Google Announces Plan to Open Pittsburgh Engineering Office; Yahoo Opens NYC Research Center

Both Google and Yahoo today have annoucements about new offices and research facilities.

First, Google is announcing that they will open an office in Pittsburgh.

Work at Google Pittsburgh will focus on engineering, research and development and will be the working home to about 100 people. No specific dates were provided by Google and a location of the office is still being decided.

Dr. Andrew Moore from Carnegie Mellon has been hired by Google to run the Pittsburgh office. At the university, Dr. Moore was Professor of Robotics and Computer Science and co-founder and Director of the Auton Lab. Additional details about Dr. Moore in this news release from CMU.

Both the hiring of Dr. Moore from CMU and the following glowing statement by Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon, leads me to believe that CMU students will be at the least interning and doing other work at Google Pittsburgh.

Cohon said:

“Google is one of the world’s great companies. By any measure?in creating value to shareholders, in making significant technical contributions, in setting high standards for ethical business practices?it has an outstanding record. We could not be more delighted and honored that Google has chosen to set up an engineering office in our city.”

In case you’re wondering, site search on CMU.edu is powered by Google. (-:

Don’t forget that Pittsburgh is also home to Vivisimo/Clusty which was started by Carnegie Mellon computer science students and faculty members including Vivisimo CEO, Raul Valdes-Perez. and Jerome Pesenti, Chief Scientist & Co-founder. Earlier this year, Vivisimo moved into new research and sales offices in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood

Carnegie Mellon was also the birthplace of Lycos. Here’s the news release from 1995 that announces the formation of Lycos Inc.

Now, let’s move 318 miles east (as the crow flies) and report that Yahoo has opened an East Coast research center in New York City. It will be run by new Yahoo’s new Vice President of Worldwide Research Operations, Dr. Ron Brachman who comes to Yahoo from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and AT&T Labs.

The center will focus on key technologies in the areas of computer science and social media relevant to Yahoo!’s products and services.

Brachman will report directly to Prabhakar Raghavan, Head of Yahoo! Research.

A quote in the announcement makes it appear that Yahoo’s new facility in NYC will eventually have some sort of relationship with Columbia University.

“The presence of Yahoo! Research on the East Coast will greatly benefit the research community,” said Prof. Zvi Galil, Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor and Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University. “We look forward to Yahoo!’s close proximity to our campus and the potential to work with distinguished researchers and scientists like Ron Brachman who have made seminal contributions to the scientific community.”

Google also has an East Coast research facility in NYC. Of course, both Google and Yahoo Search Marketing have New York offices.

Thanks to Andy at Marketing Pilgrim for the news tip.

Postscript: Here’s a just posted job description for software engineers at Google Pittsburgh