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Carnegie Mellon Graduate Advocates for PITA
Article Posted On 10/23/2009
Paul Ohodnicki believes strongly in the success of the Pennsylvania Technology Alliance Project (PITA) program. Upon graduating from Carnegie Mellon with a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering (MSE) in 2008, he accepted a position as a R&D researcher at the Glass Business and Discovery Center of PPG Industries, in Cheswick, PA. Prior to this, Ohodnicki also had the opportunity during his graduate studies to work closely with Magnetics, a division of Spang & Company, a local Western Pennsylvania company.
"These industry interactions were largely made possible through funding provided by PITA for a collaborative research project." Ohodnicki states. In addition, he acknowledges, "the program played an important role in helping me to find permanent employment and stay in Pennsylvania through its linkage of employers and researchers at Pennsylvania universities."
Beyond benefitting from the PITA program, Ohodnicki was and continues to be an advocate of the program. As a student, he and a few of his colleagues formed a graduate student group called CrossLink within the MSE Department, using a small amount of PITA funding and resources.
"Our goal in forming CrossLink was to develop a mechanism to promote these interactions and to better educate students about the regional opportunities they are most interested in throughout their graduate school career," Ohodnicki explains. CrossLink promotes networking between Ph.D.'s from regional companies and graduate students throughout their graduate student career.
"Because post-graduate employment decisions are complicated for Ph.D. students by issues such as technical specialization area and career goals, providing them with information about regional opportunities and allowing them to interact regularly with regional Ph.D. professionals from their own technical field increases the chance that a good match will be realized."
Since the group's establishment in 2006, many PA-based companies and organizations have sent representatives to speak with students at CrossLink meetings, including Alcoa, PPG Industries, Bayer Materials Science, Seagate Research, Westinghouse, and the National Energy and Technology Laboratory. Upon graduation, a number of CrossLink Ph.D. students have accepted positions at PA-based companies, such as PPG Industries, Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, Allegheny Ludlum, and Latrobe Specialty Steel.
Since he began working at PPG Industries last year, Ohodnicki supports CrossLink now as an industry participant, helping to continue to make connections between students and local industry. "On a personal level, I have been the very fortunate recipient of a wealth of educational opportunities available in this region," Ohodnicki recounts. "I decided to work with other Ph.D. students to form CrossLink because I saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of my unique perspective to give back to my community in a relevant way."
Ohodnicki says of the PITA program, "it has resulted in an increased general awareness of the activities and existence of PA-based companies on campus through such interactions. My own personal experience has shown me that this is particularly important for Ph.D. students with a specialized and narrow skill set looking to identify a company that could benefit greatly from their particular area of expertise."
To date, the PITA program has enabled nine start-up companies affiliated with PITA-sponsored technologies, funding over 700 technology projects in partnership with more than 322 Pennsylvania companies, obtaining more than $2.20 of leveraged funding from federal and industry resources for every $1 of state funding. The program has mobilized more than 340 faculty members and 1000 students to work on Pennsylvania-specific technology, education and outreach projects.
