Be sure to tune in to TechVibe Radio Today (Nov.3) from 2-5 p.m. on AM 1360 WMNY as the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s Jonathan Kersting and Audrey Russo interview the region’s coolest tech companies and the personalities behind them.

Today’s show will include:

• The Penn State Center
• ATRP Solutions
• ClearCount
• Pennsylvania Business Technology Conference

Keep your dial tuned to TechVibe radio on these Tuesdays: Nov. 17; Dec. 1 and 15; and Jan. 5 and 19  from 2 to 5 p.m. to stay on top of Pittsburgh’s tech scene.

Lacking an AM/FM radio? No worries, stream the show right here or listen on the phone at 724-898-WMNY (9669)

This is truly some massive news that has seemingly slipped through the local media cracks.

The proverbial “dream team” of Pittsburgh energy has just been formed. The potential for great things to happen around energy innovation is quite high as the chief executive officers of Pittsburgh-headquartered Plextronics, Westinghouse, Allegheny Energy, EQT, CONSOL Energy and BPL Global founded the United States Center for Energy Leadership (USCEL). The founding members of the Center are:

• Andy Hannah, CEO of Plextronics
• Aris Candris, CEO of Westinghouse
• Paul Evanson, CEO of Allegheny Energy
• Murry Gerber, CEO of EQT
• J. Brett Harvey, CEO of CONSOL Energy
• Keith Schaefer, CEO of BPL Global

According to Plextronics’ Andy Hannah, who was a catalyst for the formation of USCEL, the mission of the group is to establish a stable energy environment for the United States that includes energy independence, stable energy pricing and a portfolio approach to meeting increasing energy needs. USCEL will also advocate for new and innovative technological developments that will impact all of these areas. The group will also work to address specific governmental policy, investment and technology issues that have direct bearing on the energy industry.

Get all of the details right here!

Plextronics, Inc. announced today that it has completed a $14 million Series B-1 financing round. The round was led by Solvay North American Investments, LLC, a member of the Solvay Group, which is an international chemical and pharmaceutical group headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Marking Solvay’s second investment in three years, its $12 million investment makes Solvay the largest minority shareholder in Plextronics.

Plextronics’ President and CEO Andy Hannah said that the financing will allow the company to continue to grow its research, development and pilot manufacturing programs, all of which are aimed at the commercialization of its technology.

“The funding from this round will enable us to continue to advance our lighting and solar products – namely our Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) and Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) materials and inks – so that we can scale these products to meet the customer and industry demand we are seeing,” said Hannah.

Hannah also indicated that the affiliation with Solvay has gone very well since the two companies began working together in 2007.

“The global collaboration that our companies envisioned a couple of years ago is going even better than we could have imagined. To have a corporate investor like Solvay that understands our markets, technology and the opportunities that await us is extremely important,” Hannah said.  “Solvay has become a true partner.”

“Solvay has identified organic electronics and sustainable energy as platforms for future growth based on radical innovation. The group believes that the new materials and technologies, which it is currently developing through its own R&D efforts and a number of partnerships with technological leaders, convey potential solutions to some of our contemporary societies’ most acute issues, such as the cost-effective implementation of renewable energy sources and energy-efficient devices,” said Léopold Demiddeleer, Solvay’s General Manager of Future Businesses Competence Center. “With its cutting edge technology, Plextronics is a perfect partner for one of Solvay’s most promising innovation platforms,” added Demiddeleer.

Several of Plextronics’ existing private investors also contributed to this B-1 financing. Prior to today’s announcement, the last financing round Plextronics completed was a $25 million Series B financing in 2007.

Source: www.plextronics.com

We’re back in the studio at 1360 WMNY at Pittsburgh Renaissance Radio this afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m. The web cam will be recording the action for your viewing pleasure at a later time thanks to the great folks at Panopto. We’re working on adding a real-time set up for the near future, so hold on tight. Check out a clip of us interviewing Mike Matesic of the IdeaFoundry from the last show. We do, indeed, have faces for radio.

Here’s the rundown of today’s show:

Plextronics 2:20-2:50

Bit Armor 2:55 – 3:30

Sima 3:30-4:10

Elliance 4:14-4:45

Jonathan Kersting/Audrey Russo banter 4:45-5:00

Join the show by calling 412-333-1360 or chat with us on TalkShoe.com. Just search “Pittsburgh Renaissance Radio.”

The week before Christmas typically sees a complete slow down of business across the board. Those of us trolling for local tech news only find dribs and drabs. You’d especially think so with the recession  and all the related hoopla. For some reason this has not been the case here in Pittsburgh. Press releases keep rolling in. Despite the doom and general gloom, bright spots abound. Check out these news releases from Council member companies. Great stuff!

Eaton’s Electrical Group Solidifies Participation In U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s PaYS Program

Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation today announced its Electrical Group has signed an agreement formalizing participation in the U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s Partnership for Youth Success (PaYS) program.

The program was developed to help the Army attract, train and deploy talented young people who want to serve their country, but also want to secure their future professional and career success. As part of the agreement of the PaYS program, Eaton will consider appropriately qualified soldiers for employment once their Army service is complete.

“Eaton’s Electrical Group represents the type of quality company that the Army is privileged to partner with in promoting the care and future of our young soldiers,” said Lt. Col. Michael Matthews, commander of the Harrisburg Army Recruiting Battalion.

Enlistees in the program will gain specific job training and qualifications while in the U.S. Army. Once the service is complete, the soldier will be considered for employment by partner companies such as Eaton. This unique program is part of the Army’s effort to partner with America’s business community and reconnect America with the Army.

Plexcore® Printable Ink Improves Performance in Advanced Polymer OLED Devices

Plextronics, Inc. — an international technology company that specializes in printed solar, lighting and other organic electronics — announced  that its conductive ink has been shown to improve the performance of certain P-OLED devices.  P-OLEDs (Polymer Organic Light Emitting Diodes) are a fast growing, new generation of display technology, which promise to replace liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in many existing applications in the coming years, as well as create exciting possibilities for new product forms such as flexible or even wearable displays. 

Plextronics requested an independent validation of test data obtained from its Plexcore® Organic Conductive (OC) ink by Cambridge Display Technology, Inc. (CDT) – a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. Data produced by CDT on Plextronics’ behalf show improved P-OLED operating voltages and voltage stability compared to other solution processed HIL alternatives that have been previously reported. 

For blue P-OLED test devices, a two volt reduction in initial operating voltage was achieved with improved voltage stability over the lifetime of the devices (less than 0.5V increase), a significant improvement over other solution processed HIL alternatives that have been previously reported.  Improving voltage characteristics in P-OLEDs is critical to reducing the power consumption of these devices, while maintaining or improving device lifetimes.  

Nation’s Largest Educational Institution Selects Panopto Lecture Capture System

Panopto, Inc. announced that Miami Dade College has chosen CourseCast as its lecture capture standard.  With eight campuses and over 160,000 students from across the world, Miami Dade College is the largest and most diverse college in the nation.
 
Miami Dade delivers nearly 300 academic programs spanning vocational, associate, and baccalaureate degrees and serves a large, dynamic, and increasingly diverse spectrum of student needs. Lecture capture technology is seen as a vehicle to help fulfill those needs. In particular, enabling a higher degree of student retention of class material, offsetting commuting expenses, and transcription and translation services are all seen a key enablers of Miami Dade’s strategic vision for achieving greater student outcomes.  

Karl Herleman, Miami Dade College’s Vice Provost/Chief Information Officer explains: “Miami Dade College has been on the forefront of incorporating technology that directly benefits our students and faculty. It is clear to us that lecture capture technology is becoming an increasingly core component of the higher learning infrastructure, and our early trials support this.”

“We evaluated several competing vendors in this category, and while we were originally attracted to Panopto for its business model, we were pleasantly surprised with their architecture and impressed with the product’s overall quality.” said Mark Nestor, Medical Campus Chief Information Officer, and program sponsor. “Faculty adoption has been encouraging. CourseCast’s ease of use, flexibility and scalability makes it a simple solution for our instructors as well as our IT staff – which is critical for a successful adoption at a campus of our size.”

Brad Winney, Panopto’s President and CEO stated: “Miami Dade College has been great to work with. From a vendor’s perspective it is always rewarding to be told that you have a great product, but more importantly, to be told so by an institution that aggressively pursues technology on behalf of its students is even more gratifying. Miami Dade was well aware that lecture capture is quickly becoming a utility that students are simply going to expect, and that a product like CourseCast would meet student needs.”

One thing is completely for sure, Pittsburgh has a pretty diverse tech industry. From software to Internet companies to outfits developing nanotechnologies, our bases are covered. Check out this bunch of headlines from the previous week:

NEXT GENERATION FEEDBACK ADVANCES MARKETPLACE RELIABILITY

 Guru.com, the world’s largest online marketplace for freelance talent, announced today a proprietary Feedback Management methodology to improve the value of subjective comments or rankings on its site.  For the first time in any online marketplace, subjective feedback will be validated against actual performance metrics to provide greater assurances of quality while limiting misuse.

A common Web convention, feedback is traditionally posted for public review with minimal intervention or modification.  The practice typically entails the submission of remarks or rankings by one party in a transaction to capture, share, and guide public opinion about the other party.

Feedback Management preserves the natural order and use of Feedback as a decision-making tool while neutralizing its tendencies to illogically bias choice or to inhibit honesty.  Users are invited to block some unwarranted feedback but only in proportion to their prior, proven success.  Negative feedback is not fully suppressed; rather its exposure is made more reliably predictive.  Objective performance metrics determine a variable blocking rate, or ‘Blocking Power,’ which is calculated for each user in real-time.  A seven day review-and-approval period is allowed for assessment of individual feedback records prior to public disclosure. 

“Current Feedback standards create an assumption of validity predicated on transparency,” explained Inder Guglani, CEO and Founder of Guru.com.  “But as incomplete information and fear of retaliation are introduced into the Feedback process, transparency requires objective verification.”

PLEXTRONICS WINS MATERIALS AWARD

 Plextronics, Inc. — an international technology company that specializes in printed solar, lighting and other organic electronics — was awarded the 2008 Technical Development Materials Award by IDTechEx. The company was presented with the honor at the Printed Electronics 2008 Awards dinner in San Jose on December 3.

A panel of judges, which was comprised of an independent international advisory board, was charged with finding the most impressive material development in all of printed electronics during the last 12 months. Plextronics’ launch of its Plexcore® PV 1000 and Plexcore® PV 2000 ink systems for use in research-scale printed solar cell development was chosen as the winner.

Andy Hannah, President and CEO of Plextronics, said, “We are very proud of this new ink system — it enables our customers access to the materials and technology that can help them consistently achieve state-of-the-art OPV efficiencies, potentially nearing world-record champion results.”

Developed around Plextronics’ organic photovoltaic technology – which was certified by NREL earlier this year at 5.98 percent efficient – next generations of the Plexcore® PV ink systems will be designed for use in pilot and early manufacturing lines, further advancing commercial production on an industry-wide level.

 
ALGOR FEA HELPS NORTH AMERICAN SHIPBUILDING HOIST 1,000 TONS

Located along the intercoastal waterway in Larose, Louisiana, North American Shipbuilding (NAS) designs and constructs offshore vessels for its parent company, Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO), and affiliated companies. As part of its ship building and repairing operations, NAS uses finite element analysis (FEA) software from ALGOR, Inc. in Pittsburgh.

“ALGOR FEA allows us to check our first principal calculations as well as investigate more detailed problems,” said Jacob Cheramie, Naval Architect of NAS. For example, when a new anchor-handling tug supply vessel was built, a 1,000-ton superstructure needed to be lifted by cranes for installation on the hull. Engineers at NAS performed ALGOR linear static stress analyses of key components to ensure that the ship could withstand the forces generated during the lifting operation. The FEA stress and displacement results verified NAS’ calculations, which allowed NAS to proceed with confidence and execute the crane lift successfully.

North American Shipbuilding (NAS) of Larose, Louisiana, crane-lifted this 1,000-ton superstructure as part of the assembly process for a new anchor-handling tug supply ship. Engineers at NAS used ALGOR FEA software to analyze key components to verify that the ship could withstand the lifting operation.

The OE-A promotes organic and printed electronics globally by providing the premier international industry network. 

“Following the recent global expansion, especially in the United States, we are forming a North American chapter of the Organic Electronics Association,” says Wolfgang Mildner, Chairman of the OE-A and Managing Director of Poly IC GmbH & Co KG. The OE-A is pleased to announce the appointment of Barbara M. Fisher as Regional Manager OE-A in North America. Ms. Fisher brings a strong background in the automotive and chemical industries as well as extensive international experience to this newly created position. The North American office of the OE-A will be based in Pittsburgh, PA to provide local service to members of the industry association. 

The new North American chapter will be an integral part of the international network while enhancing direct contactto leading global member companies and institutes. In addition, the OE-A conducts quarterly working group meetings for members to advance this important emerging industry in the US as well as worldwide.  “The strength of OE-A is its global reach,” says Andy Hannah, Vice-Chairman of the OE-A and President and CEO of Plextronics, Inc. ”North America is an important region for the success of our industry, and we are fortunate to have Ms. Fisher supporting the industry.”

“We look forward to the continued expansion of OE-A North America through additional growth in North American membership. The printed electronics industry benefits from the activities of the OE-A which include education, networking opportunities, strategic market understanding and the exchange of ideas to unite the entire industry and drive it forward,” says Bob Zaccone, Executive Vice President of GSI Technologies, host of the last North American working group meeting of the OE-A.

The OE-A targets entities from the entire supply chain of organic and printed electronics; member  companies range from material suppliers, equipment and device manufacturers to research institutes and end-users. Recent new memberships in the U.S. reflect that the activities of the OE-A are important for the entire value chain: equipment manufacturer Kammann Machines and The Marketing Store have joined to drive membership in the OE-A over 100 members worldwide, more than tripling global membership in the association since its inception in 2004.

Company: Plextronics, Inc. Web Site: www.plextronics.com Location: Pittsburgh, PA 15238 Description: Plextronics, Inc., is the world leader in developing active layer technology that enables broad market commercialization of printed electronic devices. Read more.