Pittsburgh is a hardware mecca

For years, I’ve heard stories of a land of hardware milk and honey, but last week was the first time I made the pilgrimage. Pittsburgh, formerly the beating heart of the US steel industry, has become a juggernaut in robotics and automation thanks to Carnegie Mellon University’s world-class programs and industrious alumni who stick around despite the lure of coastal cities like San Francisco and Boston. With a population of around 300k people, more than 250 robotics and AI companies, and nearly 12k jobs in those industries alone, Pittsburgh has the highest per capita density of hardware companies and hardware jobs in the country. 

I was able to see much of that on display at the Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRG) Robotics & AI Discovery Day. This annual event brings together hundreds of exhibitors working on and in robotics and autonomous systems, as well as thousands of attendees. And when I say autonomous systems, I mean vision systems, manipulation, vehicle, you name it. There was not a chatbot or AI agent in sight. I was invited by Jenny Sharpe, the Director of Workforce Development of the PRG to speak on the first panel of the day about something near and dear to my heart: starting and building a career in hardware. 

The panel consisted of myself and Sean McGowan, Director of Employer Relations at Carnegie Mellon, with Jenny moderating. Sean’s the guy who builds talent pipelines for students between CMU and employers. Lately, Sean has been focused on rolling out micro internships: small contracts for college students and grads to get their toes wet in industry and for employers to assess their abilities before making full-time offers. I obviously love contract work, so it’s awesome to see this informal model creating career paths for early career folks.

The conversation was really fun and boiled down to one thing: It’s not how you test or what grades you get that’s important, but what you build and who you build with that matters the most. My best advice to someone interested in starting a career in hardware is to find opportunities to start building with others. Build a portfolio and a network. 

I spent the rest of the conference visiting booths, talking to attendees, and popping into the occasional workshop. Workforce development continued to be a key focus throughout the day and most of the companies in attendance were looking to hire fresh talent. Of the companies exhibiting, most were small businesses in either industrial automation, agriculture, or warehouse automation, with some big names like Aurora (the autonomous truck company) sprinkled in. I’ve never seen so many service providers offering bespoke perception and autonomy solutions outside of Promat or IMTS. Those conferences draw people from all over the world, but these were just companies in Pittsburgh! 

Outside of the conference, I didn’t get much time to explore Pittsburgh beyond downtown right next to the convention center. It’s a shame because if I had just kept walking north past my hotel, I would’ve been right in the middle of Robotics Row, a strip where many of Pittsburgh’s fastest growing robotics and AI companies are headquartered. 

We’ll have to make another trip in the not-too-distant future to see that next. I already have a handful of companies that want to host future Pittsburgh Hardware Meetups, which we’re working on reviving before the end of the year. More than any other chapter, Pittsburgh has a nearly endless supply of facilities to tour and to host meetups at. I’m looking forward to returning soon! 

If you’d like to learn more about Pittsburgh and the hardware scene there, listen to our Tradeoffs interview with Jenny Sharpe, the previously mentioned Director of Workforce Development for the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. We talk about building a career in hardware, the vibrancy of Pittsburgh’s community, and how robots are more likely to create jobs than take them away. 

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