• Projects reflect significant collaboration between universities and industry

• Three projects awarded to robotic companies, who will work jointly with digital technology companies

PITTSBURGH, PA – February 28, 2005 -- The Technology Collaborative (TTC), a statewide economic development organization that supports the growth of Pennsylvania’s world-class robotics, cyber-security and digital technologies industries, today announced its first round of funding under its new moniker and structure, with the recipients clearly illustrating the diverse range of technologies the organization will focus on as a merged entity.  In total, $1.5 Million will be allocated to nine projects at eight Pennsylvania companies and one university.

“This first round of funding by the newly formed Technology Collaborative reinforces our decision to merge the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and The Robotics Foundry as the companies represented span the robotics, SoC and various enabling technology industries,” said David Ruppersberger, Chief Executive Officer of The Technology collaborative.  “What is most significant about this round is that a greater number of companies have collaborated with their counterparts at the Universities to secure technology development awards.  We believe that this marriage of commercialization and cutting edge research will address the market demand for our target technologies.”

“The fact that three of the nine projects are agile robotics-related is an indicator of the importance that TTC member organizations and companies have immediately placed on this key sector,” commented Bill Thomasmeyer, Executive Vice-President of The Technology Collaborative.  “With these awards, we have successfully opened a new path for funding technology development and transition projects for commercial agile robotics companies to parallel the path that the National Center for Defense Robotics (NCDR) has established for funding defense-related agile robotics technology projects.”

The awards for this round of funding were granted to Accipiter Systems, Advanced Interfaces, Inc., IC Mechanics, Inc., Intrigue Technologies, Inc., Plextronics, Inc., Pennsylvania State University, re2, and SEEGRID, Inc.

The Technology Collaborative received 27 proposals for this round.

- Technology Collaborative