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Onorato talks up the techies

PITTSBURGH—What do super computers have to do with gubernatorial politics? Plenty if you’re campaigning in Allegheny County, home to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and their joint research venture, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

County executive and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Dan Onorato spoke at the supercomputing center here Tuesday morning in front of a crowd of about 60. As he has so many times before, he put the focus on the Pittsburgh region’s economic revival, a transition from hard core manufacturing to technology, education and green energy. The supercomputing center, which has emerged as an authority on “clean coal” and neurochemical  research, represents the type of investments that Pennsylvania needs to make during tough economic times, Onorato said.

“We need to stay focused on the sciences and mathematics, on training the teachers’ teachers,” Onorato said. “Organizations like this are a big reason Pittsburgh has survived the recession in relatively good shape. We’ve downsized the government and focused on state-of-the-art industries and facilities like this one under my watch. That needs to happen at the commonwealth level.”

After watching a number of short presentations given by scientists about what the center is doing to improve green technologies, Onorato fielded a range of questions from the crowd before heading off to another campaign event.

“We’re busting with educational resources,” Onorato said. “We need to keep that in mind as we work on the state budget and every other issue. Education and research cannot be lost. That much is clear, even in Harrisburg.”

June 22, 2010 at 1:05 pm

--John Manganaro

Tags: Dan Onorato

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