Dagostino to be Founding Member of EIC Innovation Hall
Dagostino Electronic Services (DES) has joined Covestro and Peoples as Founding Members of The Innovation Hall, housed in Pittsburgh’s Energy Innovation Center. The Innovation Hall is geared to become a dynamic event and exhibit space showcasing next-generation technology from the region’s leading drivers in energy sustainability.
Described as “A Living Laboratory,” the Energy Innovation Center is a magnificent testament to the powerful possibilities of green adaptive reuse. Formally the site of the Connelley Trade School, the pioneering vocational institution trained multiple generations of students into the industrial workforce. After the decline of the rustbelt economy, the building shuttered its doors in 2003 and lay in disrepair for a decade, until its purchase and revitalization by the Pittsburgh Gateway Corporation. With a deliberate focus to promote entrepreneurship and energy-sector research, the nonprofit assembled the city’s cutting-edge businesses and universities to create the building of the future.
Boasting a sustainable infrastructure, including locally sourced building materials, onsite energy generation and strict clean air standards, the Energy Innovation Center was granted the distinguished LEED Platinum award in 2017. Now, the EIC wants the building’s interior spaces to reflect the novelty of the building itself.
The Innovation Hall, a two-level, multiuse space in the heart of the building, will be designed in tandem with the Founding Members to feature emerging technology in real-life action. Bob Dagostino, president of DES, is thrilled at the opportunity.
“Front-row access to a building with this level of commitment to energy innovation will give us a virtual sandbox, so to speak, to demonstrate how the newest communication technology will interact with our lives.”
DES, a Mid-Atlantic leader for integrated communication solutions, is researching ways to use lighting fixtures beyond illumination. Visible light communication (VLC) is a new-wave communication variant that uses the light itself to embed advanced data, creating a networked grid that is fully responsive to its environment. Visitors to the Innovation Hall would be able to communicate via this innovative medium. “As a Founding Member,” Dagostino added, ”I want visitors to the site to actively imagine the possibilities of the next technology revolution.”
With DES’s proven expertise in multimedia, security and network infrastructure, including configuring artificial intelligence applications for clients in government, education, healthcare and enterprise business sectors, the company’s partnership will introduce a wealth of world-class vendors into the space. Promethean, Fortinet, Alcatel-Lucent, Genetec and Barracuda are just several of DES’s solution partners.
“Exciting is an understatement,” remarked Robert Meeder, Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation CEO & President, “Within the span of our first meeting with the Dagostino team, we were convinced that this company’s experience, leadership and vision fit ‘hand and glove’ with the Innovation Hall’s goal to represent the best of our region’s global innovators.”