International Market Day Launches July 3 at Pittsburgh Public Market; Features Global Arts, Crafts, Food & Music

Arts, crafts and performances from around the world will be on display and on sale the first Sunday of every month from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting July 3, 2011 at the Pittsburgh Public Market as part of International Market Day, a community program of CEED, a non-profit organization, in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Public Market (PPM). Admission is free.

International Market Day will feature arts and crafts created by international vendors now living in the Pittsburgh region, in addition to live performances for the whole family, according to Rufus Idris, executive director of CEED, a community development group based in Highland Park.

“This opening event on the 4th of July holiday weekend will be a great way to celebrate the diversity of American culture,” Idris said. “We will feature vendors from Africa and Asia offering hand-made crafts, textiles, food, jewelry and original works of art. Many of these items are unique and not available anywhere else in the Pittsburgh region.”

International Market Day also will include performances by music and dance groups, and will vary from month to month, Idris said.

CEED creates opportunities for economic success and community growth in Southwestern Pennsylvania with small business startup support & housing solutions for immigrant, refugee and inner city populations. CEED’s participation in the International Market Day program is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

Several of the international participants are clients of CEED’s Skills to Wealth program, which addresses the challenges faced by start-up and existing underserved and disadvantaged entrepreneurs by providing pragmatic technical assistance to immigrant-owned, refugee-owned, minority-owned and veteran-owned microenterprises in the Pittsburgh region.

The international vendors will compliment existing PPM booths and vendors, many of whom represent a wide variety of countries and regional ethnicities, according to Cindy Cassell, spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Public Market.

“The International Market Day vendors will set up along the wall on one side, and the live performances will take place in the program area on the other side, so it will really tie everything together,” she said. “We think it will be a wonderful addition to the Market.”

The Pittsburgh Public Market was created in 2010 by Neighbors in the Strip to provide a year-round, indoor venue for local small businesses and farmers, promoting the growth of new businesses and featuring the best of what the region has to offer. It is located on Smallman Street in the Strip District between 16th and 17th street intersections.

Neighbors in the Strip (NITS) is a non-profit organization established in 1999 to promote economic development opportunities while preserving the personality, integrity and character of the Strip District of Pittsburgh. Members include businesses, residents, non-profits, and art/cultural organizations located and/or doing business in and around the Strip.

For information about CEED, go to www.usaceed.org. For information about the Pittsburgh Public Market, go to www.pittsburghpublicmarket.org. For information about Neighbors in the Strip, go to www.neighborsinthestrip.com.
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President Obama Launches Advanced Manufacturing Partnership at CMU, One of Six Universities Involved in Joint Effort by Industry, Government and Academia

President Barack Obama today launched a major manufacturing initiative from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

President Obama Signs the Sensabot
(CMU Photo)

The initiative — the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) — brings together major U.S. manufacturers and top U.S. universities, including CMU.

"It seems like every time I'm here I learn something," President Obama said in making his announcement. "For those of you thinking about Carnegie Mellon, it's a terrific place, and you guys are doing just great work."

The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership brings together industry, universities, and the federal government to invest in the emerging technologies that will create high quality manufacturing jobs and enhance our global competitiveness. Investing in technologies, such as information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, will support the creation of good jobs by helping U.S. manufacturers reduce costs, improve quality, and accelerate product development.

CLICK HERE for CMU website providing links, transcript and video of the President's speech.

Investments will be made in the following key areas: building domestic manufacturing capabilities in critical national security industries; reducing the time needed to make advanced materials used in manufacturing products; establishing U.S. leadership in next-generation robotics; increasing the energy efficiency of manufacturing processes; and developing new technologies that will dramatically reduce the time required to design, build, and test manufactured goods. Leading universities and companies will compliment these federal efforts helping to invent, deploy and scale these cutting-edge technologies.

“Today, I’m calling for all of us to come together- private sector industry, universities, and the government- to spark a renaissance in American manufacturing and help our manufacturers develop the cutting-edge tools they need to compete with anyone in the world,” said President Obama. “With these key investments, we can ensure that the United States remains a nation that ‘invents it here and manufactures it here’ and creates high-quality, good paying jobs for American workers.”

The AMP is being developed based on the recommendation of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which released a report [today] entitled “Ensuring Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing.” The PCAST report calls for a partnership between government, industry, and academia to identify the most pressing challenges and transformative opportunities to improve the technologies, processes and products across multiple manufacturing industries.

The AMP will be led by Andrew Liveris, Chairman, President, and CEO of Dow Chemical, and Susan Hockfield, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Working closely with the White House’s National Economic Council, Office of Science and Technology Policy and the PCAST, AMP will bring together a broad cross-section of major U.S. manufacturers and top U.S. engineering universities. The universities initially involved in the AMP will be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, and University of Michigan. The manufacturers initially involved in the AMP will be Allegheny Technologies, Caterpillar, Corning, Dow Chemical, Ford, Honeywell, Intel, Johnson and Johnson, Northrop Grumman, Procter and Gamble, and Stryker.

The U.S. Government has had a long history of partnership with companies and universities in developing and commercializing the new technologies that have been the foundation of our economic success – from the telephone, to the microwave, to the jet engine, to the internet. The AMP will provide the platform for similar breakthroughs in the next decade, by building a roadmap for advanced manufacturing technologies, speeding ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor, scaling-up first-of-a-kind technologies, and developing the infrastructure and shared facilities to allow small and mid-sized manufacturers to innovate and compete.

To launch the AMP, the President today announced a number of key steps being taken by the federal government:

- Building domestic manufacturing capabilities in critical national security industries: Starting this summer, the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, Agriculture, Commerce and other agencies will coordinate a government-wide effort to leverage their existing funds and future budgets, with an initial goal of $300 million, to co-invest with industry in innovative technologies that will jumpstart domestic manufacturing capability essential to our national security and promote the long-term economic viability of critical U.S. industries. Initial investments include small high-powered batteries, advanced composites, metal fabrication, bio-manufacturing, and alternative energy, among others.

- Reducing the time to develop and deploy advanced materials: The Materials Genome Initiative, would invest more than $100M in research, training and infrastructure to enable U.S. companies to discover, develop, manufacture, and deploy advanced materials at twice the speed than is possible today, at a fraction of the cost. In much the same way that advances in silicon technology helped create the modern information technology industry, advanced materials will fuel emerging multi-billion dollar industries aimed at addressing challenges in manufacturing, clean energy, and national security.

- Investing in next-generation robotics: The National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Agriculture are coming together to make available today $70 million to support research in next generation robots. These investments will help create the next generation of robots that will work closely with human operators – allowing new ability for factory workers, healthcare providers, soldiers, surgeons and astronauts to carry out key hard-to-do tasks.

- Developing innovative energy-efficient manufacturing processes: The Department of Energy will launch an effort to leverage their existing funds and future budgets, with initial goal of $120 million to develop innovative manufacturing processes and materials to enable companies to cut the costs of manufacturing, while using less energy.

Additional complementary steps as part of AMP will include:

- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency exploration of new approaches that have potential to dramatically reduce – by up to a factor of 5 – the time required to design, build, and test manufactured goods while enabling entrepreneurs to meet Defense Department needs.

- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, and University of Michigan commitment to form a multi-university collaborative framework for sharing of educational materials and best practices relating to advanced manufacturing and its linkage to innovation. The universities will also join together with industry partners and leading government agencies to define research opportunities and build a collaborative roadmap for identify key technology priorities.
Commerce Department development of an advanced manufacturing technology consortium, starting with $12 million in FY12, to identify public private partnerships to tackle common technological barriers to the development of new products.

- Proctor & Gamble announcement that it will make available advanced software at no cost to American small and mid-sized manufacturers through the recently launched Midwest Modeling and Simulation consortium. This is a highly valuable digital design tool usually unavailable to smaller firms.
Department of Energy launch of an initiative with the Ford Motor Company and the National Association of Manufacturers to make use of the Department’s National Training & Education Resource to educate and train a new generation of manufacturers.

- Defense Department investments, funded at $24 million in FY11, in domestic manufacturing technology that address urgent operational needs including improvements for transparent armor, stealth technology, and targeting systems. The Department is also developing an online marketplace to increase domestic manufacturing capacity in industries critical to our national security by connecting U.S. manufacturers with product needs at the Department and other federal agencies.http://bit.ly/iPXTl6
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GlobalPittsburgh Hosting Leaders from Kyrgyzstan Studying Accountable Governance in Pittsburgh & Harrisburg

Five members of Parliament from the Kyrgyz Republic participating in the Open World Program will spend six days in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg examining Accountable Governance, arriving June 24, 2011.

GlobalPittsburgh is hosting the delegation for the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress, which enables emerging Eurasian political and civic leaders to work with their U.S. counterparts and experience American-style democracy at the local level.

While in Pittsburgh, the delegates will meet with representatives of several elected officials, including U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, Gov. Tom Corbett, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, and Pa. Rep. Dan Frankel, as well as Evelyn R. Stypula, advocate for people with disabilities, and Professor John M. Burkoff, University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

While in Harrisburg, the delegates will meet with Pete Tartline, Executive Deputy Secretary of Budget, John Guyer, Director of Budget Analysis, and Nicholas Cammauf, Senior Case Worker, Office of U.S. Representative Joe Pitts.

“We are honored to host this distinguished group of leaders from the Kyrgyz Republic and to connect them with leaders here in Pennsylvania,” said Roger O. Cranville, President of GlobalPittsburgh. “This ongoing process of exchange and communication between our country and other countries leads to important future opportunities and greater understanding and cooperation between us all.”

Homestays with local GlobalPittsburgh host families will allow the delegates to experience American family life. They will also take part in several cultural and community activities, including a visit to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, a Bach, Beethoven & Brunch performance by the Freya String Quartet, and a tour of the State Capitol.

For more than 50 years, GlobalPittsburgh, formerly known as the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors, has forged relationships between the Greater Pittsburgh Region and the global community through citizen diplomacy – connecting people and institutions in the region with audiences around the world through a wide range of hosting, training, networking, educational and outreach programs and services.

GlobalPittsburgh engages international delegations, groups and individuals by creating itineraries and facilitating introductions through the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program and other international programming agencies in many fields, including energy and environment, life sciences and medicine, education, business and technology, clean/green design, advanced manufacturing, arts and culture, government and finance, social services and law, and other areas.

GlobalPittsburgh welcomes individuals and families to engage in citizen diplomacy as dinner and home stay hosts, tour guides, office and event volunteers, and greeters for visiting delegations and individuals.

The Open World Program is a unique, nonpartisan initiative of the U.S. Congress designed to build mutual understanding between the United States and Eurasia. Over 16,000 Open World participants have been hosted in all 50 U.S. states since the program’s inception in 1999. Delegates range from members of parliament to mayors, from innovative nonprofit directors to experienced journalists, and from political party activists to regional administrators.

The Open World Leadership Center has awarded a grant to AED, the Academy for Educational Development, to administer this and similar exchanges in 2011.

The visiting delegates are Mr. Almazbek Baatyrbekovich Baatyrbekov, member of Parliament and Deputy of the Republican Party; Mr. Dastan Dalabayevich Bekeshev, member of Parliament, Chair of the Committee on Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and NGOs, member of the Ar-Namys Party; Ms. Elmira Sansyzbayevna Imanaliyeva, member of Parliament and the Ata Jurt Party; Mr. Baktybek Orozaliyevich Kalmamatov, member of Parliament and Deputy of the Ata Meken Party; Mr. Daniyar Omurzakovich Terbishaliyev, member of Parliament, Chairman of the Voluntary Police Union and member of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan; Mr. Akhmadkhon Yusupkhanovich Yusupkhanov, consultant to a member of Parliament; and Mr. Kyialbek Toksonbaev, Press Secretary, Ministry of Labor, Employment and Migration of the Kyrgyz Republic.

For more information about GlobalPittsburgh, please contact Gail Shrott, Vice-President of Program Services, at 412-392-4513. For more information on GlobalPittsburgh, visit www.globalpittsburgh.org. For more information on Open World, visit www.openworld.gov.
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Pittsburgh Selected as U.S. Bid City for 2012 One Young World Summit - Premier Global Forum for Young International Leaders; Delegates Sought for 2011 Session

Pittsburgh has been selected by One Young World as the sole U.S. bid city to host the 2012 One Young World Summit. Launched in 2010, One Young World is the premier global forum for young leaders from around the world, and has been dubbed the "young Davos" by CNN.

This is an amazing opportunity for Pittsburgh. Show your support for this initiative and help bring the One Young World 2012 Summit to Pittsburgh.

To show your support, follow One Young World Pittsburgh on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links below. In addition, you can stay up-to-date on all the latest news, join in discussions, share ideas, and connect with other globally-minded people across the region.

One Young World’s Twitter followers are the first to receive the latest Summit and One Young World Pittsburgh Partnership updates. http://twitter.com/OYWPittsburgh

Like One Young World on Facebook to comment on our content, and have the latest material delivered immediately to your Facebook stream.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Young-World-Pittsburgh-Partnership/187908647927565

The One Young World Pittsburgh Partnership -- which is working to bring the 2012 Summit to Pittsburgh -- is seeking prospective delegates from Pittsburgh’s not-for-profit community to participate in the 2011 One Young World Summit in Zurich, Switzerland, from September 1 through 4, 2011. Candidates interested in applying must be between 21 and 28 years of age and should be affiliated with an area non-profit. For information on how to apply, go to www.worldpittsburgh.org/oyw.jsp.

The One Young World Pittsburgh Partnership is a consortium of local companies, non-profits, and community organizations which are working together to bring One Young World to Pittsburgh in 2012. The founding partners include the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, VisitPittsburgh, and the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. READ FULL ARTICLE

Growing Number of High-Skilled Immigrants Favor Pittsburgh and Other Emerging Rust Belt Cities Over Silicon Valley, Brookings Study Reports

A growing number of high-skilled immigrants have been moving to Pittsburgh and other old-line industrial cities in recent years -- shunning places like Silicon Valley -- bringing their entrepreneurial spirit and balancing out the "brain drain" of native-born residents leaving the region, according to a new analysis of census figures by the Brookings Institution.

"Perhaps most notable is the very high concentration of high-skilled immigrants in older industrial metro areas in the Midwest and Northeast such as Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Syracuse," Brookings said.

"Immigrants in these metropolitan areas tilt toward high-skill because they blend earlier arriving cohorts who have had time to complete higher education with newcomers entering who can fit into the labor market because of their high educational attainment," the report said.

CLICK HERE for the full Brookings report (PDF).

The lower cost of living in Pittsburgh and other emerging Rust Belt cities is a likely factor in the shift, according to the study's lead researcher.

"We don't think of these areas as high-tech hubs, but they have been really active in trying to recruit and encourage the welcoming of foreign workers into their industries to rejuvenate their economy," Brookings researcher Matthew Hall told the San Francisco Bay Citizen website.

"Pittsburgh is an easier place to afford to live the American dream and get your foot in the door," Hall said. "That might sound like a pretty good option to a lot of people."

Brookings named GlobalPittsburgh and similar organizations in other cities for leading efforts to promote these regions as good places for immigrants to live, work and study.

"Using strategies to internationalize those metro areas, such as marketing the regions as immigrant-friendly, retaining international university students, and boosting foreign direct investment, allow local areas to reach out to immigrants in an effort to grow their international communities, their economies and their resident populations," the report said.

The Pittsburgh Region boasts the most highly skilled immigrant population -- three times the national average -- out of 100 major metropolitan areas studied by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution in a report released last week.

High-skilled immigrants in Pittsburgh outnumber low-skilled immigrants by nearly 4-1, according to the Brookings study of U.S. census results. (A skill ratio of 100 indicates an equal number of high- and low-skilled immigrants.) The skill ratio for all immigrants living in the 100 largest metro areas is 101.6, Brookings said.

"Several of the most highly educated immigrant populations nationwide (e.g., Pittsburgh and St. Louis) are located in former gateways that have transitioned, at least partially, into concentrations such as science, health care, and education," the study said.

While cities like Pittsburgh have seen many of their native-born residents leave for job opportunities elsewhere, the number of skilled immigrants has grown to fill specialized job openings, the study said,

"It is widely recognized that many of these "old" destinations suffer from native out-migration—particularly among adults with high levels of education," Brookings said. "One factor attracting highly educated immigrants to former destinations may thus be a demand for the skilled labor they can provide.

The study quotes Demographer William Frey stating that "'immigration tends to compensate, to some degree, for the "brain drain"' in these metropolitan areas.'"

"Conversely, in areas with slower-growing immigrant populations, high-skilled immigrants tend to constitute a larger share of the newest cohort," the study says. "In Pittsburgh, the most extreme example, the immigrant population grew by 13 percent between 2000 and 2009, and 76.4 percent of these new arrivals were college-educated, while just 6.1 percent lacked a high school diploma."
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