Pittsburgh weekly roundup: PA’s tick tracker; Advice for pitching AI; Swan NeuroTech wins $20k

Track tick bites with PA’s new dashboard

It’s that time of year when the weather warms up, people spend more time outside — and the number of tick bites swells.

Thanks to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s new tick dashboard, residents can jump into outdoor activities armed with resources to help navigate the seasonal spike of these bloodsucking arachnids. Because, as it turns out, city residents are just as exposed to the pests as their rural counterparts.

➡️ Learn more about how the state developed the platform in Bridgett’s story

Advice for pitching AI to investors

Artificial intelligence may be trending, but that’s only increased confusion on what’s just a buzzword versus what companies are actually able to accomplish.

So, investors would rather give money to a company that can explain how AI aligns with its values, elaborate on business plans to use the tech and keep up to date with regulations, they said.

➡️ Read Sarah’s analysis from a recent AI and investing panel

News Incubator: What else to know

• CODE PA, the state government’s digital effort, won the Government Changemaker Award at the Code for America Summit. Despite the program’s nascency, it’s already developed an online tool to help residents appeal denied healthcare claims, among other projects. [Code for America/Technical.ly]

• Local medtech Swan NeuroTech won a $20,000 grant at Startup302. The company aims to treat nerve damage, and came in first place in the competition’s life sciences category. [Delaware Prosperity Partnership/Technical.ly]

• The West Virginia University Health System is partnering with Imagine Pharma for human clinical services. The Oakland-based biotech is developing therapies and treatments for patients with a diseased pancreas. [Imagine Pharma/Technical.ly]

• Workforce training platform the Nebula Academy visited Pittsburgh this week. Founder and CEO Laurie Carey is driving an RV across the country to teach local communities about how to break into jobs in tech. RVs must be the hot transit mode of the season, as Gov. Josh Shapiro is also doing an RV tour of the state to spur summer tourism. [Nebula Academy]

• Celebrate Pride Month by supporting local LGBTQ+ small businesses or hitting up an event — including the Out in Tech happy hour with Gecko Robotics. [City Paper/OIT]

• Read like a high-level exec this summer. Local business leaders put together a list of their favorite books, ranging from biographies like “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson to fun beach reads like “The Mystery Guest” by Nita Prose. [Pittsburgh Business Times]

• Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh discovered a large cache of lithium in wastewater from the Marcellus Shale gas wells. Up to 40% of the element used in the US could come from that source alone. Lithium is commonly used in battery production and other manufacturing efforts. [CBS News]

• West View Borough will get $1 million in federal funding to revitalize its business district along Perry Highway, US Rep. Chris Deluzio announced at a news conference. He even brought a comically large check to make the deal official. [Pittsburgh Union Progress]

🗓️ On the Calendar

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