Uber opened its Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, and not long after it had announced the partnership, raised a few eyebrows when it hired away many of the NREC’s top staff. But both the university and the company call the partnership a fruitful one.  “Academia-industry partnerships play an important role in promoting our mutual missions of technological innovation and developing outstanding talent at all levels,” CMU president Subra Suresh said in a statement. “We are grateful for Uber’s support for the intellectual work at the heart of this activity.”