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PENNSYLVANIA
“We’re a commonwealth proud of
who we are and the remarkable things
we're doing today.”
TOM WOLF
GOVERNOR
THE PENNSYLVANIA
STATE CAPITOL IN
HARRISBURG IS HOME
TO THE OFFICES OF THE
GOVERNOR AND STATE
LEGISLATURE.
S 4
2015, echoes that view. “We’re a commonwealth
proud of who we are and the remarkable things
we’re doing today,” he says. “While our past is glo-
rious, our present—and the future we’re building
now—are even more so.”
Wolf’s administration has made workforce
development a priority, pairing it with a fierce
commitment to investing in education. The
new PAsmart Initiative, for example, increases
workforce training and apprenticeships; teaches
students coding and robotics; brings STEM learn-
ing to pre-K classrooms; and expands computer
science education. K–12 education alone has gar-
nered more than $840 million in new dollars over
the past two years, and the new budget secures
an additional $255 million for K–12 and pre-K.
Pennsylvania is now the fifth-largest producer
of STEM graduates, and it ranks seventh in tech
employment.
These efforts are built on a legacy of innovation
dating back centuries—the nation’s first
stock exchange was established in Philadelphia in
1790—and the output of Pennsylvania’s outsize
share of top research universities. Autonomous
vehicle technology (AVT) was first developed by
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and its robot-
ics engineers in Pittsburgh decades ago, and
the state continues to lead in that space. In July,
Volkswagen AG announced it would invest $2.6
billion in Ford Motor Company’s Pittsburgh-based
Argo AI and its AVT.
Philadelphia, too, is a tech hub, and both cities
have become millennial magnets. But they hardly
have a state monopoly on innovation—or even
robotics, which are thriving in York and Harris-
burg, while e-commerce is booming in the Lehigh
Valley and cybersecurity is increasingly important
to Erie.
These and other cities, such as Johnstown, are
also benefiting from revitalization projects, and
many are developing innovation districts and edu-
cational institutions. Invent Penn State, operated
through Penn State University,
has established more than
20 innovation hubs across
Pennsylvania to empower tech
entrepreneurs. Another state
program, Manufacturing PA,
which partners students with
companies to develop innova-
tive technologies and practices,
has generated 40 projects.
(Manufacturing, a critical
economic driver in Pennsylva-
nia, has largely morphed into
advanced manufacturing.)
Aside from its universities
and history, Pennsylvania has
other longstanding advantages,
