Carnegie Mellon University

Courtney Linder will moderate.

January 25, 2019

Roboburgh: A Conversation with Pittsburgh Technology Leaders

Join us for a panel discussion of Technology in Pittsburgh. Courtney Linder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will moderate these panelists:

    • Emily Duff Bartel at Uber is a CMU graduate and part of the company's safety team. In addition to its’ ride sharing business, Uber is working to bring the future closer with self-driving technology and urban air transport, helping people order food quickly and affordably, removing barriers to healthcare, creating new freight-booking solutions, and helping companies provide a seamless employee travel experience.
    • Ryan O’Shea is an entrepreneur and futurist speaker from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is founder of Future Grind, a podcast and media company explores the ethics and implications of emerging science and technology. In 2017, Ryan co-founded the artificial intelligence startup Behaivior, which uses pattern recognition algorithms and automated just-in-time intervention to solve the problem of addiction. Behaivior was recently named a Top 10 team in the third and final round of the $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, and has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and others.

    • John Thornton is the CEO of Astrobotic. Astrobotics, a private space company, is now contracting payloads for Mission One to trans-lunar injection, lunar orbit, and surface at Lacus Mortis.
    • Myra Awodey is senior community manager at Duolingo. Duolingo helps millions of people worldwide learn a new language through technology in a fun, game-like way. They recognize that everyone learns in different ways. They analyze how millions of people learn at once to create the most effective educational system possible and tailor it to each student. In honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day (October 8, 2018), Duolingo released two new courses for endangered languages.
    • Allen Bancroft is director of hardware engineering for RE2 Robotics, a startup that creates robotic arms for various uses ranging from small, lightweight arms to large, workhorse arms. RE2 also has contract engineering teams ready to help make existing robotic systems more capable, interoperable, intuitive, and affordable to increase their usefulness and marketability.

Courtney Linder Biography

Courtney Linder is a business reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette where she covers technology and innovation and also produces a twice-weekly newsletter called Tech.pgh. Prior to joining the Post-Gazette, she interned at a number of local publications, including Pittsburgh Magazine, Pittsburgh City Paper and PublicSource. She also cut her teeth in an English newsroom when she interned at The Independent in London, just months before the well-known publication ceased print production. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied English and economics. Linder also volunteers with a local group called Girls Write Pittsburgh, where she organizes journalism workshops for teenage girls who reside in the city. She currently resides in the South Side with her black cat, but is constantly planning European excursions to broaden her horizons. Next up: Ireland and Scotland. To get in contact, email her at clinder@post-gazette.com or follow her on Twitter @LinderPG.