A Challenge for Higher Ed: Modernize Manufacturing, but Protect Jobs

In a project laden with both symbolism and substance, Carnegie Mellon University on Monday began the conversion of an old Pittsburgh steel mill into the home of a $250-million advanced-robotics center. The site occupies 178 acres of riverfront just 10 minutes from downtown, where thick black smoke from rows of coal-fired furnaces once signaled a solid middle-class life for tens of thousands of steelworkers and their families.