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Uber, Carnegie Mellon Announce Strategic Partnership and Creation of Advanced Technologies Center

  • 01/30/15

PITTSBURGH, PA — Uber and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) recently announced a strategic partnership that includes the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, near the CMU campus. The center will focus on the development of key long-term technologies that advance Uber's mission of bringing safe, reliable transportation to everyone, everywhere.

The partnership will provide a forum for Uber technology leaders to work closely with CMU faculty, staff and students — both on campus and at its National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) — to do research and development, primarily in the areas of mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology.

“We are excited to join the community of Pittsburgh and partner with the experts at CMU, whose breadth and depth of technical expertise, particularly in robotics, are unmatched,” says Jeff Holden, chief product officer of Uber. “As a global leader in urban transportation, we have the unique opportunity to invest in leading-edge technologies to enable the safe and efficient movement of people and things at giant scale. This collaboration and the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center represent an important investment in building for the long term of Uber.”

The agreement also will include funding from Uber for faculty chairs and graduate fellowships, recognizing and supporting Carnegie Mellon's world-renowned faculty and its efforts to attract the best and brightest graduate students.

“Uber is a rapidly growing company known for its innovative technology that is radically improving access to transportation for millions of global citizens,” says Andrew Moore, dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. “CMU is renowned for innovations that transform lives. We look forward to partnering with Uber as they build out the Advanced Technologies Center and to working together on real-world applications, which offer very interesting new challenges at the intersections of technology, mobility and human interactions.”

The center will aid in local job creation and further the well-deserved reputation of Pittsburgh for its growing innovation sector. Uber and CMU will hold an event in Pittsburgh to formally kick off the partnership in the coming weeks.

“I am pleased to welcome Uber to the growing list of leading technology companies that are coming to Pittsburgh to help invent the future,” says Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto. “This is yet another case where collaboration between the city and its universities is creating opportunities for job growth and community development.”

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