The Pittsburgh Technology Council announced the region’s 50 leading technology-oriented companies in eight distinct categories within the 13-county area of southwestern Pennsylvania for 2011. The Council’s 15^th annual Tech 50 awards presentation was held at the CONSOL Energy Center, downtown Pittsburgh. To be considered for the 2011 Tech 50, a company must have been headquartered in the southwestern Pennsylvania counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Somerset, Westmoreland or Washington.

Each year, the Council canvasses the region for the most distinguished public and private technology-oriented companies, and the Tech 50 awards event honors those companies that demonstrated the strongest growth and advancement in product or sales success, financial strength, corporate citizenship, job growth and retention and innovative product or technology. All applicants are subjected to scoring by the Pittsburgh office of Alpern Rosenthal.

Listen to a couple of quick interviews with Cohera’s Patrick Daly, who won CEO of the Year and Life Sciences Company of the Year, and Kent McElhattan of Industrial Scientific, who took home Advanced Manufacturer of the Year. Listen here!

Innovator of the Year: Dynamics Inc.

Dynamics produces next-generation payment cards that utilize programmable magnetic stripes to communicate dynamic information to the 60 million 1970s-era magnetic stripe readers used in our everyday payment card transactions. Dynamics differentiates itself from other advanced card manufacturers in that its products are true consumer electronics devices, as recognized with the Best In Show prize for Personal Electronics at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show.

Life Sciences Company of the Year: Cohera Medical

Cohera Medical is a medical device company that is developing a revolutionary line of surgical adhesives and sealants. Cohera’s surgical adhesives can be formulated for use in a wide variety of surgical applications, including plastic surgery, general surgery, and orthopedic surgery. Its TissuGlu product meets surgeons’ needs for a strong, safe, and easy-to-use tissue glue. Lab studies have demonstrated that the bond created with TissuGlu is as strong after one hour as a normal wound is after a week of healing.

Tech Titan of the Year: TeleTracking Technologies, Inc.

TeleTracking Technologies is the market leader of patient flow automation solutions and services to the hospital market. TeleTracking has applied proven principles of logistics management to hospitals and health systems to help them enhance patient care, improve financial performance, and gain competitive advantage. TeleTracking and its more than 850 clients have formed an alliance of shared knowledge and mutual trust dedicated to the ongoing improvement of patient care.

CEO of the Year: Patrick Daly – Cohera Medical, Inc.

With more than 15 years of medical device experience, Daly articulated a vision that Cohera Medical would create and develop innovative surgical adhesives that transform patient care. He focused the company on building the infrastructure for long-term growth, building investor confidence and opening the door to recruitment of top talent. He inspires all those associated with the company to excel by his own example of hard work and enthusiasm.

Technology Accelerator of the Year: AEC Group, Inc.

AEC Group is an end-to-end technology solutions provider with core competencies centered around access, infrastructure, virtualization and communication. AEC assists organizations by harmoniously matching their long-term business objectives with today’s current technology solutions. By building a business model around a variety of verticals across the western Pennsylvania region, AEC truly understands the landscape and the value of local customer relationships.

Advanced Manufacturer of the Year: Industrial Scientific Corporation

Industrial Scientific is the world leader in the design, manufacture, and sales of portable gas detection instrumentation. This designation has been achieved by executing innovative approaches to its corporate strategy, its customers and the markets it serves, and its overall operational philosophy. Each Industrial Scientific employee lives this vision every day and is in turn provided with both personal and professional opportunities as a result of their dedication and hard work.

Information Technology Company of the Year: Vivisimo, Inc.

Vivisimo is the leader in information optimization. Vivisimo’s solutions help end-users find all available information, regardless of source, location, or type. As more information is downloaded by employees in the course of their jobs, data begins to control how an organization operates and performs. Vivisimo’s Velocity platform solves this challenge, which represents a $1.4 trillion problem of lost productivity in the workplace.

Start-Up of the Year: Aquion Energy

Aquion Energy is producing a revolutionary battery based on novel ambient-temperature sodium-ion technology. The Aquion solution offers an advantaged value proposition in nearly all stationary storage use cases. The centerpiece of the technology is an innovative hybrid energy storage chemistry that combines a high-capacity carbon anode with a sodium intercalation cathode capable of thousands of complete discharge cycles over extended periods of time.