Although U.S. Senator Dave McCormick (R-Pennsylvania) elected to hold his now annual innovation summit outside of Pittsburgh, it still brought with it many investment announcements for the southwestern Pennsylvania region.
Last year, McCormick and an entourage of business executives and politicians, including President Donald Trump, descended on Carnegie Mellon University for the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit. This year, he headed to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for the Defense and Innovation Summit, bringing with him a number of private and public sector announcements for Pittsburgh.
Several companies announced plans to invest in their respective physical presences in the region. Virginia-headquartered defense software firm Air, which was formerly known as Govini, announced that it plans to invest $10 million in expanding its office space here, indicating plans to spend much more on staffing over the next four years. Acutronic Group, an aerospace and defense tech firm, announced it will invest between $14 million and $30 million in a new Pittsburgh facility. Parallax Advanced Research and RIDC also announced plans to build a $10 million Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility in the city, allowing companies to access classified information, which a number of local companies announced plans to use.
Others announced contract wins with various federal agencies. Eos Energy, which recently moved its headquarters to Pittsburgh, has inked a strategic partnership with the Department of War to support the infrastructure build out of the Golden Dome, a proposed domestic missile defense system. Carnegie Robotics announced it had been selected for a program to develop autonomous systems for the Army. Software company Qintel, headquartered on the North Shore, announced an $84 million contract to provide services to U.S. Cyber Command.
The summit also brought announcements from the world of academia. Carnegie Mellon University, along with venture studio Carnegie Foundry and private sector partners announced the launch of an Autonomous Systems Manufacturing Platform, aimed to leverage $50 million to help companies scale the domestic production of autonomous systems. The University of Pittsburgh also announced a consortium of over a dozen Department of War research labs aiming to research the use of autonomous systems to provide medical care on the battlefield. Both Pitt and CMU will also participate in an Appalachian energy consortium alongside WVU, backed by $312 million in public and private funding.
Source: Pittsburgh Business Times
Author: Jake Dabkowski