Pittsburgh International Airport recently unveiled xBridge, described as a 10,000-square-foot innovation center designed to nurture industry evolution while inspiring creative aviation challenge solutions.
“The xBridge is a physical manifestation of the innovative mentality we’ve been cultivating here at PIT for years,” Katherine Karolick, senior vice president of Information Technology, said. “This will be a proving ground for new technology that will benefit the airport, our airline partners, and the passengers we collectively serve.”
Innovation centers deliver varied aspects of the product development process within one space devoted to maximizing brainpower and resources while testing new ideas in real-time.
“Innovation centers spark creativity,” Karolick said. “You can’t plan innovation. You need to create an environment and ecosystem to make it happen. This space has everything we need to tap into the collective brainpower of our industry and region, design innovative solutions, and accelerate the development of those solutions.”
xBridge is located at the end of the airport’s Concourse B. The center’s focal point would be the xGate – a functional boarding gate operating as a working lab to test out concepts to improve air travel.
“The xGate will be able to simulate a real, active gate and holding area,” Karolick said. “And then we can actually test innovations on pilot flights coming in with our airline partners. Not only does that environment breed ideation, it also creates targeted solutions at a lower cost with a quicker development schedule.”