CMU and Bombardier Join Forces to Launch New $2.2 Million Smart Infrastructure Incubator in Pittsburgh

Carnegie Mellon University and transportation giant Bombardier will open a new multidisciplinary $2.2 million research center this fall to explore joint research in a variety of critical technology areas to enable more efficient and sustainable civil infrastructure and transit operations.

Montreal-based Bombardier is one of the primary founding partners of the new Pennsylvania Smart Infrastructure Incubator (PSII), and will be joined by other partners from a variety of industries in the near future. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also is providing a significant economic development grant through the Redevelopment Assistant Capital Program (RACP) to help establish the incubator.

"Tomorrow's infrastructure will blend traditional concrete-and-steel physical infrastructure systems with cyber-infrastructure systems such as computers, networks and sensors in ways that are just emerging," said Matthew Sanfilippo, executive director of the PSII.

"Pennsylvania has a wealth of companies, universities and institutions that are inventing many of these emerging technologies that will build or re-build the world's infrastructure. We intend to bring these organizations together to leverage and highlight this new resource to help make Pennsylvania a visible leader in these critical emerging technologies."

A key component of the PSII will be the new Bombardier Collaborative Center that will be housed at the university's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) where it will bring together international industry, economic development organizations, government and academic players in smart infrastructure to make western Pennsylvania a major hub for this infrastructure revolution.

"The development of Smart Infrastructure is an example of how, today, application domains cut across disciplinary boundaries. At Carnegie Mellon University, we have always embraced this approach to advancing technology and we look forward to working with our partners to put Pennsylvania at the forefront of Smart Infrastructure research, development and education," said Ed Schlesinger, head of ECE.

The PSII also will include a soon-to-be-announced corporate sponsored smarter infrastructure analytics laboratory in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as projects and resources in several other research departments and locations.

"Creation of the Bombardier Collaboration Center at Carnegie Mellon will enable joint research in fields such as smart guidance systems, rail control solutions, sensing robotics and so much more," said Romuald Ponte, vice president of engineering at Bombardier's Systems Division and the Centre of Competence. "We will also work with the university to explore creation of a master's level degree program in transportation systems," said Ponte, who pointed out that the new collaboration will enable Bombardier's global workforce to feed real-time information to researchers about operating conditions and performance dynamics from various parts of the world.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for both industry and the state as we move forward to highlight this region as a hotbed for advanced infrastructure technology and the jobs these technologies will create," said State Senator Jay Costa, (D-43rd District) a primary sponsor of the RACP grant.

"A world-leading manufacturer of innovative transportation solutions from commercial aircraft and business jets to rail transportation systems and equipment, this new collaboration with Carnegie Mellon also will help us to provide a path for students to enter the rail industry with skill sets and collaborative experience geared toward the future," Ponte said.

The world's trillion-dollar network of rails, roads, bridges, water distribution systems and power networks have varying amounts of automated management and monitoring, but the new Carnegie Mellon/Bombardier collaboration will improve these critical emerging technologies and train a new generation of employees to design and operate them.