NWIRC Competitors

There’s a reason Penn State consistently ranks among the top one percent of the world’s universities. Across 24 campuses, our nearly 88,000 students and 17,000 faculty and staff know the real measure of success goes beyond the classroom—it’s the positive impact made on communities across the world. From access to state-of-the-art resources to interdisciplinary pursuits in collaborative atmospheres, a Penn State degree is more than an education. The experiences and knowledge gained here will form the foundation for the lives our students build. Their contributions to the world begin with a Penn State degree. We Are Penn State.

We are the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. For more than a century, NIST has helped to keep U.S. technology at the leading edge. Our measurements support the smallest of technologies to the largest and most complex of human-made creations. NIST's mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life. See what innovative work we’re doing to support it: https://www.nist.gov/

Innovation Works (IW) is the Pittsburgh region’s most active investor in and supporter of early-stage companies developing hardware, software and life sciences technologies. Though focused exclusively on helping startups in the southwest PA region, IW’s level of investment activity makes it one of the most active investors in the U.S. Innovation Works is part of the statewide Ben Franklin Technology Partners, a network of four centers developed to help diversify PA’s economy and retain the state’s high caliber innovations that are invented and incubated here. The Ben Franklin Technology Partners are partially funded by the Commonwealth of PA and overseen by the Department of Community and Economic Development. Founder of AlphaLab (http://alphalab.org)--one of the nation's top startup accelerators-- AlphaLab Gear (http://alphalabgear.org)--its hardware program -- AlphaLab Health (https://alphalabhealth.org/) -- its life sciences program and -- Robotics Factory (https://roboticsfactory.org/) -- its robotics program.