Pittsburgh, meet the winners of your 2022 Technical.ly Awards

From Big Tech upheaval to midterm elections, it has been an eventful year for all of us. Hopefully, we can give you a reprieve from all the intense news by reminding you of some of the amazing people, inventions and companies that call the Steel City home.

After a vigorous round of nominations and a round of public voting, today we announced the winner’s of our 2022 Technical.ly Awards live in our public Slack. If you couldn’t join us live, you were sorely missed; if you did, good to see ya. And of course, thank you to everyone who was kind enough to vote over this past few weeks! The City of Bridges would be nothing without you, and we hope that in some way the awards makes your week just a little brighter.

Without further ado, meet the winners of your 2022 Technical.ly Awards in Pittsburgh:

Invention of the Year — Duolingo Math

Designed for kids and adults suffering from mathphobia, this new app from the East Liberty-based Duolingo aims to turn honing your math skills into a tear-free video game.

Tech Community Leader of the Year — Pittsburgh Digital Equity Commission

As a City of Pittsburgh-led initiative the Pittsburgh Digital Equity Commission is not just one person, but instead a collection of entities including the likes of the Greater Pittsburgh Digital Inclusion Alliance, Computer Reach and University of Pittsburgh. All of the dozen or so partners are seeking to ensure that every Pittsburgher has access to the digital world.

CTO of the Year — Tim Mueller-Sim

Mueller-Sim, of Bloomfield Robotics, is cofounder and CTO for the company that creates AI tools that help farmers and scientists better understand plant growth. Recently the company has secured international partnerships and raised $4 million.

Tech Company of the Year — RoadRunner Recycling

From $90 million raised to an acquisition of smart metering technology company Compology, RoadRunner has spent the year expanding its mission to help businesses and governments recycle more and dispose of their waste in a sustainable manner.

Culture Builder of the Year — Kendra Ross

As head of social impact, this Pittsburgh native and self-described creative helps Duolingo, the homegrown edtech company, connect with the community through artistic and service-oriented activities, as well as founded internal employee organizations to support that work.

ICYMI, at the ceremony Ross said thanks for the votes!

That’s all we’ve got for now. What do you think of the winners? Did any of them surprise you? Any suggestions for next year’s nominees? As always, we want to hear from you: pittsburgh@technical.ly.

Join the Technical.ly Slack Atiya Irvin-Mitchell is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.