Perhaps they're working to help recruiting. It might be easier to attract top talent in a different area (for example, if they situated in Pittsburgh as another commenter mentioned, they could more easily recruit CMU grads/professors).
It also can't hurt their business to reduce their dependency on a single state/local government's policies.
I meant it largely in the local ability for intern programs, partnerships with the various internal school "labs", etc. You also have a better chance at attracting institutional talent as they can switch without moving or upsetting their life. Look at the huge exodus of staff from CMU to Uber, etc.
I don't think companies locate to collect graduates from nearby universities, they locate to collect on positive externalities from aglomeration. How many times has PG statetd that being around other hardworking, innovative people is important? That's the agglomeration externality you want to cash in on.
Naturally, this leaves a catch-22 for would-be hotspots for any industry.
Seems like a good move. It sends a signal that it's ok for faculty to work in industry. Probably a net benefit to the school, but perhaps may have some unintended consequences of faculty leaving too.
Doesn't CMU also have a campus or program in Silicon Valley?
With a potential $100b investment, it's not about what they have now, it's about what will be in 20 years.
Ohio is a great place for this kind of corporate gentrification. As a CMU grad, I know there was a collective desire to get students to stick around, but there was better lifestyle, more money, etc.. leaving after school and a fairly large number of us weren't from the area to begin with. Something like this can be a game changer for the region, plus, there will be dozens of additional companies that set up camp and start up there for support.
If it really works and the region supports it and leans in, all of the schools anywhere near by will step up their engineering programs.
It's more substantial. Each state university school is earmarked for specific areas, and candidate companies are selected based on fit with each schools mission.
The idea is to build more integrated links with the universities. It's intended to help drive benefits similar to the successful model used by the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering to partner with the semiconductor industry.
Note that this is really designed to benefit NY outside of NYC.
But CMU has been producing world class CS grads for decades now, and some % do stay to start their own ventures, and yet Pittsburgh is not (yet) in the same league as even the "Next Silicon Valley" list cities. (Seattle, LA, etc)
I graduated from CMU (SCS) 15 years ago. The school is so far ahead of nearly every other CS school in the world in regard to machine learning/AI, it's laughable to think it will ever be dethroned. They have ties with DARPA and other government agencies that have deep pockets. They've also successfully courted every major tech corporation in the country. I have to applaud their board of trustees/president/provost. They know what they're doing.
The article paints a rosy picture of Pittsburgh, but I remember these types of articles appearing back in 2000. The state of Pennsylvania even had a campaign (commercials, marketing, etc) to try to convince college graduates to stay in the state. It didn't work. Most of the talent will eventually leave. All but 2 of my 30 or so friends from graduate/undergrad left after they finished their degree.
In my last semester I was dying to leave because the weather is absolute shit for half the year. CMU was really the only thing there that was worthwhile to me.
I grew up in Michigan and I love seeing how the ecosystem has grown.
Talent retention is a major problem for the state. The brain drain really stems from the University of Michigan. I don’t think there’s a public state university in America that sends so many of its graduates out of the state after graduation. The data is a little sparse, but the career center estimates it’s something like 66% of all graduates leave post-graduation. In Computer Science, it’s like 75% (and I think that’s low).
The fact is, those graduates are the ones that attract jobs and startups. We talk about how egalitarian tech is. But, the fact is that companies want to hire graduates from premier colleges first and then settle for others later (at least for new grads).
Michigan’s economy is so automotive dependent because companies without a Michigan presence can’t hire UMich grads in state en masse. Nobody wants to create a new office out-of-state to hire new graduates from other schools.
I’m speculating that we tend to hear more about startups from top-tier college graduates because those graduates have a bigger cushion thanks to their degrees. A UMich/Harvard/MIT graduate can very easily fall back on their degree to get a regular job if their startup fails. (Yes, I realize there’s a socioeconomic component here as well)
That's absolutely false. To take one example, ModCloth came out of CMU. Way back in the past, Lycos came out of CMU (a multi-billion $ exit back in the old days). More recently, something like Anki is a bunch of CMU engineers; GroupMe's co-founder was a CMU grad.
Also, Google has a big hub there, Uber just opened a robotics research facility,
Steel is a legacy of Pittsurgh's past, not its current. You're free to complain about Pittsburgh, but some data would be nice.
In the meantime that team just got a huge budget increase to continue their research.
CMU is a great university. I image there are 2-3 PhD students at the top 50 school who will be looking to work there. CMU might even be able to lure away a couple other professors from the top 25 who'd love the chance to rebuild the program.
Hot take: none of these are headquarters. These are just big sattelite campuses that every company has. I will also predict that hiring in these offices will be far lower than projected, especially engineering hires
They're based in expensive cities because it's where a lot of people want to live. Also they're relatively close to a lot of top colleges(Cal, Stanford, Columbia) , which makes it easy to recruit, and form partnerships with academic research groups
I think this article chose CMU because for Computer Science and technical startups, it's well understood in the valley that CMU is a top 4 school (and for many, a top 2 school) for producing software engineers, which tend to underpin a lot of tech startups.
Totally agree if you move outside of software companies that this makes sense. Anecdotally, I'll say CMU tends to produce individuals who are technically overweight but perhaps lacking in business sense. This is both because of school culture and the broader Pittsburgh community.
Are these in the Detroit area? That's great for the region. Michigan has great schools and a lot of talent, but the lack of top software jobs causes a brain drain.
Who knows, in a few years small groups of these engineers may be founding their own startups.
Ahhh - interesting. If he can convince the top U of M grads to stay in Detroit rather than heading for the costs, he may be able to pull something off.
Are there many success stories of Silicon Valley companies leaving the Valley?
It also can't hurt their business to reduce their dependency on a single state/local government's policies.
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