The steel industry in Pittsburgh put the city on the map by using its natural bounty in coal and strategic location at the intersection of three rivers to satisfy America's unquenchable thirst for steel to build bridges, factories, buildings and automobiles. Pittsburgh is in the right place at the right time as a new industrial revolution takes shape.
The way people work and learn is being changed by robot. Machine learning and artificial intelligence allow robots to build bridges. From one point to another, vehicles and aircraft deliver packages and people. From farms to factories to manufacturing to medicine.
The revolution has been accelerated by the Pandemic.
Businesses are forced to re-examine processes due to labor shortages.
There is a need to clean surfaces and environments that could be harmful to humans.
Pittsburgh is positioned to prosper.
The University of Pittsburgh gets nearly a billion dollars annually in National Institutes of Health funding for medical research, while the Carnegie Mellon School of Engineering gives out roboticists and dozens of local companies.
The Three Mile Island accident gave the US government the motivation to fund the development of robots. Pittsburgh-based companies with full ownership of the intellectual property are ready to market their innovations.
The Richard King Mellon Foundation has committed $250 million to fund university led efforts to solidify the region's footprints in life sciences, robotics and advanced manufacturing. Hundreds of new companies have been created by the economic development funds flowing through Innovation Works.
Hundreds of local companies are supported by the Pittsburgh Technology Council and the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. Quality of life, housing costs, and workplace diversity are some of the issues addressed by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. The first conference of RustBuilt Pittsburgh attracted several hundred attendees.
Several companies have shown that Pittsburgh can produce billion-dollar companies. In July, Aurora went public with a $5 billion IPO and in November merged with a SPAC, resulting in a $13 billion valuation. Ford and Volkswagen invested more than $2 billion in the company to build a system for cars and trucks.
The region has created thousands of jobs in the field of robotics. PhDs are needed to build prototype devices, operate welding equipment, and operate 3D printers. New structures for life sciences and advanced manufacturing have replaced former steel mills as research centers.
That's not the only thing. They're constructing parts of the metaverse here. Facebook Reality Labs in Pittsburgh has quietly grown to 100 employees since 2015, and they say they are the best and brightest scientists, developers and engineers in the world. A year ago, Facebook added a new office with 100,000 square feet of cutting-edge lab and office space to advance its 10-year plan to give people the power to meet, work, and play games anywhere in the world.
Smaller companies like EktoVR are focused on virtual worlds, developing boots that coordinate with headsets to deliver more realistic experiences for training.
The revolution is happening. It's happening in Pittsburgh. Again.
