Pittsburgh Technical College has teamed up with Strip District-based autonomous vehicle company Aurora Innovation Inc. for the creation of a new degree program aimed at equipping those looking to pursue a career within the growing robotics industry.
To be completed over the course of 18 months, PTC's associate degree in robotics and autonomous engineering technology program is aimed at producing students who will be able to fill service engineer technician roles at companies like Aurora (NASDAQ: AUR), where demand for such workers is expected to grow as these companies deploy their autonomous and robotics-driven technology at a commercial scale in the coming years. The college plans to offer the inaugural cohort of this program in October and has room for about 20 students.
PTC anticipates these graduated workers will serve as complements to those of their engineering peers — who are also in high demand — as they will tend to the servicing of simpler-but-equally-as-important prototypes and installation efforts of sensors and other forms of technology found in and on advanced autonomous systems like those of a self-driving vehicle.
"They need employees that are a little bit less than engineers in terms of education — like an associate degree; people like we produce — who have hands-on skills, who can build things and build prototypes, change prototypes," Dave Becker, PTC academic chair in the school of trades, said regarding the needs of Aurora and other robotics companies. "They need a technician who has exposure to a lot of different areas and that's kind of what my view of a service engineering tech is, a tech that blends the different skillsets."
Earning an associate's degree at PTC is also quicker to accomplish compared to four-year bachelor's programs in engineering at institutions like the University of Pittsburgh or Carnegie Mellon University. PTC is hoping this shorter time frame will be appealing to recent high school graduates looking to jumpstart their careers or those who are thinking about changing their careers but who might not have the time to commit to a full-time and four-year program.
Becker said PTC first got intrigued by the prospect of working with Aurora for such a degree offering because it blends together many of the associate programs that the college already has: design and engineering, energy and electronics, IT systems and trades-related skills degrees. Graduates of the program aren't obligated to work at Aurora, however, which will compete with other AV and autonomous companies for talent during career fair-like industry day events that PTC will host for its students throughout the program's duration.
"We're going to be supplying people into every industry, not just Aurora," Becker said. "They're just one company, but there are thousands of companies … a service engineering tech could work literally in every factory in the world."
For its part, Aurora offered PTC insights and expertise into the types of work its needs filled most and how an associate's program might fill that void best. The company employs over 1,600 workers, just over half of whom work out of the Pittsburgh region.
"From our perspective, we need all different types of employees here," said Matt Blackburn, a senior manager of government relations at Aurora. "I think this program will create that."
Blackburn said it's "to be determined" how many of these employees Aurora will need in the coming years as it's a figure that's tied to the commercial rollout of its autonomous trucking and ride-hailing platforms, now expected as early as 2024.
"As we scale and as we put that product out in a scalable form, we're going to need a lot of technicians and engineers," Blackburn said. "These vehicles won't fix themselves."
