Pittsburgh Innovates

Manufacturing chemicals firm Reaxis opened a second manufacturing center and R&D lab in the University of Pittsburgh Applied Research Center this week.
 
The firm is hiring a sales associate, inside sales associate and product engineer. Reaxis manufactures a wide range of products used several industries, everything from plastics and coatings to sealants, electronics and oil and gas applications
 
Among other companies that reported hiring this week: Cepstral, College Prowler, GTECH, WYEP and WYEP, the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum and Kelly Strayhorn Theatre.
 
Cepstral, a global company and developer of Text-To-Speech software, is seeking two hires to join their team, both software engineer-speech application developers, one with experience in programming in C/C++ for Windows environments and a second with experience in programming in C/C++ for Mac OS X environments.
 
GTECH Strategies is hiring an Energy Director for a new initiative underway, ReEnergize Pittsburgh, a program that focuses on promoting residential energy efficiency and reducing the region’s carbon footrprint.
 
As part of the program, 16-20 community ambassadors will be hired part-time to help with the educational component for ReEnergize Pittsburgh. The initiative is looking to hire highly motivated community-based partners willing to reach out to their local networks. Read all about it in Pop City.
 
College Prowler is hiring a full-time web developer to assist with frontend and backend work on Facebook. Those pursuing a degree in computer science need apply.  
 
The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is hiring a Manager of Corporate Giving who will be responsible for corporate fundraising, including corporate annual giving, corporate sponsorships, corporate program grants and special event sponsorship. Experience in fundraising through face-to-face solicitations, grant writing are important.
 
The Kelly Strayhorn Theater is hiring a Managing Director. The ideal  candidate has financial planning and management experience and is a results oriented collaborator committed to the organization’s success. 
 
WYEP and WESA in the South Side is hiring a full-time Marketing Assistant who will work with the Marketing Director and assist with all facets of marketing for both stations, including print publications, website and social media, station events, public relations, and marketing campaigns.
 
Is your company or business hiring in the near future? Email Pop City and let us know!
 
Writer: Deb Smit

Social media continues to permeate every aspect of our lives. Now it's coming to us through our televisions.
 
Aspinwall-based 321Blink is launching a TV show this week that it believes will give businesses and nonprofits a boost in disseminating their social marketing messages.
 
The creative marketing company is producing 321Blink the Show, a 30-minute, hi-def program that will air weekly with a succession of two-minute segments that highlight local businesses and nonprofit organizations through interviews, clever dialogue and music.
 
The question is, will this be something a discerning viewer will want to watch?
 
Tripp Clarke and Tim McLaughlin, Pittsburgh entrepreneurs with experience in video and media, think so. The format promises to be interesting and will generate a buzz, they say, as the show is promoted across multiple social media platforms.
 
From a marketing perspective, businesses will get more mileage for their dollar from TV. They cite a study by the Wharton School of Business that reports that video improves comprehension and retention by 50% and speeds up buying decisions by 72%.

“Television delivered in an entertaining fashion, that’s well shot, in high definition, will have definite appeal,” says McLaughlin.

“The show is a driver to other platforms (like YouTube and Facebook),” adds Clarke. “Those platforms will then drive back to the show.”

321Blink the Show was inspired by the popularity of the Pittsburgh FYI Network of 20 years ago, a program that featured local businesses, says Clarke. Some of the first shows have an MTV meets Pittsburgh feel to them.

The show will air throughout Pennsylvania, beginning on Sept. 28^th, on several TV channels including PCNC, Fox 53, and ABC affiliates.

Businesses can use the video as fresh content for their social marketing strategy, or 321Blink can manage it for them, says Clarke. Fresh content will help businesses to rank better in searches while driving web traffic and moving the message.

The company, founded in 2011, employs seven full-time and three part-time. 321Blink also encourages local filmmakers and musicians to contribute.

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: 321Blink

Image of Tripp and Tim courtesy of 321Blink

Buy Pittsburgh First is not something that will work everywhere, but it’s definitely working in Pittsburgh, says company founder Chantel Goldstrohm.
 
The Bridgeville-based firm started two years ago as a grassroots movement to entice local industrial businesses to examine their buying habits and support other local supply and service companies. Many want to buy local but don’t have the time or resources to do it, she says.
 
Goldstrohm grew up in Cecil and graduated from University of Pittsburgh. Her experience in sales and marketing, along with her husband’s work in the industrial sector, led her to realize that with the economic downturn, people in the industrial supply business might be inclined to support one another.
 
It was a completely new concept when we started, something that had never been done before, she says. “There were nights I couldn’t sleep. We were leading the charge in this realm.”
 
The success is in the return to local communities, she says. For every $100 spent with a company in Pennsylvania, $68 is recycled back to the community through expenditures, payroll taxes and more. When a company buys outside of the state, only $48 comes back to the region.
 
That extra $25 has the potential to become a huge source of cash flow to our schools, roads, parks and more. 
 
“Pittsburgh bleeds black and gold. I don’t know we could have gone anywhere else and gotten the support we have,” admits Goldstrohm. “It’s a win win all around.”
 
Buy Pittsburgh First employs five and is planning on hiring two in 2013.
 
The company will hold its first annual Buy Pittsburgh First Expo On Oct. 11th, a showcase of the region’s industrial supply, service and manufacturing companies.
 
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Chantel Goldstrohm, Buy Pittsburgh First
 

As we all know, beer is among the things that Pittsburgh does well.
 
And now we have a regional magazine to go with it. Launched in 2010, Craft Pittsburgh is embracing the local craft beer industry in response to the resurgence of interest in craft brewing here, says founder and editor Tim Russell. 
 
Pittsburgh just wasn’t getting its due, he says.
 
“I want to enlighten everyone, bring in people on the fringe who are just beginning to discover craft beer,” explains Russell. “If people start drinking better beer, it will grow the industry and help everyone.”
 
Craft Pittsburgh is for connoisseurs to wanna-be better beer drinkers who are interested in following the business, or brewing a batch at home. Stories range from the several well-orchestrated events that happen around beer, including Steel City’s Big Pour and The Reverse Keg Ride, where an empty keg is returned to its neighborhood brewery with the help of more than 100 cyclists. (All in the name of charity, of course.)
 
The most recent issue (No. 7) relates the wonderful history of beer making in Pittsburgh. Did you know, for example, that long before President Obama was throwing back hotcakes at Pamela’s, President Roosevelt was swilling Duquesne Brewing Company’s “near beer” during prohibition?
 
There’s also the events and festival listings, cooking with beer, home brewing tips and regular installments from columnist The Drunk Yinzer.
 
The only problem is that  when the magazine comes out, about 10,000 copies a run, the free hard copies disappear fast. Fortunately, it's also available online.
 
Craft Pittsburgh officially became a profitable enterprise with the sixth issue, thanks to the support of local establishments and restaurants, says Russell.
 
“I hope it gets the craft beer community going, because I’d love Pittsburgh to become one of those cities like San Diego or Philadelphia (who are on the forefront of the craft beer movement),” he says. “But Pittsburgh is catching up.”
 
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Tim Russell, Craft Pittsburgh

As a social roboticist, Heather Knight is helping us see robots in new and entertaining ways.   
 
Robots can tell stories and make us laugh, says Knight who made her debut, accompanied by her endearing sidekick Data, at a 2010 TED Talk. The two have been performing together ever since.
 
Knight, who grew up in Lexington, Mass., is conducting her doctoral research at CMU’s Robotics Institute, attracted by the unique combination of fine arts, robotic and entertainment tech programs.

In keeping with her mission, one of the first things she did when she arrived was to take a census of all the robots on CMU's campus. There are 547 robots in all, not including those at NREC in Lawrenceville, nearly one robot for every student in the department, she says.

In addition to her academic studies, Knight has several ongoing robot projects. She runs a stand up comedy troupe robots, Marilyn Monrobot Labs, in New York City, which produces sensor-based electronic art performances.
 
She also was the founder of the NYC’s first Robot Film Festival, held this summer, and one of several behind Cyborg Cabaret at the New Hazlett Theatre last April, a variety show billed as “avant art-meets-science” theater.
 
She also made the Forbes List for 30 Under 30 in Science. 
 
It's all about breaking the boundaries in our understanding of robots and what they can do and attracting more people to science and technology.  Robots can speak our language and make us laugh in addition to helping humankind, she says.
 
“I want to make machines that will help humanity to flourish,” Knight adds.
 
Knight and Data will make an appearance during the Robot Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at CMU next month, which will be held during the RoboBusiness Leadership Summit. The summit will bring hundreds of robotics industry leaders to Pittsburgh for an Oct. 22-24 conference. 
 
Vote early and often for your favorite robot from the slate of nominees for the Robot Hall of Fame. Created by CMU in 2003, the hall honors both fictional and real robots. Among the nominees are one of Data’s relatives, WALL-E of movie fame and Rosie from the Jetsons. 
 
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Heather Knight, CMU

Mt. Lebanon-based Argentine Productions has produced a documentary opening this month at the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Mass.
 
The project brought together one of the biggest all-star casts to date in a National Parks video.  Tom Hanks serves history as the voice of Henry Adams and provides a running commentary throughout. Laura Linney is the narrator and reads Abigail’s letters, Paul Giamatti reads John Adams and Edward James Olmos is the voice of John Quincy Adams.
 
For a National Parks project on a documentary budget to attract a celebrity cast is a real coup for a company like us, says director Peter Argentine whose production company has been instrumental in telling the compelling stories of our country’s National Parks.     
 
The Adams Park has experienced a surge of visitors and interest since the airing of the HBO series and the publication of David McCullough’s book on the life of John Adams.
 
“It was a challenge to condense 200 years of Adams history into such a brief film,” says Argentine. “HBO had nine hours to tell John Adams’ story, and we had just 25 minutes to cover four generations.”
 
Hanks, who loves both history and the John Adams story, was eager to participate in the documentary, he adds.
 
Production took place on multiple locations: an 18th century square rigger sailing ship; Hartwell Tavern at Minuteman Park; Old Sturbridge Village, a salt marsh in Quincy, and the original Adams family home at Peacefield. Painstaking care was given to the details in bringing the story to life.
 
On September 21, the park will hold a “red carpet” premiere to debut Enduring Legacy, which chronicles four generations of the Adams family.
 
“Our greatest strength is we’re good storytellers,” says Argentine. “People like working with us to translate their vision and message and we strive to make that true. It’s a huge responsibility that we take seriously to create an impact that has a powerful affect on the audience.”

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Peter Argentine, Argentine Productions