Aviation and Robotics Summit: Creating What’s Next

Aviation, robotics and other technologies need each other to build a future of air travel that leads with innovation.

That was the conclusion of last week’s second annual Aviation & Robotics Summit, hosted by Pittsburgh International Airport and Future Travel Experience.

This year’s summit drew aviation professionals from dozens of countries from around the world to work with Pittsburgh’s tech and robotics experts to identify major challenges in the industry and work together to find solutions.

“It’s important to bring all of these global leaders in robotics and aviation, all of these innovators, to see firsthand the innovation in Pittsburgh,” said Matt Smith, chief growth officer at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. “Places like Carnegie Mellon University, (and companies) on robotics row, those global leaders in robotics and aviation to see actually what’s happening now in Pittsburgh, I think will be really eye-opening for a lot of the visitors.”

The summit attendees left the three-day event with a newfound understanding of Pittsburgh as an international hub for innovation – and a pledge of financial backing to take one of the conference workshop ideas to the next stage of development.

Pittsburgh’s Henry L. Hillman Foundation pledged $75,000 to the Allegheny County Airport Authority Charitable Foundation to explore the initial stages of commercialization of one of the ideas coming out of the conference workshops. In consultation with technologists, entrepreneurs, and members of the aviation industry, the airport will select one of the ideas developed in the workshops by a group of aviation attendees and local technologists, and begin the commercialization process, which could include building a prototype, validating the market opportunity, conducting additional customer discovery, and more, depending on the idea. The product would then be tested at PIT.

“I’d like to thank the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, with whom we have partnered with on several industry-leading projects over the years, for all they do for our community and especially in showing how Pittsburgh really is invested in innovation at all levels,” PIT CEO Christina Cassotis said. “This grant continues to set us apart and shows that our region is a global leader in aviation and robotics.”