Pittsburgh Innovates

A city can never be on too many A-lists.

Famous for its lists, Forbes magazine ranked Pittsburgh No. 6 on its Top 10 Tech Cities list this month. “Resuscitated after decades of economic malaise,” the article begins, “the old steel town has become an innovative force in such areas as health care, biomedical technology, nuclear energy and robotics.”

Forbes also applauded Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute and the school’s Collaborative Innovation Center “that has enticed Intel and Apple to build labs in the area.”

“It’s very gratifying. We’ve done a good job of shouting and sharing and hit some things out of the ballpark,” agrees Audrey Russo, president of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. “But are we incrementally changing or are we changing at the same slow, steady state? How can we really move the needle so we can really catapult into the next 25 years?”

“As a region, we’re becoming recognized for the fact that we’re a high tech city,” notes Pittsburgh Regional Alliance President Dewitt Peart. “From our vantage point, what’s becoming evident is the role that Pittsburgh businesses play in this global economy.”

Our competitive advantage is not products we are producing but the huge appetite for products we’ve been historically known for: life sciences, media communications, robotics, adds Peart. “Last year exports grew by 20 percent while the average across country was 8 percent. "We happen to be producing what the world needs at that moment. Academics in our region are the innovators of the future.”

And there’s more. Pennsylvania received good news last week when AeA, the nation’s largest technology trade association, released its annual Cyberstates report detailing national and state job trends. Pennsylvania’s high-tech industry added 6,400 jobs, moving up one spot to become the seventh largest cyberstate.

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Forbes, Audrey Russo, Pittsburgh Technology Council, Dewitt Peart, PRA

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