The Monthly Beat - May '26 Edition
A recap of the most interesting Pittsburgh tech news from the past few weeks, upcoming local tech events, and extras for the days ahead.
Good morning and May the 4th be with you everybody! Hope you’ve been having a great start to the warm months despite how insanely cold it was this past weekend.
I covered the first half of April in my last post, so this is another shorter one, but let’s take a look at what went down in the back half of the month.
What Happened the Back Half of April
Astrobotic set what is believed to be a new record with a 300 second hot fire of a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) (pictured above). What is the difference between an RDRE and a conventional rocket engine? Well, “unlike conventional rocket engines, RDREs combust propellants using supersonic detonation waves that rotate around the engine’s ring-shaped outer body.” If you want to see it in action, the company shared a video of the test on YouTube straight from the NASA facility where it happened down in Alabama. It looks so freaking cool.
Technical.ly broke a story about a local startup founder using an undisclosed LinkedIn alias to conceal his criminal past. Founder Michael Riley appears to have been using LinkedIn under the name “Michael Reilly,” which could be a violation of Megan’s Law since Riley was on supervised release after pleading guilty to the charge of possessing child sexual abuse material. Between this and the four felony charges against Govini founder Eric Gillespie for child sex crimes late last year, the reality of criminals lurking among our local tech leaders is deeply concerning to say the least. But I am thankful for the journalists at Technical.ly who reported on this most recent case and the law enforcement response in both cases. Let’s hope this is the end of it.
Local universities Pitt and CMU are teaming up with Penn, Penn State, Drexel, Lehigh, and Temple Universities for a statewide AI initiative dubbed “Keystone AI + Quantum Factory.” There were a lot of statements from a lot of different people about this one, but essentially the idea is that the universities will share infrastructure to host AI and quantum computing, empowering not only their students and employees, but also startups and businesses across the state through strategic partnerships. The initiative’s corresponding website looks like it was slapped together by an AI, with several visual issues on both mobile and desktop, but I’ll be keeping tabs on it for any substantive progress towards these lofty goals.
The NFL Draft-adjacent Forge to Field AI Pitch Competition, featuring billionaire Mark Cuban, resulted in $1.8 million in funding designated for Pittsburgh startups. The competition was supposed to center on sports technologies, but it looks like there were a lot of folks that just spun their already-existing startup to sound sports-y (fair play, in my opinion, with Cuban in attendance). The two startups that seemed to be actual sports technology, though, were ServeSense, a startup building a sensor that fits inside the handles of tennis racquets, and Sensi Fit, a startup building sensors to easily generate data from athletic training drills. Both seem like great ideas, but my stickler self can’t help but notice that neither website has a favicon. Yinz better fix that if you expect more funding; it’s not hard!
And now for a couple quick hits. Niche announced a partnership with consulting group Huron to combine Niche’s real-time student intent data with Huron’s enrollment and tuition revenue forecasting. Seems like a good fit.
Aurora is expanding their partnership with Hirschbach Motor Lines to add 500 more driverless trucks to their arsenal. Hirschbach’s CEO is quoted saying, “The Aurora Driver will handle the lengthier, less desirable routes, providing our drivers with greater flexibility. It’s a win-win.”
And finally, a meta-note: the Post-Gazette’s new owners, the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, have laid off 40-50% of the paper’s staff. My blog stands on the shoulders of so many great local journalists, and while it is encouraging to know the paper will still be around, fewer staff means less coverage of local issues, which negatively impacts everyone. My heart goes out to those who have lost their jobs.
For the Days Ahead
Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here.
May 14th, ProductTank Pittsburgh is doing a meetup about vibecoding. If you haven’t vibecoded anything yet, you need to get there. It’s super fun. Register here.
And in case you didn’t get enough Product-type action there, Product Camp Pittsburgh 2026 is Saturday, May 16th at La Roche. I have never been, but I’ve heard great things! Sign up here.
Robotics and AI Discovery Day is back this year on September 16th at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center! I had an amazing time at last year’s event and plan to attend again this year. Sign up to attend or exhibit here.
Do YOU have an event or product launch you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up!
Keep an eye out for a bonus post this coming weekend, but for now, have a wonderful start to your week!
—Austin