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Category: Technology

  • What we saw at the Western PA Mobility Showcase – a Transportation Nerd’s Dream

    What we saw at the Western PA Mobility Showcase – a Transportation Nerd’s Dream

    It’s probably not cool to nerd out about transportation, but boy howdy did we ever at the Western PA Mobility Showcase hosted by City of Pittsburgh Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI). The Showcase, held in Oakland at Pitt’s Alumni Hall, featured everything from autonomous vehicles to bike-shares to other futuristic stuff like a hyperloop proposal as well as a super sweet electric car.

    In a release announcing the event, the Director of DOMI, Karina Ricks, outlined the importance of the Showcase, saying “transportation is radically changing. New choices in travel and new technologies make it cleaner and more convenient than ever. New innovations make headlines every week – many of them originating from our own Southwestern Pennsylvania researchers and industries.” Director Ricks is right, transportation is rapidly evolving. Remember when you couldn’t use an app to just magically ping a nearby car to come pick you up? That was only a few years ago. Remember when you needed someone to actually drive the vehicle you were in? Yeah, that’s a thing of the past! Transportation now is higher-tech and in some ways beyond what we could have ever imagined, or at least that’s what we found at the Mobility Showcase.

    Transportation Nerds wander around event

    So what did we see?

    Autonomous Transportation

    Uber was at the event. If you don’t know Uber by now, then you don’t own a smartphone, probably don’t live in Pittsburgh, or are from the past.

    Also, showing off driver-less vehicles were Easymile, Navya, and Local Motes. The three companies all have box-shaped futurist transports similar to the ones found in the film Total Recall. Unrelated to anything in particular, both Easymile and Navya have promo videos with Muzak sounding techno music, and Local Motors went with the classic hard rock. Listen and watch their videos below.

    Easymile…

    And Nayva…

    Local Motors’ Ollie…

    Pittsburgh’s Bikeshare

    Walking is fine, we guess, but biking is way faster. The event presented a few two-wheeled options for getting around the Steel City.

    Healthy Ride rep explains the share in Bike Share

    Healthy Ride allows you to grab a bike from one of its many docking stations you have probably already seen around the City. Apparently, you can totally use your ConnectCard for free unlimited 15 minute rides. That’ll almost get you from East Liberty to the Strip District.

    Bucking the whole bike docking station concept were two other bike-share companies, LimeBike and Spin, that took up opposing corners at the event. Both LimeBike and Spin allow you to get on, ride, and just leave their bikes wherever. It’s similar to what you do with your clothes at the end of the day; you put em on, take em off, and throw them wherever when you get home. Both companies use GPS, self-locking, and apps, but have different looking bikes.

    Software and more

    Advanced software was used by pretty much everything at the Showcase, but some of the specialized technology on display at the event will change transportation operations and infrastructure going forward.

    If you’ve ever sat endlessly at a red light when there is no cross traffic, you will probably be interested in tech from Rapid Flow. The tech company, which spun out from Carnegie Mellon University, has developed a software called Surtrac that uses artificial intelligence to sense traffic conditions. They apparently are already working with the City of Pittsburgh, so hopefully, this flippin’ traffic here in town will soon be a thing of the past.

    The University of Pittsburgh showed off its new real-time transit screen, created by the appropriately named TransitScreen. It shows all transportation options in the area from buses to bike-share to Zipcar/Uber/Lyfts. It’s the thing we always needed, but for some reason we never had. You can see when your transport is going to actually arrive. Don’t believe us, go to Oakland and be amazed!

    Carnegie Mellon University’s Traffic21 also had a table. Traffic21 is a multi-disciplinary research institute where us transportation nerds can, according to its website, “design, test, deploy and evaluate information and communications technology-based solutions to address the problems facing the transportation system of the Pittsburgh region and the nation.”

    Are you an Uber or Lyft driver? Then you are going to want to download the free app Gridwise that is designed to help drivers optimize their time and increase earnings.

    Roadbotics demo map

    Until we have flying cars – thanks for lying to us Back to the Future 2 – we have to deal with roads. But, if you weren’t aware, roads need to be constantly repaired. Roadbotics will map and photo all those stupid potholes across a city or town. You can see how they marked a town outside Pittsburgh right now here. The rep at the event mentioned that it would be a yearly process beating out the current every three-year road review he says the city currently uses. (We were too excited from the event to fact check this.)

    A Vehicle for you & your friends

    Need a car to get out of the City? Why you’d want to leave the Burgh, we do not know, but  Zipcar is still available if you need it.

    Chariot uses a Ford Transit Wagon like a bus. It’s mass transit for company employees or it can charter you to some far-off destination, maybe a group wine trip you and your friends have been putting off.

    Tesla parked outside Pitt’s Alumni Hall

    Tesla parked one of their sexy vehicles outside of Alumni Hall. We want this, erh, we need this. At Tesla’s table, we signed up for a chance to win driving a Tesla for a week. But if someone wants to buy it for us, or if Tesla wants to just give it to us, we wouldn’t object.

    Also, pedaling all-electric vehicles were Proterra, which offers electric buses. Having a non-fossil fuel mass transit system would surely make us one of the most sustainable cities in the country (a green trait we’d love to rub in other city’s faces). Pittsburgh Port Authority actually purchased one of these ‘lectric Proterra buses, but other cities bought more than one :(. Oh, it also should be noted that Proterra is an American based company… U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.!

    Hyperloop from Chicago to Columbus to Pittsburgh?

    Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) had a table at the event. Why was an Ohio-based group at a Pittsburgh event? The MORPC are the ones who put together the hyperloop proposal that goes from Chicago to Columbus to Pittsburgh. A hyperloop is literally magic, using magnetic levitation to float a pod above a track which zips along at super-fast speeds. An image behind the MORPC table indicated that it would take 20+ minutes to get to Columbus with the hyperloop system. We need this now; there’s a freaking shuffleboard club opening in Chicago that we need to check out!

    All and all the Western PA Mobility Showcase was pretty awesome. We learned a lot, saw some cool stuff, and daydreamed about taking a hyperloop to Chicago, using one of the bike-shares to ride to DC in the summer, taking driver-less vehicles to hang with friends, and washing our shiny new Tesla. The event really showed that a futuristic Pittsburgh isn’t something far away, it’s happening right now.

  • Local Startup making Batteries Smart

    Local Startup making Batteries Smart

    Congratulations, you’ve made it to the 21st Century! We’ve got smartphones, smart cars, and smart mouths, but no smart batteries. Unlike our other tech, batteries lack any ability to think and they, as we have all experienced, die way too quickly. Solving this powerful problem is Watt-Learn, who just emerged from the Pittsburgh-based accelerator AlphaLab. Watt-Learn is using machine learning to give batteries the ability to think independently. So, when you need to manage power for things like getting the most out of your home’s solar + battery or have sufficient energy during a thunderstorm, batteries can make it happen without help.

    To find out more about this innovative tech, we interviewed Watt-Learn’s CEO, Matt Maroon, and CTO, Matineh Eybpoosh.

    Listen to the Interview

    Read The Full Interview

    (more…)

  • Construction Mapping w/ Drones – Identified Technologies Interview

    Construction Mapping w/ Drones – Identified Technologies Interview

    Pittsburgh is home to a plethora of tech leaders, from Google to Uber, to Duolingo. But, did you know that this City home to a company that maps construction sites with drones? Yeah, drones for construction!

    Nowadays, most people are familiar with drones as novelty toys and as something used by the U.S. military. But, few may know that drones are being used in other industries. For construction, Pittsburgh based Identified Technologies offers managed commercial drone solutions. To find out about how drones are being used in construction and to learn more about Identified Technologies, we interviewed their Founder and CEO, Dick Zhang. 

    Listen to the interview…

    Read the full interview…

    (more…)

  • WordCamp Pittsburgh: 1 Day Conference for Bloggers and Website Builders

    WordCamp Pittsburgh: 1 Day Conference for Bloggers and Website Builders

    Thinking about starting a blog? Want to build a website for your small business? Interested in learning more about how to maintain a website for your organization? Then your should plan to attend WordCamp Pittsburgh.

    WordPress is one of the top content management systems that is used to build websites and blogs. IheartPGH has been built on WordPress since day 1. I wanted to make sure to share the information about the upcoming WordCamp because I wish this event had been around when I first started blogging. Similar to PodCamp, WordCamp is a casual conference for WordPress users. (Pittsburgh has had an active Podcamp community for the past decade).

    The first WordCamp took place in San Francisco back in 2006 and has been expanding to local conference across the globe ever since. Pittsburgh has a fairly active WordPress MeetUp Group and the first WordCamp Pittsburgh was last year.

    WordCamp Pittsburgh 2017

    Wordcamp PittsburghThe 2017 WordCamp Pittsburgh Conference is next Saturday, September 9, 2017 at Pittsburgh Technical College in Oakdale. (Yes, I know Oakdale is a little bit far from Pittsburgh, but it is accessible from downtown by the 29 bus. It is not easy to find affordable locations for these types of events.)

    WordCamp Pittsburgh

    Saturday, September 9, 2017
    8:30am – 4:45pm
    Pittsburgh Technical College, 1111 McKee Road, Oakdale PA, 15071
    Tickets $20
    2017.pittsburgh.wordcamp.org

    One of the reasons that IheartPGH is built on WordPress is that WordPress is free and opensource. One of the great things about WordCamp is that it is almost free to attend. The ticket price is just $20 and that includes lunch, swag and a t-shirt.

    Beginning Bloggers to Master Builders

    The Wordcamp Pittsburgh schedule is available online here. If you are brand new to blogging or working with wordpress or if you are an experience WordPress user, there are sessions for every level of expertise. Several of the speakers will be coming from out of town including Nara Kasbergen, who is a full-stack developer for NPR and Ben Meredith who is the guy who made the Click to Tweet boxes. You can check out the entire list of WordCamp Pittsburgh speakers here.

    Follow WordCamp Pittsburgh Speakers on Twitter

    I was eager to hear what some of these folks had to say! You can follow the Twitter list of the WordCamp Pittsburgh speakers here.

     

     

  • Pittstarter: Play Games with LFG

    Pittstarter: Play Games with LFG

    Last week, I took a trip out to Brookline to sit down and get defeated at a variety of games at Looking for Group (LFG). The name and its abbreviation is a well known phrase in gaming communities- the online call of “does anyone want to play with me?”

    Looking For Group's storefront
    Looking For Group’s storefront on Brookline Boulevard

     

    LFG hopes that you want to do more than just play. LFG is positioning itself as an unusual hybrid: it’s a co-working space combined with a pay-to-play gaming space. John Lange, one of the founders, doesn’t think that combination is odd at all. It grows out of his own interests: he’s an IT professional and a passionate gamer. John talks about that passion and how it develops his friendships in a talk he gave earlier this year.

    “I think a lot of people don’t have the same community that I’ve built with my friends and family and I want to share that with everyone,” John says. That community focus shows even now, as the space is still finishing construction. They’ve already hosted a game jam, and while they’re doing work, they’ve invited the neighborhood to pop in and play some games and chat. While I was there for a few hours on a Tuesday afternoon, several neighborhood kids popped in for a few rounds of games. By combining work and play in the same space, LFG hopes that a playful, open and inviting community forms.

    John explains:

    I think gaming startups and even established gaming companies would be interested in our coworking space because it feels really awesome, when you’re getting burnt out on working, to come see everyone in the gaming side smiling and laughing together and have that instant reminder of why you’re working and sweating and bleeding to build a game.

    The storefront portion of the space is the gaming floor. The first thing you’ll notice is the large television facing the street as a lure for the passerby. PCs line the walls, with ergonomic chairs that steal their design cues from race cars. Console “pods” take up the center of the floor- dedicated televisions and gaming machines for each player. The storefront is open to the public in the late afternoons and evenings.

    John and Edd take a break from installing floors to school me at several games
    John and Edd take a break from installing floors to school me at several games

    Behind the gaming space, separated by thick doors and sound-insulating walls, is the co-working office. John guarantees that between keeping gaming to the later portions of the day, plus the insulation, it’s a perfect space for heads-down concentration. There’s a small kitchenette and a modern conference room, which covers all of the vital amenities- with one more.

    While the gaming storefront isn’t open to the public during core business hours, the members of the co-working space have unrestricted access to the building- including the games- 24 hours a day. I can’t imagine a better way of resolving conflicts in your team than settling your differences over a competitive round of a game like Speedrunners or Gang Beasts (two of the games John and his fellow founders were happy to beat me at while showing me the space).

    But you don’t have to be a member of the co-working team to start making games. Their gaming PCs provide all of the software that you’d need to make your own games, and they’re planning a series of technical events to teach the public how to do everything from write code to a “Build Your Own Console” event, where participants take a Raspberry Pi computer and turn it into a gaming console.

    I asked John what his vision of success was for Looking For Group, and he explained:

    I think a lot of people who are my age miss playing games together and a lot of the younger kids out never had the chance to really play games with their friends next to them. It’s too hard to bring your computer over to play Minecraft next to your best friend. It really doesn’t matter how good or bad the game is when your friends are next to you, playing with you.

    LFG has already secured their core equipment, and has enough funding to guarantee their operations for the near future. They’ve launched a Kickstarter, not to launch the space, but to secure even more equipment and make the space better. They’ve already cleared their modest goal of $2,000, and are shooting for stretch goals. You can check the space out yourself by visiting them at 924 Brookline Blvd, 15226. They’ve been doing a soft launch through September, and the gaming space goes officially live this Saturday, the 25th.