Pittsburgh Innovates

This week’s Pop City hiring report highlights a slew of jobs, from 12 positions at Cardinal Resources to 18+ at Ansaldo, three at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and another at Point Park University.
 
South Side-based Cardinal Resources is bringing cleaner water to the world through its patented Red Bird System, a solar powered, community-sized water purifying system. The company recently won a $9 million contract to install 12 of its water purification systems in Nigeria, which will create 12 jobs, primarily for engineers and technicians.
 
The company is also opening a manufacturing center next door, the former Hall Industries property, where it will begin building the filters for the Red Bird units later this month, reports Kevin Jones, president.  
 
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust reports three openings in its marketing and communications department. The arts nonprofit is looking for a Director of Public Relations, Show Marketing Manager and Digital Designer. 
 
The Director of Public Relations is responsible for developing public relations campaigns for Trust presentations and oversees the overall marketing strategy to publicize all events, including the placement of advance features, reviews, and artist interviews. A degree in marketing or communications or related and three years experience is preferred.
 
The Show Marketing Manager will coordinate all aspects of marketing for the Trust. A degree in marketing or communications or related and three years experience is preferred.
 
The Digital Designer will be responsible for designing, writing, trafficking and gaining approval
for all organizational e-marketing messages. The Digital Designer works on a number of print,
video and multimedia projects.
 
Ansaldo, a supplier of high-speed railway and urban transportation technology, has 18 openings in its Pittsburgh office, most of them in the engineering field. Jobs include software and project engineers, sales and telecommunications engineers. Ansaldo emerged from Union Switch & Signal in 2009, a company originally founded by George Westinghouse in 1881.
 
Point Park University is hiring a Director of Recruitment for its School of Business who will be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive recruitment plan in collaboration with the Admissions offices and the Dean of the School of Communication.

Have hiring news? Email Pop City!

Writer: Deb Smit

Industrial design majors Jonathan Ota and Ethan Frier, both avid bikers, understand the need for bikers to be more visable at night.
 
Studies show that 36% of all accidents occur at intersections, between the hours of 5 and 9 p.m., they say. So when they got a class assignment that asked them put their industrial design know-how to use, they came up with bike lights that can be seen on the road from almost any angle.
 
Called Aura (formerly Project Aura), the system uses LED lights, glowing white orbs that are rim-mounted to the bike to illuminate the wheels, alerting drivers and pedestrians to the presence of a moving vehicle.
 
Aura is a new way for cyclists to not only broadcast where they are, but convey how fast they are traveling, they explain. Unlike wheel tape or gimmicky products like lighted shoes, Aura is intended to make bikes pop out at night amid the urban chaos.
 
“The real innovation is the color changing aspect of the system,” says Ona, who regularly commutes to the Oakland campus. “It offers another level of information to drivers who can recognize more easily what a cyclist is doing.”
 
The LEDs illuminate red when the biker is moving slowly and white as a biker gains speed.
 
The pair are developing the prototype through CMU’s Project Olympus with help from a Student Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG) and support from CMU’s Greenlighting Startups. The plan is to raise money to take the design to the next level and commercialization.

In other CMU news, Astrobotic unveiled its prototype lunar rover, the solar-powered Polaris, yet another step in pursuit of the Google Lunar X $20 million prize. Polaris is equipped to search and drill for water on the Moon’s poles, in addition to other sources of potential energy.
 
This is the first lunar rover developed specifically to drill for water, a feature that was added as a result of scientific research that suggest that water exists on the moon in some form, says Red Whittaker, CEO of Astrobotic and director of the Field Robotics Center at CMU.
 
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Jonathan Ona and Ethan Frier, Aura; CMU

Image of Jonathan Ona and Ethan Frier courtesy of CMU

What began as a backyard BBQ to raise money for local startups has expanded into a new organization and incubator for entrepreneurs.
 
Thrill Mill was founded to build on the momentum of the first Pittsburgh Business Bout, a competition that awarded $5,000 last year to a young group of entrepreneurs who created an online legal notice search engine called FindNotice.  
 
This year’s Business Bout, currently underway, is upping the stakes with $25,000 in prize money for the best business plan. The winnings were made possibly through sponsors Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Submissions are due Oct. 31^st. 
 
Thrill Mill consists of an annual cycle that begins with a large-scale music festival – Baller BBQ – that will not only showcase national music talent, but local music, art, entertainment and business talent.  Revenues generated by the festival will be awarded to the winner of a Business Bout.

Lucky applicants in the Business Bout may then gain admission to an early stage business incubator, the Hustle Den, opening early in 2013, where entreprenuers will receive free office space, mentorship, programming and investor relationships, for one full year. 

“The security blanket of corporate America is not what it use to be,” explains Bobby Zappala, Thrill Mill CEO. “Startups will become more a part of mainstream growth and certainly this is happening in Pittsburgh. We have all the elements. We just need to encourage those in Pittsburgh to stay here.”
 
The 5,000 square-foot space was secured with the help of a $750,000 investment from an anonymous donor, says Luke Skurman, of College Prowler and an original founder of Business Bout.
 
“We want hungry entrepreneurs who are going to go for it,” says Skurman. “All industries are welcome.”
 
At the conclusion of the cycle, the Hustle Den participants will have an opportunity to pitch their businesses to investors at the next year’s BBQ, and the cycle continues says Skurman.

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Bobby Zappala, Luke Skurman, Thrill Mill and Business Bout

Imagine the city as your personal playground. Three point lines around trash cans. Tether balls swinging overhead, inviting gameplay, with the goal of bringing people together and making the city a place of wonder and fun.
 
Obscure Games is back, bringing with it the best new urban games in the world for The City of Play Festival on October 13, noon to midnight. Sponsored by South Side game studio Schell Games, the festival is changing the way we see the city, says Adam Nelson, the master gamer behind it all. 
 
Since its inception in 2009, Obscure Games has been playing around Pittsburgh with live gaming events. (You may recall the Steel City Games Fest and Human Curling Tournament.)
 
Urban gameplay acts as a social glue that connects people through the environment, reinforcing the idea that players have ownership of the city, says Nelson.
 
The festival will feature about 15 game installations with streets, parks and public spaces as the backdrop. Games will be located on the North Side and around the Allegheny Center and Buhl Park. Play is open to the first 100 players with a ticket, but anyone of any age can play for free in Buhl Park.
 
Among the games is Circle Rules Football and Nelson’s own game called Nashville, which involves wandering the city and giving secret signals to others in a sort of old west showdown.
 
“Pittsburgh has an opportunity to use play to convey itself as an interesting and exciting, progressive city for young people to live,” says Nelson. “The fact that we’re a smaller city is a strength. It’s who we are and easier to build a community around this.”
 
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Adam Nelson, Obscure Games

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