Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto Fulfills Pledge to Bolster City's Global Ties by Meeting International Delegations

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto today welcomed two international delegations to the city today as part of his continuing effort to strengthen Pittsburgh’s international ties. In the morning, he met with a delegation of journalists from Pittsburgh’s first sister city, Wuhan, China. Later in the day, Peduto also met with a European delegation to discuss the role of public-private partnerships coordinated by GlobalPittsburgh.

“Of course there are economic benefits to having strong relationships with our global partners and sister cities, but the benefits of cultural exchange cannot be overstated either,” Peduto said. “Whenever Pittsburgh has the opportunity to strengthen our international bonds, we should do it for the good of the city and of the country.”

The first visit involved two journalists from Wuhan. They were Yangtze Daily Senior Journalist Yu Xi and Wuhan TV Station Chief Journalist Zhang Jun. The visit was facilitated by the University of Pittsburgh. During the meeting they interviewed Mayor Peduto, former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, film director and producer Rick Sebak of WQED and PBS, and renowned interdisciplinary artist Vanessa German.

Xi is writing a book that will promote Wuhan’s 20 sister cities of which Pittsburgh has the distinction of being the first and only in the United States.

In the afternoon, leaders representing nine European countries heard from Mayor Peduto about the role of public-private partnerships in restructuring economies as part of a project of the U.S. State Department in conjunction with GlobalPittsburgh.

The European dignitaries are:
- Dhimitraq Marko, Executive Director, Fier Regional Development Agency, Albania
- Alexander Biach, Managing Director, Austrian Business Association, Austria
- Michel Martone, Professor of Industrial Relations and Labor Law, Italian National School of Government, Italy
- Veland Ramadani, Assistant Professor of Business and Economics, South East European University, Macedonia
- Daniel Chilea, Director of Industry and Energy, Romanian Competition Council, Romania
- Angel Prieto Sotos, Castilla-La Mancha Region Managing Director, Institute for Foreign Trade Development, Spain
- Jessica Rosencrantz, Member of Parliament, Sweden
- Dr. Ilhan Karakoyun, Secretary General, Karacadag Development Agency, Turkey
- Peter Reekie, Director of Finance, Scottish Futures Trust, United Kingdom

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GlobalPittsburgh Welcomes New Additions to Board of Directors, Plans for "Big Year Ahead."

GlobalPittsburgh has welcomed a new group of members of its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

“We are excited about the wide range of skills, experience and energy these new members bring to the GlobalPittsburgh Board,” said Chair Michael J. Malloy. “We have a big year planned for this organization, and we feel that we have assembled a strong team to continue and expand upon the good work that has been done by current and former board members.”

The new members of the Board of Directors are, in alphabetical order:

Fred Brown
Associate Director of Program Development
Kingsley Association

Susanne Cook
Director, Cohen & Grigsby
Board Member, Western Pennsylvania District Export Council
Board Member, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Center for International Legal Education

Francois Gau
Vice President, Strategic Marketing & New Business Development
Kennametal

John Hindman
Senior International and Public Affairs Advisor
Leidos

Rachel Mauer
President, The Mauer Group
Senior Advisor, Business Beyond Borders

Max Miller
Executive Vice President  & COO, Urban Innovation21
Chair of Board, Kingsley Association
Principal, 42 Rock Street LLC

Andrew Place
Corporate Director, Public Policy Research
EQT Corp.

Brent Rondon
Manager, Global Business
Center for Green Industries and Sustainable Business Growth
Small Business Development Center
Duquesne University

Kenneth Service
Vice Chancellor for Communications
The University of Pittsburgh










The new board members join current members:

Michael J. Malloy, Chair
Founder and CEO
Business Beyond Borders

Kevin Douglass, Vice Chair
Shareholder
Babst, Calland, Clements & Zomnir, PC

Stephen H. Heilman, CPA, Treasurer
Partner
BKD LLP

Guillermo M.A. Campaña
Manager, International Sales
Axiall Corp.

Jean-Pierre Collet
President
Consular Association of Pittsburgh

George M. Lies
Director of Grants & Strategic Planning
Office of International Programs
West Virginia University

James W. Marczak
Chief Information Officer
Tube City IMS, LLC

For information about GlobalPittsburgh, contact Thomas Buell, Jr., Director of Marketing, at 412-392-4513, by email at tbuell@globalpittsburgh.org, or go to www.globalpittsburgh.org.

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Carnegie Mellon University Announces $10 Million Partnership with Yahoo! To Develop Mobile Technologies

Carnegie Mellon University and Yahoo! have announced a five-year, $10 million partnership highlighted by an industry-first mobile toolkit that will enable CMU researchers to easily experiment with Yahoo's real-time data services, letting them test new ways that machine learning and interface technologies can improve personalized user experiences.

"We're thrilled to be partnering with the exceptional faculty and students at Carnegie Mellon, which has established itself as a premier institution for machine learning and user interface technologies," said Ron Brachman, chief scientist and head of Yahoo Labs. "By creating a way for Carnegie Mellon University researchers to work directly with Yahoo software and infrastructure, we hope to speed up the pace of mobile and personalization research and create a better user experience."

The mobile toolkit serves as the infrastructure for a living laboratory for researchers to explore new approaches to understanding human behavior by using machine learning algorithms to more accurately predict user needs and intentions. It is also expected to enable the development of new personalization techniques and interfaces to provide a more compelling user experience. Members of the CMU community who opt-in to use the experimental mobile software will provide researchers access to real user data and the opportunity to rapidly iterate on the technologies.

The partnership, named Project InMind, also includes a new Yahoo-sponsored fellowship program at CMU. The program will provide financial and research support to computer science students and faculty members. Yahoo Fellows will have the opportunity to pursue research in disciplines such as machine learning, mobile technologies, human-computer interaction, personalization, novel interaction techniques, and natural language processing, with annual financial support from Yahoo and mentorship from world-class computer scientists at Yahoo Labs and CMU.

"The InMind program provides unique new opportunities for the outstanding faculty and students at CMU to partner with Yahoo and its talented scientists and engineers to potentially further the frontiers of mobile applications and technologies," said CMU President Subra Suresh. "This partnership is a clear demonstration, in the tradition of CMU, of how scholarly scientific research combined with industry relevance and perspectives could advance technologies that have a global social impact."

"This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for our students and faculty to work directly with a team of leading-edge researchers from Yahoo Labs on technologies that could benefit hundreds of millions of mobile users," said Randal E. Bryant, University Professor and dean of the School of Computer Science. "The overall commitment in this new partnership is a testament to our shared desire to advance the science of machine learning, user interfaces, and mobile technologies."

The InMind Project will be directed at CMU by Tom Mitchell, Fredkin University Professor of Computer Science and Machine Learning and head of the Machine Learning Department, and by Justine Cassell, the Charles M. Geschke Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

Since its establishment in 2005, Yahoo Labs has served as the Company's incubator for bold experimentation, applying its scientific findings to create personalized, delightful experiences for Yahoo's users and enhance value for its advertisers. Yahoo Labs continues to innovate across numerous research areas including machine learning, personalization, mobile, advertising science, image processing, natural language processing, and more.

The Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, now celebrating the 25th anniversary of its transformation from a department to a school, is consistently ranked as one of the world's top computer science schools. Its programs reflect a broad view of computer science, encompassing such disciplines as robotics, language technologies, machine learning, human-computer interaction and computational biology, while preparing students to use computation to transform society.

About Yahoo
Yahoo is focused on making the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. Yahoo is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and has offices located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC) and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). 

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A Tribute to Mr. Iwao Koshimae - Recalling Long-Term Connections with an International Visitor Who Became a Friend

By Gail Shrott
Director, International Leaders Program
GlobalPittsburgh

For well over 20 years, I have been exchanging holiday cards with Mr. Iwao Koshimae and his wife, Mie. This year, instead of a card with a photo or humorous caricature of the Koshimaes, I received a letter from their son, Mr. Ryuya Koshimae, informing his father’s friends that his father had passed away in late May 2013.

Gail Shrott during a 1989 dinner with
Iwae Koshimae of Japan (right)
and Dennis Unkovic of Pittsburgh.

When I began working for the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors (now GlobalPittsburgh) in April of 1989, I was told that in October, we would be hosting Mr. Koshimae and a group of Japanese executives from the Kansai Productivity Center in Osaka.

Anticipation mounted throughout the summer as we waited to receive a list of participants from Mr. Koshimae and a note expressing how much he and the group were looking forward to their trip. On the group’s first day in Pittsburgh, Mr. Koshimae would enjoy a golf game with PCIV’s  Board Chair, Attorney Dennis Unkovic.

On that first night that the group arrived in Pittsburgh, Mr. Koshimae would host PCIV staff members and Dennis Unkovic and our spouses for an elegant dinner in what had been Christopher’s Restaurant atop Mt. Washington. Mr. Koshimae would present his Pittsburgh friends with memorable gifts at that dinner, and we, in turn, would present Mr. Koshimae with a "Pittsburgh" gift of sports memorabilia and a trophy for the golf game earlier that day.

One of the Christmas cards sent
by Mr. Koshimae to Gail Shrott
every year.

Mr. Koshimae’s enthusiasm for his trip was infectious and he always seemed to be genuinely delighted to be with his friends in Pittsburgh. On the second day in Pittsburgh, PCIV organized a daylong business seminar for the Kansai Productivity Center delegation, which would include experts in the field of Japanese-American business relations like Dennis Unkovic, and faculty from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, among others.

A highlight of the program for the participants was an evening of home hospitality with PCIV host families. PCIV’s Executive Director, Marion Hook, as the senior member of our staff, would host Mr. Koshimae for dinner at her home.

Following this highly successful model, Mr. Koshimae brought groups to Pittsburgh for over 20 years, ending in the mid 1990s. Mr. Koshimae and his groups were missed long after the exchange ended following his retirement. I discovered that a number of our hosts and former staff members continued to exchange holiday cards, as I had done, for decades.

I expect that we all have warm memories of Mr. Koshimae’s smile and his sincere joy at being back in our city, year after year. I feel so very fortunate to have been able to call Mr. Koshimae a friend.

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GlobalPittsburgh's Gail Shrott and Nadya Kessler Tell Pittsburgh Story at Parent Organization National Meeting in Washington, D.C., Jan. 29-Feb. 1

GlobalPittsburgh's Gail Shrott and Nadya Kessler recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to tell the Pittsburgh story at the national meeting of Global Ties U.S., the national citizen diplomacy organization of which GlobalPittsburgh is a charter member.

Shrott, who is GlobalPittsburgh's Director of International Programs, conducted a workshop on "Training and Engaging Your Volunteers'' (see photo at left), upon whom GlobalPittsburgh and our 90-plus sister organizations around the country accomplish our mission of connecting our respective regions with the world.

Global Ties U.S., formerly the National Council for International Visitors (NCIV), and its member organizations have served as private sector partners to the U.S. Department of State's prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). World leaders, ranging from former British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown to Mexico's last president Felipe Calderón, developed close ties to the United States through their experience as IVLP participants.

During the meeting, which ran from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, Shrott and Kessler, who is GlobalPittsburgh's Assistant Director of Operations and CONNECT program, met with program officers who choose where to send visiting IVLP delegations from around the world. In the past year, GlobalPittsburgh design and implemented 34 programs for 262 international leaders, including 26 itineraries designed for 171 distinguished leaders through the IVLP program.

They also attended events at foreign Embassies and interacted with members of the U.S. Congress to emphasize the value of international exchange programs carried out by Global Ties U.S. member organizations.

With an impressive alumni roster of more than 350 current and former heads of state worldwide, the IVLP and members of the Global Ties network have played a role in shaping U.S. international relations for decades. GlobalPittsburgh changed its public identity from the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors in 2009.

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GlobalPittsburgh's Gail Shrott Commended by Library of Congress Open World Program for Program Coordination

Gail Shrott, Director of the International Leaders Program at GlobalPittsburgh, has been commended for her work coordinating visiting delegations through the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Gail Shrott

"Pittsburgh ranks among Open World's most-visited U.S. host cities, and one of the reasons is Gail Shrott, who has hosted for Open World since its inception in 1999," Open World writes in its latest newsletter.

Open World also points out Gail's recent recognition for her international work by the Women & Girls Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, which included her among a select group of women honored for having a global impact in the region.

"Reflecting on her association with Open World, Shrott says 'I do have the unique perspective of having worked with the Open World program from its beginning. I am very impressed with the development of the program and the high quality of the participants recruited for it,'" the article says.

"And she says that Open World exchanges have benefited her region on several different levels. 'Professionals in the Pittsburgh region have met professionals from other cultures with whom they have developed ongoing linkages; hosts have maintained friendships with Open World participants; and members of our community have expanded their understanding of other cultures through their informal interactions with Open World participants.'"

Read the full article at http://www.openworld.gov/newsletters/december-20-2013-vol-5-issue-6.


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GlobalPittsburgh Welcoming 140 Fulbright Scholars in March, Seeking Hosts for Small Dinner Groups

GlobalPittsburgh will be arranging activities and programs for a group of 140 visiting Fulbright Scholars from more than 70 countries in March, and is currently seeking hosts in the Pittsburgh area to welcome small groups of the students into their homes for dinner the night of March 21.

Such enrichment activities are part of the program coordinated by the Institute of International Education for the Fulbright Scholars, who are currently attending graduate programs at institutions around the United States. This marks the first time that an IIE/Fulbright enrichment seminar will take place in Pittsburgh.

Hosts will welcome up to four people in their homes for the Fulbright dinners. Anyone interested in becoming a GlobalPittsburgh host should contact Gail Shrott, director of GlobalPittsburgh's international leaders program, at 412-392-4513 or at gshrott@globalpittsburgh.org.

"In past years, Fulbrighters attending Enrichment Seminars in other cities in the U.S. have consistently ranked the hosted evening as one of their favorite and most important experiences in the United States," Shrott said. "We expect that we will be sending many visitors to areas of the city/county (north, east, south) by bus where hosts may meet them in central meeting locations."

Those living in downtown and former Fulbright Scholars are strongly urged to become hosts, Shrott said.

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