions. Improvements are needed to better understand new pharmaceutical materials and to convert this knowledge into production.

Seadler and other NIPTE members believe that investments in basic manufacturing research are key to increasing the quality of our nation’s drugs and the cost effectiveness of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process. All of these processes are vital to keeping medication manufacturing in the United States.

The pharmaceutical industry has long been important to the economy of Pennsylvania, with a significant presence of giants such as Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline Kline, Merck, Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer. These manufacturing giants of eastern Pennsylvania are joined by top-flight research and educational efforts in the Pittsburgh area through Duquesne and other institutions. In 2006, the drug and pharmaceutical industry sector in Pennsylvania had 111 establishments, accounting for 15.5 percent of all Pennsylvania manufacturing activities. It employed nearly 22,300, according to reports from Battelle and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Yet, the urgent need to stem continued deterioration in the science supporting regulatory decisions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was recently unveiled by the FDA’s Science Board. The board concluded that the FDA suffers from serious scientific deficiencies and is not positioned to meet current or emerging regulatory responsibilities. “Our Congressional meetings will bring to light the current lack in the fundamental science of development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals,” said Dr. Prabir Basu, executive director of NIPTE. “We hope, as a result of these meetings, that the FDA will gain the funds to be able support more basic manufacturing science research that will assist manufacturers, academics and regulators. Ultimately, these advances will lead to manufacturing savings and improved quality of pharmaceuticals.”

 In October, the FDA awarded NIPTE a $1.19 million contract to develop science to enhance how pharmaceutical products are developed and manufactured. Duquesne’s Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences is among the first participants in this effort, called Quality by Design.

Pittsburgh Colleges And Industry Create Associate Degree Program in Robotics/Embedded Systems

Published February 23, 2009 General , Knowledge Center , News , PTC Member 1 Comment
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cmuOur region’s robotics industry is continually recognized and ranked as one of the top centers for research, development and deployment. It’s a showcase of how academia and industry have been successfully working together over the past several decades. We just got this announcement from the Carnegie Mellon University PR machine detailing the innovation and collaboration that are driving the local robotics industry .

More than two dozen industry partners have joined with Carnegie Mellon University and other Pittsburgh-area universities and community colleges to create an associate degree program that will train technicians to build and maintain robots and other embedded computer systems, which have become ubiquitous in today’s world.

robotThe two-year associate degree in Robotics Engineering Technology was developed by the Robotics Corridor, a public-private consortium dedicated to building the infrastructure necessary to support the robotics industry in southwestern Pennsylvania and adjoining states. Graduates will be qualified to work as mid-level managers or highly qualified technologists in all technology-intensive industries, said Robin Shoop, director of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Academy and director of the Robotics Corridor project.

Coursework will be offered beginning this fall at California University of Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County Community College and Butler County Community College, and in 2010 at Community College of Beaver County.
Pittsburgh’s growing robotics industry is only one potential employer for the program’s graduates, Shoop said.

“Smart systems are everywhere; we just don’t call them robots,” he explained. “They already are in your home, your office and your car and are designed to help people do things quicker, better and more efficiently.” Products as diverse as automobiles, medical equipment and heating and air conditioning systems include embedded computer systems and industries such as mining, agriculture and construction increasingly rely on embedded systems.

Building, installing and maintaining these rapidly advancing systems will require technologists who not only are computer literate, but also are trained to be lifelong learners, Shoop said. To that end, the Robotics Corridor received input from 25 area industries about the types of technical and learning skills that needed to be incorporated into the new degree program.

Credits from the associate degree program are transferrable to four-year bachelor’s degree programs in electrical, computer and manufacturing engineering. The University of Pittsburgh, Robert Morris University, Youngstown State University and the Community College of Allegheny County are among the partners who have developed the Robotics Engineering Technology associate degree.

Vivisimo Makes KMWorld’s Coveted “100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management” List

Published February 20, 2009 General , Knowledge Center , PTC Member Leave a Comment
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Squirrel Hill-based Vivisimo has been a regular condiment on Techburgher lately. It’s like they’ve become the chunky salsa giving our news a bunch of zip and flavor. It’s great to see a Pittsburgh tech company making some positive news. Here’s some more:

Vivisimo made one of KMWorld’s “100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management,” an annual list published by KMWorld. This is the eighth year of the list and the seventh consecutive year Vivisimo has earned a place on it.

“Each company on KMWorld’s 100 Companies that Matter list embodies as part of its culture agile and limber execution of its mission, embracing a spirit of both adaptability and innovation,” said Hugh McKellar, KMWorld editor in chief.

The recognition by KMWorld caps a year of strong performance for Vivisimo. The privately-held enterprise search developer continued to win new customers; it closed on its first round of financing in eight years of growth; and continued product innovation with the Velocity Search Platform 7.0™, Velocity for OEM and the Velocity Discovery Module™.

Velocity 7.0 followed Vivisimo’s industry-leading social search with conceptual search, including a new interface that gives users explicit control to fine tune queries and personalize search to meet specific information goals. Velocity for OEM leveraged the platform’s superior architecture into a modular design for deployment in different markets and applications. The Velocity Discovery Module enables auto-classification, express tagging and export of documents in their native formats for fast and easy sharing of large numbers of documents.

“Vivisimo is one of the companies that exemplifies the performance necessary for consideration for KMWorld’s list of 100 Companies that Matter,” said McKellar. “The fact that Vivisimo has been listed seven straight times illustrates tenacity and focus – traits that also reflect the continued growth and evolution of our industry into critical strategic and operational functions.”

Alpern Rosenthal Details Stimulus Act’s Impact on Business

Published February 19, 2009 Knowledge Center , PTC Member Leave a Comment
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Love it or hate it, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) this week. While approximately two-thirds of the nearly $800 billion stimulus act is focused on government spending initiatives intended to create jobs and jump-start the economy, about one-third provides tax breaks for businesses and individuals. Alpern Rosenthal authored a great article detailing how the stimulus will impact you and your business.

Read the article right here.

MyGov365 Connecting Citizens to Candidates via Social Media Platform

Published February 19, 2009 General , News , PTC Member , Regional Impact , Something Cool Leave a Comment
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mygov365-logo1Looking for a way to get involved with local government but don’t know how? Check out http://mygov365.com to connect with your government representatives. Developed by local tech company, MyGov365, this social media platform is the next generation in interaction between candidates and citizens. Browse through the press release below for more details:

MyGov365 offers Pittsburgh area political candidates a way to get their campaign up and running quickly and affordably, enabling them to connect directly with their constituents using a suite of online tools–for just five dollars.

MyGov365 is conducting a beta launch of a social media platform to connect citizens, government and political professionals. As part of the introductory, 10-county Pittsburgh Region launch, candidates running for office who sign up for a Campaign Plan before March 2, 2009 pay just five dollars ($5) for access to a suite of tools including: profile, blog, connections, events, issues, contributions, reports and more.

The MyGov365 Campaign account is designed to provide immediate visibility to the citizens and voters, at little cost and with minimal technical expertise. Candidates won’t need to spend a big portion of their budget to set up and maintain a website. They will have a cost effective channel to reach the voter base and communicate their messages.

“Almost fifty percent of the people that vote have no clue who they are voting for and why,” said Jay Resio, president of MyGov365. “Our platform enables voters to have a single destination to connect with candidates and learn about issues, legislation and more.”

The platform intelligently connects citizens to candidates in their area to review information and be more prepared to make decisions at the voting booth. In addition, MyGov365 displays relevant elected officials, events and other information that empowers citizens to keep a pulse on legislative and civic activities.

During the beta, MyGov365 will be working with the local city and county governments to distribute their legislation thru the MyGov365 platform. Citizens are then empowered with information at their fingertips so they can interact and voice their opinions 24 hours a day.

You can learn more at the www.mygov365.com.

Candidates can learn more and register for an account at http://www.mygov365.com/campaign.

About MyGov365
MyGov365 is Pittsburgh technology company building solutions to bridge the communication gaps between Citizens, Government and Political Professionals.

Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Completes Expansion

Published February 19, 2009 General , News , PTC Member Leave a Comment
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amt

 

 

 

Looks like our local advanced manufacturers are making a few headlines this week. Following up on Oberg’s news yesterday, it appears that folks are still out there making stuff. Important stuff. Check out this news nugget from Advanced Manufacturing Technologies ( AMT ):

AMT, a world class, full-service electronic contract manufacturer of next-generation printed circuit board (PCB) and electro-mechanical assemblies, recently finished the design-build renovation of a 30,000 square-foot production facility and corporate headquarters in Westmoreland Industrial Park III . The new structure allows AMT to consolidate its operations under a single roof.

“The expansion enables us to increase the value we bring to our current customers by providing a whole new level of sophisticated support,” says Buck Helfferich, President of AMT. “The new processes and equipment will take us to technology’s edge in electronic manufacturing.  It also gives us the ability to take advantage of new business opportunities that we were unable to handle previously.”

Key features of the project include high-end conductive flooring, global humidity control and the addition of a second level of administrative offices.  The space is sufficient to house upgraded state-of-the-art automation equipment which accommodates the latest in electronic circuitry.  The expansion also includes an employee lounge/meeting room with a HD video and 7.1 surround sound system and a great view of the outdoors.

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