Vote now: The 2026 Technical.ly Awards ballot is officially open in Pittsburgh

Cast your vote and make your voice heard. 

Each year, Technical.ly Awards call on the community to honor the people, programs and products driving Pittsburgh’s tech ecosystem forward. 

We’re looking to celebrate real impact, whether that means making people’s lives better, sparking economic growth or expanding local startups’ access to talent and capital.

We curated 2026’s list of nominees from reader nominations and our own reporting, and now it’s time for you to weigh in. Submit your vote in each category by Nov. 25. Winners will be announced in December.

Keep scrolling to check out the nominees and cast your vote.

Launch of the Year 

The new company, product, service or go-to-market approach in your ecosystem this year that had the most impact, either locally or globally.

• Humotech’s Mobile Clinic: Humotech launched a mobile van service to bring its technology to patients and prosthetic providers, improving access to life-altering healthcare.  
• Silly Surfacing’s pothole-filling robot: Silly Surfacing demoed its patent-pending, pothole-filling robot, designed to make work safer and faster for repair crews. 
• Hellbender’s edge AI cameras: Following its first traditional venture raise, Hellbender has expanded its team to bring its smart cameras to market, including its Stereo Camera, Vine Camera System and Tadpole Camera. 
• Skild AI’s robots in manufacturing facilities: Skild AI deployed its AI model on the robotic assembly lines that build Nvidia’s Blackwell GPU server systems in Houston, Texas, and it now plans to release a more advanced version of its AI model next year. 

Programming of the Year

The activation, program or event that made the most difference in the local innovation community this year.

• WITCON 2026: Despite the corporate reversal on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives impacting sponsorships, Pittsburgh’s chapter of getWITit hosted its fifth annual conference promoting equity for women and gender non-conforming people in tech. 
• BioBreakfast: This weekly meetup has been a long-time staple in the ecosystem, bringing together the life sciences community to break down silos and promote the free exchange of ideas. 
• Robotics Pathways Fellowship: This program from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) helps hopeful founders get their robotics-related business ideas off the ground through financial support, workshops, mentorship and more. 
• StartUP PGH: More than a dozen regional organizations teamed up to connect startups to capital, customers and talent through more than 25 events over a weeklong stretch.

Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year

The newcomer (someone who started their entrepreneurship journey in the past 2 years) who made the biggest splash this year, whether locally, regionally or globally.

• David Betts: Motivated by his own ALS diagnosis, Betts’s AI-powered text-to-speech app Talk To Me, Goose! and interactive storytelling platform Fable’s Adventures have evolved into StoryFlight Labs, where he works to build products for people who have lost their voice. 
• Priscilla Prem: Cofounder and CEO of Austere Energy (formerly Pittsburgh Coastal Energy), Prem is developing hardware that can harness sustainable energy from vibrations. 
• Ethan Crosby: A former research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh’s Surreality Lab, Crosby has cofounded SymphonyMR, a startup applying mixed-reality to the operating room. 
• Leslie Manson: Founder and CEO of Tottr, Manson is building a game-inspired platform to get users engaged with their community through under-the-radar, local experiences. 

Visionary of the Year

The person who changed the most minds, inspired the most conversation or spurred the most progress to your ecosystem this year.

• Jake Looserarian: Looserarian, cofounder and CEO of unicorn startup Gecko Robotics, has been one of the most vocal advocates for building tech companies in the city and has also called for the more equal distribution of economic gains from the AI boom. 
• Megan Kahn Shaw: President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Alliance (PLSA), Shaw is a strategic advocate for human health innovation and recently oversaw PLSA’s adoption of business-support org LifeX. 
• Deepak Jayaraj: Vice president of hardware engineering and manufacturing at Four Growers, Jayaraj is a thought leader in the agtech space and shares his knowledge through speaking events and published work. 
• Corey O’Connor: As Pittsburgh’s mayor, O’Connor has been an avid cheerleader for the tech and startup ecosystem, often found at events supporting local companies and advocacy organizations. 

Deal of the Year

The financial transaction that made the most difference to the local ecosystem this year.

• $3 billion donation to CMU: This historic donation from Citadel CEO Ken Griffin included $2 billion for a new CMU branch campus in Miami, Florida, and another $1 billion split between CMU’s School of Computer Science and the rest of its Pittsburgh operations.
• $25 million Trivedi Institute: Entrepreneur Ashok Trivedi provided the majority of funding for the University of Pittsburgh’s new Trivedi Institute for Space and Global Biomedicine to speed up medical discoveries through space research and turn them into startups.
• $300 million Astrobotic acquisition: Defense tech company Voyager Technologies acquired Northside-based Astrobotic for approximately $300 million. 
• Skild AI raises $1.4 billion: East Liberty-based AI robotics startup Skild AI raised $1.4 billion to further develop its general-purpose “robot brain,” boosting its valuation to over $14 billion. 

Discourse of the Year

The theme, topic, industry, group, people, company or organization that dominated discussion across the ecosystem this year.

• Data centers: The backlash against these projects in Pennsylvania and across the country prompted a political reversal from Gov. Josh Shapiro, while communities continued to fight against these developments. 
• AI regulation: After a host of high-profile, AI-driven cyberattacks from some of the top labs in the country, AI regulation was a major concern raised at the annual AI Horizons Summit. 
• Lack of local capital: A provocative LinkedIn post from a Pittsburgh founder brought to the forefront a long-existing conversation about the difficulties some startups face finding native capital sources. 
• Federal attacks on immigrants: The Trump administration’s ICE operations and scrutiny of work visas have created life-altering barriers for foreign-born entrepreneurs and technologists to be part of the Pittsburgh ecosystem.