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Just as American iron and steel and manufacturing emerged from the Greater Pittsburgh region in the Industrial Revolution, today a new revolution of advanced manufacturing (AM) technologies grows from southwestern Pennsylvania’s innovations in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and other leading-edge digital technologies. According to a McKinsey Global Institute report titled “Making it in America: Revitalizing U.S. Manufacturing” (November 2017), these “Industry 4.0” manufacturing technologies have the potential to…

by Todd Miller After 34 years of helping Pittsburgh’s technology and manufacturing communities grow, Jeanne Straw is retiring from Catalyst Connection on December 31 as senior vice president of administration. As second in command under President and CEO Petra Mitchell, Straw has been responsible for compliance, government grant reporting, tax, finance, human resources and operations. She will use her well-deserved leisure to spend more time with her five grandchildren…

Grant will be used to expand robotics and autonomous systems technology to small and medium employers in Southwestern Pennsylvania On September 2, President Biden announced the Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative as one winner of the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. Catalyst Connection will lead the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Robotics Expansion project. The SME Robotics Expansion Project will help SMEs adopt advanced manufacturing and digital…

The Certified Manufacturing Associate training program helps prepare dislocated workers, underemployed individuals, veterans, and more start a new career in manufacturing. The 25-class online training program from Tooling U-SME can be bundled with the nationally recognized Certified Manufacturing Associate credential. This training program prepares individuals for high-demand, entry-level careers including assemblers, manufacturing associates, and production operators. It can also be used by manufacturers as an effective onboarding program for…

Digital Transformation, like so many other terms in the Industry 4.0 buzz word bingo wheel, can easily get lost in translation and be dismissed as another “sounds neat, but not realistic for me” technology topic. The panel discussion held on March 24th at the Pittsburgh Technology Council offices at Nova Place, showed that it was anything but. The session was sold out with over sixty manufacturers and technology and…