Welcome to our weekly roundup of Pittsburgh technology news by noted local tech writer David Radin. Got tech news? Email us. And check back every Thursday for more.
CMU to establish Center for Technology and Society
If you ever wonder how your constant cell phone habit will affect you and your family in your future, you’ll be happy to know that Carnegie Mellon University is curious, too. On Monday, the university announced it will create the Block Center for Technology and Society. The initial $15 million gift to create the center comes from Keith Block and Suzanne Kelley, a married couple who respectively are COO of Salesforce and VP of Oracle.
CMU also announces Neuroscience Institute
On Tuesday, Carnegie Mellon announced a new institute to study the brain, headed by Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, who had previously run the CRESCENT Institute (Center for Research in Sensory Communication and Emerging Neural Technology) at Boston University. The Neuroscience Institute will bring together several existing programs focused on brain research from various parts of the university. “Understanding the human brain and its relation to behavior is one of the most important and complicated problems of our time,” said Richard Scheines, dean of CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, which along with CMU’s Mellon College of Science, will jointly run the program.
Coding Bootcamp to start in Pittsburgh
Cleveland-based Tech Elevator, Tuesday, announced it will be starting its coding and career prep bootcamps in May on the North Side. The company plans the bootcamps to be 14-week full-time programs, initially teaching the Java programming language. To open its new Pittsburgh campus, Tech Elevator has hired Justin Driscoll, long-time vice president at The Pittsburgh Technology Council as its Pittsburgh campus director. The Java offering will be followed by subsequent programs for other programming languages. Pricing for the programs will be in line with typical college semester tuition plans and Tech Elevator will work with incoming students to obtain help with tuition financing.
GeekWire wraps up its month in Pittsburgh with event at K&L Gates
After a month of relocating its editorial team to Pittsburgh from Seattle in honor of the HQ2 search by Amazon, GeekWire said farewell in an event on Wednesday at K&L Gates Downtown, featuring a panel that included Mayor Bill Peduto. The six GeekWire reporters filed 80 stories and visited 25 neighborhoods while in the Steel City.
T-Mobile making Pittsburgh wait for 5G rollout — just like Amazon is doing with HQ2 news
On Tuesday, T-Mobile announced that it will roll out its 5G mobile Internet service to 30 cities during 2018. But it only announced the first four to get the service — New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Las Vegas, but sadly not Pittsburgh. They’ve said an announcement is coming on the remaining 25 cities. Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint had previously announced their initial cities: Dallas was the only place to make all four lists. Pittsburgh wasn’t included in any of the initial groups.
Upcoming Business, Career & Networking Events
Music Business 101 Workshop: Hosted by Melinda Colaizzi, founder/CEO of Women Who Rock
Sat., March 3, 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. at Alloy26
CIO Insights: Featured presenter Dan Sheehan, chief IS officer at Dick’s Sporting Goods
Wed., March 7, 7:15 – 9:15 a.m. at The Rivers Club
The Pittsburgh ADDY Awards:
Fri., Mar 9, cocktails at 5:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. at the August Wilson Center