Cole Wolfson is the director of xBridge at Pittsburgh International Airport, an incubator that allows technology companies, mostly in the startup stage, to partner with the aviation industry to gain real-world research and feedback on their products. Since its launch in 2020, xBridge has recruited about a half-dozen tech companies that are now actively validating their products across the airport’s footprint, ranging from robots that sanitize surfaces and deliver orders to on-road vehicles that can be operated remotely. Wolfson is confident that, by many accounts, xBridge has only just begun a take-off of its own following some recent and significant milestones for the program.
How did you end up where you are today?
I worked at Innovation Works, running the AlphaLab Gear accelerator prior to coming to the airport. I worked with a lot of early stage companies, helping bring their first products to market. And when I was approached by the airport to work with them in a contracting capacity, it was essentially taking the work that we did at AlphaLab Gear and applying it in a real-world environment. xBridge is the airport’s tech-proving ground for technologies and startups, and I have a huge network of technologies and startups that I’ve worked with and saw opportunities for the airport to benefit from deploying these in their environment.
Is that a unique approach for an airport — to have an innovation center where local companies are able to come out to experiment and work with aviation experts day-to-day?
Yes. There are a number of airports around the country that have innovation functions within their business, but PIT is unique in that I have found no other airport that actually works with early stage startups as a means to deploy new technologies in the airport.
And just a few weeks ago, the parent company of British Airways, International Airlines Group, announced a major partnership with xBridge to test out these types of technologies. Can you share any updates on that?
In the coming months, we’re going to see some really cool projects that we’re jointly implementing that will provide a lot of value to both the airport and the airline and seeing the potential not only for that success, but then to grow it across the airport is very exciting.
We’ve identified the first couple of projects that British Airways is interested in testing and demoing and deploying. And we are working on getting those deployments up and running now. The initial stuff has a lot to do with sensors and data to improve efficiencies and give us more insights into airport operations.
Could that be something like baggage handling, airplane departure management or deplaning procedures?
A little bit of everything. The great thing about a lot of these technologies is it’s streams of data, and then it’s up to us and the airline to understand how to slice and dice it and analyze it and use that to better our operations.
Now it was right after this announcement took place that the first Aviation & Robotics Summit took off right here in Pittsburgh. How’d that go?
The feedback on the summit has just been phenomenal and personally it’s been one of my career highlights so far. The outputs that have come from that have been pretty impressive as well. I know that there are some technologists around Pittsburgh who discovered new opportunities that they could potentially solve for the industry and maybe launch a new company around. I’ve also spoken to airlines and other partners who have also found technologies or potential use cases of technologies to deploy for their needs as well.
When is your favorite time of the day?
Probably first thing in the morning, especially on weekends when I am up by myself. The light is just coming up. I have a coffee, it’s quiet, it’s nice, and anything can happen.
If you could be anywhere on vacation right now, where is the first place that comes to mind?
Probably just the beach. We typically do a Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, trip every year. And it’s one of those weeks where the family just gets to relax and eat well, and not do too much. It’s just a great way to unwind.
What are your music tastes like?
I collect jazz vinyl, first presses of ’50s and ’60s jazz vinyl, and I just got one of my Holy Grail [finds] and so that has kind of been on repeat in my house.
And what was that?
The album is from Howard McGhee and Freddie Redd. They did an album called “Music from the Connection,” and it was on a label called Felsted. It’s impossible to find, and I got it. And so it’s just been on repeat.
Do you have a go-to fun fact about yourself?
My wife and I and some partners are the owners of Petagogy, which is a small chain of natural pet food stores here in Pittsburgh.
How did you get involved in that?
You know how you’re hanging out with your friends when you’re young and you say, “we should open a bar?” Well, instead of doing that, we said we should open a pet store, and we actually did it. … There’s one in Shadyside and one out in Greensburg.
What are the big sellers in pet stores these days?
Well, here’s an interesting one: Whatever the health food trend is in people, it comes to pets six months later. We went from kale to blueberries to CBD.
CBD for pets?
Oh absolutely, it’s huge.
ABOUT COLE WOLFSON:
Title: Director, xBridge
Age: 41
First job: Busboy at Jimmy Tsang’s on Centre Avenue
Education: B.A., anthropology, University of Maryland; MBA, University of Pittsburgh
Residence: Point Breeze
Family: Wife, Heather; kids, Maida (9) and Sam (6)
Hobbies: Collecting first-presses of jazz records from the ’50s and ’60s
Causes: Biggies Bullies (animal welfare) and The Joe Beretta Foundation (supporting advanced heart failure patients and their families)
