- [Presenter] Live from your public media studios, WVIA presents Keystone Edition Business, a public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in Northeastern and central Pennsylvania.

This is Keystone Edition Business.

And now moderator, Steve Stumbris.

- Hi, I'm Steve Stumbris.

Smartphones were a thing of the future less than 20 years ago.

Now they're everywhere.

Self-driving cars, all kinds of robots, drones and artificial intelligence used to be the stuff of sci-fi novels and movies, but they're becoming more and more accessible every day.

And some of that development is happening right here in Northeastern and central Pennsylvania.

WVIA news reporter, Sarah Scinto, examines some tech developments in our area.

- [Sarah] Coal was once king in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but now the mines are closed and there's a new industry on the rise.

Our region is emerging as a tech hub.

Tech companies and startups are leading the way in this economic revolution.

Microsoft recently selected the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry as a continuing fellow in its TechSpark program.

This is the second year the Chamber has been involved in the program that focuses on tech entrepreneurship and building ecosystems.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania work to foster innovation and access to state-of-the-art facilities and industry leaders to growing tech businesses.

American Paper Bag, Gilson Snow and Noble Biomaterials are just some of the members of the Ben Franklin portfolio.

As tech continues to gain momentum, Northeastern Pennsylvania is proving it can evolve with the times, becoming a key player in the digital economy.

For more information, head to wvia.org.

For Keystone Edition Business, I'm Sara Scinto, WVIA News.

- I'd like to introduce our panelists here to share their perspectives.

Michael McHale joins us as the CEO of Production Systems Automation in Duryea.

Shanie Mohamed is the Director of Economic Development at the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce.

And Ken Okrepkie is the regional manager of Pocono Northeast of Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

If you have questions, please ask at keystone@wvia.org.

Now, Michael, Shanie, Ken, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

I'm looking forward to this conversation.

As we've shared a little bit along the way here, I'm a science fiction nerd, so this stuff really excites me and I can't wait to learn more about your work and about the work that's happening in technology in Northeast Pennsylvania.

- Thanks for having us.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Ken, I wanted to start off with you.

- Sure.

- I'm familiar with Ben Franklin Technology Partners, but I'm sure not all of our viewers are.

Tell us a little bit about what you see across this technology development landscape of Northeast Pennsylvania and how you work to support companies growing in that space.

- Yeah, I think what I loved in the intro there is, is there's a tech hub that's taking place here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, an investment in innovation, and that's the core of Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

We were founded in 1983.

We're funded through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, and we do three things.

We invest in early stage technology companies.

We're an early stage seed fund that can invest up to $900,000 in a tech company over a period of years.

And we act a lot like a venture capital firm, but the reality is we care more about the job creation that takes place.

So investing in ideas that create jobs.

The second thing we do is we support innovative projects through manufacturing companies, so innovation around product development and process improvement.

And then the third thing we do is support the entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Whether it's the business incubators that are here, there are seven in the footprint, and there are 14 all across our entire 21 counties.

And to be able to support that ecosystem, provide entrepreneurs with the resources they need to take their dreams to turn them into reality, you know, that's what we're doing.

- Are there any hot spots throughout that region or particular regions that are known for a type of technology, like across Ben Franklin's portfolio or places that you're looking at?

- Yeah, I think from Ben Franklin's portfolio, we're industry agnostic.

So whether we're talking about investing in artificial intelligence or Software as a Service companies or manufacturing, I think the diversified economy that's here in Northeastern Pennsylvania is important.

So whether we're in one of the incubators in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Honesdale, Carbondale, or Hazleton, you have an opportunity to build a company in any variety of space.

- I hope it's eye-opening for people to learn that each and every one of those communities, cities, towns, has technology at the heart of so many companies that are growing there.

It's really impressive.

Shanie, I wanted to ask you specifically about the community where you work and a program that you're involved in, TechSpark.

Tell us what that is about and how that came about as an opportunity for you.

- Yeah, and it is truly a very exciting opportunity because it's a chance to showcase our region compared to other places in Pennsylvania.

I think when a lot of folks outside of Pennsylvania think of Pennsylvania, they're thinking of these bigger cities, perhaps Pittsburgh or maybe Philadelphia, but Northeastern Pennsylvania is not usually on the radar for them.

And hearing what Ken just mentioned, there is so much activity that happens here.

There's so much opportunity for growth here.

And so TechSpark is an opportunity that kind of fell into our lap and we went towards it full force.

Essentially, Microsoft started this pilot program called TechSpark with the states that they have facilities in as a way to inject resources into local communities and see if they could really impact economic growth in each of those facilities.

They tested it out in maybe eight states, and then they decided we wanna expand to all 50 states, and they really opened it up for organizations that are interested in making an impact in digital literacy, in computer science, in AI, and digital transformation in general, for organizations across each of those states, sort of throw their hat in the ring.

Do you want to be the fellow that's representing your state and injecting these Microsoft resources and opportunities into your local communities?

And we threw our hat in the ring for it and we were selected as the TechSpark Pennsylvania fellow organization.

So we do have access to really great resources now on a national and global scale.

And the opportunity to bring those to our community at a local level is not just something we're really excited about, but really, really proud to represent our state on that kind of level.

- And this is unique in Pennsylvania.

Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce is the leader in this.

- Yeah, we're very proud to be.

- So kudos to you.

- Thank you.

- What do you hope comes out of that?

You know, it's a year long program or some project period.

What do you think is that initial success that you hope to achieve and then further down the road, few years, what do you hope it turns into?

- Absolutely, yeah, so this is actually the second year that we've been involved as a fellow.

The first year was a really great year for us to understand what resources exist when it comes to digital literacy, when it comes to digital skilling for workforce development.

Microsoft did a great job of sharing all that's out there.

We use that opportunity as a way to really build up our entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The arm of the chamber that I oversee is, it's called Connect.

It is essentially convening that entrepreneurial ecosystem so that entrepreneurs have access to all of these resource providers.

Since we have now built out that ecosystem, this year we're very excited to launch our very first inaugural cohort of TechCelerator at Luzerne County, utilizing the Microsoft opportunity, which is a great partnership among a lot of those ecosystem partners to fuel tech-based entrepreneurship.

Almost like a 10 week bootcamp style series that gives them access to all the resources that they need to do well and then launch successful tech startups.

- TechCelerator is an evocative for technology acceleration.

Ben Franklin is involved in programs like this, Ken?

- Yeah, it was a program that was facilitated in the central part of the state, and we brought the model to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I think what's important, and Shanie just highlighted it, is it's a collaborative effort with Techbridge, with the chamber, with the SBDC and Ben Franklin all working together to provide a customer discovery experience for tech entrepreneurs, connecting them with a mentor.

So got a 10 week curriculum, but then a mentor so that they can manage the process collectively.

Not only with the cohort itself, but then a mentor helping to guide them through that customer discovery process.

So in the central part of the state, it's really run through Ben Franklin, but here we worked as a community.

This is the first cohort in the Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley.

We've had around three cohorts with the Scranton area, the Scranton Chamber of Commerce, 23 companies have come through, and two, Ben Franklin has already funded.

So the idea is to help these entrepreneurs take an idea, completely turn it into a company, in a company in the Carbondale Technology Transfer Center, in the incubator there.

Sensify, which is like, think of a light bright that's six to eight foot wide, where maybe a young person who has autism is working through a sensory perception.

Creates essentially, a sensory wall that has medical applications.

That company is not only, was in the program, but then they incubated and now Ben Franklin's made an investment in that company.

As well as I Need A Speaker, which is a technology company that's located in, a Software as a Service company located in the Scranton Enterprise Center.

So we're looking for that same success with this program.

It truly is a community developing and supporting the ecosystem to help these entrepreneurs take their ideas and turn them into full fledged companies that will create jobs, good quality jobs here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

- And I know from the people that we've talked to here on Keystone Edition Business, entrepreneurs, there's no one mould.

These are experienced business professionals, maybe branching out in a new direction, as well as students from local universities and colleges who are bringing amazing ideas to reality.

Do you have experience at that range of levels, Shanie?

- Oh, we see entrepreneurs of every walk of life come into our facilities.

And you know what?

That college student that you're talking about, they sometimes have the best ideas and the most passion for pursuing them.

We have great folks that have started flagship locations within our downtown region just because they started at a local downtown college, and that's how they got introduced to the ecosystem.

And I think really seeing that, it's that range of demographics in entrepreneurship, that's where you get the really creative ideas.

That's where you get the perspectives that need to be put out on the table to solve some of the issues that our region's really facing.

From an economic development perspective, their thoughts and their ideas and their innovation is what's gonna drive those solutions forward.

- Yeah, Sensify is a great example.

He's a student at Lackawanna College, was in the business plan competition at Techbridge, won the business plan competition, participated in the TechCelerator program.

Now he's in an incubator and he's been funded by Ben Franklin.

So that's an example of the entire continuum from a student who was passionate about an idea, they had an aha moment, and then carried it all the way forward to a company.

And he's expanding.

He's expanding into a second building to make sure that he can meet the capacity for the demand of his product right now.

So it's exciting.

We catch them very early on, and then we try to get the right resources wrapped around them so that they can carry it forward.

- Steps all along that pathway throughout this ecosystem of entrepreneurship and technology, economic development in Pennsylvania.

Yes.

- Well, truthfully, Steve, I think that's a trend that's being experienced, not just in Pennsylvania.

I think if you're thinking about it generationally, the up and coming generation, we know that they're thinking more entrepreneurially.

We know that that's a pathway that they're more interested in pursuing, be it for a number of reasons.

They wanna create their own lives, they want to create their own solutions, be their own boss, or just have a way that they want to improve the world.

We're seeing those trends out of this new demographic.

So I actually think that that energy and that participation from that demographic, you're gonna see it spike in years to come.

- Yeah, that's exciting.

And gives us great optimism for the future of the economy of Pennsylvania and the country.

Now, Michael, I wanna bring you into the conversation.

We've talked a lot early stage, we've talked about startup, production systems, automation.

Tell us a, give us a brief introduction there, and we'll see a video very soon that gives kind of an inside look at some of the things happening.

But tell us about PSA and some of the technology that is inside those walls.

- Yeah, thanks, Steve.

Yeah, at PSA we're a robotic and automation integrator.

So what we do is we, for our customers, our customers will come with automation needs or robotic needs to help in their manufacturing process.

So now we have three locations in Pennsylvania, and our headquarters is in Duryea.

We have a, just shy of 100 employees and 60 engineers and 40 craft between welders and CNC operators.

So we're an advanced manufacturer.

So we service Fortune 100, Fortune 500 companies all the way through the Department of Defense.

We have a drone program.

And the video is gonna show a lot of the different activities that PSA is involved in.

- Well, let's take a look.

WVIA's NEPA @ Work web series highlights some of the high tech businesses here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, such as PSA North.

Here's a preview of what's going on there.

(logo whooshes) (upbeat music) (metal grinding) - At Production Systems Automation, we do advanced engineering, advanced manufacturing for our clients and for our own use.

When we build a machine for a customer, we'll put the whole machine together, do all the engineering, do all the programming, we'll bring the customer in, make sure it's meeting their expectation, and then we pack it up, we ship it to our facility, and then we put it back together and then restart the system.

But really the core of our business is still engineering.

Honestly, our engineering could range from anything from mechanical to electrical, to software to electronics, to even product materials.

So when an engineer comes here they have an opportunity to kind of find their path.

- One of the areas we're really heavily focusing on is vision guided robots, where you're using a camera system for deciding where the robot picks or places.

- So this is a robot for a customer.

This particular customer is in the distribution business.

And this robot picks up heavy bags.

You order something on the internet and it's a 50 pound bag, this robot will pick it up, put that bag into a box, and then put a shipping label on it and send it out to the FedEx truck.

This is a ghost kitchen.

We call it a ghost kitchen, but there's actually no cooking done.

These are frozen meals that would be, you order from your phone, you pick your salmon and rice, the robot will pick it up, index it, out of the freezer.

It's a robotic kitchen, and then we can put those anywhere we want.

And then this will end up in a bag, in front of house.

So the only thing the customer will see is one person front of house.

Puts it in a bag and then puts it into a pickup locker.

- It's truly amazing when you get to see some of the things that come out of this building and to think that it's right here in Duryea, Pennsylvania.

- So we're bringing that work here to the area, delivering technology to national brands all over the U.S. - You know, we're exploring a lot of different technologies for that.

Some of them AI driven.

- Yeah, we're always on the cutting edge of technology.

In the next five to 10 years, there'll be remarkable changes.

There's been remarkable changes in the last 36 months.

You know, if we can make products cheaper and faster, that should help with inflation issues.

From our welders to the machine shop, to our fabricators, to the guys that put all these systems together.

That's what makes us different.

And then the engineers put all that expertise into it.

(inspirational music) (logo whooshes) - If you'd like to check out more of NEPA @ Work, head to our website, wvia.org/nepaatwork.

So Michael, in that video, we got a look behind the scenes at PSA.

There's technology that's really interesting going on there.

But, you know, the premise of this is just a few years ago, some of those things were not in the workplace, were just in labs, were just in, well, even earlier, in science fiction.

Over the course of the last 10, 20 years of your career, of the work in this industry, what have you seen develop that is real life for you nowadays?

- You know, I think just in the last 10 years, the technology advancement, if you look at in that video there was something, you know, we covered machine vision and a AI machine vision, five years ago that really didn't exist in the marketplace.

Today it's becoming much more prevalent to the point where it's more accessible for most customers and we can afford to install it.

And that has changed manufacturing a lot.

And that's gonna continue as large language modeling and ChatGPT as everyone knows, is starting to take over the marketplace.

- So AI fueled machine vision, giving a computer the ability to recognize things.

What does that allow you to do in the workplace?

- It allows us to do more random pick and place and inspection that could have not been done before.

So, you know, a human person and a human hand and human eyes can see things and manipulate.

A robot couldn't do that.

A robot would pick and place in the same locations.

Now with machine learning, there's a little bit more flexibility.

It's still not a human and we're still a long way from that, but it is advancing the opportunities for innovation.

- Now, what kind of talent, what kind of skills do you need across your workforce to interact with that, the programming?

- Well, you know, everyone thinks it's just an engineering activity.

So you have your engineering activity to get your programming done, but then you have all of the electricians and mechanical workers and welders and CNC operators to make those systems come alive.

So when you look at the overall hours in the systems that you would see in that video, 60% or 70% of the hours are blue collar hours.

CNC, operating, welding, fabrication, and high tech work.

And only 40% of those hours are actually engineering and deployment.

- I think technology like that is really transforming, has the opportunity to transform what people think of as manufacturing.

- Yes.

- You know, it's not dirty factories.

- It's not dull, dark and dirty.

- No, no.

You know, it's changing and the deployment of the systems, the hours of the blue collar workers will stay the same.

The hours of the engineers will start to decrease to allow more projects and more opportunity for innovation.

- What kind of disciplines are you in need of?

- We're in the need of basically any, of all engineering disciplines, from computer science to hardware, software, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering.

And then in the shop floor, we're in need for electricians, welders, fabricators, CNC operators, CNC programmers, QAQC staff.

So the gamut is pretty large.

- Do people have a good awareness, like broadly across central, Northeast Pennsylvania that this is happening in Duryea?

- I don't think so, but I think with the help of Shanie and Ken and all the groups involved, it is starting to become more prevalent where people are known and the education of the opportunities is starting to grow.

It's gonna take time.

- Yeah Steve, if I could jump in here and kind of close that circle a little bit or paint the picture.

So, to go from science fiction to reality, something has to happen, right?

You need capital and you need to have the resources to take your idea and turn it into a prototype, turn it into a minimally viable product, turn it into a, figure out how do you commercialize that technology.

So, that facility and the engineers that Michael just told us about is an asset to Ben Franklin.

I can invest $100,000 in a company that has an idea and then have his firm start to build that technology or understand the design for manufacturer so that when they take a certain number of orders, they can scale that manufacturing operating.

So there's a company that we're working with right now called AWG Contracting.

AWG stands for American or, Atmospheric Water Generation.

So when we talk about science fiction, you know, imagine you were in your house and a hurricane went through and you don't have water because the power's out, you can't have access to water.

Either the water company or your well won't turn on.

Well, he has a unit that he could bring to a community that'll create 2,200 gallons a day because hydrogen and oxygen are in the air.

Whether it's in Northeastern Pennsylvania or whether you're in an arid climate, you still have hydrogen and oxygen and they of course create water.

So with that.

- So it's not even from moisture content in the air.

It is from.

- Bringing the two together.

- Wow.

- And so, Michael's team is able to help put that.

- And I think what it does for investors or entrepreneurs or Ben Franklin, by using the assets that PSA internally has, we de-risk that opportunity.

'Cause you can come to us with the opportunity, with the skill sets that we have, we can put your systems together.

So you as an entrepreneur have a great idea, but you don't have 20 CNCs and welders and engineers.

You could come to us and we have that skill set for you.

- And we can provide the capital that allows that to be possible.

- Let's talk about the pipeline to that talent in a community.

And Shanie, I know your chamber and your work does engage in workforce development and education topics.

What does that look like for you?

What work needs to be done to make sure that companies like PSA and others in the future have that talent?

- Yeah, and Mike said it perfectly, is that he is positioned so well for growth and he knows what he needs.

We just need to make sure the area can provide what you need so that you are able to, again, bring those jobs into the forefront, bring those dollars back into the economy.

It starts with building a talent pipeline for companies like Mike's.

It starts with understanding what the needs of our industries are and actually going into the academic sector and injecting those pieces of information in there.

I think our school districts are the most well positioned facilities to be able to reach these students.

Students, we have so many local colleges and universities here.

- Yeah, 14.

- 14 college.

- Graduating 11,000 graduates a year here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

- There is so much academic capital here.

To that point.

If we did a great job of showing them exactly what's here, really painting the proper picture and giving them the right perspective of what it means to work in the industries here.

Manufacturing, like Mike said, is not this dirty warehouse type of industry anymore.

It is advanced.

It has technology in it.

It has great family sustaining wage type of opportunities that these students just don't know about because they're tucked away in an industrial park.

They're not seen to the visible eye.

They don't fully understand what it means to be working in those industries.

And so when we're thinking of companies like Mike's, it is really translated to a lot of the businesses that we are connected with as a chamber, that they're saying we are struggling to get a ready and skilled workforce with the skillsets we need to grow and continue positioning ourselves for that growth.

- Yeah, and I think if you look at the demographic of our employees in our three locations, the engineering schools have produced those engineers for those locations.

So if you look at our Duryea location where we have about 45 engineers, almost the majority of those engineers have been created locally between Wilkes and Lehigh and Penn State, have been locally.

And if you look in our Philly office, it's the same.

The local schools around the Philly office is the same out in Pittsburgh.

So I think that it does create that community and that growth.

And, you know, I think the tide's starting to change, right?

The area here in Northeastern PA is converging from our coal history into warehousing and now into technology.

And we're just on the cusp of that.

- [Ken] Yes.

- And the next decade is gonna be a fast road.

- I think the key for economic development, you know, going forward right now is to take the needs that you heard Mike clearly articulate.

The number of engineers, the type of engineers, and the economic development organization, the chamber, connect to the colleges and universities.

So there's a direct link.

So when a student graduates from one of our institutions, they say, oh, wow, I should be going and looking at Production Systems Automation.

Not maybe going to Philadelphia or New York or somewhere else.

You have an incredible work for, incredible companies that have high tech solutions that need this talent pipeline, those 11,000 students, to stay here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

- Seems like young people today have a great exposure to technology.

Of course, digital, native, cell phones, AI, these seem like great ways to inspire future career paths and coupling that together with entrepreneurship seems like a win-win for our region.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, of course.

And I think, if you even look inside of our business, we do work for a lot of large companies, but our engineers and our staff are very entrepreneurial.

And you have to be, because we're always finding new solutions to problems for our customers, for ourselves.

And that will spur additional entrepreneur activity and hopefully, employees that come out of PSA can then start their own businesses and grow and grow into the community.

- How about one final note on that mindset.

It's not, we're doing that same repetitive thing in the workplace.

What do you see as the most critical thing for an employee at PSA 20 years from now for success?

- Innovation.

They have to be innovative.

- Innovation.

- We are on the cusp of what's gonna happen with AI or ChatGPT.

We need to go faster.

- Well, thank you very much.

Thank you for joining us.

Visit wvia.org/keystoneeditionbusiness to stream episodes or subscribe to the podcast.

And remember, you can also re-watch this episode on demand anytime on the WVIA app.

For Keystone Edition, I'm Steve Stumbris.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music)