The 2009 Pittsburgh Technology 50 is a special group of companies to say the least. The innovation and success that is inherent to all 50 finalists goes a long way in explaining why the Pittsburgh region has persevered through the tough economic times that we have all endured over the last year. Additionally, the variety of the companies honored this year exemplifies our region’s diverse and growing technology industry. New to this year’s event is the Art + Technology category. Ranging from entertainment technology to product design to the contemporary arts, the Art + Technology finalists definitely add culture, creativity and loads of innovation to the Tech 50.

The 2009 Pittsburgh Technology 50 is a special group of companies to say the least. The innovation and success that is inherent to all 50 finalists goes a long way in explaining why the Pittsburgh region has persevered through the tough economic times that we have all endured over the last year. Additionally, the variety of the companies honored this year exemplifies our region’s diverse and growing technology industry. New to this year’s event is the Art + Technology category. Ranging from entertainment technology to product design to the contemporary arts, the Art + Technology finalists definitely add culture, creativity and loads of innovation to the Tech 50.

Advanced Manufacturing
Winner: Universal Electric Corporation

Ever since Universal Electric Corporation introduced its STARLINE Plug-In Raceway and Track Busway power distribution solutions in March 2008, the company has been a model for success and innovation. By providing a customizable solution to power distribution that eliminates downtime, Universal Electric’s products reach across a number of applications, including data centers, laboratories, industrial, retail and advanced manufacturing. The installation of a STARLINE system can be completed in a fraction of the time it takes to install traditional methods and it can be disassembled and reused at new locations with no additional installation or labor costs. Perhaps its most important feature, the STARLINE systems enable customers to monitor the amount of current used to help with energy savings and reliability.

Finalists

All Water Systems, Inc.

Classic Industries, Inc.

Converteam, Inc.

Data Science Automation, Inc.

Kurt J. Lesker Company

LaBarge, Inc.

Art + Technology
Winner: Bright Innovation
Bright Innovation integrates market understanding, qualitative customer research, industrial design and engineering into a cross-functional team that helps companies reach customers with products and services that meet their needs. The Bright team studies customers live in their natural habitat to gain insights that companies only find by being “customer anthropologists.” Bright Innovation takes those insights to help its clients build an understanding of exactly how their customers intend to use their product. As a testament to the product design consultancy’s strong work, numerous Bright Innovation clients won national and local awards in the last year. Focusing only on Tech 50, Bright Innovation helped eight 2008 finalists turn useful technologies into desirable products. Some examples include ClearCount Medical Solutions, Alcoa, Inc., Vocollect and Plextronics, Inc.

Finalists

Bally Design, Inc.

DeepLocal

Mattress Factory

Sim Ops Studios, Inc.

Green Technology
Winner: BPL Global
BPL Global is transforming the energy efficiency and reliability of electric utilities. The company provides smart grid solutions, an emerging segment of the clean tech sector of the utility industry. A smart grid is a combination of software, communications and intelligent devices being used to modify the way electricity is supplied and utilized, effectively changing the way the world distributes and consumes electricity. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission estimates that the global net electricity consumption of 16 trillion kilowatt hours will increase by 14 percent by 2016. Current smart grid technology could improve the efficiency of energy delivery by 5-10 percent, significantly reducing the need for new power plants and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions. The impact of current smart grid technology could reduce electric consumption by 1 trillion kilowatt-hours a year and enable the addition of 20 percent renewable generation per 3 trillion kilowatt-hours.

Finalists

Cardinal Resources

Eaton Corporation

Epiphany Solar Water Systems

Fossil Free Fuel

High Rise
Winner: ANSYS
ANSYS, Inc., is committed to driving the future of innovation by improving the way customers design and develop products. Whether developing performance modeling and engineering simulation technologies, working with customers to understand their processes and needs or delivering a successful solution implementation at a customer site, ANSYS brings nearly four decades of experience to every situation. Many customers are turning to ANSYS for Simulation Driven Product Development™ to drive innovative designs rather than traditional hardware prototyping and testing in order to capture market share in their respective industries. In this way, ANSYS is the energizing force behind many of today’s most innovative designs, from cell phones to automobiles to skyscrapers to industrial equipment to nuclear power plants. In 2008, ANSYS made headlines in a variety of ways, including its acquisition of Ansoft, a strategic move that extended the company’s foray into broader multiphysics; the company was added to the S&P MidCap 400, Russell 1000 Index, Cleantech Index and Oliver Wyman’s Shareholder Performance Index; and was named the largest engineering simulation software vendor in Europe.

Finalists

McKesson Automation, Inc. Vocollect, Inc.

Information Technology
Winner: Vivisimo

Last year, Vivisimo introduced two versions of its core product, the Velocity Search Platform: the first enables conceptual search, which allows users to broaden or narrow their search queries. The second version enables Velocity to be embedded into third-party solutions. These developments are two great examples of how Vivisimo is pushing enterprise search to new levels through innovation. Additionally, Vivisimo’s Velocity Platform was first to market with Web 2.0/social search functionality, including tagging, ranking, annotation and social bookmarking. These features strengthen enterprise search’s role as a strategic tool for information management, helping to increase collaboration and accelerate innovation as search delivers valuable insight into the collective intelligence of an organization. Businesses around the world use Vivisimo’s search technology to provide a holistic view of all of their enterprise content through a single search box. One customer, Modine Manufacturing, realized $3.6 million in organization productivity savings based on its new intranet and Velocity search capabilities.

Finalists

4C Technologies

Apangea Learning

BitArmor Systems, Inc.

Carnegie Speech Company

Confluence

KIT Solutions, LLC

Netronome Systems

Life Sciences
Winner: Net Health Systems
Net Health Systems’ WoundExpert® software platform provides integrated clinical, financial and business intelligence functionality for chronic wound management to more than 600 facilities and 11,000 healthcare professionals across the U.S. With the number of people suffering from chronic wounds rising daily, the need for clinically excellent and cost-effective wound care remains both a goal and a challenge for many hospitals. WoundExpert – a Software as a Service platform – offers hospitals and clinics a paradigm-shifting alternative. This model allows clients to avoid traditional start-up costs such as staffing, buying, installing, upgrading and maintaining the hardware, software and other necessities involved. Net Health Systems performs all of these services for their clients from a secure, HIPAA-compliant environment, including daily back-ups and load balancing, thus enabling clients to focus more on what really matters – their patients.

Finalists

Blue Belt Technologies, Inc.

ClearCount Medical Solutions

Cohera Medical, Inc.

invivodata, inc.

Starr Life Sciences Corporation

Wright Therapy Products

ZOLL Lifecor

Rising Star
Winner : Bossa Nova Robotics
2008 was an incredibly busy and successful year for Bossa Nova Robotics. The Carnegie Mellon University spinoff won all three phases of the EnterPrize Business Plan Competition, while also designing and completing two interactive toy robots. The company launched the robots in July at Carnegie Mellon and the products will be available at retail in time for the holiday season. Bossa Nova is capitalizing on the worldwide popularity of robotic toys, driven by the trend of children preferring more tech toys at increasingly younger ages. The company’s expertise in mobile robotics, efficient designs and intellectual property favorably positions it against competitor weaknesses in this segment and has enabled it to be first at introducing agile, dynamic, and lifelike robots at prices amenable to mass marketing. This tactical advantage in a market that is expected to exceed $1.5 billion by 2011 equates to huge growth in Bossa Nova Robotics’ immediate future.

Finalists

ATRP Solutions, Inc.

Cognition Therapeutics, Inc.

Foundation Radiology Group

ShowClix LLC

Sierra w/o Wires, Inc.

Synergy Staffing Inc.

Service Provider
Winner: Guru.com
Guru.com is the world’s largest online marketplace for freelance talent with more than 1 million registered members. In 2008, Guru.com instituted a proprietary Quality Score algorithm to promote service excellence, entrepreneurial growth and competition among Freelancers. Quality Score determines Freelancer Rank while validating quality. There are currently more than 160 professional skill categories on Guru.com, allowing employers to locate freelancers who specialize in areas as diverse as ASP.NET programming, environmental engineering, illustration and financial planning. The breadth and depth of the talent pool on Guru.com allows employers to consolidate their freelance searches onto one online platform, saving them time and streamlining the freelance hiring process. With interest in the online freelance model on the rise because of the current economic recession, the demand for a mature and stable platform is now greater than ever.

Finalists

COGENT Infotech Corporation

Ideal Integrations, Inc.

L. Robert Kimball & Associates

Newton Consulting, LLC

Precise, Inc.

SDLC Partners L.P.

CEO of the Year
Keith Schaefer, BPL Global
Between 2006 and 2008, Keith Schaefer assembled an incredibly talented team of people, partners and investors that delivered 1,450 percent revenue growth. Now, BPL Global (BPLG) is poised to transform the electric industry. Innovation and creativity have been critical pieces of Schaefer’s design for the success of BPLG. A consistent flow of high-quality ideas has propelled the company to a leadership position in smart grid technologies globally. BPLG’s Power SG® software platform is the marquee example of Schaefer’s dedication to innovation and his “big idea” behind the company’s success. An integrated, end-to-end smart grid solution designed with open architecture, Power SG enables easy integration with existing utility applications and competitive smart grid point solutions. By offering an integrated solution that allows multiple smart grid applications to function under one umbrella, Power SG separates BPLG from other competitors that are single solution companies.

Finalists

Jim Cashman III, ANSYS, Inc.

Brandon Chan, MD, Foundation Radiology Group

Ilana Diamond, SIMA Products Corporation

Sean McDonald, Precision Therapeutics, Inc.